Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
Dear Guruji, you talk about dispassion. Then what about passion? I think that people follow a career, business or profession just for money, and then money becomes their passion. Don’t you think that youth should follow their heart, passion and dreams?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You should have a dream and passion. You should follow that, but not with the feverishness. If you want to go to Niagra falls, you go. Who said not to go? You make the necessary arrangements and visit the place. But if that deeply gets into your head , and you keep on thinking about it all the time, then you will end up landing somewhere else. With this feverishness, your mind loses clarity, and you don’t get right ideas or thoughts. Having passion and dispassion are complementary. Dispassion brings you centeredness, settles you down, and you become calm. When you have passion, and you are acting, it drives you to things that you want to have. Deep rest and dynamic activity are complementary. How can you be dynamically actice if you have not given deep rest to your mind and body? Someone who has never slept cannot feel energetic at all. Sameway, if you are not dispassionate, you cannot be passionate. You will only be feverish with desires and cravings in your mind, with no ability to act.Q:
What do you advice to farmers?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
The crops which were produced in abundance in India are now being imported and hence their prices have also been raised manifold. Earlier three crops were grown in one field and even if the yield of one crop is destroyed, the others would give the farmers a living. So this system of growing multiple crops would never let farmers be in debt. But with the hybrid crops you get a good yield only in the first one or two years and then it decreases the soil fertility. It leads to depletion of essential salts in the soil. So I suggest to all to adopt the ancient methods of farming. Multiple cropping yields a good profit.We have also started a seed bank in Maharashtra. 1 kg seeds have been given to 50 farmers this year. 1kg seeds will give them a yield of 40 – 45 kg and next year they would be returning 2 kg seeds. This way 100 farmers can get free seeds next year. It will be good if such banks are started in Punjab and Haryana also. Farmers will be happy and we will also get a good crop. Otherwise the crops which we get with chemical farming cause pain and other illnesses in the body here and there. So multiple cropping and chemical free farming are the best solutions.
Q:
Please tell us what we should do for our nation to feel grateful to our nation.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
For showing your love and gratitude for your country, you will have to do a lot of work in the society so that our villages develop and become self helping. To make a society which is void of corruption, violence, all have to put effort whole heartedly, OK.Q:
What is the best way to handle religious conflicts?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Every child should know a little about all cultures and religions in the world. They will start to feel connection with all the cultures. Every child should know a little bit about all religions like Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism. They will grow up with a broad mindset.I feel at home wherever I go in the world. I feel connected, and everyone can do that because we all have that need to be connected. In fact you don’t have to make an effort, we are anyway connected.
I still remember an incident some 25 years ago, in Manchester, UK. A small girl came to me and asked: ‘Why cannot human beings connect with everyone else in the world?’ I told her this is because we are so stuck in our identities. It’s good to have identity but we have to grow beyond that.
Q:
Of the five elements, Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space, Earth and Water are said to be female; Fire and air are male, then what is space? Why is this differentiation?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
There are various concepts and understanding of this. So, people start attributing male and female genders to everything. But that is how human mind can comprehend things; it cannot comprehend anything which is beyond.Q:
In Yoga, we feel so much love and togetherness. How do we take it out into the world?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
That thought I will leave with you. You find ways to do that.Q:
You spend so much time for reducing terrorism; do I need to become a terrorist to get your time and attention? It would be nice to be transformed through you.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
A terrorist use gun to shoot, but you shot arrows of your devotion! Your devotion and love are much stronger.I remember an incident when I was in Rishikesh. A devotee fainted and fell down. Everyone's attention was attracted by this. I knew that it was just a drama to attract attention. First I kept on walking, but when the drama continued for a long time, I went to that place. When I asked, she said, 'You don't look at me, so I had to do this.' You don't have to do such a thing to catch my attention! How do you know I don't look at you? When you are looking elsewhere, I look at you for sure. The goal is only one - to center your mind and consciousness in one place. When your mind is centered, calm and you are smiling, I look at those whose mind is still racing here and there and is not centered.
Q:
I feel contented when I am alone. But mind stucks to the outside events and people while interacting with others. Is there any way that I can experience the serene solitude even when I am with people?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You are at the right place. We will see in sometime how it is possible. (Ashtavakra Talk continued the session)Q:
If we are dispassionate in life then we won’t remain ambitious in life. To what extent is this true?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
I don’t use the word dispassion much because it has been distorted so much. I have seen so called dispassionate people who have no glow or happiness on their face. Dispassion means absence of any kind of feverishness but a joy is there. Adi Shankaracharya has beautifully said that there is no joy which dispassion cannot give you. Dispassion means - You don’t run after joy but you are joyful from within.Q:
What do you think of religious scandals? How can you avoid such scandals?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
If somebody has made such a mistake, he/she should simply admit it. There are such people in every field who don’t speak the truth. Don’t blame the field for it. There are doctors who steal kidneys and sell it for a price. Some people are scared of being operated. But you cannot doubt all the doctors. Noble professions like medicine and education are becoming corrupt. There is a fine line between being cautious and being paranoid, and prejudice occurs when you cross the line.
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Founded in 1981 by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar,The Art of Living is an educational and humanitarian movement engaged in stress-management and service initiatives.
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