Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
What will you say on the end of the world on 21 December 2012?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
A fiction. A nice fantasy fiction.Q:
How to cope up with child’s expectation when they compare themselves with others and demand those things that others have? They say that so and so is groomed well and they also want same kind of stuff.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You have to tell children that you can only give that much and they shouldn’t compare themselves with others. But it is important that you don’t give them any false hope. At the same time, we can give them a dream. If you pass or do this, may be you will get it. Here lies the importance of bringing them up with that sensitivity and belongingness. That is why I said if you participate instead of teaching them, they will not even ask you. They should be a participant in your life. Then they will be sensitive towards you, rather than putting a demand on you. Before you become a good father or mother, you need to become a good uncle or aunt. Are you getting what I am saying? You should communicate more with friends of your children. They will listen to you. Suppose, if your son’s/daughter’s friends have any wrong habit, you can influence them to change. They listen to you more than their own parents. Similarly, other parents can take care of other’s children better than their own children.Q:
What causes anger?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Your desire for perfection is the cause of anger. Leave room for imperfection. Perfection in action is almost impossible. Only 95 percent perfection is possible in action. Though, perfection in speech and mind is 100 percent possible.Q:
What is the difference between prayer-oriented and meditation-oriented religion?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Everything has its own place. Prayer is asking from God and meditation is listening to the God. Both are important.Q:
Can you please describe me what ego is? How can one resolve ego? How do ego and love go together, or don’t they?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Ego is a sense of seperateness, a sense of identity. There are three ways to see ego.1. Ego is identity. I am this. This is one ego.
2. Ego is also I am not this.
3. Ego is also I am seperate from others.
How to dissolve this ego?
Either you expand your ego. I am this, I am that, I am that too. For instance, one ego is that you think you are an officer. But if you are stuck with only being an officer, and you come home and be officer to your kids and wife, you create a problem. Suppose you are a major or colonel in the military, and if you behave with your family in the same role, then you are stuck in your ego of being an army officer. Your one identity is that you are a colonel, but you are a father/mother with your children, you are a husband/wife with your spouse, you are a son/daughter with your parents and so many. When you balance all these identities in your life giving equal importance to all these, that is the way you dissolve your ego. Ego is getting stuck with any one identity. From that limited identity to identify with the unlimited divinity is the path of expanding, or you can call it dissolving identity. So you move from me to Aham Brahaman, I am somebody to becoming I am nobody, and I am nobody to I am everybody. Now this looks very philosophical. You can’t go to your office and say that you are nobody, nor can you say at your home that you are everybody. It is not going to work. So, I would say that the simple way to counter your ego is to be natural. Ego makes you feel uncomfortable, unnatural and seperate. Egolessness,or expanded ego or transformed ego is being at home, being natural with everyone in every circumstances. Rather, it is being like a child. I would say just be like a child.
One last thing I would like to say about ego is that if you find you have any ego, then don’t try to dissolve it. You can keep it in your pocket. Don’t meddle with it, and don’t bother about it. Let it be there. Ok?
Q:
Does the Art of Living work with Native American tribes?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
We are working with the Native Americans in Canada but not in the US. We would very much like to do some work here. There is so much alcoholism in this community.Q:
How do I get over addictions?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Love, fear and greed. If you have an alcohol and cigarette addiction, and I tell you that you will get one million dollars if you don’t smoke for one month, you will stop. Won’t you? Greed can check your bad habit. If you promise someone love, even then they will get over addictions. There is a Catholic tradition as well as in India, that of confession. You confess and say, ”This is my habit, how can I change it?” Third is fear. If I say, you will die in a month if you do this, you will not do it. Fear can stop an addiction. I prefer love over other two.Q:
How can we strengthen the faith?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
: Your very thought to strengthen the faith strengthens it. Move ahead assuming that your faith is very strong. When your intellect is purified, faith automatically gets strong. We should have a pure diet in order to purify the intellect. So, pay attention on your food. If you eat food thinking all sort of negative things in the world, that also affects the intellect. Many times people get time to converse only during meals, and they discuss about topics like diseases while preparing and eating the food. This is very wrong, and we need to get rid of this habit. You become what you eat. The type of food you take governs your mind. And again your mind has a direct impact on your body. That is why you should eat food with a happy state of mind. If we are very excited, we cannot swallow food with ease. Also if we are restless, we end up eating more food. So, it is important to have food with awareness.Q:
Sometimes I find myself too much stuck in the intellect. I think so much over small issues also, as trivial as choosing what clothes to wear. What should I do? Please guide.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You have lots of time in your hands and that is why you keep on thinking sitting idle. Do little exercises also. Then the mind wouldn’t run so much.Q:
My best comes out when I am pushed against a wall. It becomes a matter of do or die. That’s the time when I have laser sharp focus, composure, drive and motivation to fulfill all my desires and intentions. But when I’m happy, comfortable and joyful, I can’t seem to have that same composure and drive to motivate myself. How do I change that pattern?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Then ask someone to push you against the wall (laughs). There are no walls here. If you’re not married, get married. Tell your spouse to do it for you.Listen, if you think that your best will come out only if you are in danger and when pushed against a wall, then you have put such an intention in your mind, and that is what is going to happen all the way. You know, you can do it even when you are happy, when you are joyful, when you are free. So, when you have recognized that this is your pattern, it is your responsibility. Nothing else can help you, only you can help yourself. You can say, ‘Now, today I am happy, I am going to do it!’
Displaying 6391 - 6400 of 7916
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.
Mehr