Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
What is role of service in order to have inner contentment?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You know, we should have a goal in life. My goal is to bring happiness to more and more people. If we sit and keep thinking of ourselves all the time, we’ll be depressed. We should see, ‘How can I be of service? How can I be of use to others?’ This thought is very useful. Very, very, very useful. Ya?So, ‘Art of Living’ provides a platform for everyone to come together and do some service. You know, when United Nations announced, ‘Stand up and take action’ - they wanted tree planting; ‘Art of Living’ volunteers have planted 55 million trees around the globe.
We all can jointly do some service activity. Reduce violence, reduce stress, create a sense of belongingness, and spread the positive vibration of love and peace. Shall we all do this together? Is everyone committed to do this? (A resonating yes from the audience.)
Q:
How does the ’Art of Living’ relate to a person’s beliefs and practices?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You can have your own beliefs and practices because the ’Art of Living’ believes in diversity. One can follow one’s own religion and move on with spirituality.Q:
I dropped alcohol after Art of Living course. If I meet my old friends who still engage in these sorts of habits will they extract my positive energy?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Don’t worry. As long as you remain firm in knowledge, and Sadhana - you can help them come out of all sorts of negative habits.Q:
When will everyone embrace the Art of Living?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
There is nothing inside or outside the Art of Living.Q:
What is the place of thought in a free mind?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Where does thought come from? It comes from a free mind or an un-free mind? Thoughts are not free. So, you have answered the question. Free your mind of thoughts for a few moments. When astonished, shocked, in deep love, samadhi, meditation or deep sleep, your mind is free from thoughts. You get energized then.Q:
I can’t meditate, please advise.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
When you watch TV, you get into meditation – There is no such thing that mind cannot meditate. Wherever your mind goes, whatever it likes, there meditation occurs. You need to move from “word’ (shabdha) meditation to “wordless”(nishabhda) meditation. We separate life and knowledge, but walk in life knowing that knowledge is life, life is knowledge. Just as our relationships are manmade, join that relationship/connection with knowledge.Q My nature is happiness but am overcome with periods of sadness – how do I overcome these periods?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Offer them to the Divine. Do your practices and meditate. Sometimes waves of worry/sadness take over. Just know that it’s a temporary phase, it’s a passing cloud and it’ll disappear.
Q:
What is more important: what the Guru thinks about the disciple or what the disciple thinks about the Guru?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
The Guru does not think at all. The Guru also wants the disciple to stop thinking. What will you get by thinking? Whatever we think in the state of ignorance is always wrong.Q:
Please elaborate on the concept of letting go. How does one let go physically, mentally and emotionally?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Just take a deep breath and hold. Don’t let go. You can’t but let go. It is inevitable at some point in time you will have to let go. How to let go? Hold your fist and keep it tight. How long can you do this?Q:
Guruji, how to establish harmony between material and spiritual lives?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
There is already a harmony. The more spiritual you are, the greater is the harmony in material life.Whom would you like to interact with? Those who are happy and enthusiastic or those who are stiff and serious?
All our bodies create vibrations. From some people you feel like running away, while you want to spend more time with someone. The waves coming from inside a person can send people away. Being on the spiritual path makes the waves beautiful.
Q:
What are your thoughts on the ‘Modern theory of evolution’? If it is true, then at what stage do souls come? What happened to souls before that?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Modern theories are evolving. They think that things have to begin somewhere. I would call it as linear understanding. But there is a spherical thinking, that is lacking here. In the Orient, there is sperical thinking. In the Occident, there is only linear thinking. According to that , everybody had to be born, there had to be one Adam and Eve, and all are their children. That means everybody is sibling of each other. Then how could one be married to anybody? This is what is called the original sin. Because that way marriage itself is a sin. If God could create one Adam and one Eve, then why couldn’t he create ten such. And then why would God create such an apple, fruit of wisdom, if He was to ask them not to eat that? These things need to be understood. Our understanding is very limited. We need to think spherical. In spherical thinking, there was not only one being who was created in the beginning, but everything simultaneously came into existence. The whole world came into existence simultaneously. What would you say if I ask you about the beginning point of a tennis ball? Every point in the tennis ball is the first point, and the last point as well. Ancient people had this spherical thinking, and that is why they said, “The world is Anadi and Anant(Beginingless and endless )”. The souls are beginingless and endless. And the cause of the existence of the universe, that is the divinity, is beginingless and endless. All three are one. This is the theory of Advaita that everything is made up of one. This is the theory of relativity. This is what the String theory and the modern scientists say. Einstein was startled when he read Bhagwad Geeta.All is made up of the same consciousness. In animal cookies, all animals like elephants, giraffes, Zebra, Cat are made up of the same size. Children think that they are eating different animals but the maker knows that all is made up of the same. Objects in the universe, living or non – living, moving or non – moving, are made up of the same. This is what is said in scriptures like Upanishads and ‘Guru Granth Sahib’(Sikh holi scripture). Sikhism has one of the best greetings in the world – Satsriakal. Sat is truth, Sri is wealth, and Akal is beyond time. So when you greet saying Satsriakal, it means, ‘May you understand the true wealth, the timeless spirit that you are. Everyday you greet each other and remind that you are the timeless eternity, infinity and true wealth. What are you looking for here and there? Isn’t that great?
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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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