Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
Whatever you preach sounds very good. Bur at times I find it difficult to implement. What should I do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You do not do anything which is difficult. Easy go lucky. Spirituality makes everything easy. Everything in the ‘Art of Living’ makes life easy. There are certain things which are easy to begin with but later on turns to be difficult. There are certain other things which may appear to be difficult in the beginning but later on makes everything easy. Spirituality is the later one.When you were kid, you were forced to brush your teeth. Suppose you had not undergone that, what would be the scenario of your mouth now? Half your teeth would have dropped. Like this you may find it difficult in the beginning but it makes things easy later on.
Q:
Guruji many people don’t donate eyes thinking that they will be born blind in next life. Can you clarify?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
It is not true that if you donate eyes in this life, you will be born blind in next life.Q:
Another question on love. When you were here last time, you said not to say ‘I love you’ too much for too much expression of love destroys it all. Now, my husband never says it. What to do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Listen! I have no experience of all this and what husband and wife say to each other!May be, you should ask your husband why does he love you so much. May be he is waiting for you to say. This is a chance when you can say and look at his face.
Q:
What is difference between love and attachment?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Attachment is that which gives you pain. Love is that without which you cannot live. If love becomes attachment, then the same love which was giving you joy, starts to inflict pain. Attachment is when you want something in return. If you love and do not want anything in return, then that love doesn’t turn into attachment. I have talked about love in the Narad Bhakti Sutras.Q:
Who is Shiva?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
One should ask, what is that which is nor Shiva? The whole world is filled with Shiva. Shiva – whose body is in the whole universe. It was very difficult for artist community to portray Shiva in a picture, because Shiva is beyond imagination. For this reason Shiva was given blue color. Blue signifies all pervading, infinity which has no limits. It has no shape. The ved(Ancient Indian scriptures), the knowledge has no shape. But it infiltrates each and every particle of the universe.‘Saam sada shiv’ – Shiv tattva includes both shiva and Shakti(Male and female energy). Parvati is not different from Shiva. Parvati is that which is born out of celebration. Celebration cannot be there without Shiv tattva. It is impossible to separate Shiva and Shakti even for a second. If Shiva is everywhere, how can Shakti be there beyond its scope. Puranas include various stories of Shiva with a vision that even a child could understand something about this tattva.
You all experience three states of consciousness – awake, dream, and sleep. The fourth state which is called ‘turia’ ,that you experience in deep meditation, is Shiva. When you experience that state, innocence blossoms. And without innocence you cannot dissolve in that tattva. Hence, He is called Bholenath.
Q:
Why is that we are unable to understand the mind- which is the most powerful thing in the world?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Have you begun to understand it? (reply: No) then start from somewhere and then we will see whether it is fully understandable or not.Q:
Can you talk about how not to see intention behind others actions?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes. I say don’t see intention behind others’ mistakes. When somebody does something wrong often we say they intentionally did this wrong to me. So when we see from a broader perspective, every culprit is also a victim. Inside every culprit there is a victim crying for help. They may be a victim of lack of education or lack of information, stress, narrow-mindedness. All these would cause someone to become a culprit. And we are simply looking at the culprit part of them. We don’t see that the person is also a victim.Every child should study a little bit about different religions and cultures. If people knew just a little bit about what Jesus said, what the Upanishads say, what the Vedas say, what Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, Islam say, there would not be a single terrorist in the world. Today’s terrorism is a result of Puritanism: i.e. when people say, “Only my religion is pure. I should keep away from other religious books or I should not be educated in those things. Only this is the way.” That type of religious indoctrination in children has given rise to Taliban sort of movements in the world. We have lost so many people to terrorism.
We have globalized Pepsi, Coke and potato chips but we have not globalized wisdom! It should be compulsory for every nation to give a multi-religious, multi-cultural education to all children. Then not one terrorist will be there in the world.
Q:
What does the mantra Bhadram Karne-bhi-h Shrnuyam Deva... mean?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
This is the first mantra to be recited before any pooja. It means, let my ears hear good things, let my eyes see good things, let us speak only good words, let our life be on the Divine path.Q:
Is it humanly possible to love the Divine as much as the Divine loves me? I want to love the Divine more and more but this stupid ego, mind and body get in the way. How to stop it from coming in the way?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
The nature of love is such that it always feels it is not enough, not sufficient. In love, you will never feel that’s it, enough is enough. When you are in love you think you should do more, give more and love more. That sense of wanting more, that sense of in-completion. That’s why love is infinite. Infinite has no end, no boundary - more and more, never bored. Boredom means boundary.Q:
How can one balance between, household duties, business and seva(service)
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
How do you balance a bike? When you fall more to the left you bend right and when you are falling more to the right, you bend left.There is no theory, you just do it. It automatically balances. It pinches one if he doesn't do seva at all and is always bothered about himself. If you are in your senses it will pinch you otherwise one is not human. If you are not touched by others' misery then you are not human but stone. Similarly, if one is only into social service, then also it bothers.
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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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