Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
There will be testing times in life; but what to do if problems become life?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You have come here. You have come to the right place. How many of you are getting your desires fulfilled after undergoing the practice here? Raise your hands. See you have come to the right place. Sit here with faith, do meditation and then leave. Do you know there is a rule in the ashram? This is the rule in the ashram: you can bring your worries here, but you cannot take them back with you.Q:
Dear Guruji, I am stuck in-between wordly things and the Divine. The longing does not let me focus on my work but I have to work to fill my family’s stomach. Please guide.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Look, don’t think they are in contradiction. You have to work. At the same time, you can spend some time for yourself. Twenty minutes to yourself. When you are driving, listen to some knowledge. There are so many knowledge sheets, CDs. Listen to some bhajans and when you come back home after work, sit and meditate for a little while. You leading a normal worldly life in no way contradicts your spiritual progress. You can do both together. See here. So many people drive all the way from the city with all the traffic. How much time it takes? 2 hours. They drive all the way, one and a half hours after their work and sit and then they go back another one and a half hours. So when you want to do, you don’t have to do it every day. Some of you do it every day. You come once, two or three times a week for satsang because satsang is also an addiction, just addicts you. You feel so good, isn’t it? How many of you feel so good? How many of you feel when you enter the ashram you energy level changes? They all have that experience.Q:
Avatars (incarnations) waged wars. When is your war and with whom?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Our war is ongoing. To remove ignorance is a big war; it is going on. All of you join. You are all soldiers. To remove ignorance, and to eliminate corruption, our war is going on. (corruption is oozhal in Tamil, azhimathi in Malayalam)Q:
What is the difference between Dharana and Sankalpa?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Dharana is keeping your mind on a specific thought, like what we do in the beginning of meditation. Like what we do in Yoga Nidra, we take our mind to different parts of the body. Similarly, we keep the attention on the breath or the top of the head, somewhere. This is called Dharana.Q:
Jai Gurudev! Bringing us here saying you will show Guruji, you are only showing yourself?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
To see Guruji means, when you sit and close your eyes, you can see Guruji. Guruji is within you. When the heart blossoms, that is Guru tatva. The heart that continues to remain in the blossomed state is Guru. That is why Guru tatva is that tatva (state) which has both love and peace in it. How can you get that? Not by looking outward, but by turning inward. That is what you are doing now (in the Art of Meditation course) with your eyes closed from morning till evening. ‘See your breath, nose, tongue,’ ... being said in different ways. You may feel, ‘Oh have I come for this, they have made me sit with closed eyes.’ In the olden days, when people would take the dead body for cremation, they would tell the children, a swami with eyes closed is going by. You may think, ‘these people are making us sit with our eyes closed and making us closed-eye swamis. Without any work they are making us sit with our eyes closed’, and the mind runs and thinks, ‘let's open the eyes and see these people and see those people. What are they doing?’ When you open your eyes and see, everyone else will be sitting happily and peacefully. Then, the thought comes to the mind, ‘they have all got peace, and only I didn't get it’. You might think, ‘my mind (manas) is constantly running.’ Many such thoughts that you like and dislike will arise, and it will go away on its own too. Sit peacefully and follow what you are asked to do in the guided meditations. As you continue to do all that you are told, after some time your mind will become peaceful. Is that happening? There must be difference between yesterday and today. If you compare morning and evening, then you will notice that your mind was more peaceful in the evening.Q:
What is Divine love?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
That love which is free from expectations. We show love and based on that we carry out a business. How? 'When you were young, I brought you up, right? What have you done for me?' This is business. Do you understand that? A love that is free from all expectations is Divine love.Q:
In the (Mahabharata) war field, Krishna showed Arjuna his Vishwa roopa. When will you show your vishwa roopa?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
The conch has not yet been blown for start of war! Krishna showed the Vishwa roopa only to Arjuna. First you become Arjuna. How to become like Arjun? What is Arjuna? To prayerfully request for knowledge and to progress is Arjun.Q:
Change is permanent in life. Does the knowledge in the Bhagavad Gita change as per the changing times?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Bhagavad Gita has all the topics. We have to understand that. It has knowledge as per the time.Q:
Dearest Guruji, what is the way to be able to feel, love and revere the Guru in the form as well as in the formless?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You know, you cannot force love on yourself. Love is spontaneous, it just happens, just relax! You can’t try to love someone or try not to love someone. It is just a spontaneous happening. And remember love is not just an emotion, love is our existence.Q:
When I was in the doubt mode I could ask you any question Guruji. But after I have started having faith in you asking or rather confronting you with my questions have become very difficult. As fear and respect come my way. How to tackle the situation?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Just be natural, ask any question you want to ask. All questions are anyways foolish. I don’t mind and I know you don’t mind as long as the answers are not foolish. And from here I cannot give you foolish answers for sure. This is just an intellectual stimulation, that’s all. Questions and answers are what? Intellectual stimulation. Music is what? Emotional stimulation and silence is what? Stimulation of the spirit, of the soul. So we need all these in our life. And exercise is physical stimulation. And you do yoga, exercise. Seva is stimulation of activity. You do an action without expecting anything in return is seva. Stimulation of activity is through seva. So you need all that - physical stimulation through exercise; intellectual stimulation by knowledge, discussion; emotional stimulation through music and the stimulation of spirit through silent meditation.
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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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