Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
(A member of the audience asked this question. It was inaudible.)
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Divide is created by the minds of people; it is not religion that is responsible. Even within one religion how much people fight. Forget about religion, in the family don’t brothers fight, right or not? Same family, children of the same mother and father. If there are four brothers or six brothers, that’s it, there are court cases against each other. People fight because they lack spirituality and they have not learnt meditation.Q:
Why has God created this illusion of space and time?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Just for fun!Q:
Do miracles happen in everybody’s lives, or we do not know it?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Ask everyone around you once they are all out of silence they will say it is happening. How many people feel it is happening, raise your hands? See in everybody’s life it is happening. Where there is love and faith miracles will always happen.Q:
Please give an example of how one can take full responsibility for the evil, cruel happenings in the world. Eg: child molestation.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Evil things happen through people who are victims themselves. Inside every culprit, there is a victim crying for help. You have to correct that person, heal that person. Then such things won’t happen. If you have worked in any prison, you will know. And if you’re an Art of Living teacher and worked in prisons, you will appreciate this. You will see how those people whom you think are evil people, are actually good people. Unfortunately, they were not exposed to the type of knowledge and culture that you have been. They have been victims themselves. So we need to heal them. That is why spiritual knowledge is so much needed. When people do the course in prisons, they say if only they had this knowledge before, they wouldn’t have been there. They wouldn’t have done the things that they had done.So it’s our responsibility to reach out to those people who are doing wrong.
Even terrorists, they (Art of Living teachers) have taught so many terrorists in the world who are in prison as well as outside. Their lives changed the moment they did the Sudarshan Kriya.
Last month I went to one of the toughest parts of India, where Maoist violence is rampant. They had declared a 72-hour bandh. Nobody could stir out of their homes. My programme was organised there. Over 1,50,000 people came in a remote village and they lifted the ban to allow the people to come. And it was very nice.
People have changed, have transformed. When I went to jail, I met a lady and a man who have been ambushed. Not one or two – dozens and dozens have been ambushed. There are people there who have 200-300 cases against them.
The wife of a high court judge in the area is an Art of Living teacher. She went into this prison and taught these people. Their lives have been transformed. I had a talk with them.
After Iraq, the country most affected by violence is India. It is the highest in terror-hit regions. These communists are against spirituality, technology, business and industry. They are against democracy. They are against everything that is good. They don’t know why they are against them. They are indoctrinated by Maoist principles. Just as jihadis are indoctrinated by the promise of heaven: ‘If you kill the non-believers, you will go into heaven right away.’ Maoists are brainwashed – ‘If you throw out democracy, religion and spirituality, you can establish a just society.’
One approach is so material and another is so religious. These two types of violence are created to brainwash people. And if these people are educated in non-violence and spirituality, they will turn around. That is what is happening.
So we need to bring spiritual education in schools and class rooms. Talibans hit a young girl with big knives, suspecting her to have an illicit relation. Last month, they bombed five schools for girl children in Pakistan. I tell you, it is terrible, these people are being brainwashed because they never studied anything other than their fundamentalist religious beliefs.
They all should learn meditation, they all should know spirituality. We must teach them. They were never exposed to anything else, not a multi-dimensional or a multi-cultural education. ‘Only my way is the true way, only my God is the true God’: this sort of mentality puts the whole world into trouble. When someone thinks: ‘Only I will go to heaven and everyone else goes to hell, they will create a hell for everyone else.’
We need to change this. That can happen only through education.
Q:
Guruji, how was your life when you were my age? My age is 14.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes interesting! I spent my young days with all elderly people.Q:
Guruji, what gift shall I give u? After undergoing the advanced meditation programme, I am going back with such a rich experience.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Bring peace, knowledge and spirituality to more and more people around you. Recently, I was travelling from Canada to America. A security guy at the airport came running upto me and showed my book – ‘Celebrating Silence’. “Are you the author of this book?” he asked. I said, “Yes.” He shared his experience with me: “Someone gave this book to me six months ago. After reading this book, my life has changed. I carry this book all the time.” He has not even done the Sudarshan Kriya!Knowledge should be brought to everyone. You don’t know who needs the knowledge when and where.
Q:
What to do if someone has Manglik dosh?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Manglik dosh -there is always a remedy for that. ‘Om Namah Shivaya’, is a very good chant to get over all the doshas.Q:
Guruji, when we are doing our practices kriya and meditation together, are we affected by other people’s negativity and bad karmas?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
No, no, no, absolutely not. Don’t worry. If you feel like you are getting affected by somebody’s depression or somebody’s negative energy, just say Om NamahShivaya a few times. It’s gone. It can happen. When people are so depressed and are not in proper shape and you meet them you may feel that. How many of you feel that, when you meet very depressed people something happens to your own body, right? Om NamahShivaya, Jai gurudev - it just disappears.Q:
What do you say to those who say true love doesn’t exist?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
I’d say come to Art of Living and learn true love.n
Q:
Dear Guruji, there are so many mantras. Can you speak about the different effects of specific mantras specially Vishnu Sahasranamam, Lalitha Sahasranaman and Srividya mantra.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Don’t have to go into too much detail. It is said in Vishu Sahasranamam ‘Sohamékena shlokena stuta evana sumshayaha’, in one Soham everything has come. One thousand names of Vishnu are written in one word ‘Ram’ and that is also written in ‘Soham’. Okay sometimes you can put on Vishnu Sahasranamam, listen to it and meditate, that is fine. All mantras have an effect but the most important is meditation. Going beyond the mantras is also necessary, letting go of that as well, your mind remains calm and peaceful.
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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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