Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
In the wedding vows does the couple get to accumulate their past karmas or do they exchange it and carry it forward?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Well all is possible.Q:
What is the dharma of marriage?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Ask your spouse! They will give you long lectures on what your dharma is and what you should be doing. (Audience laughs)Our ancient people spoke about saptapadi – the seven steps one takes in life. The knowledge was so scientific even 1,000s of years ago.
A sense of commitment, co-operation, compassion, caring and less ego – these are the benefits that one finds.
Q:
There are times when people do something bad to you that hurts and you cannot seem to forgive them and time goes by and you still seem to keep that feeling. But you want to forgive them and you want to have a good relationship with that person.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes, I think meditation will help. More understanding will help. If someone has done something wrong to you, see it from this angle that the person was just a post man to do what he did. Yes, this is number one. Second angle is, the person was ignorant he didn’t know what he was doing that is why he was doing it, right. Third is to see that person is a victim himself/herself, so they did the mistake the way they did it. In this way you broaden your vision. Suddenly you will see things are all turning aroundQ:
What does the intellect have to do with spirituality?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Spirituality makes your intellect sharp. They are not contradictory, they complement each other. Don’t think spiritual people shut down their intellect. They have a spirit of enquiry. Your questions assume a higher dimension. If your intellect is mature, then you have no choice but to be spiritual.Q:
Can a devotee’s love for the Divine reduce and if it does what needs to be done to change it.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
In time, it will become alright.Q:
What to do with good friends whose paths have just changed? There has been no growth since the last five years. Slowly, there is nothing to talk about but they are good friends.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You need to educate them.Q:
Guruji, if we are following one path can we read books written by other spiritual masters?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes it is okay as long as it does not confuse you. Reading too much only gets you more confused. ‘Pothi pad -pad jug mua Pandit bhaya na koi, Dhai akshar prem ke pade so Pandit hoye’. This does not mean you don’t read, read a little, but not too much.Q:
Guruji, Dr. Stephen Hawking has a very strong belief about our present human life. He says that there is nothing beyond this life, there is nothing beyond this existence. I don’t know how much he has studied religion but I know that you have studied physics. So how would you like to reply to him?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
No scientist would ever say, ‘I know everything and whatever is here that is all and there is nothing beyond’. Not at all, Stephen Hawking has not said what is here is the ultimate. He said there are many levels and many dimensions. Our brain is a frequency analyzer; it can only analyze certain frequencies. Right here there are so many other frequencies. So no scientist ever refuses the possibility of many layers of existence, many worlds right here, because there are many waves. What you see is just a wave function and in wave function there are infinite layers, one inside the other, one inside the other. So microcosm to macrocosm, there are so many worlds and so many levels of timeQ:
I spent a lot of my life chasing questions. How to be calmer and decisive, instead of being tensed?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Make a drastic shift in your life from wanting everything from everybody to giving to everyone. Know you are here only to give instead of take. The strength for you is ‘I want nothing from anybody and if I can be useful to 10, 20 people in life that´s good enough, and my needs will be taken care of by nature. This body belongs to planet earth. It is made of the materials of the planet earth, and will go back to this earth.’ When you can’t lift your hands, nature will make arrangements to feed you. You will be taken care of, if you can’t see. It will put that compassion into someone to come, and feed you. So you must know that this body belongs to planet earth and it will take care of you.How can I be useful to the planet? Just having these thoughts gives better direction. The lack will disappear. How to draw abundance towards you is not to be greedy, self-centered.
Q:
Who is God? Many people say that you are God.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
See, God is love and that love is everywhere, isn’t it? And wherever you see that, that is your God. See God in everything, in the birds, in the trees, in the flowers, in the sun, moon, the whole universe is filled with love. God is in our heart and that’s why you recognize that and see God is in everyone.
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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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