18 June 2014 - QA 1

I have started listening to this spiritual leader since a year now. He is saying that enlightenment is just a pure physical and physiological function of the body, and there is no religious content in it.
He is rejecting other schools of though and saying that, no system or method will lead you to enlightenment, and there is no such thing as enlightenment at all. Gurudev, is there really anything as enlightenment?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

See, in this world, different people have different opinions and different views. They can have their views, but reality is different.
Somebody sitting in a desert might say, 'There are no trees on planet Earth'. That is their experience.
On the other hand, we say, 'Oh, there are so many tress. There is plenty of water, and the water is so sweet'. But that is not their experience. The water they have tasted is salty.

People are entitled to have their own perceptions.
If we say that there is no enlightenment, first we need to understand what enlightenment means? It means raising above the mind; becoming your natural self. It is not something that just falls on your head. Have the feeling that 'I am happy, come what may' is enlightenment.

If enlightenment is not there, then why have people from centuries spoken about it. It is not just one person's fantasy. For centuries people have had the very same experience that 'I am not the body'.
And yes, you do not have to read and read, and then you will get an experience. So many people have not read anything, but when they do Sudarshan Kriya, they have the same experience as someone who has read.
You should ask this person to come and do the Sudarshan Kriya and Shakti Kriya. Once he does Sudarshan Kriya, Shakti Kriya and some meditation, then he may understand.

I once heard a very famous person say, 'You cannot stop thoughts in the mind for even a second. If thoughts stop, then you will become crazy'.
This is not our experience! Is this your experience? What is your experience when you meditate here? For an extended period of time, your mind become calm, settled and serene; isn't it so? (Everyone says, 'Yes')
You experience a mind without thoughts! (Everyone says, 'Yes')

Today, this can even be measured using instruments. When there is total harmony and synchrony between the left and right hemisphere of the brain, and when the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system are working in harmony, then you say that this is an altered state of consciousness. And this altered state of consciousness which can be physically measured today, is what is called enlightenment.