Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
So you were stuck in the shruti box the whole time. What? So you didn't hear anything else that I have said. If you can't even drop the shruti box and what is inside the shruti box, then what is the fun? Can you drop it? (Answer -' I will drop it once the answer comes') Once the answer comes, then how did you drop it? You never dropped it. Do you see how many tricks your mind plays, are you aware? That is good enough. You are aware how your mind plays so many tricks throughout the day and that's how so many fights happen because you are trapped with your own mind. First your mind fights with you, your mind deceives you then you deceive or are deceived by others. So first you become aware of your mind what it does, what's going on there.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
No, no, nothing like that. Doesn’t matter even if you miss one or two days never mind. We are all anyways connected; the whole world is all connected.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
How do you feel today? Very nice! If those things are coming up, let it come up. Do a little bit yoga, some walking, some exercise to supplement that.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Look, Divine and worldly dispensation are one and the same, they are not discrete. God is inseparable from this world. He is all permeating. Sarvam khalvidam Brahma - All this is verily Brahma. If you stick your hand in a fire, you get burnt instantly. However, if you sow a mango seed, or for that matter a coconut seed, in the ground, how long does it take to grow into a fruit-bearing tree - 4-6 years? Similarly, there are some actions whose consequences are immediate and there are some actions with a delayed outcome. If your grandfather/forefather toils for 20 years to set up a factory, who will enjoy the fruits of his labour - you will! Applying the same logic, karma and its consequences are eternal and beyond comprehension. Some karma can be resolved only by dealing with the consequences, whereas the outcome of some karma can be modified / modulated. For example, while preparing sooji (semolina) halva, the proportion of ingredients can be adjusted with respect to one another. However, once cooked sooji cannot be reverted back to its uncooked state. Similarly, what your height is today is praarabdha karma, but what your current body-weight is can be changed (reduced/increased). That is why doing dhyaan (meditation), jaap(chanting), havan(sacrificial fire), daan (charity) help change karma. We may have, unknowingly, harmed someone. Our shaastras (scriptures) recommend sharing a few grains of rice from our meal with birds and other creatures; having an attitude of gratefulness for all we have received in life also resolves karma. Do not criticize or condemn anyone. However, on the path of Self-knowledge forget about your sins and merits, and just relax and be happy. The more relaxed we are, the more spontaneously (naturally) things get done. When we were building the ashram, I did not seek advice from a Vaastu consultant. Several years later, some Vaastu specialists commented on how all structures were in their proper place with respect to one another. Our consciousness itself is Shaastra, so if we listen to our consciousness, our intuition, we will function in accord with nature. Everything will be okay. That is why it is called intuition. Suppose you have no knowledge of electronics, but you need to tackle an electronics issue. You intuitively play around with the wires, and eventually the problem will get resolved. Many people have experienced this. Once I was going from London to Birmingham where I was scheduled to give a talk. This happened more than twenty years ago. Birmingham is a big city. One gentleman realized an hour after we had left London that he had forgotten to obtain the address or the directions to the venue in Birmingham. There were no cell phones in those days. So I decided to intuitively guide him, telling him to take this turn here and that turn there, until we reached the street in Birmingham on which the venue was located! What I am saying is, the Shaastra is not a book, you yourself are Shaastra. If you study your consciousness, your mind, that is what is in the Shaastra. This is how the knowledge of Vaastu Shaastra, Ayurveda has been derived. In this country, dance, music, art, science, have all emerged from the consciousness of the spirit, through meditation. So meditate, meditation is supreme. All this will manifest when you meditate. In english it is known as intuition. Intuition means that which is 'right'. This power is within everyone, but use it occasionally, not all the time.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Because ‘Sarva dharmaan paritajye, ma mekam sharanam’. Take refuge in me, then I will rid you of all sins. He puts a condition for it. Bheeshma Pitaamah didn’t do that. This is my dharma, he was holding on to it. He didn’t totally give up, right?Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You have a great responsibility to take care of the health of the people but never stop studying.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
That is what we are doing. We are educating people in all levels.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You at the right place! And you will get exactly the right thing to increase the percentage.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Is it so? Every thought! (Answer – 'Almost every thought') Now you came from every thought to almost every thought, again analyze. (Answer – 'Not sure') Not sure! So ‘not sure’ question does not get a ‘sure’ answer! If you think you know your mind then you really don’t know and if you know you don’t know your mind then you really don’t know. So what you need to do is observe your mind, ‘Oh wow look at this mind saying so many things’, right. So in-between when your mind remains quiet, those quiet moments, even for a few seconds, few minutes, morning or evening or afternoon, anytime, you recharge your whole system, got it. Just being afraid of yourself or your situation in life is not going to make you any better or give you any security. See you have been dependant when you were a baby right. Did you earn your own bread when you were 5 months old baby? Then nature put the thought in somebody’s mind to feed you. When you were a baby you were so dependant, right! You could not walk, 5 months old baby, where does it walk. So everything, you were dependant when you were born. And whomsoever you think my father, my mother, somebody will do, it is that one intelligence, that Divinity through those people it provided everything for you, right! Got it or not? Then you grew older, and you grew older and older and then much older and then again somebody has to help you out. So in-between these few years you think you are independent, it is just an illusion. Even then you are dependent on some unseen force or power which rules everything, which rules your breath, which rules your circulation, which rules almost every moment of your life. But in-between this age, in-between being too old or too young we think we are in control,that too only in your waking state of consciousness.You are not in control in your dream or your sleep also. If suddenly your breath stops coming in and going out of you while you sleeping, what to do! There is some power which propels the breath to keep moving in and out, yes! And that power, that consciousness has all intelligence of the world. And when the cell phone came you start realizing there is a power in the space. See you take a cell phone, press some letters, some buttons and that’s it, that electromagnetic wave goes to America and types out the same message in that person’s phone box. Isn’t this a big miracle, we take it for granted. We don’t see that whatever was typed, that was absorbed as energy and that intelligence went through the space and is exactly being produced the same at the same spot. That means the space between this and the tower and the tower and the other tower is filled with knowledge. Are you getting what I am saying? This space around here is filled with all that knowledge in the world. When I used to say this some 25 years ago, people would not understand. I was wondering how I am going to make them understand this. I said the space in-between is spirit. There is knowledge filled in every particle of space and I found it very difficult to explain this. But this cell phone has explained this very nicely. First what came was the fax machine. I said,'See', whatever is written on this piece of paper we put is in the machine and it reaches the other place. So when the fax machine first came I said 'hah!, now I can explain' and after that with cellphones, it is so easy to see that you don’t have to explain so much. The empty space is filled with intelligence, filled with knowledge, filled with love and compassion. The space is breathing, that is what the reality is. The space is what constitutes your inner self. So how is prayer beneficial? There is compassion in the consciousness all around you, you recognize it, and you feel it and it uplifts your consciousness, your mind. It mixes with your consciousness.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Both are one.