Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You will get going home instructions. Have fun. Take life lightly and seriously too. If you take life all serious, it is very boring. If you take it as all fun, it becomes frivolous, superficial. You should have depth. Life should be silence and celebration, a combination of both. Be dispassionate, totally centred and totally passionate to bring transformation. Passion for transformation and dispassion for momentary pleasure – these two can make you a very, very deep person. If you walk this path, you will have no dearth for anything, all will happen at the right time.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Just move on, move forward. Don’t look back. Failure can only be in the past, never in the future. Again, it’s about understanding the event. If you see it from a broader perspective, you will see it better.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes, it’s blissful! After every pain comes bliss.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Spirituality is essential to keep politics away from corruption and war. Politics without spirituality will lead to narrow-mindedness. Mahatma Gandhi was an extremely spiritual man, and that’s why he was able to lead a non-violent revolution in India.On the African continent, there is so much corruption. 200 billion dollars is kept away in English banks. This is the money of various presidents and Prime Ministers in Africa. 200 billion dollars at a time when many people are starving and suffering! With an iota of spirituality, they wouldn’t do this.
Spirituality that doesn’t care about people is no good. So service projects are an essential part of any spiritual path. Charity is a part of spirituality.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You know rivers are considered very sacred. Rivers are very sacred in our culture. All our civilization grew on the banks of the rivers. All over the world, in England civilization grew on the banks of river Thames, in Germany it grew on the banks of river Rhine, all the castles are near river Rhine. So water is important to life. Without water there is no life. So in ancient times people had cities built on the banks of the rivers. In this country, all sacred penance also happened on the banks of the rivers. Each river is known for its own special events, like Ganga is known for knowledge. All the Rishi Munis did tapasya on the banks of Ganga. All the love stories blossomed on the banks of Yamuna. Sri Krishna played Rasa Leela on the banks of Yamuna. Narmada River is known for bhakti (devotion), knowledge and logic. Saraswati River is known for brilliance or architecture. Sindu is known for its own special culture; the Sindi culture blossomed on the Sind river banks. Brahmaputra River is the only male river, All other rivers are female. Because Brahmaputra was not gentle at all, it was never gentle, it was always a rogue river. It would change its course and cause so much sorrow so Brahmaputra was called a male river, a very arrogant, adamant river. So like that rivers are considered sacred and people never used to pollute rivers. When they go to rivers they would first bow down to the rivers and put their feet there but they would never spit in the river water. Even today villagers don’t spit in the river Ganga, so you don’t pollute the river. People would never urinate in the rivers, they would go away for the urination and when they come to the river they consider the water very sacred. Whenever you consider something sacred you preserve it, you honor it, and you see that you don’t pollute it. Today that is not the case. We have forgotten that and we throw everything in the river. What all people throw into the river, we must not do such things, we need to keep the river pure. All the dirt of the city is thrown into the river. From Gangotri, the Ganga River, by the time it reaches Kanpur, it becomes very dirty, not just Kanpur, even before that. After Haridwar the water is not clean enough to put it in our mouth, to drink it is not possible, that is what has happened. We must not do this, in the Ganga river we must only put things like raw rice or flowers but besides that nothing else. Plastics, cloths, and all these things we must not put in the river.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
The word puja means that which is born out of fullness ( Pu – fullness, Ja –born out of). Just being grateful is also puja. Just offer a flower or even a smile. Seva is puja.Jana seve Janardhan seve. Service to mankind is puja.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes. I am also thinking about it. One thing you can do is expand awareness of our stance – ask ten people to speak to ten thousand. This way we can make people conscious, create awareness about it: a new battle for independence.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Ego? When someone insults you, they will tell you what it is. I don’t have to tell you. You do some good job and somebody ignores you or gives you a derogatory remark: you will automatically know what ego is. And the antidote for ego is being natural. When you are natural, then the small ego cannot survive, then you expand. Or your ego should become so big that you take everybody in it. Then also it will not bother you.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Very good.. Always understanding and always cooperative. nn
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Hmmm. You get too many thoughts? If your bowel movements are not okay then also the thoughts go haywire.Sopurifying the body through ayurveda - triphala would help. Second, pranayama, bhastrika, hard work, exercise, get on the treadmill and run, you know. Finally, let the thoughts be there. Why do you want to get rid of them? Don’t fight with them. They come and they go. Best not to meddle with them. Yes? The continuous thoughts that bombard your mind - logical thoughts are one side of your brain the other side of the brain is music. When you want to shift -sing, go into music. Activity in the other side of the brain - that should help. But if a particular fear or desire is affecting you again and again, offer that, surrender that to the Divine. That’s it.