Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Sri Sri: Yes, yes, yes! You can do that very comfortably (laughter from audience).

Sri Sri: What you said is exactly what is happening! You have said it! It will pass, it will pass definitely. You know, if you are tired, either you have not taken enough water or too little sugar. Either too little energy or too much energy, or your system has some bugs or not any stress release. Any one of these can cause that. When you go deep in meditation, what happens? The stresses come out. When they come out, either you feel tired or feel like running away. All this is possible. If you take a few breaths or walk in the fresh snow, it will help. And take plenty of water, fluids, fruits, vegetables. All this would help.

Sri Sri: I was just there this year!

Sri Sri: Suggestion taken! We will request our Publications department for some CDs without music, but your comparison was very good!

Sri Sri: Again these experiences are so common for a beginner. If you are just beginning to meditate, restlessness comes up or you feel very sleepy. When stresses get released from your system, such a passage may be common. Farry will tell you more on this. When it comes from a scientist mouth, it has more flavors to it. He is doing a lot of research in Oslo University on Kriya. They found how the chromosomes of your body change! He just told me some very exciting news. So when stress release happens, the chemical or structural form in which stress was stored gets released, you get all these experiences. Your endocrine system readjusts itself, because we have violated our body in so many ways so many times. We have not kept the balance; we have not honored our own body, so jerks may happen. How many of you have found some jerks? Emotions may come up and you feel completely confused. All this may happen. It’s not that it should happen. Sometimes it doesn’t happen and you say am I not releasing any stress? That person is getting stress released and I am so quiet. Don’t compare your experience with anybody whatsoever. We all are so different. Everybody’s nervous system is so different. And at different times, different experiences come to different people. So at any time we should never compare our experiences with others and feel sorry or happy about it.

Sri Sri: You know, people with schizophrenia, you think they are suffering, they are enjoying themselves! Ask me how many people I have encountered who have this problem. Sometimes they stop taking their medication because they stop having fun with that. See, there is no charm, no energy, no fun, so they stop medication. We have this experience. Many times parents or spouse came and left them in the Ashram. So we have dealt with them all. I tell you, they are really not suffering! They are in their own world. They are here in the world for you to serve them. And be patient, they increase your patience. They make you well grounded to your own reality. It’s an experience to be with them. Because their mind is between two worlds -this world and another world, their realities fused and confused. They can invoke a lot of compassion from within you. And that is what you can do about it. Yes, they can do some physical yoga, dance, enjoy music and take a good walk. These are things you can engage them in.

Sri Sri: You know you should go and talk to the people in the prison who have committed these heinous crimes. You’ll find these people are nice people. Why even talk about them, talk about yourself! You know sometimes you’ve been so nasty. Have you been nasty? Have you been angry? Have you been upset? Afterwards you see – ‘Oh, why did I do this?’ Do you regret? In the same way these people – they did a crime, they did commit something they were totally unaware of, and then they started realizing. That’s why spiritual education is so important, because this education doesn’t allow you to commit such heinous crimes! They never had an opportunity to have access to this knowledge, to meditation, to breathing. That is why they did all that.

Sri Sri: Of course! You don’t have to wish, you are already! We are all one. I am you and you are me. See, the mind is like the space. The self is like the space inside and outside the body. The thoughts come and go, emotions come and go, but when you go inside there is only empty space. And our true nature is that. When we identify ourselves too much with thoughts, with feelings and emotions, that is when we feel we are stuck, we are small. But, the ‘Real, Magnanimous You’ are that space inside where you feel totally at peace. Those moments when you are totally in peace or fully in love, you feel an expansion, right? You feel boundless, you feel limitless, and that is our true nature. That is what the beauty is. We are all one in that, there is no two!I will give you an example. Suppose you keep here many different vessels with different sizes. They have different capacities: one can have two liters, one can have ten liters, and one can have five litres. But the space is the same. The capacity of each vessel may be different. So what! But it is the same space which is inside, outside and which is everywhere. Our ability to do different things, our energy to do different things is immaterial to what we are. And this ability, this energy doesn’t stay the same throughout life. See, when you were a baby your abilities were different, rather nothing. You could not help even yourself. Somebody had to care for you. And what happens when you get very old? Then also your abilities are different. So changing of our abilities, our thought is immaterial to the real you, to who you are. You are simply space, you are love, you are peace and this identification removes all other complexes in life. Otherwise you will always find somebody is more capable than you and somebody is less capable than you. You are better somewhere and you are not in some others. When you compare yourself with others in the world, either who are living or dead or may be being born in the future, there will always be a difference. This is part of the world, part of the Universe, okay?

Sri Sri: Wait for the next year.