Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You know, the best thing is not worry about it too much. Got it? Karma is only in the mind, yet you worry about physical illness “oh this is my karma...” See, the body has its limitations. Everybody’s body has a limitation. And if we have violated the laws of nature, it is going to take its toll some time. Okay? So, keep your spirits high, the rest will be taken care of by itself.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You can’t do meditation? Okay, so first see why you are not able to meditate. The part of you that is entangled in money and mind, detangling it from there, entangle it in me! Then meditation will also happen, mind will also be happy and money will also come on its own.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes, our consciousness is like having a library. In a library, there are millions of books, right? The librarian holds all the books but it is not necessary that he knows every book by heart. But he knows where what is and when it is needed, he can pick it up and know it. In the same way, though our consciousness is the abode of all the knowledge, it is not necessary to know everything all the time. Impossible. It is impossible in a physical body to know everything all the time. But when you are still, when your mind is in absolute stillness, and there is no craving and aversions, it is just free. Then you are like the librarian, who possesses all. The owner of the library who has all the knowledge and he can access it when it is needed, if it is needed. A lawyer has all the books but he doesn’t by-heart all the books all the time. But when a particular case comes up he knows which book to pick up and where exactly to put his finger. In the same way our consciousness is an abode of all knowledge, right? When you are so still and free from mental modulations - that is when you are a yogi. Then you can know… that’s why the still consciousness, yogic consciousness is called sarvagna.‘Tatraniratishayamsarvagyabeejam’ is a sutra in yoga sutras. In that consciousness, when you’re in a Samadhi state, the seed of all-knowingness is present in that.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Who said the supreme power decides your fortune? You decide your fortune.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You have so much time to sit and compare yourself with everybody. My goodness, I have no time. Too much time on your hands, you better do something more creative. You are sitting and comparing yourself with the whole world, what a waste of time.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Only if you act on them. Bad thoughts, and good thoughts come and go. Don’t become attached to them. If you try, and resist bad thoughts they will persist. Just let them ben
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
See, when your leg is paining and you are watching TV for two hours, you forget that your leg is paining, isn’t it. Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. If there is pain in the body, that happens sometimes here and there, do some Yoga Nidra, get massages done. Whatever can happen through some treatments, you do that. After that, don’t keep your mind on the pain, divert your mind, okay?Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
I think you have too much free time. If you’re engaging yourself in some creative activity, then where is the time to feel bad?Anand Yog means communion with the Divine, which brings bliss.
Anand Bhog is doing things for enjoyment. It is not the best.
If we worry about whether we are high or low, then we get trapped in a self-centred cycle which may lead to depression. Do some seva. Do your practice. There are so many people who need you. Do some job.
If there is nothing creative to do, then you will feel like this.
The world doesn’t care – it shouldn’t care.
You stand up, wake up and say: ‘My life is going to move with commitment, not with feelings.’
Feelings are unpredictable. You can predict that the pigeons in the hall (pointing to Vishalakshi Mantap) will remain there, but you cannot predict your mind.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
First don’t put a label in your head that I am emotional in nature. Every person has emotions. Who is not emotional? Everybody has some emotions. But if you label yourself as emotional by nature then you are giving a license to yourself not to be intelligent or you are giving a license to yourself to be weak. You can be emotional but you can't be emotionally weak. Wake up and see you are not weak, you are strong. You have to assume you are strong. You have heard the story of Mullah Nasiruddin? Mullah Nasiruddin started thinking that he is dead. So walking here and there he kept saying I am a dead body, I am dead. If someone would ask him something he would say a dead body cannot talk, I am a dead body even though he was speaking. So his wife got very concerned, anything she would ask him he would say I am a dead body why are you asking me. So she took him to a psychologist, and the psychologist told him,' look you are not dead you are alive,' but he said,' no I am a dead body'. So the psychologist told him in a dead body there is no blood, there is water and he agreed. So the psychologist took a needle and pricked him and he started to bleed. Then the psychologist said see that means you are not a dead body, you are alive. Then Mullah says, ‘today I have found out that there is blood even in dead bodies’ So in this way whatever we believe our self to be, we become that. So we should not think ‘I am emotionally weak’. Who said you are emotionally weak? Wake up now and see that you are strong. Emotions are natural and it is very beautiful to have emotions. Otherwise you will become so dry. Even the elephant here has emotions. The birds, elephants, horses, cows and buffaloes, they all have emotions, even a dog has emotions and then how can you not have emotions. There are emotions in you as well but to think I am emotional, I am weak, this label which you have put on yourself needs to be taken off. You are fine with the emotions; there is no need to beat yourself up. You need to feel from inside that I am strong. If tears come sometime, there is nothing wrong in that. But don’t get too carried away with your emotions.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Better be! Every husband and wife had better meet their souls. They meet everyone but not their souls. Realising the self is our first aim, our first duty. Ask the question: ‘Who am I?’