Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
Is marriage important in life?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
That you have to decide. What is important is that you are peaceful. Unmarried people also have lot of problems. Happiness and pleasantness is important in life: with or without marriage.Got it? (laughter)
(A 10-year old stands up and asks a question)
Q:
How can god bless us as we are already a part of divinity?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
If you object to everything, then there are no words to express anything. You can go on negating every pleasantry and gesture of the other person. Asking for blessings is to remind God to wake up.In India, we have suprabatams – prayers which are sung to God in the morning. It’s to say: ‘God, morning has come. Come on, wake up, and do your duty – bless everybody!’
A devotee has many ways to express his feelings. You can adore the divine in different forms.
That is the speciality of this country. There are nine types of devotion - Navadha bhakti. You can fight with God, play with him. Poets have written many devotional songs.
In all these human modes of emotions, people have related with God. Not out of fear or guilt but out of playfulness, out of vatsalya (affection). Devotees have even sung songs that address God as a naughty child: ‘Come on, listen to me!’ It is an interesting way of relating to the divine. You don’t keep God somewhere up in heaven. It is in and around you – from a child to an elderly person, from a dog, cat to a crow and a tree. The Divinity is present in the whole of creation.
Devotional songs have also been sung on trees! The roots are attributed to being Shiva: strong, silent and unseen. The trunk is strong and attributed to being Vishnu and shoots are attributed to Brahma. The entire trinity in a tree! A tree is guru tatva.
Even all the devtas (Divine beings) are said to be present in a cow. In crows, birds….The whole of nature is seen as a manifestation, as a dance of Divinity. There is no bifurcation between life and Divinity. Life is an amalgamation of Divinity and material life.
It’s very interesting! A prayer is simply wanting to relate. Everyone has the freedom to relate to Divinity in whatever form they want to.
Remember three things: World, Life, Divinity.
These are Anadhi (beginingless) and Ananta (endless). Creation goes on everywhere, there is dissolution too. Everyday there is creation. Everyday cells are being created in your body and cells die too. Your body is a funeral home and a maternity home too! They are not even in different parts of the body.
It’s mind boggling.
Q:
When someone dear passes away, how do you explain that? How to console them?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Why do you need to explain? You know, when you have to console, just be there quietly. Your simple presence will work. By words you cannot console anybody. Everybody has come for some time and they go like that. No logic can console the emotions. Logic doesn’t work at all. And it is a wrong thing to pacify emotions through logical conclusions or understanding. No doubt, the questions will come – why this happens? Those questions should never be answered. Simply be there in silence, in love, compassion, and the atmosphere changes.Q:
How does one balance seva and studies?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Do you know how to ride a bicycle? If you steer to the right, then it goes there. If you steer to the left, the cycle goes there. You have to balance life.Q:
Respected Guruji, I am very concerned about our country’s economy which is getting affected mostly by the international crude prices. At the same time nuclear energy has also proved very fatal by the example from Japan. How can our country move forward in this regard?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
By raising concerns like what you have done with the masses. Everyone should be concerned about environment, for people, for the whole country. When everyone feels this concern, things will change.Q:
What is divine love?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Love, itself, is divine. When it has no distortions, it is divine. When it is unconditional, it is divine. Conditions, such as, ‘I love you, so you must love me’, come from the small, small mind and small love. Divine love is unconditional. And always evolutionary.Q:
I am afraid of people and very tight when I speak to them. I often ask what they think of me. How can I be more open and communicative?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Get onto the DSN course (laughter) and if that does not work, get onto the TTC (more laughter). Till you do that, now for an immediate remedy. Don’t be the football of other´s opinions.Q:
Sometimes I meet people in the Art of Living and they seem so familiar even though I am meeting them for the first time, there is some unknown connection even if I don’t speak to them, what is this connection Guruji, is it from the past life?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
It is good to wonder about this, yes. I will leave it for you to wonder.Q:
What is more important: Vedanta, knowledge or love?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes, Vedanta, knowledge and love are always together. Sometimes one is given more importance and at another time the other is given more importance. So you have to go with both. Good!Q:
Sometimes the best things happen when nature takes its course. At what point, when should people stop trying, giving, doing harder to achieve something and just let nature take its course?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
When you do your 100 percent, when you feel that you cannot do any more. That is exactly when you should meditate, instead of getting frustrated. You have put your 100 percent. When exactly do you know that you have had enough food? Do you know?When exactly do you know you have had enough water? You burp! (laughter)
Usually you get frustrated when you feel: ‘I have done enough, I can’t do anymore. I just give up’. I tell you – you need not go to that extent of getting frustrated. Just say from the very beginning – I give up.
