Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
No, we still give them. Speak to a teacher; those who cannot afford will also get to do the course. Thousands are doing like that.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
The sacred thread indicates the three responsibilities that you shoulder: duty to parents, duty to society, and duty towards the knowledge you receive in life. You have to disseminate the knowledge in life.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
At least, you understood this. Many people don’t even understand this. Give a pat on your back. Say you have taken first step in the right direction. And it will change. Just a little effort and done. When you analyze the past, you should always come to this conclusion that everything happens for the good, because you learnt a lesson from the wrong things. But you should not apply this for the future. Looking at the past and knowing that everything happens for some good reason, you move on to the future. But if, in the present, you say, ‘ Oh! Everything happens for the good’, that is no good.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
That’s only in the beginning stages. When you move into knowledge and wisdom, then nothing can hurt you.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Only when everything happens right then… if things go wrong then it is your own mind! (laughter) See, you got a thought, an intuition, when it is correct. If it doesn’t match the reality, you don’t call it “I had an intuition” how do you say it? “I had an illusion.” Difference between an illusion and intuition is that an intuition is correct, and illusion is not correct.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Just be busy. Don’t sit and think about yourself. Trying to have a self-image restricts your growth. Be hollow and empty. Do more meditationSri Sri Ravi Shankar:
When you realize you are an ant, you become an elephant. If you think you are like the elephant, you become the ant! (Laughter)Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Be in moderation; don’t destroy all the insects but sometimes you may have to use them. Use the natural ones which are not harmful for others. Use those insecticides which cause less harmSri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes, definitely.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Shiva is the principle in which everything is born, into which everything will go. There is no escape from Shiva. Shiva tatva means Shiva Principle. Shiva is not a person. Shiva is the space, is the consciousness. To describe that they put Shiva in blue. Blue means like the sky. You know, Shiva’s description is so beautiful (reciting a Sanskrit verse) it’s like liberation, liberation from everything. It is the lord, it is the most powerful, it is all over, spread everywhere. There is no place that it is not. It is where all the knowledge is present, that consciousness, that space. It has no attributes. It was never born, Shiva was never born nor has any attributes. It is a Samadhi state where there is nothing, just the inner sky of consciousness. That is what is Shiva. Where there is alertness and no action. To describe the alertness they put a snake around Shiva’s neck. They put a trident in the hands of Shiva - means it is beyond the three states of waking, dreaming and sleeping. Shiva is holding a trident that means it is beyond the three states, in the fourth state, which is absolutely benevolent. The one state in which everything exists in the universe -the dark space, the dark energy - scientists today started calling it the dark space and the dark energy - in which everything else exists. The sun, moon, stars, everything exists in this one solid state of consciousness.