Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Q: How can we achieve Trupti and be satisfied in whatever I have?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Just wake up and see. Even if you get crores of rupees in the future, then what? Can you spend all the money? You will just put it in the bank. Then you will die and your children will fight over that money. This is what we do. It is unwise to postpone being happy in order to gain something. Aspire for something but be happy now.

When you feel that you have everything now, you will have more. Do you know who gets invited to dinners? The one who has plenty to eat.

Feel the plentitude.

Q: Dear Guruji, is Shiva consciousness and Krishna consciousness the same?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Yes, yes, they’re same. Krishna consciousness is a little naughtier, that’s it. When it is silent,it is Shiva consciousness, when it is active,it is Krishna consciousness.

Q: Dear Guruji, how do I stop comparing myself with the whole world?

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.

Q: Are the kriya, meditation and seva enough for a peaceful life or should I read the Bhagwad Gita?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

You should read the Bhagwad Gita. It is an important book on yoga. It’s good.

Q: How does one move past a broken and abandoned heart? Thank you, love you.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

You are in the right place. You know what, you must know about your death you must know you are going to die one day. That’s it. The whole drama is going to finish. Where are you? Wake up,wake up. We are all going to be finished one day. Everything is going to finish. Something bothers you too much? It is because you have forgotten you are going to die. Knowledge of death or just an awareness that we are going to die one day, everything is going to be finished, nothing will bother you anymore. Got it?

Q: Guruji, who made God and why is God so powerful?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Really! Who made God? We made God, the devotees made God. If devotees are not there then how can God be there

Q: I say very mean things to people, when I get angry. (Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Nothing new, what’s new about it?)
I don’t mean anything. (Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Nobody really means anything. Mother tells a kid, ‘Come on, get lost.’ She doesn’t really mean it.)

I don’t know whether I am forgiven for this?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

You are! You were never yourself when you are angry, when you were upset. Why do you have to worry? Whenever a mistake happens, it happens in an unconscious state. So become more conscious.

Q: Guruji, today youth are more interested in drugs, alcohol and pornography. What is your advice for the parents on how should they handle teenagers and how can they have a better relationship with them?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Yes, it is a very delicate issue because teenagers don’t like to be dominated by the parents. Usually there is tendency to do that, so here parents should mellow down a little bit and help understand each other. We need to keep teenagers very busy, give them plenty of entertainment and lots of sports. Give them so much work that they do not have any time for anything. They come back home tired and fall asleep. So it is the age between eight to eighteen that they can learn sports. They should go to the gymnasium, do swimming. You know, when someone has done swimming for an hour, and then some exercise they come back home and all their energy is exhausted and they want to sleep. Morning they wake up fresh and they should learn music, they should be given lot of puzzles, and they should be exposed to a lot of information, entertainment, and education. This is how you can keep the teenagers away from sitting and surfing through the internet and viewing all pornography.

Q: Can evil people meditate?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Anyone can meditate. When people meditate, they become good.
I don’t see anyone as bad. If they are bad, it is because they do not meditate, or they are badly hurt, or they are deprived of spiritual knowledge. That is why anyone is bad.

Q: What is Dharma? Is Hinduism or Islam dharma? If not then what is dharma. Between dharma and karma which is more important?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Dharma is that which keeps you on track, keeps you on the path. Dhriti (that which sustains), kshama (forgiveness), dama (piety or self- control), asteya (non-stealing), shaucha (cleanliness), indraiya-nigraha (control over the senses), dhi (intellect), vidya (knowledge or learning), satya (truthful) and akrodha (absence of anger). All these 10 rules are there of dharma, if you go on google you will know all the ten rules and what is dharma. Now knowledge is available at the press of one button on the computer. What we don’t want others to do to us, not doing that to others, is dharma. Not treating others the way we would not like to be treated, that is dharma. Now karma and dharma are very close, dharma is that which we have to do, which is our duty, which we hold on to. Karma is of two types, that which is for dharma and that which is against dharma. If you do karma which is against dharma that become adharma and karma which is for dharma is known as Sat Karma.