Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Why should we not? Listen, now why should we have so many types of vegetables? You should have had only one egg plant. You should have asked why there are so many types of fruits. There are grapes, oranges, so many types of oranges, so many types of bananas. You should have had only bananas. Nature should have created only bananas. You eat the banana and go bananas. You would have really gone nuts. Nature loves diversity. So nature made so many types of rice. You know, in rice there are 152 types in India alone. World over if you count there are thousands of types of rice. There are types of rice, types of cows; different types of vegetables, fruits. The Divine loves diversity. So the Divine can manifest itself in so many diverse forms. That is what the ancient people said. You should give the freedom for Divine to wear whatever clothes it wants to wear. Don’t say that the should come in the same dress all the time.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Practice and dispassion.I have many brilliant ideas for doing seva, but I don’t know how to go about implementing them. Also because I am not good at team work, I don’t know how to ask for help from other people.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Listen, don’t label yourself as,' I am not good at team work'. If you are not good at team work, then they will make you here. This is the opportunity for you. Accept people as they are and get into a team. Get into somebody’s team, whatever they may say, 'oh it is so sunny', when it is so cloudy, you say, 'yes okay!' It doesn’t matter what they think but what they do matters. You say,' okay, if it is sunny for you let it be sunny, come let’s sweep the floor, let’s take care of the plant, let’s keep the place clean. Let’s wash the dishes in the kitchen. How does it matter if it is rainy or it is sunny, you have to go and wash the dishes', you go and wash. So don’t sit and argue with people to see what you see, that they should also agree with you. We should agree to disagree - simple formula. You think God is blue, fine, for you he is blue, for me he is white. It is okay. He can be white, for another he is red, never mind, come, let’s all be together, dance together, eat together, do something together. This is very important. Team work is absolutely essential; we should go into such a team.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
See, God is love and that love is everywhere, isn’t it? And wherever you see that, that is your God. See God in everything, in the birds, in the trees, in the flowers, in the sun, moon, the whole universe is filled with love. God is in our heart and that’s why you recognize that and see God is in everyone.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
: He said in the very first mantra, ‘Worship truth like Amrit (ambrosia)’ and Advanced course is the union with truth. The truth is, our breath is flowing, our body is functioning. Between these two there is something: the union with ‘I am nothing’. It is very important to be stress-free. We talk about this and that, all sorts of inconsequential stuff. We eat food day and night. We don’t want freedom from this. But we are ready to give up meditation. How come?Kabir das sang: Why have you given up speaking the truth and Hari naam (chanting God’s name)? You did not give up anger, or telling lies, why did you give up speaking the truth? First give up anger, telling lies; then you can give up the Advanced course also.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
How did you bring un-naturalness(asahajta), first tell me this? You were born natural. Naturalness has been with us since birth. Where did this asahajta come in, observe this and give it up! We feel at ease only when others praise us, approve of our work. Why do you wait for others’ approval, give yourself a pat on the back. I know it is a little difficult to pat oneself on the back. That is why we have you do the third stage of pranayaam!! But do not break the rules of sahajta. It is important to follow the rules and norms of society.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Okay now, you are both matter and spirit right? Are you only matter? No! You are matter and you are also spirit. Our body is matter, our mind, intellect, emotions, they are part of the spirit. So anything that nurtures the mind, that keeps you sane, that keep you intelligent, that keeps you good hearted, kind-hearted, loving, creative is all spiritual. That which uplifts the spirit is spirituality. What can uplift the spirit? Meditation, knowledge! Knowledge about what is true, what is not true; what is real, what is not real. And then service activities, sharing yourself with others, those who are in need. Contributing to the poor, having compassion, all this is part of spirit. And anything that uplifts the spirit is spirituality. So in spirituality, meditation is the first thing. 60% of spirituality is meditation, going in and cleansing your heart and mind and then 20% is service and then 20% is knowledge, wisdom and that makes spirituality. Is that not useful? This is very much essential for you to be a good human being. Spirituality is essential. It is because of spirituality that there is honesty, there is creativity, there is compassion, there is service to society, dynamism and most of all, energy. If people are getting depressed in the world today it is because of the lack of spirituality. You know, there has been a study in Europe stating that the rate of suicide is high and depression is very high. 30% of Europe is suffering from depression. So some communists from this country went abroad and they convened with the World Health Organization and came up with a report that more than 30% of India is depressed. A recent report, 38%, I don’t know what specimen, and where they took! They went to some place in UP and they took some samples and they said this country is depressed. But you don’t find that! You see after the factory, the workers are dancing. They go home with a smile. You go to any slum, they have television and they are dancing. People are laughing in the slums, haven’t you see this? (Many say ‘YES’). You go to any slum in this country, irrespective of their religion, Hindu, Muslims, Christians, everybody gets together and they dance, they sing, they celebrate life. Some fool somewhere got this idea to declare India as depressed. He has no idea; depression is not there in this country. Bangladesh, you see depression is very low, they are much poorer than India. We need to reintroduce spirituality in the society. Only that can check the depression - depression and corruption, both.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes, there are different types of dreams and there are different levels of meditation. Sleep is not meditation. Right now you meditated, was it sleep? Or was it waking? Was it dreaming? No! it was different right, that is meditation. Was it good? Ha!Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Here everything is a circle; everything is Gol Gol (round round), including time. There is nothing linear.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
We can never be separate from Eeshvar (God). Eeshvar is one who is always there with everyone, for everyone.