Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Tell me, what is your experience? Is the Divine doing His duty properly? These questions are irrelevant. When you need help, the cry for help is spontaneous. You can’t plan what you will do when you’re in crisis.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Meditation is the finest form of prayer. Prayer is ‘Oh God give me this, give me that’ or ‘Oh, I am so thankful to you because you gave me that or this’.But meditation is just reposing and that is the best form of prayer. Prayer happens when you are utterly helpless or when you are very grateful. There are two situations in your life. Either you are so helpless, when you have no other way. Like if you are very thirsty and you need water, you say please give me some water. Please help.
Asking for help is one form of prayer.
Thanking is another form of prayer.
And the third is just reposing, being quiet.
The third is the most supreme type of prayer.
You can be grateful for all that you have had, that is a sort of prayer. You don’t have to use particular sentences or phrases or verses for it.
The yagyas that are being done here is not just some sort of prayer. It is a technique, a procedure. You don’t need to understand what those chantings mean. The chantings, the vibrations have an impact on our whole body, mind and the environment. That is the most important thing about yagyas. It is not asking God for this thing or that. It is just chanting those shlokas. Hearing the chantings is even more beneficial. You don’t need to chant with them. Simply listening to it, itself creates the vibrations in the consciousness.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Do not intend to increase the seva bhav. We assume that we lack the attitude of service and then try to increase it, so it doesn’t happen!Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
I have already said it. All the five points that you learn in the Art of Living course. Know them from an existential level, from your heart and being, not just the head. Opposite values are complementary. Accept people and situations as they are. Do not be a foot ball of other people’s opinions. Give your hundred percent. Forgive and forget the past. (You can make me proud) by being useful to the society, by not wasting your time. Keep yourself busy.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
God has five aspects, and one of them is hiding.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You are already committed. Don’t doubt yourself. You have all the virtues. In seed form you have all. Now look, a bud has everything that it needs to be a flower. Only it will take a little time. All the petals will open and it will be a fully blossomed flower. Though it is a bud but is has everything. In the same way every individual is full. You need little nourishment, little water. So know that you have all the virtues inside you. It takes some time. Do some pranayama, meditation and in some good company you will see it happens faster.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Because you want to chase them out! Give them a hug and a little place, they will disappear.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
When you say, ‘It’s not ok, its not ok’, the seed of ‘not ok’ is un-abling your mind to relax. When do you go to bed? When everything is ok, when there is comfort. When you are hanging on to the discomfort, how can you ever be comfortable? You have to accept things as they are. ‘It’s not ok, it’s not ok’ keeps you all outside. Those imperfections are there for a cause or purpose. It is going to be ok, it will take some time.When Rajogun prevails then its half way through - you regret and act. Many of us act because we regret. Mother scolds her child, regrets it and then becomes nice.
In Satva, you don't regret, you retire and relax, there is clarity.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
This question that you have asked is the example of the spirit of enquiry. What you are asking, itself is the answer. It is similar to someone asking what is sound.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Your own mind creates heaven, and hell. Don’t listen to preachers who tell you that you will be toasted, and fried. They are in total ignorance. They misquote the scriptures. There is no such hell. Don’t worry and be free!