Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
Guruji is there any special message for us?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Special message is that that you are very special. All of you. When I say you, it is not for any one person but for us. All of you are very special.Q:
When I come here I find so much peace and harmony. How can I take this same peace and harmony back to Kashmir also?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You also come up with ideas, I will also think. More youth like you should come from Kashmir, experience this and go back and serve. We will start the Art of Living in Kashmir and make it big. If you all resolve, we will definitely do it. We can do organic farming there. We can train more teachers, all can heal and bless them, bring happiness in them. We already have a residential school there. We all need to do more and more.Q:
Should one follow the heart or the head?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
A combination of both.Q:
I am so lazy that I always have a lot of things to complete. I never take the remote control in my hands. It’s never like how it should be. I am happy, but everything around me makes me lonely. When am I going to be fulfilled?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
I think you think a lot. Just sing, dance, meditate with your 100 percent. Anything that you do, put in your 100 percent. I will tell you a story.Once, some tourists stayed at a motel in a village. When they were leaving, several from the group found that their things were missing. They complained to the village head who confidently declared that the thief was someone from the group of guests. “It’s not someone from the village,” he said.
A gentleman who lost everything, except the dress that he was wearing said: How can you be so sure? The village head replied: ‘If it were someone from our village, they would have taken the pants that you are wearing as well. You see, they do everything 100 percent. If they steal, they steal everything.’
So, when we do everything 100 percent, we feel satisfaction. Otherwise, if are a little bit here, a little bit there, we are definitely looking for something.
So sing, dance, meditate. Ok?
Q:
Does our past life karma decide who we meet in this life? In this life, are we meeting the people we knew in our past lives?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes, perhaps.You know your mind always wants something new and the heart look s for something old. That’s why fashion is a topic of the mind. You want the latest technology, and the latest fashion. But if you like someone, then you believe that you have known them forever. The heart always takes pride in the old. That is why love is always considered as something old, or ancient. You have been there forever. You never say, “This is a fresh love of mine today.” You say, “Old is gold.”
So heart, or emotions take pride in the ancient, and the old. The mind always takes pride in the new, the fresh, and the latest.
Q:
Guruji, yesterday you talked about prana level. You said for human beings it is between 7 and 16. How do one find out?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
All that you have to do is increase your prana level and you are doing it. Pranayama, meditation - all this increases your prana level.Q:
Could you please explain the five elements?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
The whole world is made up of the five elements. Honoring the earth element means that we don't pollute the earth with plastic, poisonous fertilizers and chemicals. It means that we are environment conscious.Honoring water does not mean putting flowers into water. There is a shortage of clean drinking water. First, we pollute water and then water pollutes the earth. In the last century, people did not know anything about soaps. In this country (India), people used only charcoal ashes, soapnut powder to clean vessels. They would use turmeric and many other herbal elements, which are bio-degradable.
There is a great tradition of honoring rivers. The river does not want you to offer flowers or fruits. This is not the way to do pooja (worship). Also by putting sewage or garbage into rivers, how can you say that you are doing pooja? Pooja means honoring and you can only do full honour once you stop dumping sewage, garbage, plastic into the rivers.
Nowhere in the scriptures is it said that you have to put flowers or fruits into the river. Of course, one way of honoring is with flowers and they are bio-degradable. However you have to stop dumping garbage.
A few years ago you could directly drink from a river. Today, no river is fit for drinking even from a hundred kilometers away from its source. Earlier even thousand kilometers away from its source, the river water was fit for drinking. We are pouring so much industrial waste into the rivers. This is not honoring the jal tatva (water element). The five elements are part of the creation. You have to honor this beautiful creation and sustain it.
Then there is the air element. We need to have clean energy. We have provided smokeless stoves in the villages of Maharashtra, which have been very successful.
Then there is the space element. This is very abstract. You cannot catch space. When you save your mind from negativity, you are filling the space with joy. Then the air around becomes like that. You can create a space of mistrust, anger, greed, jealousy and selfishness. Or you could create a space of fun, joy, confidence, and coherence. You could create an accommodating space around you. If we always speak negatively about all mistakes, then there is nowhere on earth you can really survive. Everybody is imperfect. When we try to see perfection in others, then we forget to see our own imperfection. Protect the space, save the mind at any cost.
Q:
Are you optimistic like Jimmy Wales?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
I am realistic. Optimism is just hope but when you see it is possible it is practical then I think I am realistic. It is going to happen. People cannot stand tension or stress for too long, somewhere one has to give up. You cannot hold a fist for so long at some point you have to relax and when you relax you see the whole sky is in your hands. This has already begun in the world. Take a look at France and Germany, and in Western Europe. There were so many conflicts in the previous era but now the borders are gone. It has become one currency yet it was unthinkable in the 19th Century. So in the same way I am sure the Middle East crisis could be solved through educating people with a multicultural, multi-religious and broader spectrum of knowledge.Q:
When a disciple is dead what is the role of the Satguru?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Satguru knows that there is no death to the disciple. Atma never dies. Even after death he continues to get direction on the path.Q:
Even when we are doing good, lot of discouraging situations arise. Can you give some suggestions to get over these?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
When nothing is of help, Prayer helps! A genuine “help me God!”...Any challenge is a chance to reaffirm our commitment....
