Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You have an intellect. Why don’t you use it? Use your viveka (discretion) and buddhi (intellect). Who answers you always? For how long can someone tell you what to do! If you have to take a very big decision, then you may go and consult someone senior. Otherwise take your own decisions – even if you make a mistake in the first few instances.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Enlightenment is the biggest happiness. Why to go after small happiness when the biggest is there?It is not easy to believe in God. God is there: if you experience this then the mind calms down. Then you find only God is there and I don’t exist.
Inn ankhon mein ankh mila ke dekho to sahi, pyar dikhta hai ki nahi,
Ek kadam bada ke dekho to sahi, rasta milta hai ki nahi,
Hath batake dekho to sahi, kaam hota hai ki nahi,
Ek baar muskarake dekho to sahi, duniya apnati hai ke nahin,
Ek baar naam le ke dekho to sahi, jeevan safal hota hai ke nahi.
When these eyes meet yours, will you not catch a glimpse of love?
Take just one step forward, will you not find the entire way?
Extend your hand, will you not find the work is done?
Smile just once; will the world not make you its own?
Take the name even once; will your life not be fulfilled?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Establish God in your body, and then you will experience Divinity. While doing Puja, (when you say keshavaya svaha etc... ) know that Keshav, Madhav (Forms of the Divine) are in the body – and that you accept this offering for them. Meditate, and sit quietly. You may offer flowers, if you have, but it is not necessary.It is important that the mind is clean, and calm, and completely immersed in the puja.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You praise God, not for God, but for yourself. Those who do puja, don’t do it for God, but for themselves. If you praise someone, it’s not for their happiness, you do it for your own happiness.Parents usually praise their 2 or 3-year-old children, however the child doesn’t understand a word of their praise. So why do they praise? To uplift themselves! Not because they expect something from the child.
This is the difference between praise and prayer. Stuti (repetition of God’s name) is that which raises our chetana (consciousness). We do stuti to raise our own consciousness, not to make God happy.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You know that is your choice. You can continue to be a member or if you do not feel like it you can quit. It is your own choice. Whether you are a member or you are not is not a big issue. What is more important is are you a good human being? Are you full of love and compassion? Are you interested in helping others? Are you interested in connecting with others? Do you think so?Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
To know that everything is changing you need to have a reference point. That reference point is the unchanging in you. There is a non-changing, eternal element in you because of which you can experience change.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
If someone controls God, he cannot be God. The one who cannot be controlled is God.Q. Does the strength of the Guru lie in the fact that he represents a symbolic father who helps to heal the wounds from the real father?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
The wounds need to be healed, that is more important. Whatever relation you put, whatever attachment you put, it is secondary. See the world from a fresh eye, from a fresh look. Anybody who has inflicted pain to you, know that they have done it because they have no knowledge. They were deprived of this spiritual knowledge. That is why they were behaving that way. They were handcuffed, they were blindfolded, they were dumbfounded and they acted the way they acted. They are victims themselves. See them from this angle, you will feel compassion for them and you will feel grateful for what you have got in your life, ya?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.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.