Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You know Vedanta philosophy has said this long time back. Time and mind are connected. It is amazing to see the correlation between time and mind. We have a small booklet on time. If you are interested you can read that.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Good! It’s better that national parties come to power than smaller parties amalgamating. A party with a national agenda should be there, instead of smaller parties trying to bully each other.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
I am a youth myself! Life is a mixture of everything: failure & success - they complement each other. If you fail, then you know the value of success, it is a stepping stone.You need to move forward: ask yourself, what did I learn from the past, and then what is my vision for the future? This will keep you going. For this, you need presence of mind, and for this, you need to get rid of stress.
You are the player, not the pawn. If you are a pawn, someone else is moving you, and you have no control. You have to be the player, empower yourself, and that’s how these Art of Living programs can help you.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
First start doubting the appreciation. Are they genuinely appreciating or trying to fish something out of you? When you doubt the appreciation then you will lose the craving for other’s appreciation.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
We have to spread spirituality. We have to make people realize the importance of spirituality. They will have to meditate. Only through meditation would they ever feel the inner richness, inner abundance. Whatever you feel inside, that’s what you project outside. If you have fear inside, you will project it outside. You feel lack inside, and you will feel lack everywhere. So, that abundance has to arise from within. For that, one has to do meditation course like this, no?Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
First of all if you think it is a disease, you have already made a mindset. All is a physiological inclination in the mind. These tendencies can always change because everything changes. Some people I meet turn to be homosexual after 40-50 years and there are some people who in the beginning are homosexual but later on they have a family and children. All types of tendencies are there in the world. We shouldn’t discriminate anybody because of this tendency. We should love everyone help others to move ahead towards their goal, whatever goal they have set for themselves. You know all needs of body are very little, small. If you are stuck in the needs of body we forget we are something great, something, for which we are born, the need of the spirit, the need of the soul. The spiritual need of everyone needs to be fulfilled. Unfortunately people are stuck in the small needs. Food, entertainment, companionship is what their concern is throughout their life and they forget the real purpose of our life – To connect with the universal self. The real purpose of our life is to connect with the universe.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
A lot. You live in knowledge, you keep smiling, you keep serving, you keep connected. I don’t expect - I know you will do it. Only I am impatient. I want you to do it quickly.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Where the in-breath ends and where the out-breath begins is apana.Where the out-breath ends and where the in-breath begins is prana.
By putting your attention on that turning point, the mind becomes quiet.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
We have to work a lot in slums. We have to make them literate and we have to eradicate castism from slums. For that we all have to work together. In Bangalore alone there are 400 slums and Art of Living is working in 105 of thoseslums. People in slums are addicted to alcohol and we have to stop this. Those very places and countries have lost their culture where people were too much into alcohol. People in these areas earn good money but they spent more than half of that onalcohol. How can we stop them? By giving them an alternative source of intoxication, by bringing them to satsang and making them experience intoxication and the joy of meditation. Do you feel intoxication in meditation and satsang? (‘Yes’ from theaudience) So, you feel change after doing all this. All DKP yuvacharyas (youthleaders) have to go to slums and work in these places. You may face some obstacles but walk ahead and keep working. A member of the audience shares an experience:“I did the basic course three months ago in Andhra Pradesh. The happiness I haveexperienced in the last three months, I didn’t experience in the last 26 years of my life. I am very thankful to you.”Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Time creates events. Surrender to that time - that Shiva tattva (principle of Shiva) and Mahakaal (grand Time).