Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Well, I am not an expert to answer this. (Laughter) One thing I can tell you is that you should leave a certain margin in a relationship. The strength of a relationship lies in the ability to accommodate rough patches. How well you handle it gives you skills. Otherwise how do you get to know how accommodating, understanding and considerate you are? These virtues come up only when you have rough patches. See the situation as an opportunity on how to adapt, how to be accommodating, understanding and considerate. You should give a shot to excel in exhibiting your character rather then changing the other person.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Don’t try to see Divinity. Take it for granted. It is there, like the air. You know that the air is all there. You inhale air and exhale air. You can’t see air but you know it is there. Similarly Divinity is all there. Only the heart can feel. Eyes can’t see it. When you are totally relaxed you feel that the whole universe is filled with Divinity. When your mind is relaxed, your body is relaxed, you find that the chirping of the birds is Divinity,the moving of leaves is Divinity,
the flowing of water is Divinity,
Even people fighting, & mountains - all - exuberate Divinity. You will find that beyond all this phenomenon, there is a field or phenomena that exists – that is Divinity.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes, the mind always gets attracted to something new but the heart always recognizes something which is old. You always say, ‘It is an old friendship’, Preet purani, ancient love. Whatever you are attracted to, if it becomes a little difficult to get, you develop love for that. If you get it easily, it is finished. When love gets deeper, it becomes devotion. When love matures along with wisdom, it becomes devotion.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Have you seen that signboard for advertisements? So many lights are there on it but not all are lit at one time. At some time some patterns of lights are there on board and at some other time some other patterns. Same is with the souls. It all depends on what souls are exhibited at one time.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
When you are getting onto the spiritual path, you have to put effort. You have to put effort to come here (to the ashram). You may not be getting a holiday or ticket. Or some distractions may come on the way.Like this 100 obstacles and 1 million temptations may be there. There you put effort, ‘I want to go, I want to meditate, I want to be centered, I want to go within’. That much effort you need to put in. But once you reach here, you get so much relaxation. When there is no light, then you have to put effort to lit. Once that is done then you find light is pouring on you.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
When you are in the train, you don’t keep running inside the compartments. Just imagine you have to run to catch the train. But once you are inside the train, don’t carry your bag on your back and keep running thinking, “I want to run faster and faster”. You’ll not reach any faster running to the front compartment. Just sit and relax. Have your tea. You will reach your destination. This is a promise. Just relax.You are in the right path. Read and study Ashtavakra and Yoga Vasishta. What’s going to happen in 2012? Silly question. The world is not going to come to an end. I am repeating the same thing what I said in 1999. In 1999, we were in Italy. We had the biggest course in Europe where 2000 people on the beaches of Italy were welcoming the New Year - 10 years ago exactly. Then people asked me the same thing. World is going to end in 2000? In Canada people had stored milk powder, ration everything in their basement. Cellar and basements were stuffed with food stuff.Because the world is going to crash and there will not be any food items for next six months till people find a way out. This was the fear. Wherever I go, everybody asked the same question. What will happen in 2000? I said everything will be business as usual. There will be no change. Just relax. Really! Many people sold their homes and property from the West because they said there was going to be a big earthquake. ‘California is going to go underneath the water. Let us be more smart. Before it goes down and we have to get into the boats to come up to Colorado. Let’s go now to Colorado. Let us be the welcoming party for the sinking people.’ This was the idea. Many people sold their homes. They went to Colorado and build their homes there!
Nothing is going to happen and we’ll continue. Yes. Some earthquake, some calamity happens all the time. It’s a continuous process on this planet. Birth and death is a simultaneous process. Today so many people are dying and today so many are being born. It’s not going to be one day that everybody is going to be born and one day everybody is going to die. No. The doom’s day or whatever day is not going to come. Don’t worry. Everyday is a dooms day. Everyday is a day of resurrection because the world is spherical. There is sun every moment on this planet somewhere shining and there is sunset happening all the time and sunrise happening the whole time. This is what the ancient Vedic science says. We read that Galileo was the one who said the Earth is spherical. No. Ancient Vedic times, they have said it.
Bhugola - Earth is spherical
. Khagola – the universe is spherical. And millions of universes are there. There are 14 earths like our earth in our Galaxy. So, this universe is huge and unfathomable. So having attained this, relax in the peace of your heart. Content. Tonight go to bed with a smile on your face. With a feeling of contentment, not with lack.
‘I have had everything I need to have. I have had enough food, I have had all the pleasure that the world can give me. Whatever is needed for the body, nature has given. I am happy with it. If more is needed, nature is going to give me. If this body needs anything more, it will be provided in the future.’
With this faith and with this understanding, just repose in your Self.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Why not take birth again? We don’t want to take birth again because we find this birth miserable but when there is joy in this birth, you are doing satsang daily, then why not take birth again? When you are in joy, doing satsang and serving people around then you will say I should have hundred more births like this. When you are so tired of this birth, when hopes and desires have tired you, whendesires have burnt you then only you say, ‘I don’t want to take birth again’. Whatever desires you have, fulfill those and those which are not to be fulfilled, drop those and be happy.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Curiosity is natural. It sharpens the intellect. Loving the secret refines the feeling level. Life is a balance of the intellect and the feelings.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
When you see your strength is less, you cannot face the fight, that’s when you want to run away. So, when you see that, you have to bring more strength to yourself. You should take time. When you are clear about this; “OK, I should do more, I should meditate, I should strengthen myself, and at the right time I will strike, I will tackle the problem.” That is one way.Second one is prayer. Your worries dominate you if your emotions are dry. When you have pain, you have no worry. When you have worry, you are stuck in the head. There are no emotions. If you are in emotion, you laugh, cry, pray, and you get over it. Worry is wanting to win and having no strength to win. When you realize, “I don’t have any strength and I can’t do anything about it,” then you pray. Prayer is with emotions, feelings.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
It is everywhere; even in India there is corruption. Corruption begins when the sense of belongingness ends. If you draw a circle of belongingness around you corruption only begins after that. Politicians need to be more spiritual. By spiritual I mean, have a sense of belongingness towards people. Mahatma Gandhi is an example of this, in this century. He was a spiritual person and at the same time he was a politician too. He had the sense of sacrifice. ‘I want nothing for myself but I want it for my people’. That spirit is going down somewhere along the line. That is why there is corruption and all sorts of unethical businesses have sprung up. We need to inculcate those value systems again, both in politics and in business. Trust is the backbone of business. From what we’ve seen in last 10 months, it took 10 years for communism to collapse, it took less than 10 months for capitalism to collapse, and the reason is that we have ignored our value system and ethics in business.We have ignored the human values of caring and sharing, of dedication and devotion. If we can somehow re-inculcate these values in our youth, I tell you the youth are ready for it. They want this because they have seen the older generation just running. It is like running on the treadmill that is going nowhere.