Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Q: Does the master find disciple or disciple finds the master?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

How does it matter whether you find master or the master finds you? It is sufficient that both have met.

Q: Good and bad thoughts come and go in the mind. Do these form karma?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

No, when you are a witness (sakshi) to the thoughts coming and going, no karma is formed. When you feel sad thinking that your thought is bad, it is then when your mind gets affected.

Q: When someone near to you is dying what words should we say to ease the pain?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

When someone near to you is leaving the body, your words would have no meaning. At those moments you just be there in silence. Those vibrations will work for them.

Q: How do you break an addiction?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

To begin, look at it in the short term. Say for the next one month I am not going to do it. What gets us over an addiction?

Greed – you will get $10 million if you don’t smoke for one month. Greed will make you keep the vow.

Fear – fear keeps you out of addiction if you are afraid of sickness or death.

Love – if someone promises someone they love then they will not do it.

And of course, meditation.

Q: This morning, during meditation my head was falling forward innumerable times. Thoughts didn’t bother me during meditation but my head moving bothered me. Does this mean I was not meditating?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

No, no it’s fine. You know, when you are meditating sometimes the head will come down, or your body will rock. This is all normal. Different types of stresses when they get released all these different reactions can come up. That’s ok, nothing to worry about.

Q: Guruji, these days when we are talking of saving the planet from pollution including our water bodies, is it wrong to throw the puja materials in the water?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

If you put natural things, then there is no pollution. They are bio degradable. If you put soap or plastic, it harms the water. Since centuries, in the forest so many leaves and fruits fall in water, but the water is not contaminated. But when we throw artificial things, the water gets contaminated.

When we put bowls made of leaves, and garlands made of real flowers into water, it doesn’t get polluted.

It is interesting , one who is familiar with the real stuff, to him even the fake thing seems real.

And to the one who is familiar with the fake thing, even the real appears as fake. This is maya. What is real and what is unreal has to be found out. Therefore you need an inward eye (antar drishti). This is possible through yoga and meditation.

Q: When will my family come on this path?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Don’t worry. Everyone will come to the path slowly.

Q: How to increase devotion?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Open your ears wide and listen. You are a devotee and a true devotee. Don’t ever raise a doubt on this. The badness is imposed from outside. Inside you are one with the Truth. Your devotion is also true devotion. This is the way to think. Otherwise, the self doubt transforms into guilt and then you spoil your mind. Move with the belief that I am a true devotee. Hear this with open ears.

Q- Krishna ki chaturta, Ram ki gambheeta (Lord Krishna’s mischievousness, the seriousness of Lord Rama) … Guruji, which way to follow?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:See there is no fight here. They came at different times, so that there is no competition. They came to tell us that, “We are all one”. Here there is no conflict of which is better which is worse, everything is essential. Each one has a style, place and time.

It is like you sing different songs for different occasions in life. In a marriage you don’t sing a song that is sung at funerals.

Q: You always look so calm and collected, despite your busy schedule? How do you manage it?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Do you know beauty lies in the beholder’s eyes? How are you able to see that everywhere? Consciousness is truth and beauty together.

Real beauty is when you’re centered, when your mind is with the truth. That is how every baby is beautiful – because they are centered.

Q: Doesn’t there arise any conflict between different religious and spiritual organizations?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

There are different methods and patterns but the ultimate aim is same – to uplift humanity. All are good. Inter religious seminars are conducted time and again. As far as my knowledge is concerned there are no conflicts between them.