Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Spiritual voyage can give you the joy and keep you in touch with your nature.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
It is a tendency. Many times it changes.So don’t label it. It is there now. It may not be there later. You are acombination of your mother & your father. We have genes of your mother aswell as father. Sometimes male tendencies dominate, and sometimes female.Preferences may be stronger for some. Don’t feel guilty or blame yourself. Riseabove it. You are not only flesh. Youare light around the wig of flesh. Shift from gender to genderless spirit, itgives you such ease.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Well, it is up to you.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
It depends on what is your age. If you are a teenager or just out of teenage, then it is quite but natural. There is nothing you can do about it. Keep yourself busy. If you have too much free time, only sex will occupy the mind. Have you noticed in your exam times, or when you are too busy, or you have to take a challenge, or you are going on a sports trip, or when your mind is occupied and engaged, then sex is not a big issue, it is not so compelling. But when you are too free, that is when it takes over the seat. Now, sex is not bad, but the obsession is horrible. One type of sex is when you try to satisfy, and if you do not get satisfied, there is another type that starts happening.So many different distortions and tendencies would come up in the mind. The best thing is to do pranayama. Pranayama helps. Then, watching your food will help. If you eat too much, so much energy is there, and it needs an outlet to go somewhere. And if you are not creative, then it definitely takes the other route. So, a little bit say on the food. It is said if you cannot control your tongue, you can never control your genitals, because your tongue and genitals are connected. Sex and food are very much linked. So, your obsession can be controlled if your food is lighter and moderate in amount.
Pranayama can help you to control excessive tendencies. Music and dance will help. Some creative art, painting, writing story, and appreciating beauty will help. When you are more happy, inclination towards sex is less. But if you are miserable, restless and unhappy then inclination towards sex is much more. So, by all these things and keeping yourself busy, you can sail through the tough time. Because when you indulge in it, later on you don’t like it, and not going into sex makes you completely nuts. So, you are in a limbo sort of state. This is very difficult in teenage time; there is no way out of it other than keeping someone very very busy.And then the middle age crisis! I am analyzing all these different age groups when one has to overcome these hurdles. Still, if none of these works, just wait for the time. As you grow older, it will simply disappear. You know, time will take care of it. When you are 60, 70 or may be 80, sometime it has to drop of you. Mind, sometime, will become cool. At least then, something will wake up from within.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Guru is not a physical entity, but Guru is embodiment of knowledge and discretion. Guru is pure consciousness. There is no difference between universal consciousness, Guru and the Self. You should also be a Guru to someone. What does it mean to be a Guru? You don’t expect anything from them, and do whatever you can to uplift them with the feeling of love. Start with the one, then two, three…..10. ‘I am for you; you don’t need to worry’ - Then you would also be able to say this for everybody.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
If the person is sensitive, offer your other cheek, and he will not be able to do it. But if someone is insensitive like a buffalo, then you can give two three also!Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Absolutely not!Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Corruption starts when the sense of belongingness ends. When we have a sense of belongingness, we can’t be corrupt. When we expand our sense of belongingness, corruption will disappear. Does this make sense? Corruption begins outside the boundary of belongingness.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
They all exist simultaneously.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You know when people have some allergies, they don’t eat those foods for which they have allergies just because of company. Suppose you have milk allergy, and because the company is all drinking tea and milk, you’ll not say, ‘Ok, I’ll also drink.’ Because you’ll suffer. Right?So similarly, you can choose your food in any company, you can say, ‘Ok. I am going to eat only chips, or vegetables, or bread..’ You are not compelled to eat non-veg if you don’t want to. Ok? Or unhealthy food. You don’t need to drink Pepsi or Coke if you don’t feel it’s good for you. Right? See, when people drink lots of Pepsi and Coke, it burns the lining of the stomach and the intestine.
Later on you develop so many problems. All these carbonated drinks should be avoided. Someone had demonstrated, in a cup of Pepsi they put a tooth, a tooth which had fallen, and it dissolves! If teeth can dissolve (which stay for a long time in nature) in Pepsi Cola then.. It is so corrosive. And that corrosive fluid can cause so much damage to our intestine, our brain, our nerve cells. So, we must keep healthy eating habits and propagate them.
Today is much better than 30 years ago. 30 years ago, when we started, people were very allergic to vegetarianism and spirituality. But today, it has become a fashion. Because we make a trend. And we create a trend and keep it moving.