Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You tell me the answer. If you really want an answer then sit and think about it. If in your mind this question has arisen, the answer will also come. You have some notion of acceptance in your mind and some other notion of labeling. That’s why you are using two different words. You won’t ask the difference between ‘Kela’ (banana in Hindi) and ‘Banana’. When we ask the difference we already know what that difference is. You already know in your mind and a little introspection will give you the answer.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Everybody’s intention is there to unite the world as a family. The goal is the same. The methods are different, areas are different.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
There is a shloka - Sarve deva namaskara, keshavam pratigachchati.Like all the water ultimately goes to the ocean, whichever God or Goddess you pray to, it goes to the One only. Don’t worry God won’t be angry.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You cannot like something without knowing about it. Suppose you like gulab jamun(Indian sweet). Knowing about its taste is gyan yoga, buying and eating it is karmayoga, and liking it is bhakti yoga. Devotion is liking something. When you like something then their arises a thirst to know about it. All three go together.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Haven’t I talked about it earlier also? Doubt is just low energy. When you don’t have enough energy, this happens.Your doubt is always on something that is positive. If somebody says, “I love you”, you doubt that. You never doubt anybody expressing hatred towards you. You doubt in love and not in anger. You doubt in your capabilities and not in your weaknesses. You are so sure of the things that you cannot do. You doubt in your own happiness. You don’t doubt in depression. You doubt in someone’s honesty. You never doubt in dishonesty of anyone.
So, like that if you see the nature of doubt, you always doubt the positive.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Because they don’t understand themselves first. You do not understand your own mind and you try to understand others’. It becomes very difficult.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
There is a couplet by Saint kabir:karka manka chod kar,
Manka manka fer.
It is best to do meditation. But I don’t say one should completely abandon rituals. You perform some rituals on festivals. A little bit of rituals are good. But don’t be too much stuck with the rituals. E.g. if you had resolved to perform a ritual and due to some circumstances you were not able to fulfill that, then there is no need to think that God will be angry with you or you have acquired some sin. I give you guarantee. Maharishi Narada has also said ‘ God is total love’.
Devotion and surrender are greater than any ritual. A little bit ritual is necessary for two reasons. Children are introduced to religion and spirituality through the rituals. Secondly, performing rituals also purify the atmosphere at home. E.g. when all family members come together and do Pooja on Diwali, the atmosphere of our home changes. It is same when you offer Ardas in Gurudwara.
There is no need to be afraid of or feel guilty if you couldn’t keep up with the ritual due to any reason.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
If you think it is so simple to be complicated, it is so complicated to be simple then! Then you can easily accept that life is a mixture of both complication and simplicity. And if you don’t want to do only simple things in your life all the time and want to do something complicated as well then, you do something which is so complicated it makes you so simple.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
That’s good. My job is not to tell you or give you questions but to take away your questions.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
It depends on how often your buttons can be pushed. If you have no buttons to be pushed then you are very strong.