Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You should take ayurvedic medicines- brahmi, and shankhpushpi etc. as per your age. And the food habits that we have in our country is not good for memory power because we eat so much starch, so much of carbohydrate and so little vegetables. So, change your diet. Have more intake of proteins, vegetables and fruits, and some ayurvedic supplements like brahmi etc. This, along with your pranayama and yoga will improve memory.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
When we are peaceful, free of attachment, our message to the world will come on its own.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Choice is yours blessing is mine.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You should never do thoughtless action or you will be in trouble. There are two dimensions of our life. Sometimes you act without thinking and sometimes you only think and don’t act. Source of both - thought and action - is you. Knowing who you are, your thoughts get streamlined and actions become perfect. Your thoughts and actions are aligned.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You should read the book ‘Celebrating Silence’ or ‘An intimate note to the sincere seeker’.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Pick up good things like cleanliness and following the rules from the Western society. Western Civilization has such cleanliness and the sense of following rules. We need to pick up that in the East.I want to tell you a story. Way back in 1978 when many of you were not even born, I was in Switzerland and it was the first time I had been there. I was walking in one of the areas which hardly had any crowd. I took a chocolate and just put the wrapper on the road – like what we do in India. There was hardly any crowd there. An elderly lady, with a stick, saw me from a far distance. She came to me and said,“You have to pick this up and put it in the dustbin.” She showed me the dustbin placed a little farther. You know an elderly lady coming all the way walking with her stick and telling me that I should pick up that chocolate paper. I was so impressed with the amount of responsibility people take to keep the city clean. We must learn this in India that how clean they keep, and how environmental conscious people in the West are. Even if people protest in western countries, they do it as a silent march. We have to learn all this from Western Civilization.
And then what we don’t have to learn from western civilization?
Too much formality, the mother has to take permission to go to her daughter, or the daughter has to take appointment from the mother. This has started to happen somewhere in urban society also. The naturalness, sense of belongingness is disappearing from the society. There is such a sense of belongingness and human values even in a village in the east, and that is to be maintained.
There are some cultural identities like respecting the elders, and we shouldn’t lose this. This is very important aspect of the entire east.
There is a trend of expressing too much love in the west. People end up being diabetic saying honey, honey all the time! And it is opposite in the east. So, we need to have the middle path in the expression of love. Not expressing even once, like the case is with some parents and their kids, or among siblings, is wrong. Also keep on expressing love all the time is also wrong. Expressing love is like sowing a seed. If you keep it just on the surface, it won’t sprout, but also if you bury it very deep underneath the soil, even then it won’t sprout.
There are many things in the east which people in the west search for, like joint family and the sense of belongingness.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Ok, where there is thirst, water will also be made available. And if you have any conflicts in mind, don’t worry. Aren’t conflicts reducing in mind. This will continue to happen. Increase the level of Sattva in you & Conflicts won’t remain with you with time.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Look at your face in the mirror and give yourself a big smile. If you can’t smile, you can frown. You will gradually start smiling.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Om is the life force. Sound is energy. When the sound is made with all your heart, it has a very positive effect. Namah Shivaya includes the 5 elements – na – mah – shi – va – ya: Earth, Fire, Air, Water and Space. Chanting and silent meditation also have an impact.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.