Gurudev, why does it become increasingly difficult to handle the family? I can handle and influence everyone but the ones I love. What is lacking?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You have to do it indirectly. You have tell someone who is close to your family and influence the family through them. Perhaps they know you too well! If you are so centered, and if you live the knowledge a hundred percent, then you will see that you don’t have to try to influence them, they will get influenced by themselves. You being well-founded in knowledge is indicated when the people closest to you have the highest respect for you, because they know you. They see how you handle every situation, and how you keep your calm in every situation. So if your close ones appreciate you, that means you have really blossomed. That means you have only a little bit more to go. You can influence others but people around you if you are well established in knowledge. It happens.
Gurudev, I happened to meet an American diplomat who has been on the spiritual path for 40-45 years. He said that some saints have visions of a kingdom of God, which is blue. Millions of souls are hovering around to get inside the kingdom of God, but that is possible only through a master. I just wanted to know whether all this is true.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: In the Gita also it is said that, among the millions, only few will walk the path, and amongst the few who walk the path, only a few will come to know me well.
Among these 8.4 million types of species on the planet, human species is only one. After 8.4 million bodies, you get the human body. Just image, 8.4 million bodies! From bacteria, birds, animals, etv., 8.4 million lives later a human life comes. In this human life, few get to know the real spiritual path. And among those, the few who walk on the path are the lucky ones.
This is nothing new.
Adi Shankara has also said, that the human birth is very difficult to get. After having gotten human birth, then the desire of wanting to walk on the spiritual path, is again very difficult to get. Few people get this. And even after getting this desire to walk on the spiritual path, only few get the opportunity to do it; they get the right path.
So many people, who want to walk on the spiritual path get caught up in all these wrong notions that one day the world is going to collapse, or doom’s day is going to come. And so these people pray out of fear. They get into paths where they are indented with fear and guilt.
See, fear and guilt are two things which will never allow you to go deep into yourself. And this is what some of the so called (religious) paths do. Some of the religious paths create this fear of hell and heaven, and other things, and put people into such a turmoil of guilt and fear that the mind can never calm down. Meditation can never happen. This is very unfortunate. So even though these people are aspirants, they are not getting the path. This is again a big luck. These people don’t get access to the knowledge: 'Come on, the mind is like a river, what are you holding on to? Don’t hold on to it. All the events are gone, drop it and move on. Live in the present moment'. This knowledge is not available to many people (who aspire to walk the spiritual path). They go on repenting and repenting about the past, feeling guilty, and the mind becomes a mess.
Of course they do pray. Their prayers do help, and they get some blessings. Blessings come to everyone, no doubt, but the knowledge, the right path and liberation remains a distant dream for them. Peace does not happen in their life. They sit with the hope that one day they will go to heaven. And so these souls get trapped with desires and fear. They have come to the human life to be free from all this, and think that God will one day release us. But they will have to come back again to work out all these things. Again they will get meditation.
So, a human birth, desires for a path, and the path being available to them (Maha Purusha Sannidho: getting a Spiritual Master), these three things are rare and difficult to get. If you have all three, you are lucky. That is what is said. But don’t worry, you are not hovering around. You are already on the path and you are happy and relaxed.
Gurudev, many people get scared to see us youngsters take on the spiritual path. How to convince them that this is a blessed path for every soul, and in fact a privilege?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Don’t try to convince them. Just be yourself and they’ll get convinced. It will happen automatically. You trying to convince them will make it worse. It should just show up in your behavior; your love and compassion.
Dear Gurudev, did Om originate from silence, or did silence originate from Om? Which is the root, Om or nothingness?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:Om is the origin of everything. If it is called the origin of everything, how can Om originate from silence? Silence is absence of sound, but Om is beyond silence. All sounds come from silence, but Om is not a sound like all other sounds. Om is the very vibration of all existence, that is why it is called the sound of one hand clapping; Anahad. It is not something that happened with the clash of two hands. It is beyond space and beyond time, and is beyond words. Om is the primordial vibration of Creation.
Gurudev, following religion to a large extent sometimes makes a person rigid. Some people become righteous but ultimately they suffer and others around also suffer. Have we understood religion wrongly?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: That’s it! You said it correctly. We have understood religion wrongly. Now we need to move from religion to spirituality. The intelligent ones will do that. The intelligent one will not get stuck up in the religious sentiments. We are beyond the religious sentiments. We should move into the spiritual dimension.
I am from the Research field. I find it very difficult to invent new things and innovate. What advice can you give to researchers like me so that we can enhance our creative talent?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You should meditate regularly. Meditation and Vairagya (dispassion) will really help in this. Every once in a while, you should just sit back and realize that this entire world is just like a dream. This entire world will come to an end one day. There is nothing for you to take away from here. This is what you need to bring into your awareness time and again. This will strengthen your dispassion. As you grow in dispassion, you will find that you are able to go deeper into meditation.
Gurudev, during meditation, what is the benefit of keeping our eyes open by just five to ten percent? In many statues and idols of Lord Buddha, He is often depicted with His eyes half-closed. Please tell us something about this.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When we close our eyes, we drift into the world of our mind, our thoughts and emotions – which is called the Manorajya (literally meaning the kingdom of the mind). When our eyes are open, we are engaged in the outside world. So when you close your eyes only partially, then the mind neither gets stuck in the inner world of thoughts and emotions, nor does it get entangled in the outside world. Then the mind slowly settles down and comes to a state of rest. This is a very beneficial technique for those who close their eyes and drift off into the world of dreams. It is like a siddhaushadhi (a perfect medicine).
Gurudev, there are times when I feel close to the Divine, and other times when I feel the Divine so far away. Why this fluctuation?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: I think you have too much time sitting and thinking about yourself, whether your close or not. Get out and work for the world. Do something for the society. Keep yourself busy. When you do seva, you get merit, and because of the merit, you can go deep in meditation. They are all connected. Everything is connected.
