Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
How can we strengthen the faith?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
: Your very thought to strengthen the faith strengthens it. Move ahead assuming that your faith is very strong. When your intellect is purified, faith automatically gets strong. We should have a pure diet in order to purify the intellect. So, pay attention on your food. If you eat food thinking all sort of negative things in the world, that also affects the intellect. Many times people get time to converse only during meals, and they discuss about topics like diseases while preparing and eating the food. This is very wrong, and we need to get rid of this habit. You become what you eat. The type of food you take governs your mind. And again your mind has a direct impact on your body. That is why you should eat food with a happy state of mind. If we are very excited, we cannot swallow food with ease. Also if we are restless, we end up eating more food. So, it is important to have food with awareness.Q:
Sometimes I find myself too much stuck in the intellect. I think so much over small issues also, as trivial as choosing what clothes to wear. What should I do? Please guide.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You have lots of time in your hands and that is why you keep on thinking sitting idle. Do little exercises also. Then the mind wouldn’t run so much.Q:
Effect of one life’s karma is carried on to another lifetimes. How do we understand this?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You sow a coconut tree two years back and it has grown today. Same way, until the impression of your previous done karma is there on your mind, that karma manages to exist. That impression can only be erased through meditation, pranayama and service. You are freed from that karma when the impression is erased. All this is there on the mind only. Karma is nothing but an impression on the mind. When you wake up and see that mind is a part of you and it is your mind, but you are not your mind, and you have an untouched existence which is much greater than your mind, then all karma automatically dissolves.Q:
I feel fear of you leaving me. What can I do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
When Earth, air, Sun, stars cannot leave you, then how can I do that!Q:
How can I get close to you?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Assume that you are close to me. It is you who thinks you are not close.Q:
What is spirituality?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You are both matter and spirit. Are you only matter? Your body is made up of matter – carbohydrates, minerals, amino acids etc. Your spirit is made up of joy, peace, enthusiasm, intelligence and other distortions like anger.Anything which enhances the spirit is spirituality.
Anything that brings energy in you is spirituality.
Anything that makes you intelligent is spirituality.
Anything that uplifts life force in you is spirituality.
Anything that brings care and compassion is spirituality.
Anything that connects you with the universal spirit is spirituality.
Q:
How can I cope with the anger that comes with seeing so much injustice to so many people?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Don’t just feel the anger. Take action. You don’t need to lose your balance of mind. Rather, you should respond. This is a skill. Be calm, and united in yoga. That is the message of the Bhagavad Gita.Q:
How can one experience true love in a relationship?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
I can give you three suggestions. One is for men, one for women and one for both. Women should never step on the ego of a man. Women should always boost the ego of a man. Even if the husband is a stupid, the wife should say, “You are the most brilliant man I have ever seen.” You should always praise him. He shouldn’t have to prove himself to you at home because the world requires him to prove himself. He should find peace at home. You should say, “You are the most brilliant man I have ever seen. Just the fact that you don’t use your brain doesn’t mean that you don’t have it. You are the most brilliant.” So, praise your man all the time.Now there is one suggestion for men. Never step on the emotions of a woman. She may complain to you about her family but you should better not join the bandwagon. She may turn it around. She may take a U-Turn and say, “How dare you say such things about my family. What do you know about my family?” So if she is complaining, you just listen. She is paying lip service. If you say something and you hurt her, it is not worth it. When she wants to go for a religious service or a meditation program or retreat, don’t stop her. And when she wants to go for shopping, just give her your credit card. This will keep peace at home.
There is a suggestion for both men and women. The key to keeping peace at home is that you stop demanding love. You normally say, “Do you really love me? You don’t love me the same way. You have changed. You are different.” Asking people to prove their love for you is such a psychological burden. Just imagine yourself in their place. Imagine if someone demands from you to prove your love for them. What would you do? You’d say, “Oh my God, how long do I have to prove my love for this person?” One day, two days, three days, four days and then you feel like enough. This is what happens. There is a book called ‘Celebrating Love’ that you can read. There are many ideas about love in the book. We don’t know how to receive love unless we know how to give love. How can we express that love? Our expression is something that we keep looking for. So, don’t demand that others express their love. Instead, you should ask, “Why do you love me so much?” Especially on a day when you disagree or they are being nasty, you can say “why do you love me so much? I don’t deserve it!” Even for someone who is angry, you say, “you love me much more than I deserve”. Their attitude would change. Love would spring up in them. If you start demanding, you are destroying love.
Q:
Can a person struggling for livelihood progress on the spiritual path?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Some people say that to walk on the spiritual path you have to abandon your professional life. But I say you can continue pursuing your profession or business, and progress on the spiritual path as well. In fact, they are complementary to each other. Pursuing the spiritual path makes it easy to accomplish tasks in your professional life as well. Only listening to this knowledge doesn’t help. Doing your practices along with it is equally important.Q:
If there is something that we are not getting from God, will we get it if we make our Sudarshan Kriya and sadhna strong?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Have patience, keep up the hope that it may happen. Know that whatever is good for us will be given.
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Founded in 1981 by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar,The Art of Living is an educational and humanitarian movement engaged in stress-management and service initiatives.
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