Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
How does one stop the flow of negative thoughts?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Negative thoughts are due to three reasons. If your blood circulation is not good, if the lymphatic system is not ok or if bowel movement is irregular. In all these cases negative thoughts are likely. You can go on a fruit diet and cleanse your intestines. Then, pranayama will help. Take Triphala (an ayurvedic supplement) for a few days. Do yoga, pranayama and meditation. You will definitely find a difference. Group sadhana (practice) will also help.Q:
How should we confront fraud and corruption?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Lack of a sense of belongingness creates corruption. A lack of friendliness creates frauds. If you have friends, you cannot commit fraud. If you don’t have friends, you feel afraid and then you become a fraud. You cheat others. Would anyone cheat someone whom you really think of as a friend? No. That sense of friendliness has to die away. So the show of friendliness is not true friendship. Isn’t it so? Will you ever cheat a sincere friend of yours? No way! You would give your life to save a friend, but not cheat them. When you don’t really feel the friendliness and sense of belongingness, it is then you will cheat others. So the fear in a person and the ambition to amass for oneself creates fraudulent people and attitudes. Corruption is again through fear. So, I would say we should spiritualize politics, socialize business and secularize religion.Q:
Guruji, have you ever lied? If yes, then why?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
In my childhood, I used to tell everyone that my family is in the whole world. My friends would complain to my parents saying I was telling lie, and I would get scolding from my parents. But, see today, my family is in the whole world!Q:
How were you able to establish three centers in Pakistan?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
The people of Pakistan are very good. They just do the Sudarshan Kriya. We have teachers there. When you are stuck in concepts, you are in the box. It is when you get an experience that you can come out of the box.Q:
You say, choice is ours and blessings are yours. For two-three years, I have not been able to decide my career. I take up jobs and then leave. Can you choose one for me?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Any career you choose, after sometime you may feel oh, this is not the right one. People who have become doctors say, ‘we should have become engineers’, those who are engineers may feel they should have been lawyers and make easy money! So every profession has its dark side. That’s why I say you move on in any profession of your choice and do it. And I chose one career for you? No way! I refuse to. You chose the profession; I give the blessing. My blessings are there.Q:
Silence, music and logic are the three essential ingredients you have spoken of. How does logic relate to knowledge or consciousness?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Logic is essential. If you see an idol of Goddess Saraswati she is sitting on solid rock. She has a book in one hand which is logic. In the others she has rosemary beads for meditation and veena (a musical instrument). Logic, music, mauna (silence) are all essential for total development of consciousness. Knowledge is logical understanding of existence.Q:
Is world peace possible?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
World peace comes with individual peace. If individuals become peaceful, communities become peaceful. Then the leaders of the world will also become peaceful, and we can have world peace. When people have broad vision for the whole world, world peace is a possibility. We need to spiritualize the politics, socialize the business and secularize the religion.Q:
Can you please tell how does one get rid of doubt?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You know, doubt is always about something that is positive. You always doubt the honesty of a person, and never doubt the dishonesty of a person. When someone tells you, "I love you", you ask really? When someone tells you, “I hate you”, you never ask them really. Isn’t it? You are not sure about your happiness. When someone asks about our happiness, we say, "Well, I am not sure." But we are so sure of our depression. We never doubt our weakness, we always doubt our capabilities. If you observe, all good things like love, happiness, honesty, and sincerity are being doubted. So, any doubt must be good.Q:
The Bhagavad Gita is very close to my heart. And yet there is a passage in it that confuses me. It is when Arjuna wishes to flee the battle and renounce the world. But Krishna urges him to fulfill his duty by staying put and fighting.How is this advice understood with the principle of non-violence, a concept also central to the Gita? Is it similar to the notion of a just war in Christian and Islamic theology?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
The whole essence of the Gita is to act without being attached to the action. It's all about yoga, not about war but your attitude. When you are faced with a situation like war, how do you manage yourself? The worst situation in life is when you have to face a war and when you have to fight not with an enemy, but with some of your own people. When you have to fight with your own brothers and sisters, how do you handle the situation? It's easy to fight a war with an enemy, someone you don’t like. But fighting with someone who is part of your own family is the worst thing.If you can manage your mind in the worst scenario, then you can manage yourself in any situation. Given the extreme example of how you can manage the mind, the consciousness, yourself, that’s the whole essence of the Gita, not the war. Skill in action is yoga.
A similar knowledge was taught by Ashtavakra, in the palace. When your spirit is very high and you want liberation, that was Ashtavakra's state. And when your spirit is so low, totally desperate, completely broken and depressed, that was Arjuna’s state. At that time the same knowledge of the Self was given to him in the Bhagavad Gita.
Q:
What are some habits that would promote success?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
First you need to define success. Having a big bank balance and no sleep is not success. You may have lots of money but have diabetes, high blood pressure and all other health problems. That is not success. You may have lots of money but be filled with fear and anxiety, you may not have friends and that is not success. To me success is measured by your smile. How much of your life is filled with smiles and how much can you contribute to others? How much courage and confidence do you have in your own ability? You mustn’t be worried only about your own future. Money is needed in life but life is not all about money.
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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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