Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
I feel happy and peaceful here. My heart is really contented. All negativity comes when I go out. I encounter all problems like corruption and bribery. How to face these problems? How to maintain the same positivity when I go from here?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You forget strength in you – prayer and power of your Sankalpa (positive intention). You keep doing practices and your things are taken care of. Don’t ask for small things in your prayers. Ask for big things – Let government be good and stable, let this knowledge reach out to many more people. It is up to you to make a divine society. You can start a collective moment. There are many good people, and a very few people who cause disturbance, but their influence looks like they are many. You come together and you will find what difference you can make.
Is there any maximum limit to how much we can meditate?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Just do as much is necessary. There is no need to do too much. Meditation is like taking a bath. To wash the mind, you need meditation. And once the mind is clean, you will be well. You take shower in the morning to clean your body. After that you do all the daily activities. You don’t have to keep on taking a shower throughout the day. It is like that. You meditate and calm your mind, then go on with other activities.
In my country most people are of the opinion that you can’t raise a child without a non - vegetarian diet, as the body will lack in amino acids and the brain won’t function properly. What should I do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Ample research has been done to the contrary of this theory. Look into that. There are millions of people who are vegetarian in the west, and they are very brilliant. In fact all the genius people in west including Einstein were vegetarian. Many of the top scientists like Novel Lorex have been vegetarian. This theory that brain doesn’t work needs to be questioned big time.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
It will happen. Your intention is enough. Main thing is Sadhna (Practices and self effort), next is awareness, and third is - no feverishness.I want to quit addiction to intoxicants and have come to you with a lot of hope.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Good. You have come to the right place. If you wish to get rid of a bad habit then there are only three ways for it. The first is your love for knowledge, the Divine or some dear one - whether parents or Guru. By promising some dear one that you will quit the habit, you will be able to get rid of it. This is the best way out. The second way is greed. If you will not consume intoxicants for six months, then you will get ten million rupees, or that your luck will shine and you will succeed in everything. The third is fear - if one day you do consume intoxicants, then you will suffer a loss of one million, or you will have to suffer from a major ailment. If such a greed or fear enters you, even then you will be rid of your addiction. Along with these three ways, do yoga and pranayama. The best is that along with yoga and sadhana (spiritual practices), you take a vow that you will not indulge in addictions. Take a vow for forty days, then six months and then a year. After that, you would have come out of the habit and won’t look back at it.
While Ayurveda is considered to be indigenous system of medicine then why do English medicine has a government take over Ayurvedic medicines. Also English medicine claims to have faster recovery rate?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You know statistics show contrary to this. Even in modern medicine, the probability factor of medicine not affecting is very high. Research says Placebo effect with modern medicines is nearly 40%. Modern medicines are being discovered every day and those which were used 10 – 12 years ago are being discarded. Problem is that these pharmaceutical companies have lot of economical interest. It is economy which is ruling modern medicine rather than effectiveness. I feel we should have a combined, holistic approach. Ayurveda has some very good qualities, allopathic medicines also have some very good aspects and also homeopathic. Holistic medicine is the best. It is wrong to completely discard modern medicine and it is equally wrong to discard natural cures, ayurveda. Allopathy does well in case of emergency, and ayurveda has a unique way of attending to the root cause of disease and not only symptoms, and healing without side effects. Today many such researches have been done on this and many have experienced this. E.g. Probability of remission of piles by allopathic treatment is very high but in case of ayurveda it is less than one percent. These are the things one should adopt about ayurveda. Ayurveda is anyway adopting modern methods of investigation. So best is to adopt a holistic approach. Our aim is not to benefit pharmaceutical companies but people.
If whatever we do is in search of happiness, then why is there so much pain and misery in the world?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
There is a story of Mullah Nasserudin. His wife was pregnant and the time of delivery had come. But the baby was not coming out. When doctor told this to Mullah Nasserudin, he ran to the market, bought a toy, and kept that toy in front of her wife. He said, “After all this is my child, so he will surely come out with greed”. Whole our life we keep on running behind things with the hope of getting something. We keep on looking for some kind of profit. How would such person experience happiness? Neither does a greedy person get happiness nor does a person who is bombarded with too many desires. The one who relaxes in his consciousness, is happy. One who is centered, experiences the true happiness. I am not saying there is no happiness in the outer world, but the happiness you get when you go within is incomparable. The world is running in search of happiness. The body gets baked, the mind gets baked, the intellect gets deluded but still we keep on getting stuck in the same repetitive cycle. When you meet the Guru, you come to know that you are the source of happiness. Then the mind calms down, and you realize that you are the one in whose search you kept on running here and there.
How can I overcome anger and resentment?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Don’t try to overcome both. Tackle them one by one. I say, stop the resentment and agree to be angry. Anger and resentment have a chain reaction – you get angry and then you resent; resentment will then turn to anger. Either you are angry with somebody or you are angry with yourself. You are angry with yourself and this causes anger towards somebody else. You may be angry with somebody else but then, as soon as your anger fades, you resent yourself and feel, “How could I lose my temper like that?” So, first decide to be just angry. It does not matter. Just get rid of resentment. This is the first step you can take. Anger is part of your life. As a child you would get very angry. Look at a small child who is holding a toy; just take the toy away from him and see his reaction. His whole body shakes and he gets angry. He yells and shouts, but he is normal the next instant. It doesn’t take a child very long to do this. You get angry but the next moment bring the smile back to your face. Don’t resent. Laugh at your own anger – “Oh, I had a big blow-up today! It was fantastic. It is such fun to watch others’ faces when I get angry! How they reacted to my anger! How soon they caught on to it!” You will soon see that the anger in you turns into alertness; into awareness. That is where pranayama and kriya will come to your aid over a period of time. The resentment had stopped earlier, now the anger will gradually disappear.