28 August 2014 - QA 6

Dear Gurudev, is being greedy for the Guru good?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Well, you can be greedy to do seva, and to get higher knowledge. No need to be jealous of others near the Guru.
Guru keeps all kinds of people around him or her. He keeps some people closest so that they don’t cause problems to others. Some are very thick skinned, and some are sensitive.
Ashrams are like a zoo. It is not homogenous type of people. In our ashram also, there is a whole zoo. At the entrance, there are monkeys, then there are a whole lot of squirrels, snakes, and mongoose. At the back there are geese, swans, and plenty of birds. There are around a 100 varieties of birds and 200 varieties of butterflies. There are deer, horses, rabbits, turtles, cows; there is an elephant, and if there are some animals missing, there are people who behave like them. They pounce like lions and tigers. We have a miniature zoo here. But it's very interesting and everyone is happy. That is the thing.