Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
What does it take to accomplish ones destiny?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Faith, faith that you can accomplish your destiny.Q:
You are not only a Guru, a Spiritual Master, but you are also so skilled in management. How come you manage everything?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Guru is not a physical entity, but Guru is embodiment of knowledge and discretion. Guru is pure consciousness. There is no difference between universal consciousness, Guru and the Self. You should also be a Guru to someone. What does it mean to be a Guru? You don’t expect anything from them, and do whatever you can to uplift them with the feeling of love. Start with the one, then two, three…..10. ‘I am for you; you don’t need to worry’ - Then you would also be able to say this for everybody.Q:
How do we deal with extreme grief and loss?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Through meditation and Sudarshan Kriya, you will see how the grief gets vaporized.Q:
Guruji, so if someone slaps us, should we offer the other cheek also for the slap?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
If the person is sensitive, offer your other cheek, and he will not be able to do it. But if someone is insensitive like a buffalo, then you can give two three also!Q:
I am going through a hard time in life. My wife cheated on me but now wants to be back. What to do? I don’t have much trust anymore, but I find it hard to breakup. I am confused and worried about the future. Can the love develop again?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Ya, certainly. Have a broad mindset. Suppose you were in that state. You made a mistake and you repented it, and you want your wife to forgive you. How would you feel if she doesn’t and hold on to it. How would you feel? Same way a mistake has happened through her. Some mistakes happen through you and some through her. Forget about it. Live in the present moment. Give her a chance. Move on to the future. But if it keeps happening too many times, then you can take a decision. If it is once or twice, you should give her a fair chance. If it happens more than three times, then you put your foot. I have no experience in this field. I can’t give any better advice on this. So, this could be a suggestion. I don’t know in what way has she cheated you, but it may not be so intentional. Our ‘Art of Living’s’ policy is not to see intention behind others’ mistakes. Once, twice, thrice as much as your capacity is there, you keep forgiving. But then when it comes upto your neck, you say, “No more”.There was a king who was all the time hurling abuses at Lord Krishna, when Lord Krishna was here on the planet. This Jarasandha was insulting him, and spreading wrong rumours about him. Lord Krishna forgave him not once, twice but 100 times. His patience was 100 times. But then Lord Krishna said, “I have forgiven you 100 times. I am not going to stop now. I want to finish off you now. I have given you enough room, you didn’t change. The only way is you to be punished”. So, it depends upon our capabilities. Jesus also said to forgive. See how much patience you have. How much can you take to forgive? Not just your wife but everybody for that matter.
Q:
Why are there so many religions and communities? Why is the evil so strong?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Evil is not strong. You are giving it strength. It appears as if evil is strong, but it is not. The greatest power on the Earth is love. Love can melt any evil. It is due to lack of love and wisdom that evil exists. The moment love and wisdom comes into play, evil disappears. Like when the sun comes, the dew disappears. We have seen this. You know, when we give some wisdom and love to the extremists like terrorists, there was total change in those people. Some 300,000 prisoners, so called criminals, have done the ‘Art of living’ part 1 course, and their life has so much changed.Q:
Sometimes, I feel that you are with me and watching me all the time. At some other times I feel that I am not connected. I feel distracted during those times. I am unable to do sadhana also in such times. A lot of thoughts come in the mind. What should I do then?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
: you have given answer in the question itself. Nature of devotion is such that you feel longing in its absence. Once you get a glimpse of devotion, then its absence causes perturbation in mind. It is not that devotion is absent there but you feel as if it is not there, and you feel restless with this feeling. If we look in the light of knowledge, Shri Narada has said in Bhakti Sutras that the very indication of devotion is that you experience bliss in its presence and its absence makes you restless. This shows that you have devotion, and consider yourself as lucky when you experience such restlessness in mind. You feel absence of devotion only for some time. Devotion is anyway always there, it never dies, but you may feel that it has decreased. This is natural. This happens only to those who have a very good luck. Otherwise, inert person doesn’t feel any devotion. Mind of such a person is tormented with worries.Q:
We are trying to reach to our seventh level of existence. Do we have to cross the all levels, or balance all to reach the self?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
They all exist simultaneously.Q:
His Holiness, how can I concentrate in spite of my workload? At times, I get so upset and disturbed with customers’ complaints, esp. with those which are totally untrue.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Complaints are opinions. Listen to them carefully, and if there is something good in it then you can take that. If it is just a biased opinion, smile at them. That’s my policy. You can take something on board. I suggest you should take criticism with open mind, and also give criticism with open mind. You should never be shy about criticism.What is great is, when you can smile at complaints. That means you have achieved something.
Q:
Because I travel a lot to places where vegetarian food is hard to find, and I have to eat with office colleagues. I eat wrong foods and find energy is really low. What to do in such situations?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You know when people have some allergies, they don’t eat those foods for which they have allergies just because of company. Suppose you have milk allergy, and because the company is all drinking tea and milk, you’ll not say, ‘Ok, I’ll also drink.’ Because you’ll suffer. Right?So similarly, you can choose your food in any company, you can say, ‘Ok. I am going to eat only chips, or vegetables, or bread..’ You are not compelled to eat non-veg if you don’t want to. Ok? Or unhealthy food. You don’t need to drink Pepsi or Coke if you don’t feel it’s good for you. Right? See, when people drink lots of Pepsi and Coke, it burns the lining of the stomach and the intestine.
Later on you develop so many problems. All these carbonated drinks should be avoided. Someone had demonstrated, in a cup of Pepsi they put a tooth, a tooth which had fallen, and it dissolves! If teeth can dissolve (which stay for a long time in nature) in Pepsi Cola then.. It is so corrosive. And that corrosive fluid can cause so much damage to our intestine, our brain, our nerve cells. So, we must keep healthy eating habits and propagate them.
Today is much better than 30 years ago. 30 years ago, when we started, people were very allergic to vegetarianism and spirituality. But today, it has become a fashion. Because we make a trend. And we create a trend and keep it moving.
Displaying 6631 - 6640 of 7916
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.
Read More