Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
How realistic is it for a person to become enlightened in one lifetime?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You don’t have to be very special. You can have it right now in this room.Q:
What to do when love, devotion and faith gets shaken?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
That is very good. It goes deeper when it is challenged, true love and devotion gets deeper. Testing times comes in everybody’s life. You pray and sometimes your prayers don’t get answered. 10 times you get what you wanted, and when 11th time you don’t get, you start complaining. Is it the case? (The boy said, “Yes, one of my friends ditched me and I am feeling intense pain”). That is when you pull on yourself. Keep on your practices. God is in every heart, everywhere, all around you, and inside you. He knows what is best for you and he will give you the best.That is why when you ask for something, ask this or something better.
Q:
What did Jesus mean by saying- ‘I am the bread that you eat.’
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
I have spoken about it in the book- ‘Jesus - the embodiment of love’.Q:
Dearest guruji, this is the first time I am seeing so much of your blessed glory. Can you tell me how to learn to love myself and respect myself so that I can become a good mother. I inflict harm on my body because I don’t feel worthy. What should I do? Your answer would be most appreciated. Jai Gurudev.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
First of all, don’t think you don’t love yourself. Who says this? Even a person who commits suicide loves himself too much, that’s why he commits suicide. Such a person doesn’t want pain, can’t tolerate pain. So, when people who can’t bear some little pain or suffering, and want only happiness, they commit suicide. They love themselves too much. They don’t love others. If the person who is committing suicide loves his mother or daughter or wife or husband or his near and dear one, how would he/she commit suicide? If one care for others, he/she would never commit suicide.They should know if they hang themselves, they will bring problem to his/her fellow beings making them miserable and sad. So, one commits suicide because of loving oneself too much.So, never doubt your love for yourself. Who says you don’t love yourself? It’s impossible, because you are love.It’s only misplaced. Somewhere you don’t get it right. And you are in the right place. As of now, not a single mother is born on this planet who is bad. As a mother, don’t think that you are a bad mother. Impossible! So, just relax and move on with your work.Don’t analyze too much about what happened because there is always imperfection in any action we do. This is an important thing to know. No action, whatever, on this planet earth is perfect. Every action has a dot of imperfection in it. But we should keep acting. Even the worst act has got a good dot in it, whereas the best action has got one flaw in it. It’s either 98 percent good and 2 percent bad or 2 percent good and 98 percent bad. This is what happens in all the actions. So don’t focus so much on the flaws in an action. Keep acting, as long as it is 98 percent good. Ya?Q:
I am in a dilemma. I used to revere Guru Granth Sahib as my Guru. But after meeting you, I have found the inner joy which I was looking for. Now I am confused whether to have faith in you as a Guru, or in the Granth Sahib?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Where is the dilemma? Guru Granth Sahib is a very sacred scripture. One should definitely respect it. Guru is not a person; Guru is knowledge, whether it is in a scripture, a person, or consciousness. That Guru tattva is to be revered and believed in. Our mind only creates complication, otherwise there is no dilemma. Guru Granth Sahib contains the crux of all scriptures. So, respect the scripture. There is no question of choosing here.Mother is our first Guru.
School teacher is our second Guru.
Then music teacher is also a Guru.
And one who gives knowledge of the truth is Satguru.
When Guru tattva wakes up in life, it is not partially awakened, it stays completely. So, live naturally. Rejoice and live in love and joy.
Q:
Children don’t care about their parents when they grow up. So many old age homes are there. Where do we fail as parents and what is your advice to parents so that this situation could be controlled?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
That is why I am saying these three types of trust are very important – Trust in oneself, in goodness of others and in the Divine. A little bit of religion, moral and spiritual values, and the way you treat your parents and ask them to treat their grandparents can make an impact on them. So, you tell your children to take care of their grandparents. They will start doing that way.Q:
How do we locate the queen bee within us?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Meditate, meditate, meditate, meditate, and meditate.To be continued in the next post..
Q:
You have done a lot for my life? What can we do for you?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
The society needs you. The society is to be benefitted through you. Like you have felt happiness, same way you can bring this happiness to 10, 20, 50 people. When you are happy and others become happy through you, I will also be happier.Q:
The history of ancient India is filled with the accounts of enlightenment, yogis taking on supernatural states of awareness and capabilities. Yet, to help me understand, how does one interpret such stories? Are these methodologies with allegorical significance, or they point to the untapped potential hidden in each one of us?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Do you know about the first airplane? Who flew the first airplane? (‘Wright brothers’ came the answer). This is what we hear or read in the books. Absolutely wrong. 50 years before Right brothers, one man from Bangalore, Subray Shastry, he went into meditation, in silence and then he went to meet a yogi. The yogi took him to deeper meditation, and he started recognizing the engines, he downloaded all that! He wrote a book called ‘Vaimanik Shastra’ and then he flew the plane in 1800 with a parsi gentleman. Parsis are the migrants of Iran to India who follow Zoroastrian religion. The parsi gentleman funded him to make the first plane. They flew it on the chaupati beach in Mumbai (or Bombay). This appeared in the ‘London times’ newspaper also. These two were put in jail by Colonial power, and they took and confiscated all the diagrams that he had made. A documentary of this came on television recently, with the newspaper cutting from England and the diagrams that he had cognized. He had made five different diagrams and this is available even today in a book called ‘Bhardawaj Vaimanik Shastra’ – The science of plane by Rishi Bhardawaj. He explained what type of engine that a plane has which takes off straight like a helicopter, and one which goes running and then takes off.You can find all the details in the website http://www.bharathgyan.com/
More from the same conversation in the next post..
Q:
How can I safely detoxify my body?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Pranayama, proper diet, raw food, juice, vegetables, and relaxation.
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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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