Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
How do I free myself from weaknesses? Does performing puja help?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Satsang, meditation and pranayama is the best gift to you. Chanting mantras, doing pujas has its place. Don’t worry too much about it. Meditate and do a little puja. Don’t leave it out completely nor overdo it.Q:
The Art of Living Silver Jubilee celebrations were a huge function. When will we have another huge function again?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes we will have one, in another five years.Q:
Guruji what is one such thing that is beyond Asakti (attachment) and Anasakti (detachment)?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Me! (Huge laughter)Q:
What is your biggest wish? What can I do to get closer to your heart?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You are already close to my heart. I want more children to be educated in spirituality, to create a violence- free and stress- free society. We need to globalize wisdom. There are one thousand of us here. If we each sponsor a child, we would do a great service. Do service. Donate 2% of your income. It would be of immense benefit to you and them.Q:
I don’t understand why we are here, why are we here for such a short time? Why do we have to grow old and weak? How do I stop wanting and needing others’ approval and love?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
This is a good question - why am I here, what do I do? Keep asking. When you keep asking these questions, either you go crazy or you become wise. I wish you become the latter, become much wiser, ok? Don’t tell me crazy people are very wise. It’s the other way round - wise people are sometime crazy too.Q:
What is crisis and how to handle anxiety?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Crisis is the mother of many inventions. A crisis makes us very creative. However the crisis should not go on too long, that is not good.What can help anxiety is breathing techniques like pranayama which channelizes the life force energy in our body. We all float in a sea of prana (life-force energy). There is prana even in a stone.
Q:
If one rotten apple spoils others in the basket then how can we handful of people can make this world a healthy and safe place to live in? There are little more bad people than good ones in the world.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
This is not the case in reality. There are more good people in the world than there are bad ones. There is more love in the world than hatred. There is more happiness than misery. But it seems the other way around. Don’t blame the society. You have a responsibility and you carry on fulfilling that. Continue spreading satsang (company of truth). Same was done by Mahatama Gandhi. Before independence in India, people were so depressed thinking they would be enslaved forever. So what did Mahatama Gandhi do? He started to have satsangs across various places in the country. People got courage from that. Same way we need to spread that a wave of satsang and awareness, not that of hatred.Q:
How can we strengthen the faith?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Your very thought to strengthen thefaith strengthens it. Move ahead assuming that your faith is very strong. Whenyour intellect is purified, faith automatically gets strong. We should have apure diet in order to purify the intellect. So, pay attention on your food. Ifyou eat food thinking all sort of negative things in the world, that alsoaffects the intellect. Many times people get time to converse only duringmeals, and they discuss about topics like diseases while preparing and eatingthe food. This is very wrong, and we need to get rid of this habit. You becomewhat you eat. The type of food you take governs your mind. And again your mindhas a direct impact on your body. That is why you should eat food with a happystate of mind. If we are very excited, we cannot swallow food with ease. Alsoif we are restless, we end up eating more food. So, it is important to havefood with awareness.Q:
Guruji, how do I differentiate between being flexible and manipulative? Is there an intention behind it?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes, intention and your selfish desire is what can make you manipulative. But, if you are content, you are free and you have a goal to achieve, then it is adaptation, not manipulation.Q:
What if you give a promise and then take it back?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
It is not the promise which is important. What is important is: what is best for ever body, for all human beings. Suppose you have promised your daughter to take her skiing but if the weather forecast says that there will be a snow storm, what will you do? Will you take her out because you promised or will you be intelligent and say, “The promise will not bring happiness now, so I take back my promise and not take you there now”.
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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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