Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
Why do the heart and mind want different things?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
The heart wants something old, that which is familiar. The head wants something new. A balance is needed in the old and new: in the ancient knowledge and the latest science. The heart takes pride in old friends, but there is also interest in the latest trends.Q:
How do we overcome constant aimless feelings even though you’re focused?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Check to see how aimless your life was before knowledge. When you do so, you’ll realize that knowledge has transformed your life. Superfluous interest in knowledge will make your life aimless. With deeper interest in knowledge you’ll find life is so purposeful. If you think “what about me, what about me”, life is useless, you may as well put it in garbage. Knowledge gives life direction – then you find life is so purposeful.Q:
It must have taken Krishna three hours to give the knowledge of The Bhagwad Geeta to Arjuna. What were the others doing all this while?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
It is said that it took a lot of time to recite The Bhagwad Geeta but what Krishna told Arjuna while giving the knowledge of The Geeta, for that it did not take that long. He gave the knowledge through his vision (drishti) and it started manifesting within Arjuna. Time is unbounded. To recall what you did in the last five years, won't take you five years. It will take you less than half an hour.Similarly, there is no time in consciousness.
The knowledge in our consciousness is beyond time. So to recall and remember that, does not require time.
Q:
People try and hamper my faith by saying that we become what we think of. So, if we worship Krishna, we will become a thief and worshipping Ganesha would make us like an elephant. How do I respond to them?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Giving knowledge to an ignorant person is a skill.There are many forms for one Divine. Really, any Divine form is light. Form is a symbol. Lord Krishna is the blissful consciousness. According to this argument, those who worship Jesus would have to die at the cross! This is all kutarka, wrong logic - better not indulge in this.
Q:
How can I decide which actions will give me happiness?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Those actions which may seem to bring short term unhappiness yet bring long term happiness are good. Those that seem to bring short term benefits but bring long term misery are bad.Q:
What is character?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Character is that which you expect from others - faithful, loyal, integrated. Do you want others to keep their word? How do you feel if they don't? Character is that, 'do not do unto others what you would not want others to do unto you'. Character is that which is solid, strong, stable and makes you and other happy.Q:
Why are we attracted to objects we should not be attached to, even though we know this is unhealthy?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
We don't understand this aspect well enough. We still feel there is some joy in those objects, and this misleads us.Q:
Even in Indralok (heaven), apsaras (Celestial nymphs) like Menaka, Urvashi were used. The same thing continues even now on earth. Why is it so?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Menaka and Urvashi were made to dance in the Indralok and stories like these are all just to tell you that whatever is there in the world, exists in heaven too. It is said there is sukh (joy) in heaven but not love. Don’t imagine heaven to be in some other place.Dive in your consciousness which is an embodiment of bliss. The joy derived from the outside world is limited. To explain this, such stories were created.
In heaven too, there is attachment and complaints. Beings fall for each other and also fight. So there is not much difference between heaven and earth. Better make this earth a heaven and be free from it and dive in the blissful consciousness. This is the saar (essence) of sadhana.
Q:
People of other religions criticize Hindus for doing idol worship. What do you think?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
The religions, which deny idol worship, propagate some sort of idol worship themselves.When I visited Iraq, I travelled to Najaf, and Karbala and saw an installation of gold and silver, with sacred cloth on the samadhi. People do mannat (pray) to fulfill their wishes. This is like idol worship.
The same with Kaaba. People perform seven circumambulations around it, and kiss it. This is also idol worship.
Of course, it doesn’t have ears, eyes, and a nose, yet it is the same thing.
If some people don’t worship an idol, they worship books, or a picture, and offer flowers, and decorate it.
Irrespective of whether you worship a stone or a picture or an idol, it is a representation, a symbol of God.
What is a symbol? It is something that touches a chord in you.
Puja is an act of honoring. Honoring symbols is puja.
In India, our ancestors believed that one develops a bond with a face. You make a connection. It is because of this connection that they promoted idol worship.
Idol worship is only one of the forms proposed by our ancestors.
They said start with an idol. More important than an idol, is yantra (an energy diagram).
Even more important than yantra is mantra.
They said that mantra is mukti (freedom). Mantra is chetana (consciousness).
There is a shloka (phrase) in Sanskrit, which says:
For a farmer, water is God,
For the intellectual, the brain is God,
For a child, an idol is God,
For the wise man, the Soul is God.
When do people perform Ganesha puja? It is believed that the energy of Ganapati comes into the idol for a few days.
So people do pran prathista (evoking the soul) in the idol.
People pray to Lord Ganesha to say: ‘You always stay in my heart. Come into the idol, so that I can play with you.’
After performing the puja, people again pray to Lord Ganesha to return to their hearts.
The idol is then immersed in water (visarjan).
This is a festival. It adds celebration and color to your life. Sometimes it is not fully understood, and people become too caught up with rituals. That too is wrong.
That is why it is important to sit for puja in a meditative state.
When you sing bhajans in satsang, you don’t visualize the God. You sing and your mind becomes empty. Thus, chetana (consciousness) grows.
Jains started idol worship, then Buddhism followed. Sanatana Dharma adopted this very quickly. It was also adopted by Christianity. To criticize idol worship is foolishness. It is important to understand it.
Yet people should not be superstitious about idol worship.
This also doesn’t mean you can skip idol worship altogether. You board a bus and get down, but the place you got on and the place you got down are different. You don’t think: “I have to get down from the bus anyway, so why should I get on it?”
This is foolishness, (a kutark mindset).
When you sit to worship, be in a meditative state. In meditation, you unite with the sky.
Then through words and mantras, offer wind, fire, then water. With that kalash of water (a pot of water decorated with mango leaves at its mouth and a coconut), waves in creation are evoked. It is said that there is no life in an idol if it is not evoked through mantras and made strong with devotion.
Our ancestors have given us this great method as a way to unite people, spread love and wisdom.
In Sabari Malai (Mount Sabari) in Kerala, Lord Aiyappa is worshipped. There is a mosque on the way, dedicated to a Sufi saint. Everyone circumambulates the mosque and then proceeds to the Aiyappa temple. People believe that the Sufi saint was a good friend of Lord Aiyappa.
This is how India is united.
Guru Nanak (central figure in Sikhism) made a Guru Granth Sahib (Holy Book of the Sikhs) in simple language. The Guru Granth is the gist of knowledge from all other religions. Many religious texts were written in Sanskrit, which few people could understand. The Guru Granth was written in simple language so that the knowledge could reach the masses.
Now we have even forgotten that and started making subdivisions. Paths can be different, yet the truth is only One. That has to be recognized. Otherwise, there are fights and misunderstandings.
Q:
How can one become strong without losing sensitivity?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
That needs skill. And that skill comes to you by silence.Through silence, our internal abilities come forth. Everyone should meditate for some time regularly.
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