Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
Guruji, the way I feel so connected to you, do you feel the same?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
More than that. You know, connection means that there is a difference. I don’t feel connected for I don’t feel the difference. I feel you are a part of me.Q:
Even water takes a specific time to evaporate! How long will it take for my ignorance to disappear?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
'I am just an ordinary person. How is this possible for me?' Don’t think like this. Only an ordinary person can attain this knowledge. How long does it take to empty a vessel? Whether it is filled with silver, mud or gold, it takes the same amount of time to empty. To fill mud will take less time, it will take longer to fill gold. You have to make a lot of effort. But to empty it out takes no time and no effort. There is no expectation of qualification to attain the Divine. No need for any effort. Just be.Akincana- I am no body
Aprayatna- I do nothing
Akama- I want nothing
When you see someone has done a lot of tapas (penance) and so they received the knowledge, know that the tapas was to empty themselves.
When the rajas calms down, all restlessness disappears. In that there is an experience of the Divine consciousness. Don’t think that somebody will appear and tell you this and that! That will only be a hallucination. Just relax. In rest and relaxation, there is no distance. It is just you and the Divine. So meditate for a while. And feel that nothing belongs to me. If you do japa (repetition) of mantras it helps you to move into meditation.
In any puja, first there is meditation. When the puja ends, there is meditation too. This practice has dropped. Without it, it is like riding on a horse without a saddle, blinkers or a whip. How will you control the horse?
Once Mullah Naseeruddin was being carried round and around the city on the back of such a horse. Somebody asked mullah where he was going. And he answered, ‘Ask the horse!’
Our mind has become like that. We run wherever our mind runs. Nobody has the time to think about you - whether you are happy or not. It is simply for the sake of asking most of the time. Nobody really wants an answer. How you feel and how your mind is, keeping it pleasant is your responsibility. If you make your emotions your responsibility, no one can make you happy or unhappy. Where you have to house the Divine why do you want to fill garbage? Keep the mind clean - that is meditation. Keep it free from craving and aversion. That is shishya vritti. A disciple should not have space for hatred. There is space only for the guru. The mind is nirmala (blemish-less). There will be 100,000 things that will try to disturb your balance. Offer your dislikes, mentally surrender it to the river and let it all be washed away or offer it into the fire and let it be burnt to ashes. This is agnihotra. Kama (desire), krodha (anger), lobha (greed), moha (attachment), mada (arrogance) and whatever other bad intentions - let them all be burnt in this fire. Let the nirmala jyoti (pure blemish-less light) be lit in me.
Again and again, being in the knowledge will clean your mind and intellect. Between you and the Divine is the intellect. Through knowledge, this separation can be removed. Through devotion, meditation and knowledge, the separation dissolves.
Q:
I want to know the relationship between the conscious mind, sub-conscious mind and the infinite intelligence of the sub-conscious mind?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes! The sub-conscious mind has infinite intelligence. Whatever you put in the sub-conscious mind, it will manifest. If you put the thought that you are poor, that will start happening and if you put positive thoughts that everybody is good then that will start happening.Q:
Why chant the shanti mantra three times after meditation? Does it have a different significance each time?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
No, no. It means ‘Inner peace, peace in the world, peace in the soul.Q:
Dear Guruji, I can’t forget this guy. He is not good for me but still I am in love with him. Even though I haven't seen him in ten months and I hardly know him. Can you explain?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Wait till you find somebody else. Then you will forget all about that guy. Our mind is very strange. You know, the greatest, real stranger to us isnot somebody else but our own mind.Q:
Guruji, is it true you have some super power. You have stopped rain so many times just looking at sky, you can read thoughts.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You know love is the most super power in this world and that power is with everybody, not only with me. When mind is free from lust, greed, possessiveness, arrogance etc., when the mind is in the pure form with which we were all born with, then nature listens to you. You are a child of nature and nature loves you. When that manifests, when you are clear then two things happen - your wishes get fulfilled and you can fulfill others’ wishes also. When you are content, that is when blessing happens, Don’t think only Guruji can do it. This is no achievement and no effort is required. That isnatural from our state of being, that state of innocence. Most of us have lost it but I still haven’t lost it.Q:
Even trees and plants are smiling here in the ashram! Please help me get rid of my anger!
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Have you done the course? No? Do the course yourself!Q:
Guruji I want to understand what it means when people say one should donate their eyes, organs after death. How can we, when this body itself does not belong to us?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
It is ok to give or donate your eyes or organs. After you are gone realize that it is not yours so let anyone take whatever he or she want.You know abroad people also plan what they should wear when they die, where they should be buried. They are so attached to those things, to their body.
Primitive thinking creates fear. It doesn’t matter, whatever you donate, as it is it is not yours so why worry and think so much about it.
Q:
What is difference between prayer and meditation?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Prayer is asking, meditation is listening. In prayer, you ask, ‘Give me this, give me that’, giving instructions, demanding. In meditation, you say, ‘I am here to listen, what is it that you want to tell? Tell me, whenever you are free, I am here. Culmination of prayer is meditation. Prayer goes to the peak and that is meditation.Q:
I am beginning to experience the futility of existence. Why am I here? There is confusion, what should I do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Good Luck! It is good luck when the small identity dissolves and the bigger is attained. Everybody seeks pleasure for the mind (mann), but having a pleasant consciousness is something else! Every single part of the body is soaked in pleasantness. There is a difference between entertainment and enjoyment. Entertainment brings you short term happiness. Meditation penetrates the whole body in the form of vibrations.We assume that our likes and thought patterns, desires and frustrations are our identity. When that dissolves, one begins to wonder “who am I?”. This is OK, it is the first step. However, you need to establish yourself in Sadhana(spiritual practices) and the knowledge. Satsang is very important. All the scriptures also explain the importance of Satsang, otherwise the mind tends to wander and get lost in other things.
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