Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
What is the connection between the thought and the action?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You should never do thoughtless action or you will be in trouble. There are two dimensions of our life. Sometimes you act without thinking and sometimes you only think and don’t act. Source of both - thought and action - is you. Knowing who you are, your thoughts get streamlined and actions become perfect. Your thoughts and actions are aligned.Q:
Does time and mind have any relation?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You should read the book ‘Celebrating Silence’ or ‘An intimate note to the sincere seeker’.Q:
Is it right if one’s parents do not appreciate the virtues of a child but compares demerits of the child with the good qualities of other children?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Once in a while it is ok. When the intention is that their child should learn, then it’s ok. But if it happens every time, then it is not ok.Q:
What do you say about the westernization of our culture?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Pick up good things like cleanliness and following the rules from the Western society. Western Civilization has such cleanliness and the sense of following rules. We need to pick up that in the East.I want to tell you a story. Way back in 1978 when many of you were not even born, I was in Switzerland and it was the first time I had been there. I was walking in one of the areas which hardly had any crowd. I took a chocolate and just put the wrapper on the road – like what we do in India. There was hardly any crowd there. An elderly lady, with a stick, saw me from a far distance. She came to me and said,“You have to pick this up and put it in the dustbin.” She showed me the dustbin placed a little farther. You know an elderly lady coming all the way walking with her stick and telling me that I should pick up that chocolate paper. I was so impressed with the amount of responsibility people take to keep the city clean. We must learn this in India that how clean they keep, and how environmental conscious people in the West are. Even if people protest in western countries, they do it as a silent march. We have to learn all this from Western Civilization.
And then what we don’t have to learn from western civilization?
Too much formality, the mother has to take permission to go to her daughter, or the daughter has to take appointment from the mother. This has started to happen somewhere in urban society also. The naturalness, sense of belongingness is disappearing from the society. There is such a sense of belongingness and human values even in a village in the east, and that is to be maintained.
There are some cultural identities like respecting the elders, and we shouldn’t lose this. This is very important aspect of the entire east.
There is a trend of expressing too much love in the west. People end up being diabetic saying honey, honey all the time! And it is opposite in the east. So, we need to have the middle path in the expression of love. Not expressing even once, like the case is with some parents and their kids, or among siblings, is wrong. Also keep on expressing love all the time is also wrong. Expressing love is like sowing a seed. If you keep it just on the surface, it won’t sprout, but also if you bury it very deep underneath the soil, even then it won’t sprout.
There are many things in the east which people in the west search for, like joint family and the sense of belongingness.
Q:
What is the first thing we should do when we wake up in the morning and the last thing before we go to sleep?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Look at your face in the mirror and give yourself a big smile. If you can’t smile, you can frown. You will gradually start smiling.Q:
What is more important - faith in ourselves or faith in others?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Both are necessary. However, add one more. That is, faith in God.Q:
If God is within us, why does God not guide us all towards good deeds alone? Why is there somuch crime and violence in the world?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Imagine a movie with no villain. Imagine there is only a hero who is eating, sleeping and generally just hanging around with nothing to do! Would you watch such a movie? Oppositevalues are complementary. Thorns and petals both exist. You have the choice to pick up eitherthe thorns or the petals. God is there within. He is sometimes sleeping and hiding, sometimesawake and dancing. After some sadhana, God is awake. Then He is rocking. Awaken the Godand Goddess in you! A stone does not feel, but a living being does. Waking the godliness in youis essential. This is why there are particular hymns sung in India in the morning, ‘Wake up andbless us, O Lord’! On one level, it sounds ridiculous. It is the parents’ job to wake up children, butin this hymn, human beings are singing to the Gods to wake up and bless the creation. This is aparadox, and in this paradox, is hidden a deep secret of existence.Q:
I have insomnia for many years. I am unable to do the things that I want to do.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
This is the difficulty. Too much dreaming, too much wanting to do, this has all caused the insomnia. I want nothing, I do nothing. – keep these two things in mind. You will fall asleep like a baby.Someone from the audience: Thank you for the course! I feel so good with it.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: I belong to you, you belong to me!
Q:
We are not supposed to marry in our own gotra (family tree). Scientifically, what does a gotra mean?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Gotra is a family tree, like you know if you marry your own siblings, or cousins, they say the genes will not develop properly, children will not develop. The family trees go back to some rishis in the past. And they say that gotra means we belong to this (a particular) family. Today what the scientists say about blood groups was known to people thousands of years ago. Yet people from the same gotra have spread. If you marry in the same gotra the children will not be too healthy. That is the main thing. It’s better to avoid.But those were the thoughts from some thousands of years ago but now since we have gone so far away and the population has spread so much, it has become so vast. I don’t know how relevant it is. But (marriage within) gotra is better to avoid.
Q:
What do you consider success?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
A smile that nobody will take away from you - that is the greatest achievement.
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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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