Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
I would say the differences should be celebrated. If you don't have distance you can't breed conflict out of nothing. Multiple cultures would bring in more tolerance, more learning and you have to relieve yourself from stress. We all need to create a stress-free and violence-free society. Actually violence is an outcome of stress. If someone hasn't slept well or is stressed they become aggressive. With the breath you can calm yourself. When the mind is calm and the person is happy it's impossible to commit crime. It's all in the mind. We don't learn anything about the mind at home or at school. We tell people don't be angry, don't get upset but we don't teach them how not to. This is how the ancient Indian teaching has helped people and should be available for everybody. It's so useful. A violence-free society. Disease-free body. Confusion-free mind. Inhibition-free intellect. Drama-free memory and a sorrow-free soul. This is the birthright of everybody.There is a lot of violence in the media and in video games. Every emotion is connected with the breath. If you change the breath, change the rhythm, you can change the emotion.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
There is violence in the youth today because they have emotions trapped inside and they are not taught how to handle their own minds so they just burst out into actions such as this violence you have recently seen in Bulgaria. It is absolutely essential to teach our children how to control their mind using their own breath. We have done experiments in America, in India, and people have been saying, in prisons for example – “If I had known how to handle my emotions I would not have had these problems.”And the process is very simple, just four or five days and you learn the relationship between breath and the mind. I would like all the teachers to learn it. Many schools have started this program so that children learn how to handle their minds.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Now what did I have to sacrifice in order to do this! In the beginning there was a lot of prejudice, East-West prejudice and North-South prejudice. People outside India criticized but I said – “No, this is very good and everyone needs it.” I did not mind what people thought.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
A vehicle is kept to the left in India. In the United States of America, cars keep to the right. Customs and rituals are there to guide society, steering society from going right or left.They are made according to the time and the country. For instance, men wear unstitched clothes for a puja in South India. In North India, people wear coats. Perhaps, this is because the weather is cold there. When Muslim males go to Mecca for Haj, they have to wear unstitched clothes.
Yet, these customs and rituals are neither conducive nor act as obstacles on the path to God.
There are many customs when it comes to marriages. A coconut and a mirror are placed on a plate, when welcoming the in-laws in South India. It is as though to say: ‘Enter with a smile. See your face and feel complete. We are feeling complete here.’ When you see yourself in the mirror in the morning, you smile. You don’t frown when you see yourself.
People in Maharashtra welcome the in-laws with a betel nut and a gold coin on their head. This gesture says: ‘Your thoughts should shine like gold.’ This is an auspicious gesture.
There are other rituals in Bihar and Bengal. These customs from different parts of India should be studied thoroughly. Someone should take up this project.
In Kerala, a nirapara is kept at the entrance of a house to welcome people. It is a vessel filled with grains, flowers from the coconut tree and a diya (lamp). This custom signifies that the house which is being entered is full, there is happiness. It is a sign of prosperity.
Similarly, people gift each other chocolate eggs for Easter in Europe. It is a symbol of prosperity and progeny.
In India, people fast when going on a pilgrimage – say, to Shabri Mala, Vaishno Devi or Tirupati. Christians and Muslims in Ethiopia, fast too. They don’t eat vegetables or dairy products for some period of the year. These are rituals and customs. There must be some reason.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Remind your father that there is upaya (remedy) also. There is no astrology without upaya. The mal-effects of astrology can be countered with upaya. The remedy is meditation and satsang. Sit and chant: Om Namo Shivaya. It takes care of all the mal-effects. All the five elements and the whole life force is present in Om Namo Shivaya. Don’t worry about it. On this path, you should drop those concerns and worries.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
The Divine energy is carried through different symbols. The Parmatma is One.Yet different aspects of that Divinity are carried through different symbols.
It is so interesting. Our ancient people had the concept of opposites. The mouse is so small and the elephant is so big. Yet, the knowledge of an elephant (Ganesha) is riding on a small mouse (his vahana).
Kabir (a renowned Indian saint) did not study in a university. He had his Guru mantra. With one little mantra, he went into Samadhi (the deepest meditative state) and his consciousness blossomed.
The Divine Mother comes on a tiger. The Divine Mother is the most delicate feminine form of Divinity and She comes on one of the most ferocious of animals.
The commander-in-chief of the armies of the Gods, Karthikeyan, comes on a peacock. The peacock is associated with art and music.
There is a deeper significance to these symbols.
Goddess Saraswati (Goddess of Knowledge) is sitting on a rock. The rock does not move anywhere. Goddess of Wealth (Goddess Lakshmi) sits on a lotus flower in water. Wealth is unstable. You don’t know when the share market is going to be unstable – how money can come and go.
The very fact that most Gods and Goddesses are sitting on a lotus flower depicts a fully blossomed consciousness. Only when the consciousness is fully blossomed, does Divinity ride on it.
Like the lotus flower whose petals transform from being concave to convex. Perhaps in those days, there weren’t any chrysanthemums. Otherwise, they would have put some Gods and Goddesses on chrysanthemums.
Your real wealth is your inner strength. Your inner sense of fullness and not your bank balance is your real wealth.
You may have lots of money in the bank, but if your mind is fearful and small, then what is the point?
Today a gentleman came from Mandya (a small town in Karnataka) to meet me. He has two houses and doesn’t have a job. He wants to sell one house and use the money to start a business. He wants to donate the other plot for a meditation centre.
He insisted that I take the land. The land costs several millions of dollars. He had even come with the land papers. I took the papers and told him: ‘This is mine, but it will be with you. You take care of it. You keep it. You start your business, make your life stable, make your finances better. I’m not going to accept it.’
What I’m saying is that those who have very little have big hearts to give. I appreciate it. This is the most precious offer. That man came with his wife and mother. They kept saying, ‘Guruji, please make a Temple of Knowledge over here. We have benefitted so much from the courses, we want others to enjoy.’
Just the gesture is enough. The heart that wants to do gets blessings.
Isn’t it so interesting? Values of humanness and generosity are still alive on this planet.
People with big hearts are still alive.
I remember on the last day of the Silver Jubilee (The Art of Living celebrated 25 years of service in 2006), I met all the volunteers. As I was leaving, a 25-year-old boy came up to me, gave me an envelope and began to cry. He grabbed my feet and hands and sobbingly said: ‘Thank you, please accept this.’
I took it and asked him what he did for a living. He was a labourer from Kerala (an Indian state) and had come to do seva for 15 days. ‘Guruji, I don’t know how to express my gratitude. My life has changed. Please accept this.’ (Pointing to the envelope.)
I opened it and saw that it had Rs 5,000. It must have been his salary of two months.
I asked him about his family responsibilities. He has a mother, sister and is the eldest of two sons. I took Rs 100 from the amount and told him: ‘This money is worth millions to me. Take the rest of the amount home.’
All that we need is to have a heart to do something. Nature will help you.
God will help you.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You go on the internet. There is so much on it. Volumes and volumes. Everything is related: if you’ve slept well, you see everything better. If not, then things are blurred.The observer and the observed vary. That is why it is said that different states of consciousness understand different knowledge.
Have you heard the Japanese story?
In Japan, there is a rule that a motel-owner must give free boarding and lodging to monks.
To test if a monk is genuine, the owner would ask a knowledge question. If the question is answered, monk can then stay. If the owner gives the right answer, then the monk will go further.
There was a motel run by two brothers. The elder one was very intelligent. The younger one was dull. The elder brother used to manage affairs such that he did not have to give free rooms to the monks. If the elder brother had to go away, he would tell the younger one: ‘If any monk comes here, act dumb. If you’re silent, the monk will not stay here.”
As soon as the elder brother left, a group of monks arrived. They said: ‘Come we will argue.’
The younger brother gestured: ‘I am in silence.’
The monks: ‘We will have a dialogue in silence.’ They showed the forefinger to indicate ‘one’.
The younger brother had only one eye. The other eye was bandaged. He showed two fingers.
The monks then showed three fingers.
The brother then showed a fist.
The monks became very happy and left.
When the elder brother came, the younger one explained what happened:
‘They told me that you have only one eye.
So I said, ‘You have two.’
They then said: The dialogue is between three eyes.
So I said: I will punch you.’
Later the monks returned and told the elder brother that the younger one had shared the highest knowledge in silence.
The monks narrated:
‘We asked: What is the one truth?
He said: Not one, there are two: Buddham and Dhammam.
We said: There are three things: – Buddham, Dhammam, and Sangham.
He said: They are all one!’
It was such a mind-blowing realization!
This story shows that different levels of consciousness can interpret different things, differently.
Fools always create conflicts over nothing. And die for it. The intelligent will celebrate diversity. Fools can’t tolerate diversity.
The ancient sages in the Rig Veda have said: ‘Accept even the atheist and they have included them in prayers: Those who call You as no God and think there is no Divinity, I bow down. Those who say, You are not there, I offer my obeisance.’
One accepts even atheism. That is true wisdom: You have broad vision which accepts people and differences.
Intelligent people celebrate diversity, fools fight over diversity.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Well, we need to translate the craving to commitment. Craving is self-centered. Commitment is always for a cause. ‘What do I get,’ this feverishness of getting something has to be transcended. That is immature pleasure. The child always wants to get something. Grandparents want to give.We are born with the tendency to grab. Somewhere we have to make the shift: What can I give?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Because you want to chase them out! Give them a hug and a little place, they will disappear.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Your sankalpa is wrong. Who said you can’t manage? You have managed everything till now. Tell yourself that you will do justice to all the roles. You can play all the roles: ‘I’ll be a good spouse, good child, good parent, good citizen. ‘You simply have to acknowledge and take it. Assume that you have all these equalities in you. It is already in you. Just let it blossom.