Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Youth are bored and it’s their fortune. If they were satisfied, then growth would have stopped. When they are bored, then the quest comes in them. They are not satisfied with the things available around. And this is the stage when they can take a step to look within, a leap in their inner journey, a step towards spirituality. An interest in higher growth gets kindled, when you are bored with things around. When you find the source of joy within, then obviously everything around is also reflecting the same source of joy, then you find interest in everything. Continuous bombardment of senses by stimuli can cause inertia. Inertia is boredom, is a form of boredom. Again, when prana level goes up, you move from inertia to enthusiasm.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Because I am also like that. Only a rich can make others also rich. Only a liberated one can bring freedom to others. Only a devotee can evoke devotion in others. A person in love with the Divine makes others also like that. Whatever is there within you that is what others receive and that is what you perceive in others.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
It is a blessing if you are not content with small material things! The longing for the divine is the divine himself! One who is without longing has no juice in his life, no knowledge and no celebration.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Imbibe this knowledge. Independence means depending on the inside. Your independence is only when you are dependent on the inside. You are miserable when you want things from others for your comfort. How much can you take? And even if you take everything, it is of what use? This is what I think. I am independent means I am inner dependent. So I want nothing from anybody. Just this aphorism, reminder of this, time and again, will take your mind, which is sticking to the outside, come to its center. You will feel the relief. Misery simply means you are stuck to the outside. Joy means you are in your element which is inside. If you depend on others for your comfort, you lose your joy. First, have this faith that nature will provide whatever I need or I deserve, it will never happen that nature doesn’t provide you with what you need. Secondly, I want nothing from anybody. And third whatever I have, be it be intelligence, great voice, qualifications, skill is only for others and not for me and I serve others as much as I can. Finish! Where is the misery then?Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
When we want to build a tall building, the foundation must be sufficiently deep. The string of the bow is stretched back further when the arrow has to go far. So to transcend the mind we bring our attention to our body, and then we realize we are beyond the body.Q: There is a lot of information about the transition of human consciousness, which is part of evolution. They say it will happen in 2012. Can you comment on it?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
As I said, the evolution of human consciousness is a continuous process. It is happening even now. They are right. In the next two years, 2012, that’s when Jupiter comes to Aries, the first point of Aries, people will be more spiritual. They will be inclined towards spirituality. Spirituality will be the fashion and it will become the necessity. People will start walking the path. I remember in 80s and 90s people doing Yoga were considered to be little out there. Not normal. It was not a dignified thing to sit in the lotus position or stretch your legs and hands and knees and sit on the floor. Today many companies - when they want to depict relaxation - they make someone sit in a yoga posture. Today’s advertisements show people sitting in the lotus pose.Paradigms have changed. People’s thinking has changed. Prejudice has reduced. I won’t say it has gone totally, but has reduced to a great extent. Interfaith dialogue is the talk of the world today. I was recently in Australia, in the Parliament of the World’s Religions, and there were people from all over the world, of different faiths, 600 people, started respecting each other’s faith. This time I received a greetings letter from the Pope. He sent me Diwali greetings and I sent him Christmas greetings. He addressed me saying, “Holiness, we all have to work together in the world to do a great job to uplift the human consciousness.” Today they have recognized there are all other faiths and many ways. So the world is changing already. Isn’t it?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Pray for his sadbuddhi (good sense) and if that doesn’t happen then pray that he is removed from the position of power. In many temples, you will find that rakshasas (demons) are carved at the entrance. Yet their place is outside or under God’s feet. If they sit on the main throne then there is trouble.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
All this is a message. One who is awake gets a message from anything. One who is lost in jadta (gross), that person will not receive a message from anything. When you are awake, every leaf, every bird, every person is a messenger of God. This whole creation is a message. And if you are asleep, then even if amrit (Divine nectar) rains, it falls on deaf ears.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Why do you want to label yourself? One day be an atheist and one day be a believer. Are you ready to do that? Whatever you are, be authentic. Today the so-called atheists are not authentic. Atheists cannot say, “I don't know!” Atheists say, “There is nothing that I don’t know. What I see only exists, nothing else”. Believer says, “I know that there is the unknown”.When you say that something does not exist in this creation, you need to know everything about the creation. Who knows everything about this creation now?
You can only say, “I don’t know whether it exists or not”. An atheist claims that something doesn’t exist. That is very difficult to say when you don’t know the entire time and space. Do you know everything in this time and space, in this creation?
Your acceptance of your ignorance doesn’t allow you to be an atheist. So you can never be an authentic atheist.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
What is the need to give a rating? Everything belongs to One, is part of One. One has taken these infinite forms. Even in the zero and the hundred, there is everything. Even a stone will have jadta (low prana) and chaitanya (consciousness). Jad and chaitanya, both, are merged in Brahma (creation). They are one part of the Brahma. Lord Krishna says in the Bhagwad Geeta, “This maya is also from Me, the whole world is in Me, yet I am in none.” The philosophy in the Bhagwad Geeta may seem confusing. Without a true experience, the philosophy will seem like just principles. Go deep within yourself for the true experience of the Self.