Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
Can you speak on the importance of vaastu?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Everything in creation has certain vibrations. This world is an ocean of vibrations. Every being has definite vibrations. The gods are all depicted as riding on different vahanas (animals as vehicles). This indicates the specific vibrations of the gods. Elephants attract, from the cosmos, the vibrations specific to Ganesha. Tigers, the Devi vibrations; peacocks attract the vibrations of Lord Subramanya. Yet don’t trouble yourself with all this. Just say Om Namah Shivaya. All the corrections in Vaastu will be taken care of.Q:
Why is human life considered the highest of all life forms?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Because you can ask these questions and understand the answers. If you don’t ask or understand you are not better than any other animal or species.Q:
When the Paramatma (Divine consciousness) is supposed to be ever-content, why does discontentment arise?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
So that the Paramatma has some work. An intelligent person recognizes the play of the Divine. It’s like being in a puppet show. When you are in the knowledge, you are like strings in the hands of the Divine. Without this knowledge you become the puppet.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:
Guruji what should I do, should I be an atheist or a believer?
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.
Q:
Guruji, there are so many spiritual leaders, do we need to visit all and read their teachings?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Respect and honor everybody. Follow one path. Suppose you meet four gurus and you take four mantras and techniques, which one will you use? It is like trying to reach your destination on four different boats at the same time! You will reach nowhere. If you had a guru before and you have come here now, know that he sent you here. Even saying 'all gurus' is wrong. There is only one guru principle. And all the Masters want only your happiness. When you want to dig a well, if you dig two feet deep in ten places, you will not find water. You need to go deep in just one place. There is no need to go everywhere, it’s not necessary. When you have faith in one path and move ahead then for sure you will reach your destination.Q:
Technology and science have advanced so much, when will spirituality grow?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
It’s already happening. So many of you are here. In our country science and spirituality are not in conflict. They complement each other. Both are necessary. Bhava (heart level) and buddhi (head level) are both required. When you watch TV, seeing and listening is important.Q:
Guruji tell us where did you go what did you do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Wherever I go, there is Satsang there is celebration.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:
Guruji what do we tell people that have been through a calamity?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Tell them to give all their worries to me. Disasters and calamities also have a positive side to them. They bring people together.There is a new creation after every calamity. Nothing is permanent. In every crisis there is an opportunity. The Chinese word for crisis contains the word opportunity in it. Every crisis reminds you to smile, makes you aware of the impermanence of everything, even ourselves. So instead of sitting and blaming, lets see how we can move forward, rebuild and help others.