Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
What is Brahamcharaya?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
I have talked about this in Yogasutras. You should listen to that. Brahama means infinite consciousness. Establishing mind in that infinite consciousness is Brahamcharaya.Q:
Dearest guruji, this is the first time I am seeing so much of your blessed glory. Can you tell me how to learn to love myself and respect myself so that I can become a good mother. I inflict harm on my body because I don’t feel worthy. What should I do? Your answer would be most appreciated. Jai Gurudev.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
First of all, don’t think you don’t love yourself. Who says this? Even a person who commits suicide loves himself too much, that’s why he commits suicide. Such a person doesn’t want pain, can’t tolerate pain. So, when people who can’t bear some little pain or suffering, and want only happiness, they commit suicide. They love themselves too much. They don’t love others. If the person who is committing suicide loves his mother or daughter or wife or husband or his near and dear one, how would he/she commit suicide? If one care for others, he/she would never commit suicide.They should know if they hang themselves, they will bring problem to his/her fellow beings making them miserable and sad. So, one commits suicide because of loving oneself too much.So, never doubt your love for yourself. Who says you don’t love yourself? It’s impossible, because you are love.It’s only misplaced. Somewhere you don’t get it right. And you are in the right place. As of now, not a single mother is born on this planet who is bad. As a mother, don’t think that you are a bad mother. Impossible! So, just relax and move on with your work.Don’t analyze too much about what happened because there is always imperfection in any action we do. This is an important thing to know. No action, whatever, on this planet earth is perfect. Every action has a dot of imperfection in it. But we should keep acting. Even the worst act has got a good dot in it, whereas the best action has got one flaw in it. It’s either 98 percent good and 2 percent bad or 2 percent good and 98 percent bad. This is what happens in all the actions. So don’t focus so much on the flaws in an action. Keep acting, as long as it is 98 percent good. Ya?Q:
Children don’t care about their parents when they grow up. So many old age homes are there. Where do we fail as parents and what is your advice to parents so that this situation could be controlled?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
That is why I am saying these three types of trust are very important – Trust in oneself, in goodness of others and in the Divine. A little bit of religion, moral and spiritual values, and the way you treat your parents and ask them to treat their grandparents can make an impact on them. So, you tell your children to take care of their grandparents. They will start doing that way.Q:
Please, please, please, please answer my question. Dear Sri Sri, when there is love, why suffering is also there in a relationship?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Love with wisdom is bliss. Love without knowledge or wisdom is pain. Why is there pain in love? That is what you are wondering or questioning about! It is not love which is giving you pain. If it is just purely love, that means you just care for someone, you want the best for them, and then there is no pain. But when you want something in return from them or you have demands from them, then there is pain. Small things like you love somebody and they didn’t smile at you, that is enough! You love somebody and they are interested in someone else, they flirt around or complement someone, good enough for you to burn the next 24 hours or days. Jealousy, hatred, greed, arrogance and attachment are all love’s distortions. Love by itself doesn’t bring a misery. That is why knowledge and centered-ness are so important. If you centered, you can handle all these distortions, they come for a while and they disappear.Doesn’t matter, I will handle! I can easily manage people from falling!
Q:
Can you speak on the subject of marriage and our attachment to this idea?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
I’m not so qualified to speak about marriage; I have no experience of it! It is an important institution which teaches you how to accept and move on in life, how to care for and share with another and to be shared and cared. I can give you some tips.At the end of the talk, Sri Sri invited everyone to visit India.
Mahalo!
Q:
Is violent action ever appropriate?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
A conscious action taken to curb violence may appear to be violent itself. In fact it is not. However, I am not for capital punishment. I feel there is a chance to bring reformation in every body. Have compassion for the ones who do hurtful things and have no remorse. Have compassion for their lack of education and recognize that there is a victim inside the culprit.Q:
How can I safely detoxify my body?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Pranayama, proper diet, raw food, juice, vegetables, and relaxation.Q:
Some volunteers from the ‘Art of living’ want to enter into politics with your blessings.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes, it is alright, they should go into politics, clean up the politics like the ‘Art of Living’ volunteers cleaned up Yamuna!*Devotion
**Karma
***Meditation
Q:
Whenever I see you, tears start to roll down the eyes. I feel as if I know you since ages. Is it true?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
: You are doubting your own experience. Then it is surely true. We doubt the positive, and not the negative. We doubt somebody’s honesty. Nobody has ever doubted dishonesty of a person. Same way, if somebody asks you if you are happy, you say, “I don’t know whether I am happy or not”. But we are so sure of our depression. We doubt in the existence of God. We never doubt in the existence of this changeable and mortal world. Evolved scientists understand that there is a question mark on the apparently looking reality.Q:
How can you learn to make clear and honest judgments? Why do enlightened beings still retain a personality after enlightenment?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Personality is the one that people perceive. The whole journey of life is from being somebody to becoming nobody, and from being nobody to be a part of everybody. If someone is stuck with the idea of personality, there is less scope for them to grow.Everything is changing. People change, their ideas change. Let us acknowledge this basic fact. So, if you have judged, then even your judgment can change.
Displaying 6631 - 6640 of 7916
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.
Read More