Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
Dear Guruji, could you please give me an answer? Is the man I’m in love with since one year is the right one for me?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Well! You are in deep love with somebody, so that person must be right for now. But whether he continues to be right in future, nobody can say. It depends on you! How you handle. You are in love with some body, but is he in love with you or not? First you find that out! If that man is also in love with you, then see how you both preserve your love with a dose of wisdom and how you carry on, how you conduct yourself – all these factors are there. Correct? It’s very easy to fall in love, but many of us don’t know how to maintain that. Someone falls in love with us and we don’t know how to receive and nurture that love. We lose other’s love for us too. So these skills, I have spoken about these skills in the knowledge facets, in Celebrating Love, you read it.Q:
How to decide that enough is enough? I have a child and want to go for a divorce.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Ask yourself if you have given 100 percent? If the mind says no, and you have given your 80 percent or even 95 percent, then wait till you give your 100 percent. Even better, give your 101 percent for the sake of the children. A little sacrifice for the children will take you a long way Even after that if it does not work, then in a friendly manner tell your partner that your paths are different and it is better to part.Q:
How important is it that we act for planet? What can we do? How do we sustain?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
We need to wake up and see that planet is our home and when you go higher, you don’t see borders. Borders are our understanding, our illusions. There really is no border. Sky knows no border, clouds know no border, and wind also knows no border. The elements of this earth have no borders. The planet is one home for everyone. We are all one family. So, we need to think from a broader perspective. Which is the correct perspective? That the whole planet belongs to us. We cannot dump our nuclear waste into some other place. The effect of dumping any waste anywhere in Earth will again come back to us! We cannot keep one place clean and pure in isolation. It is not possible because the air will carry! We have to care for the whole planet. We have to make the entire planet organic. We have created so many types of viruses on this planet. Because we meddled with nature. We have destroyed many species on this planet because we have not taken good care of it, and our food production has gone so low. That it’s going to be a very heavy thing on the coming generation, you know! I think every individual, every human being on the planet will have to take responsibility of not polluting the planet, of continuing sustainable development by planting more trees, preserving our lakes, preserving water. It is so important! Water scarcity is another big issue in the world. Millions of people are into starvation! So, we need to have a global picture and care for the whole planet. Of course, we need This is most important! But at the same time, we should have the idea about the whole planet and the entire humanity being a family.Q:
Bali culture is connected to India, would you throw a little more light onto this?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
If you go into the native cultures all over the world, you will find that they are all similar - in British Columbia, Australia, New Zealand, India etc. They all are similar to one another. They all honor the directions, the moon, the earth, the sun, the water, the mountains. They all honor creation. India and Bali are in Southeast Asia, and are of course connected. It’s good to find similarities, and celebrate differences.Q:
My mind conflicts between spiritual world and material world. How to overcome this?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
As such there is no conflict. You have to balance your life. You know some spiritual practice every day, some breathing exercise and yoga would help you long way, and then some social service activity what we call seva in India. All that we earn, we spend on our self. Isn’t it good that we should keep at least 3 or 4% of our earning to give to those who are in need of it. There are around 300 million children in the world which need education. You can be part of it. You can help in Africal Even here you can help children to get educated. One day in a month, take a time off in a group, go and help clean the environment, and help environmental programs and social service activity you can take on. If we sit and think what about me all the time, then we will get depressed. You should see what you can do and how you can contribute to the world which is in need. That question and feeling should be within us. We all have to work towards having a violence-free society; drug and alcohol free healthy society. Violence free society, disease free body, confusion free mind, inhibition free intellect, trauma free memory and sorrow free soul is the birth right of every individual and that’s what I have been telling around the world. We are all one family, we all belong to one family. This knowledge is not the wealth of one community, or one religion or one nation – it belongs to the whole world, the technology to be happy and content. Technology to have the sense of belongingness with the world belongs to everybody, and not just to India or Hindus or Buddhist like that…Don’t you think so?Q:
My mind always travels to many things. I do have jealousy and hatred with my own people. I know it’s not right, how do I control the mind that takes me away and never leaves me good. Please help me Guruji, I hope that from today I will have good feelings and peace of mind. I want to be a different person, I’m sick and tired already.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
I think you have too much free time on your hands. Just get into doing something good for the world, some service projects, something. The mind is like that, sometimes up and sometimes down. You like something, next day you don’t like it. Who cares! If you’re caring for your emotions too much, you will be nowhere. One day you feel good, another day you don’t feel good. Again the same thing! So the mind goes up and down. Centeredness is knowing that you are much more than your mind, than your emotions, and mind plays tricks. Just imagine you are a mother and the mind is the baby. Sometimes the mother agrees with the baby, sometimes not. Sometimes the child cries and the mother will attend to the baby. At other times she will let it cry for a little while. Don’t be bothered by this all of the time. See how much harmony you can bring into others. It’s our responsibility; each one of us should take responsibility to create an uplifting atmosphere, one of positivity. Once you are centered than you become a source of inspiration, a source of joy, a source of peace to everyone. So we have to think, “so what?” Not every time, everything goes according to what we want, so then we say “so what?” and if “so what” doesn’t help then “so hum” (the Sudarshan Kriya taught in the ‘Art of Living’ courses) definitely helps. A combination of “so what” and “so hum” puts you on a higher platform.Q:
Are spirituality and science related?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes, Spirituality is asking ‘who am I?’ and Science is asking ‘What is this? Objective analysis is science and subjective understanding is spirituality. And they go hand in hand. They were never in conflict in the east, because the paradigm was same. Science says understanding follows the experience and then the concept arises. But occidental philosophy says first you believe and then you can get experience in the future, which science wasn’t comfortable with. That’s why science and spirituality was always in conflict in the west, where as it never was in the east because science was always encouraged. It is said in Bhagvat geeta ‘Gyan Vigyana triptatma’, subjective knowledge and the scientific knowledge both should go together, and then only you will find fulfillment.Q:
what is the purpose of life and what is the definition of a successful life?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
One who knows won’t tell you and anybody who tells you, they don’t know. It’s very important question; keep it with yourself, ‘what is the purpose of life’? You should ask yourself again at times. The question will clear all the cobwebs around you and will keep you on track of what you want and where do you want to go.Q:
Is it possible to become like a child again and to rekindle that positive vibration around us?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
It is possible. The secret lies in our own breath. Through breathing exercises, certain breathing techniques and some practice of meditation, we can rekindle positive vibrations within and around us. Are you aware that sometimes for no reasons you feel like talking to some people, and sometimes for no reason you want to avoid some people? I am sure everyone has this experience! We convey more through our presence than through our words. If we are uptight, angry or stressed, then we become repulsive. Now, the question is how do these negative vibrations come in our aura? We are storing all these negative things that we have seen and heard in our aura.Q:
How do I forgive? I find it difficult to let lose off the grudges.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
There are 6.5 billion people on this planet. Don’t forgive the 6.5 billon but just forgive this one person. You know, inside every culprit there is a victim crying for help. You must know they are victim of situation and circumstances. They might have done something wrong, but this is because they don’t have that knowledge. They were never exposed to higher knowledge, so they make mistake. See what is happening today, all the church scandals are coming out. It is so painful, so pity of a condition because just reading books and understanding doesn’t help violent tendencies or any kind of tendencies to be fixed. These can only be fixed through meditation, through breathing exercise and yoga. Only through that the violent aggressive energy doesn’t surround. Prisoners say, “AOL is responsible for our being in the prison, because if you had given us this knowledge earlier, we wouldn’t have landed in the prison. You are responsible and you should have given the knowledge much earlier. So, our life would have been much different”, and I agree with them.