9 October 2012 - QA 5

Gurudev, if we lose our footwear or if someone takes it away, is it true that they take away our bad karma?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

If it was an expensive shoe, then yes, it is better to think that way . At least you will get peaceful sleep at night. But if it was a cheap slipper… (Gurudev nods his head).

See the main idea was to tell the people to be in the present moment.
Don’t hang on to the past and crib over it and spoil this moment. What happened has happened! Finished!

You are stuck in the traffic jam, finished! Now when you have reached home, don’t waste your next two hours talking about how you should have taken a different route. It is a useless waste of time.

Our ancient people had such great ideas and so they told you, ’Oh! It is because of the stars that this thing happened to you.’ Now you can’t get angry at the stars.
So instead of getting angry at the people around you, you say, ’Oh, It is because of my karma, my stars, that this has happened.’
So you get a certain amount of acceptability and calmness, and that helps you move forward in life without being bitter.

This is one beautiful thing about India.
In Indian society, bad things may happen, but we don’t get bitter about it and crib about it.
I wish the whole world learns this lesson.

It is something that comes in our culture; in our blood. If anything bad happens in the society, we are resilient, we move on without cribbing about it.
It is very interesting.

Generally, people say, ‘You did this to me 50 years ago and still you are my enemy.’ People keep that animosity and enmity in their mind and heart.
But here, this is a very unique thing. We do not nurture the enmity and animosity.