Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
I don’t know how to pray, I understand meditation but I don’t understand prayer. How does one pray?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Meditation is the finest form of prayer. Prayer is ‘Oh God give me this, give me that’ or ‘Oh, I am so thankful to you because you gave me that or this’.But meditation is just reposing and that is the best form of prayer. Prayer happens when you are utterly helpless or when you are very grateful. There are two situations in your life. Either you are so helpless, when you have no other way. Like if you are very thirsty and you need water, you say please give me some water. Please help.
Asking for help is one form of prayer.
Thanking is another form of prayer.
And the third is just reposing, being quiet.
The third is the most supreme type of prayer.
You can be grateful for all that you have had, that is a sort of prayer. You don’t have to use particular sentences or phrases or verses for it.
The yagyas that are being done here is not just some sort of prayer. It is a technique, a procedure. You don’t need to understand what those chantings mean. The chantings, the vibrations have an impact on our whole body, mind and the environment. That is the most important thing about yagyas. It is not asking God for this thing or that. It is just chanting those shlokas. Hearing the chantings is even more beneficial. You don’t need to chant with them. Simply listening to it, itself creates the vibrations in the consciousness.
Q:
Where are Shiva and Shakti?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Both Shiva and Shakti are within us. You sit as though you are sitting in an ocean of bliss, in the ocean of cosmic energy, Divine energy, Shiva energy, Shakti energy. That is what is meditation.*Festival of nine nights in celebration of the all-pervasive Divinity in the form of Mother Divine
Q:
What is Kevala Kumbhaka ?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Kevala kumbhaka is when there is almost no breath and that your mind is in a very happy state. It happens without your effort.Q:
When you experience total desirelessness, then how do you get the desire to act?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You know we don’t act as the mind says, we act with commitment. Because mind says one day I don’t want to go to work. If you ask people who are working in offices, nobody’s mind wants them to go to office. If everyday is a Sunday, everybody will be very happy. If it’s a holiday, all the seven days, people would happily sit at home but life doesn’t work like that. So you have to commit and your life moves with commitment. Whether you like it or not you simply work.Q:
People try and hamper my faith by saying that we become what we think of. So, if we worship Krishna, we will become a thief and worshipping Ganesha would make us like an elephant. How do I respond to them?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Giving knowledge to an ignorant person is a skill.There are many forms for one Divine. Really, any Divine form is light. Form is a symbol. Lord Krishna is the blissful consciousness. According to this argument, those who worship Jesus would have to die at the cross! This is all kutarka, wrong logic - better not indulge in this.
Q:
How do I become one with the Divine?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Leave the uniting in love, there is only one love- Cosmic love.Q:
People say that we should worship only one God like Krishna or Ganesha so that we know who to call for when we are in trouble. If God is one then why are there so many names and forms?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
These are different names for the one Divinity. Like you wear a different dress every day. Today you are wearing black, tomorrow you will wear something else.Even when you change your dress tomorrow, you will remain the same, right? Same way whatever names and forms, it is the same Divine.
Q:
I am so full of doubt. What should I do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Don’t you doubt your doubting? Doubt your doubt! When there is too much confusion, then find solace in surrender. Surrender to your Guru, the Divine or your mother. You are not alone. Your life will be successful.* refer to Sri Sri’s discourse on the Ashtavakra Geeta)
Q:
How to increase intelligence and how to be more creative?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
To increase intelligence, you need to observe some silence. Silence is the mother of all invention. Silence is the basis of intelligence. Take few moments, hours, days of silence. I wouldn’t recommend silence for more than a few days. People go into silence for months - it is useless. They shouldn’t do too much. Time to time silence will increase all our ability. Our senses will become sharp, mind becomes more alert. You become more intelligent, you are aware about what you are speaking, your intuition becomes so much better.Q:
It is said that if someone is enlightened, his or her generations are liberated. If it is so then can one choose not to have children and devote his/her entire life to seva?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Good, no problem if you don’t choose to have children that is fine. Yet what is necessary is that you have to feel that you are the parent of the entire world, that everybody on this planet is a child and that they belong to you. At least this you can have, no one can stop you from feeling that or thinking that.