Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Why is there suffering when there is God?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
So that you can lift your eyes above this material world. Suffering has a purpose, which is to connect you to your self. Suffering indicates that you got too involved and carried away by all the relative and transient things around you. That is what suffering is all about. Once you understand that it is all transient, your eyes get lifted to something that is eternal. That is when real joy dawns in life.
How to get rid of stress, other than practicing meditation?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Drive a car behind a bicycle. Slow down.
Gurudev, how do I make my parents understand that my Guru, knowledge and my yearning for the truth is of utmost importance to me? They just don’t seem to want to understand this.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Why do you want them to understand? Keep your secret in your heart and serve them and make them happy. You don’t need to convince everyone about what you believe and what you think is right. If they don’t understand, it is their choice and their freedom. Your trying to impose your ideas on them only causes more tension and their fear gets more exhilarated which is not needed
What happens to our consciousness that just by entering the ashram we feel happy and light?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes, the vibrations of the place does affect the mind. That is why, ashrams are there and temples of knowledge are there for you to meditate and soak in the atmosphere.
Whatever is happening, that energy gets absorbed by the trees, stones and everything around in the creation. Why do people go to Bodhgaya 2000 years after Buddha got enlightenment? The Bodhi tree is still there and people feel the vibration there. Why do we go to different temples or Jyotirlingas? All these temples have at one point of time, been places of knowledge and saints and sages have lived there. That’s why these places became Teerthsthaan (places of spiritual significance or pilgrimage spots).
But today, you see that all the energy has disappeared from most of these places. They have become places of rituals and not meditation. We should re-establish meditation in all these places. That is why it is said, ‘Swayamhiteerthanipunanthisantah’ (sages sanctify all the places of pilgrimage by their mere presence). This is needed.
What was Rishikesh some 40 years back? It is not what it is today. 40 years back people were discussing knowledge and wisdom. And today, there is only loud speakers and some activities there.
Is there any connection between DNA and our ancestors? If so, please throw some light.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes, absolutely there is. Where do you think your DNA originated from? It didn’t drop from the sky. Obviously,it has come from your ancestors. But I can tell you one thing that you may not know, a banana contains 50% of your DNA. A human being and a banana share 50% of the same DNA which means two bananas equal to the DNA of one human being. or one banana is equal to the DNA of half of a human being. This is what the scientists say.
Gurudev, I am in love with someone. How can I make out whether it is love or infatuation?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You fall in love and you want me to tell you whether it is true love or not! You would need to decipher this yourself. Only the person who is eating would know the taste of the food. How can someone else advise on that?
The question ‘Who am I’ has been pricking me since childhood and has not gone away and it drives me absolutely insane. Nothing makes sense. What to do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You are such a fortunate person. If other questions are driving you insane, I would not say so, but if this question ‘Who am I’, is driving you insane, you are the luckiest person, and you are the best seeker. This is good. Hold on to it!Don’t let this craziness go away. It is this craziness in you which brings charm in life. Anyone who has any type of craze will have a spark in their life. It is good to be crazy about something and the craze to know about oneself is wonderful.
Don’t read too many books. Reading books is detrimental to this. This question, ‘Who am I?’should lead you to meditation. That is the best thing. That is enough. Hold on to it, and don’t go and ask anyone else who are you?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
This simply means to realize that you are loved, that's all.
Love is not an act, it is what you are; your state of being. When you are calm, serene and subtle, that's what it is. Usually here in the west, if one is angry at oneself then it is understood as ‘I don't love myself’. If you are angry at others that means you don't love others, no. Love is there, you should never question it.
Love gets distorted when there is no knowledge. With knowledge, it remains pure. When love gets distorted it becomes anger. You love perfection and so you get angry. You want things your way and so you get anger. When you love objects, that is greed. When you love yourself too much that is possessiveness! This is all love coming forth as emotion. So, if you love yourself just relax in peace, don't be hard on yourself.
There are two occasions on which people are hard on oneself:
1. When they pity themselves.
2. When one feels, ‘Oh, I'm so righteous, I'm too good, I did so much and see nobody recognizes me, nobody loves me’.
Thinking about your goodness you can become hard on yourself, and thinking about your bad qualities you become hard on yourself. In either case, you go off balance. When you think good about yourself you will definitely find bad qualities in others. You will search and find the wrong in others, otherwise you can never feel too good about yourself. Also, when you think others are so good and I'm not that good, I have these negative qualities then you become hard on yourself. In either case, you have fallen, you are not on your bicycle, you are not balancing.
Usually we think that people who are hard on themselves are those who criticize themselves. When you praise yourself also you are hard on yourself! Do you see what I'm saying? When you stick to your good qualities you are hard on yourself, and when you stick to your negative qualities you are hard on yourself.
Gurudev, everything seems so simple and so easy when I'm here but once I'm out of here, that’s when all the challenges start.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
That's why it is necessary to be in the Guru's cocoon till you are able to fly as a butterfly. Knowledge is easier here. A worm's intention is to become a butterfly, but it does the opposite, it gets into a cocoon where it cannot even move out. Either you can be a worm or you get into the cocoon and then you start flying. That's why you find it easy here.
What are your thoughts on home schooling?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
That's up to you. If you want to play multiple roles, you can do that. But I think children should go to school and mix with other kids.
See things from a bigger perspective. The world is like a dream. If you are stuck to events, you can never see the being. Being is beyond events, so your purpose in life is to realize the being and stick to the being, not to the events. Events are just like a drama. An actor comes in several different dresses and performs and gets back into the screen. If your mind is stuck in the event, there is no better ignorance than that. You are so ignorant then you live in a small hole, you have to get the events out of your head. Pleasant, unpleasant, all events. Do you see what I am saying?
All that happened this morning – you standing at the airport when I came out of the VIP room, isn’t it all like a dream now? What is a dream? It's an impression in the mind. What is a memory? It is an impression, that's it. Everything that has happened till this moment is like a dream.
Why we say it's like a dream, because in the waking state you are experiencing a dream. In a dream, you don't have control. But in the waking state you can create, remember or recollect, that is why it's like a dream, but it is an impression. So, realizing the dream-like nature of the world moves you onto another dimension, and that is where reality begins.