Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Gurudev, my children have brought home a puppy, and every time I touch the puppy I feel I have to take a bath before I say my prayers. I am now fed up with having to bathe so many times. What should I do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
(Laughter) It is not necessary to keep on bathing like this. You need to be clean but you can just wash your hands before you say your prayers, that is good enough. Dogs are also a part of God. We don’t bathe for God, we bathe so that we are clean, God will accept us as we are! It is only the neighbors who will have a problem if we don’t bathe! (Laughter)
Even with regard to fasting, people misunderstand it to be something we are doing for God. You are not doing it for God. God is like your mother, or your father; would they like it if you stay hungry? Or if you bargain with them saying that you will fast until they accept your demands? Parents know when to give what to their children; They know better than you. Similarly, God knows what and when to give you, so don’t fast for God; fast to cleanse your body and mind.
Ekadashi (eleventh day of the fortnight) fasting has a very scientific reason; it is done three days before the full moon or new moon day, to cleanse the body. It is said one should eat only fruits or drink fruit juice. This change in your food intake eliminates the toxins in the body, which could otherwise cause diseases. These toxins in the system get aggregated during full moon and new moon, so to keep the body healthy it is suggested that we fast, and not to keep God happy.
Gurudev, India is a rich country with poor people, and I feel that this is the case because of corruption. What are your thoughts on this?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
India was under foreign rule for many centuries. After going through all that, with a population that is three times that of America, with only one-third of their land mass, with 600 dialects and 28 languages, the country is the equivalent of a continent, and yet, it is progressing. Why don’t you see this positive side?
If you go to any village today, even in the slums, they have televisions. When we came to this area in Bangalore, there wasn’t a single tiled roof. Everywhere, in all the villages, there were only thatched roofs. (I also liked the thatched roof but when it rains, it would leak.) Today, do you see any thatched roofs at all? No!
India is growing very fast. In spite of seven religions in this country and so many languages, yet there is harmony. We have relatively less number of mental hospitals or even cases of depression. Of course, we have our negative side; there is corruption, uncleanliness, lethargy and indifference.
Last year, there was this huge cry of India being intolerant; I would say that India is not intolerant, it is indifferent. We should have some more intolerance towards corruption and injustice, but we don’t do that, we take it all in our stride. This is where we need to wake up.
At the same time, there are many positive things. There are so many large-hearted people in this country. If you go to a village, they may have only one glass of buttermilk, yet they will share half of it with you. There is still that feeling of caring and sharing in every village here. It may not be the case with urban cities; they have become the same all over the world.
If you see only the negative side, you will feel there is no hope. Then you will say, “This is so corrupt, let me also become corrupt.” Your motivation to stand up against corruption will die. But if you see the positive side, then you will have the motivation to stand up. Whenever you see the negative, you should see the positive side also. If you had these problems anywhere in Europe, India would have become like the former Yugoslavia or the Balkan States and broken up into pieces. What is it that unites the whole country? It is spirituality!
I want others to appreciate me.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Whenever you expect anything from others, appreciation or anything else, you are not being independent, and this is bound to bring you down. You must say, “I don’t expect anything from others, but whatever I need to do, I will keep on doing it.”
Gurudev, we keep asking you questions. Do you have a question that you would like to ask us?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
I am asking you this question, ‘Do you follow a Guru?’ I ask everyone questions all the time; I ask them ‘How are you?’ ‘Are you happy?’ Though I know the answer still I ask. These are the only questions I ask, and I am not looking for answer. I ask the question only to engage you. I am asking questions so that you feel good about it. My questions are not for myself, my questions are for you, to make you happy. This is a secret I have shared for first time. I never tell this secret to anyone.
You once said that Guru is a presence, it is not a person, what does this mean?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
See, certain questions have no answers. If you have to say whether you follow a Guru, the answer is neither ‘Yes’ nor ’No’. If you say ‘No’, then the question has no meaning. If you say ‘Yes’, then it has no meaning.
You say, ‘Yes and No’. ‘Yes’ means you have a Guru. ‘No’ means you are not following your Guru because Guru has already reached and he is giving you his hand.
When the Guru is looking down, you don’t look down, you look up. When the Guru is giving his hand down, you don’t give a hand down, you should give your hand up. Got it!
If you say you got it means you didn’t get it, and if you say I didn’t get it, then you got it (laughter). If someone asks you, ‘Do you follow the Guru?’ You can’t say ‘No’ and you can’t say ‘Yes’. Some questions you have to answer then differently.
Why is it that sometimes we don’t trust in the Guru. Why do we have doubts that arise?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Should you follow the Guru? I am asking you. How many of you think that you should follow the Guru, raise your hands? (Everyone in the audience raise their hands).
If you are following the Guru, that means the Guru is also walking. He hasn’t reached the goal. See, the Guru is someone who knows more than you. So the Guru is standing up and he is giving a hand to the one sitting down. Guru is looking down and giving the hand down. If you also do that, where will you be?
Just imagine a ladder, where Guru is on the top and looks down and gives you a hand. If you follow the Guru, which means that you also look down and give your hand down, then what will happen to you?
When Guru looks down, you look up and give your hand up, and then you keep going up. If you follow the Guru, he looks down and you look down, you will never reach. So, don’t follow the Guru (everyone laughs loud as Gurudev explains a complete catch 22 situation).
Guru is looking down and giving his hand. You should do the opposite. You look up and give your hand. How can you reach if you do what your Guru is doing? Should you follow the Guru?
If you are following the Guru, it means the Guru is walking and you both are walking, which means you are not sure if the Guru has reached the destination. And if you say, that I don’t follow the Guru, then there is no Guru at all (Laughter). Like, if you say, I don’t take medicine means you had no doctor.
If Guru says something and you don’t follow it, then you have no Guru. If Guru says “Don’t follow me”, and you don’t follow the Guru, then you have followed. And if you follow the Guru, then you have not followed (laughter).
Devotee: Okay, so then we just drop ‘follow’. How about ‘trust’!
Doubt your Guru as much as you can. The Guru is not there to give you trust, in fact he puts a lot of doubts in your mind so that you bake and boil in the doubt, and become strong.
If you don’t trust the Guru, then he is happy; he is free. It is better for him if you doubt. If someone trusts you, then you have a responsibility. If no one trusts you then you have no responsibility; happy-go-lucky. So, why will the Guru try to keep your trust, he is happy to put more doubts so that you boil, work on it, and then walk. When they become mature, they will come back themselves.
The Guru’s idea is to make everyone strong, and all these doubts will make you strong, and if your trust remains after all these doubts, then that is the real thing.
If there are a thousand occasions to doubt and still your trust is there, then you are something! You are like a diamond. But if you keep doubting on the small things, then you are like a corn flake. How light is a corn flake? You blow a little and a corn flake will fly away. If you are like a dew drop, then with a little bit of sunlight, a dew drop dries away. Or you can be like a diamond, which stays the same. And when the sunlight comes the diamond shines more.
So why would the Guru help you hold on to your trust? Then it would be a weak trust, someday it will blow away. So doubt as much as you can, cook in your doubt, because truth is beyond doubt. Truth is something which can never be obscured forever. Everyone will discover the truth one day.
Suppose mist is there, will the mist make the mountain disappear? No! What will the mountain say, “Let the mist come and go, who cares?” When you wait for a little bit of the sun (of knowledge) to come, all the mist (doubts) disappears.
While coming here in the morning, there was so much mist, but nobody stopped driving. You doubted but you didn’t stop because something deep inside you made you keep moving. Even though doubts hang around, something makes us move, and that is our soul wanting the truth. Our inner will soul move in the direction of truth.
Once in Sweden, a journalist asked me this question, “Are you enlightened? Don’t beat around the bush.”
I looked at him and said, “No.”
He said, “You are kidding. Tell me the truth”.
I said, “What is that tells you that I am not telling you the truth? Your own inner voice. It is telling you that there is something different here. Trust in yourself and you will see that the trust grows.”
When a person doesn’t trust themselves then they start doubting others also. Doubting others is related to doubting oneself. Someone who has a lot of self-doubt will also keep doubting everybody.
Still, the journalist will not take the answer. He said, “I don’t believe what you are saying. Something in the heart know and can identify”
I said, “Yes, then you believe in that”.
So, if you say that ‘I don’t follow the Guru’, then that person is not your Guru at all. If you don’t take the medicine given by a doctor, then that man is no more your doctor. If I take medicine from you then you are my doctor. If I learn something from you then you are my teacher. If I say ‘I don’t learn anything from you’, then you are no longer my teacher. So if you say ‘I don’t follow the Guru’ that means he is not your Guru.
If you say that you are following the Guru, that means your Guru has not reached. If you say you are not following the Guru, then that person is not a Guru to you at all. So what is the answer to this question?
Devotees: We are confused!
See, Guru has reached the goal; he is at home and he is only welcoming you. There is no question of following.
Devotees: We are just chasing you wherever you go!
If you are chasing your Guru, means your Guru is also running (roars of laughter).
What is the difference between the self and the soul?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Soul is like the air in a balloon, and self is like the air in the atmosphere.
Q: Who are your main sources of inspiration?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Inspiration is always from within. When you have the commitment to do something in life, something in the world, give something to the world back, you can draw inspiration from everything and from everybody around you. You cannot decide, I want to be inspired by so and so. Inspiration is almost a spontaneous thing that happens to you. You see a child playing and something happens within you. You feel inspired. You see someone doing some good work and you want to do that.
I feel that when you are free from stress, everything can inspire you. But if you are clogged with stress, even the best of wisdom does not really enter into you.
Gurudev, I have heard that meditation helps to unravel or unlock the granthi (knots representing energy centres or nodes) in the navel region. And when the energy centre of the navel region opens up, only then can the individual soul (Atma) rise to unite with the Paramatma (Divinity or Super soul). I wish to understand more about this. Please explain.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
It is correct. As we meditate, the knot or the energy centre in the navel region opens up. When the heart centre blossoms and opens up, we feel joy. We experience different sensations and emotions only when the different energy centres of the body open up. But it is not correct to say that only then does the soul unite with God. You are never outside God. There is nothing beyond the Divine. Even if you wish to, you cannot ever be outside or separate from God. That from which you are born, That in which you exist and sustain yourself, and That in which you ultimately dissolve back into is God. This is what is told in the Srimad Bhagvatam also:
Janmaadhyasya yatonvaya-aditaratascha-artha eshvabhigna-svaraat.
Tene Brahma-hridayaa aadikavaye muhyanti yatsurayaha |
Tejovarimrudam yata vinimayo yatra trisargomrusha.
Dhamna Sva-ena sada nirastakuhakam Satyam Param Dhimahi ||
(Srimad Bhagvatam, 1.1.1)
The verse means: God is omnipresent. You know, we often say, “I AM”. God is not separate from the individual soul; God resides within us. The soul is not separate from the Divine. Knowing this eternal truth, simply relax and just be.
See, there are some things that you should seek and know about, and there are some things that you should simply take for granted as the truth, and relax. You cannot possible understand everything, and you cannot simply assume or take everything for granted. Your mind and intellect is limited; it cannot comprehend the infinite Divinity. You cannot know the Divine; you simply have to take it for granted that the Divine is present in you, all around you and at all times.
If someone tells you. “My dear, this is poison”, then you do not say “No, first I will drink it and check for myself”. You would not survive to tell what happens afterwards. So, in some cases you simply need to believe and take it for granted. If you are told that a certain galaxy is so many light years away from our galaxy, or if the Earth is revolving around the Sun – then you will have to agree and accept that fact for certain. People have proved many facts scientifically. Now then if you argue and say, “No, I will check it for myself and only then agree”, then that is foolishness. But if someone says, “Oh! This is very sweet”, then you need not necessarily agree to it. You can taste it if you like to check for yourself. So you should try to know some things, and you should simply take somethings to be true, without a doubt.
I do my Sadhana very regularly. How can I know for sure that my bad Karmas or their ill-effects are getting cleansed and removed?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
I tell you, drop everything and just become a Sharanagati. Being a Sharanagati means to have this firm faith and belief that all your Karmas have been cleansed. There is no balance that remains to be cleared anymore.
Why are you still stuck with analysing your Karmas? Just become hollow and empty. In fact, you actually have become hollow and empty – so take this truth for granted and have faith. Many times other people will advise you to do this or do that (to get rid of past Karmas) and you will get carried away into thinking “Oh! I still have to do this; I still have to do that to clear my Karma” and so on. You will get exhausted if you go on thinking like this, and even those who give you such advice will get tired after a while. Come to the present moment and know that life is new and fresh every moment.