Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Often, people have two tendencies, one for themselves and another for others. An elephant also has two tusks, one for showing and the other for chewing. It never shows the one it uses for chewing, and it never uses the one it shows for chewing. Similarly, people have two tendencies, they do not show who they are and they are not what they show. But Ganesha is not like that, it is Ekdanta, which has many meanings; danta means the one who gives, he is the only daata, giver. Ekadanta can also also mean someone who has one target, lakshya, and one face. All these qualities are focused into one, ekadanta.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Come on, wake up! All that happened in the past is finished, it is like a dream, it is done! You did something wrong and you learnt a lesson from it, it is finished. Now, move on. Broaden your vision, and don’t worry about doership and non-doership. Leave all that.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Let us take vairagya to mean contentment. Whenever you are content, that is vairagya. If you have had a full meal, and someone brings more food, you will say, "No I am full", that is vairagya. You cannot exist without vairagya. Just as you breathe in, at some point, you have to breathe out. Breathing in is raga, passion, and breathing out is vairagya, dispassion. Breathing in is passion and breathing out is dispassion, and both are essential in life.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Yes, Shankaracharya has depicted the forms of Lord Ganesha very beautifully. If you read the Ganesha Atharvashisha (Upanishad), you will know of many forms of Lord Ganesha.
Ganesha is present in all directions, in every possible form - the Earth, Air, Sun, Moon, in every form of nature. You are Brahma, Indra, Shiva, Rudra etc., they are all in your form. You can see the form of paramatma (Supreme Being) in one God, the formless in one form - this is known as meditation.

We recite the Ganesha Stotram –Shuklam Baradaram Vishnum, Shashivarnam Chaturbhujam, Prasanna Vadanam Dhyaayeth, Sarva Vighno Pashantaye. This does not have the name of Ganesha at all!
Shuklam Baradharam means the one who is dressed in white, the one who is pure. Vishnum means that he is at the very core of our being.
Shashivarnam means milky white like the full moon, cool like the moon that soothes us, and it has the rays of brightness. (There are two types of brightness, one like the sun that can hurt our eyes, and the other is so soothing that we can keep on looking at it.) Chaturbhujam, bhuja means shoulders that can bear weight, while chatur means cleverness or intelligence, which together means - one who can bear the burden easily.
Prasanna vadhanam dhayeth means that if you meditate on the one whose face is so peaceful, pleasant and remember them, you feel instantly uplifted. Sarva vighno pashantaye, then that one will give you the strength in the mind to overcome all obstacles.
This is not just for Ganesha, it is also related to Vigneshwara, but the most important part in this shloka is about the One who is present everywhere.

If you think God is angry with you, if you feel that you have committed a mistake and feel distant from him; or if you feel that God is always happy and content with you, then you develop a relationship with him.

Many times people say that you are angry with us, as if I don’t have any other work. You make a mistake and I get angry! Why should I get irritated if you make a mistake? Why will a Guru get angry? A Guru is always happy. I feel compassion if you make a mistake.
I feel, "Oh my God, why is he putting himself through so much hardship?" That is why if you think of something pleasant, remember a pleasant face, you get strength! When we think of something pleasant in our mind, the fear of the unknown goes away, we get strength to overcome the obstacle.

What is the form of Ganesha?
Ajam nirvikalpam means someone who was not born.
Nirakaram ekam - you have no form, you are the only one, and there is no one else. Nirananda mananda madhvaita poornam - you are happiness. you are the only one, the whole world is in your form.
The shloka continues with Param nirgunam nirvisesham niriham para brahma roopam ganesham bhajemam, you are the form of the parabrahma, you are present everywhere, you have the chaitanya shakti, the scintillating energy, I meditate on you in my mind.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

The five factors important for any task are: Kartaa (Doer), Karma (right action), Upakarana (instrument or approach), and so on. I urge you to find out the other means by yourself. I will not tell them all myself. The last factor required is Daiva (Divine grace or blessing) which we also call as luck or good fortune. Sadhana and Satsang helps increase one’s good fortune, and also burns away one’s Karma.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

If you only keep looking at the thorns, then when will you be able to see the beautiful flower? Even the thorny Babool (Acacia) tree bears flowers and they look so beautiful. Though this world is like the thorny Acacia tree, still there are a few beautiful flowers on its branches. Take your sight and attention to those beautiful flowers. Forget everyone else.
You should strive to overcome that negativity and inertia that is bringing you harm and hurting you. Even if there is dirt (here referring to negativity or ignorance) around you, still you should strive to blossom from within. Bloom like a beautiful lotus even if the pond is dirty. Do not trouble yourself too much with what the World is like. Instead focus on enhancing your good qualities and blossoming from within.

Everything you need is right there where you are right now, my dear, just take your sight and attention to this. You will be amazed at what you find. Instead of a blanket of thorns you will see a garden of beautiful fragrant flowers. Then you will not see the dirt and garbage around, instead you will see the beauty all around you. Instead of the violence you will see the serenity and beauty in the World.

Yes, it is true that there is tension and strife in the World today. But that is not all that is in the World. Just look at the children laughing, look at the flowers blooming around you. I tell you, there are many good people in this World. It was only in the Dwapara Yuga that there were 100 Kauravas (representing evil and negativity) and only five Pandavas (representing positivity and progress). Today there are only five Kauravas and 100 Pandavas – this is the Kaliyuga. If you only go searching for flaws and negativity, then that is all you are going to see.

Stop blaming others around you, and instead reflect on your own shortcomings first. Just think how rotten your mind has become. You should first attend to this carefully. Then you will be able to see flowers sprouting and blooming from the garbage and dirt around you (meaning that by self-introspection one will be able to find goodness even in the environment around). Do not nurture an intellect that only finds flaws and mistakes in others. Who does not have some flaws or shortcomings? If you only go on harping and focusing on the flaws and the negative, then you will also become full of that. Do you know what happens then? Then you will feel that only you are good and noble, while everyone else around you is wicked. You will be full of self-pity, and think of yourself as a poor victim of their wickedness.
Anyone who says, “People are being unjust and unfair to me”, is suffering from this very state of victim-consciousness. They want others to express sympathy and pity towards them for being a victim, and they find comfort in this. This becomes a way of attracting attention. This is a very low and poor mentality. Do you think that only you are good and all others are bad? If you think that everyone around you is egoistic, I tell you, you should first reflect on yourself about this, because only ego can recognize ego.
If you call someone as egoistic or arrogant, then what are you, my dear? Look within yourself, look at yourself in a mirror. Your language, conduct, behaviour, etc., everything would show that you are ten times more egoistic that what you suppose others to be. One who suffers from egotism or is full of arrogance is the one who goes around calling others egoistic and arrogant. They are able to recognize the ego and arrogance of others. I tell you, just be simple and natural. If someone else is being arrogant, then they will suffer the results of it. What have you got to do with it? Whenever we regard someone else as arrogant, then our own behaviour towards them becomes very incorrect and wicked. This is very natural. When someone behaves arrogantly with you, then you also tend to behave in the same way. So then it is you who will appear as the arrogant one. You will see this example everywhere. How many of you here have observed this? (Many in the audience raise hands in agreement).
We go about labelling people as arrogant. But who is really arrogant? How do you behave with someone who is arrogant and egoistic? You also become totally arrogant. So, you start behaving arrogantly because arrogance has come into your perspective. Where does humility remain anymore then?

We get entangled in useless things. We lose precious time when our mind is stuck in meaningless things and activities. You will find such characters in every family, and in every workplace. God has perhaps kept a few such people in every place to trouble and disturb others. There is a good reason behind this also. At least you will become strong from within by all this.
When you find yourself among such people, or in the midst of difficult and challenging situations, then naturally anger will arise within you, and when you calm that rising anger in you, you will become stronger. It is like an (inner) exercise. If everyone is very sweet, nice and cooperative with you, then what will happen? Whatever dirt (negativity or shortcomings) that is within you will remain as it is. But on the other hand, if you have to deal with even a few handfuls of such difficult people, then they will push all the buttons inside you and show you what flaws and shortcomings you need to overcome.
Actually, such people are in great abundance. So just think of this as a mental exercise. You will find such people in every organization and it is so difficult to even talk to them. No matter what you say, they will find it wrong. Have you ever had such experiences?
Such kinds of people are everywhere, so you need to tackle them and find your way.

Think of it as a way of cleansing your own Karma. Do not become pessimistic and lose hope because of all this. So do what you have to do and tackle them as is required.
There are four ways of dealing with any situation – Sama (Persuasion), Dama (Greed), Bheda (using secrets) and Danda (punishment). Use all four of these when required. This is called as Chaturopaya (the four ways). But before you do so, make yourself very strong from within. If you try to punish someone out of anger, then that will not work.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

The whole idea of finding satisfaction by doing something itself is not correct. Satisfaction comes from deep rest, by reposing deep within oneself. When you get established within your Self, then there is contentment. The satisfaction you think that comes by doing some work is very temporary and lasts only for a short while.
If your work is successful, then you feel the need to do more work. When you get more success, then that again drives you to work more. You do not feel like stopping after having success. On the other hand, if you face some loss or failure in what you are doing, then also you feel, “Oh, how did it fail despite my efforts? I won’t give up; I will try again and succeed”. You feel challenged to do more. So you want to work more and work harder whether you get success or failure. And in this process the search for contentment continues. You keep searching for contentment when you are constantly engaged in work, or in action. It is only in knowledge that you can find your true contentment. Fulfilment or contentment lies only in wisdom, and in deep meditation; not in any work or action as such.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

I think the world is waking up slowly; they have woken up quite some bit from where they were before. A few decades back, it was so hard to talk to people about the unseen, ethereal reality. But today, it seems much easier. People seem to get it. Anyways, there were always some groups of people who believed in something higher, something ethereal, and something unseen.

One of our ashramite boy’s father is a big industrialist. When he came and stayed at the ashram, he told his son, "You are so young, 24 only; this is the time for you to have a passion, an ambition, grow up to have a better life. What are you doing sitting in an ashram like a retired person?"

Do you know what that boy replied to his father? He said, "Dad, people are ambitious about something that is seen, visible, tangible; they want more money, a car, a plane, a little more in their life. Is there anyone who is ambitious about something that nobody has seen? Something unseen, higher, much bigger, where nobody has ventured? I am here because I want that something which nobody has seen, that something which is higher, bigger! Now tell me, who is more ambitious?" The boy’s father had to keep quiet.

These days people are much more open to the realm of the unseen, from where everything happens, from where energies uplift the planet, that which is the cause of all causes. Sometimes the path appears to be a little difficult, but ultimately it is the most comforting, fulfilling, soothing and satisfying. That which is very pleasant and comfortable in the beginning, and ends up as misery in the end (is not good), and that which is difficult in the beginning but ends up as being very sweet and pleasant in the end, is called tapas. Tapas means enduring, bearing the opposites, enduring through the toughness, so you come out successful, and that is long lasting!

One very big industrialist in India, who owned planes also, would come to Bangalore and speak to our ashramites, especially Vinodji. He would say, "I envy you, I'm so jealous of you people".
At that time, I think our people did not understand much because he had everything, they wondered how he was saying that I am so jealous of people in the ashram. Today, it is very obvious because he has lost everything. These things - position, fame, money, they all come and go, they don’t give you the stabilityand happiness in your life, which they appear to give at some point.

In the early days of this ashram, we had just one little cabin called Ganga Kutir or Sumeru Kutir? Andrew and a few others built that for me. It had just a little portable toilet, and a meditation hall. In those days, Andrew and some others worked day and night to build the Issa block, which was the first building in the ashram, and then slowly everything came up. Again, similar to the condition of the Indian ashram in the early days, we didn’t have proper amenities; we hardly had electricity. People had to carry water in buckets. Today, you have all the comforts, but there is a different joy when you are coming with such enthusiasm to do something in a place where there is nothing. To build it from scratch had its own charm.
In India, there was a big industrialist who offered me Rs. 25 lakhs (Rs. 2.5 million) to build the whole ashram for us; in those days that was a huge sum. I refused. I didn’t want one person to build the ashram, and put his name stating that so and so donated this big ashram to Gurudev. I said, "Let this place be built brick by brick by many people; let them all participate in building it, then there would a sense of ownership for everyone. Let them all feel that it belongs to them". So many people dug holes in the ground, planted trees, carried water; David was one of them. (David Watson was there when the Indian ashram was being built, right from the beginning when there was just a kutir on top of the hill; he can tell you many stories; he made the stone platform.)

Bit by bit, and piece by piece, like a puzzle coming together, our movement has been built all over the world. Even I was surprised when Beatrice took me to Tierra Del Fuego (Southern tip of South America), a thousand people were chanting Om Namah Shivaya and meditating there; it was the same when I went to Tromso, far North in Norway, where the sun just comes on the surface and goes away. I was surprised when we had people waiting there for us at the airport. I thought nobody knew us but I was surprised to find people there doing the Sudarshan Kriya weekly.

Marcy took me on a flight to Iqaluit (Canada). Do you know the story of Iqaluit? We were seven of us who got on a small plane to see the North Pole. Towards the end of the trip, there was a snow storm and our plane could not take off. This place has very strong wind; it seems when the wind comes, it even blows the steps of a house away. So the roofs of the houses are tied with thick steel ropes, like the ones used on suspended bridges, all the way down to the ground, to the steps. Suppose your house is at a height and you have about six to eight steps going to the house; if you don’t have the steps tied down with thick ropes, then your steps will be carried away and you would have to jump down from the house, there is so much wind.

When we went there, the airport authorities said the plane can’t take you back. We had gone for a day trip, so we had not even carried any clothes with us. Somehow, we stayed there, and the next day I insisted that we should leave now. When we left, halfway through the flight, we found out that the airport where we were supposed to land was closed. There were thick clouds, zero visibility and no fuel in the plane to go anywhere. The pilot said that we can’t land, and we can’t go anywhere because we have no fuel! And we can’t even see anything! Everybody said, "Well, this is the end!" But there was no fear! Just imagine the situation, the pilot was so nervous, he didn’t know what to do! He could not go back, he had no fuel, and there was no way to land since it was all so thick.

Marcy and Shirley and the others on the plane said, "Oh what do we do!" I said let us just chant Om Namah Shivaya anyway, if we are supposed to come down with the body, then so be it, and if not, only the body will go down, we will go up anyway! We all chanted Om Namah Shivaya; we were singing, and suddenly the pilot said, "Hey! Wait! I’ve found a hole in the thick clouds, I will take this risk". He jumped down through the thick clouds and landed when the airport was closed. The highway was full of thick snow since there was a snowstorm; there was no electricity when the plane landed.
The airport authorities came running as we landed saying, "You’re not supposed to land now, why did you land, you can’t land!"
The pilot said, "What do I do? I had no fuel, I can’t go anywhere!" And that is how we came back! When we came back there was no water, there is ice everywhere but no water. We did something, I don’t remember now. But see the beauty here; nobody was worried, nobody was complaining! Tell me, could there be any situation with more anxiety? People who are in comfortable spaces say, "I have anxiety, neurosis!" You should have had anxiety being in that situation!

I think we should put people who complain about anxiety in a plane, and say there is no fuel now! All the fear will disappear. What are we so anxious about? An interview or something? We were seven or eight of us in that plane and none of us were anxious, not a bit. I think I can speak up for everybody. They were all smiling, cracking jokes, up in the air, over 20,000 feet above!

How many of you didn’t know about this story? When was this? 2003! The story is in Marcy’s book! We had many such adventures, and that was really something adventurous. The person who was really anxious and excited was our pilot when he saw the hole through the thick clouds!

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

For now, this is real, and tomorrow that is real! This real helps you to deal with that real. (Applause from the audience)

And when that real appears to be very difficult, remember you had another level of reality in which you lived, and experienced. That very remembrance will give you the strength to carry on. Then, when you are totally drained, you can always come back here to recharge.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

It feels good, isn’t it that is the purpose. Infusing a little energy, and those seeds of wisdom uplift the consciousness because your consciousness knows this at a deeper level. Somewhere in our depth, we understand these chants, and in some unknown manner, it energizes, uplifts and soothes the spirit; doesn’t it feel that way? How many of you feel it, the moment you hear some chanting, you feel something soothing, isn’t it?