Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Q: What is unconditional love and how can we love a personunconditionally, and when can we do that?

Sri Sri: When you don’t want anything inreturn, that is called unconditional love. Not even a thanks or a sense ofgratitude or gratefulness. A lot of times people help others but these littleexpectations are there and that is what bugs them and pulls them down. That is alsoa condition.

Unconditional love comes naturally as your consciousnessblossoms. You can’t force it on yourself or cultivate it. I don’t know how tocultivate it. It’s simply a phenomenon. When your consciousness expands, rises,then, what comes out of it is unconditional love. You say, I’m here for you andI want nothing from you. This comes to you and it has come to you with some peoplebut with many others, you have some expectations.

Q: Guruji, how do we handle situations where we feel we havebeen blamed unfairly?

Sri Sri: Just with a smile. In this world,there is place for ignorance also. If someone is blaming you, it is out oftheir ignorance. And if it is not ignorance, it is mal-intention or jealousyand I would club all these emotions as part of ignorance. So, the best is you moveon and don’t get stuck because you have no way to control other’s opinion andyou don’t need to - everyone can have their own opinion. The best formula is toeducate and ignore. You have to; if someone says, you are a thief, you can’tsay, let him have his opinion. You educate him. If they believe it or not it’sup to them. So, keep this as a formula in every relationship. Educate andignore. If you just ignore in the beginning, you will only exhibit arrogance.Educate is also a little strong word. You can say inform and ignore, which iseven better. In education, there is more effort. In anger, people say, I willteach him a lesson.

Q: In spite of doing Sudarshan Kriya daily , still some emotions keep bothering me, lust, greed and jealousy. How do I get free of them?

Sri Sri: Your desire to be free indicates that you’re already on the way out. It is already going away. Do not be too hard on yourself. Practices will help you a lot.

Q: Dear Guruji, I’m feeling so lost in this world. Youalways say, ‘Life must be juicy’. But there is no juice anywhere. In everywork, there seems to be complete emptiness. Don’t know what to do, where to go?Please guide.

Sri Sri: You are in the right place. Just behere. Is it not juicy here? Is it dry and empty? Of course, it’s hollow andempty when you sit and meditate. But now, you see it’s so celebratory and fun.No one can ever say its dry here.

Look at everyone and the smile on their face. Yes, when youwant to take something from the world, the world will appear to be completelydull and lack. But when you want to contribute, the picture changesdrastically!

Q: Could you please explain how consciousness is stronger thanmatter?

Sri Sri: Well, in the pressure cooker, when youare cooking, when there is more pressure – how is it built up? Water vapor! Andis that more powerful than water or not? So, subtler you go, the more powerfulthe things are. Now, this thing (Guruji shows the small silver cymbals in thehands) has silver molecules. When you break the silver molecules down, you getinto atomic particles, and, when you break them you get sub-atomic molecules,which is minuter than the minutest. Are they not powerful? Which is powerful –this cymbal is powerful or the atom is powerful? Atom is powerful.

The subtler we go, it becomes more and more powerful.Though, everything is made up of consciousness. This entire universe is made upof consciousness, when you become subtler and subtler, they become morepowerful.

Today I was watching a research done with water in Japan bya gentleman. He kept a little water in a bottle and took a photograph. Later hehas used the same water for prayer and then after prayer he has took aphotograph. You can see the impact of prayer - the subtle thought vibration hasgone into the water. It’s obviously visible.

He took a bottle of water and kept blaming it and then tooka microscopic picture of it. With another bottle, he said some pleasing wordsand you can see the difference.

In India, this process is called Abhimantra. You takea pot of water, place your hand on top and then chant mantras. The mantras aresupposed to be absorbed into the water. It is an old tradition in India. Whenyou go to any holy man or saint, you take a pot of water and ask them to blessthe water. Among the sindhi community, they do this a lot.

This Abhimantra - mantra chanting on the water - hasa huge impact on the water, because 70% of our body is water. In the Rudrabhisheka,water is made to fall on a crystal lingam while a particular chanting is beingdone and then it flows down. That water is very charged and it helps to upliftthe atmosphere.

Now it is visible in the microscopic images, the changesthat happen by these practices.

Similarly a gentleman from Russia came and conducted anexperiment in Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu when they were doing the Aarti.He took the pictures and found that all the negative ions in the atmospheresuddenly disappeared; they turned into positive ions. It is the positive ionswhich bring changes. All these things are meant to create the positive ions; tobring the required changes. The same is the case with the use of fire. Duringfire ceremonies, when they put the mantra with the intention, there is aqualitative change that happens in the atmosphere.

Q: How do you know the answers for all the questions?

Sri Sri: I don’t have one for this!

Q: Guruji, does choosing a Guru means one can’t follow theteachings of other masters? Can one have more than one Guru?

Sri Sri: Oh! It’s so hard to manage one Guru,how can you…! (laughs) It’s not easy. Respect everybody but follow one path.Honor everyone and you will see, all the masters have said the same thing.There is only one truth, so, they have said the same thing, but the methods aredifferent as per the needs of the time.

You don’t have conflict when you are on this path. Whicheverpath you were there, they have blessed you and that’s how you have come here.You have served those paths, those teachers, those masters and their blessinghas brought you here, with this conviction you move forward. Ok?

It’s just that if you keep trying everything, you get soconfused! So, I would say, see one in all and all in one as a principle.

Honor everyone and follow one path.

Q: The soul takes staying forever and takes birth tillgetting moksha. Then, who lives in hell?

Sri Sri: Why do you want to explore hell now? Ihave never been there, so I can’t tell you what it is.

Q: What to do if yourGuru or Mentor is displeased with you?

Sri Sri: You make fast progress! Guru isdispleased with your progress. So, now you gear up and progress more. Run fast!

Q: Guruji, is there any connection with the mood and thetiming of the day? Why do we feel different at different times, like one feelslow in night time.

Sri Sri: Ya, ya! Time and mind are connected.You should know this. Time and mind are synonymous. There are eight substances:Vaisheshika, Kanada…all these people have said, ‘Desha, Kala,

Manah.’ Desha is space, Kala is time and, Manah - the mind.They are all tatvas, principles. And all these principles are connected. Deshaand kala are connected. Space and time are connected. One day on this planetEarth is already many days on another…in the moon. In moon, it is different.So, if you are on Jupiter, one human year is only one month. In Jupiter if youhave to experience one year, that is 12 years of earthly time.

Jupiter takes 12 years to go around the sun. Similarly ifyou are on the planet Saturn, 30 years is one year!

Similarly, pitras, people who have died, our human one yearis one day for them. So our six months is only one night and six months is oneday. So, for a soul which has departed our whole year is one day. There aredifferent times and different space in different dimensions. So, time and spaceare connected. It’s called the time-space curve. The same with the thirddimension that is mind! The mindless, transcendental consciousness is calledMahakala, the Shiva, the fourth state of consciousness.

It’s called Mahakala, means great time, and the no-mind. Theno mind is great time.

So, morning from 4.30 to 6.30, just before sunrise, beforedawn, it’s called the most creative time.

Brahma muhurta! And then, every two hours it’s called alagna; which means, one unit of time. And this unit of time corresponds to thestate of mind. And again this is connected with the moon’s position, the sun’sposition. There are so many aspects! Ten different aspects influence the mind.So, not only the time or hour of the day affects the mind, also the quality ofthe days affects the mind. Every two and a half days, the mind changes! Themood of the mind! So, if you are upset, it can continue for two and a half daysat maximum; it doesn’t have to be two and a half day. It rises to a peak anddrops. But after two and a half days, you cannot have the same emotion with thesame intensity.

Impossible! It changes. Switches! It is a great, great science,how mind, mood and time are connected.

Jyotish shastra has a lot of insight into this. Youknow the astrologers, usually, all these weekly column astrologers say, ‘Oh,good for relationships, good for making money, this and that!’ They write thosethings (laughs!). They generalize those things, ‘If you are born on this timethen this is good for you and you do this.’ Of course, it’s too generic andit’s just a money-making thing that they do. But it is not hoax; there is aniota of truth in it. The underlying base has truth. The principle that the mindand time are connected is correct.

Mind means moods, thoughts, opinions, ideas, all thesethings that we collect. And, no mind is meditation. Dawn and dusk areconsidered very good for mediation. So,whenever you meditate, or whenever the bad time is there, you meditate. Whenyou meditate you go off the influence of the mind and go into the self. Theself is Shiva tatva. Shiva tatva means, always benevolent, caring, loving,uplifing. That consciousness deep within you which is caring, loving,uplifting and benevolent, will nullify the negative influences of the mind andthe time.

So, in India it is a very common belief, whenever there isbad time just say, Om Namah Shivaye, and it’s gone. All that bad time isgone. ‘Manah’, when read from the other side, it becomes Namah.Manah is when consciousness goes outside in the world, and Namah iswhen the consciousness goes inward. Shivaye, towards the Shivaprinciple, the fourth state of consciousness, the subtlest aspect of theexistence, the Shiva tatva! So, Namah, when the mind goes towards the basicsubstratum of creation, then it can change all that into more benevolentexperience.