Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
Guruji, recently I was recording your conversation in which you had spoken about reincarnation and rebirth and the sanskaars of previous births. One thing that intrigues me is it seems that the laws of the world are different to the Divine laws. Those things that are valued here apparently do not find favour with God. Gaandhaari had asked Lord Krishna what her sin was that she lost all one hundred sons in the battle. Lord Krishna asked Gaandhaari to revisit her previous lifetimes. In regressing into her past lifetimes, she discovered that 108 lifetimes ago she had killed 108….., and now 108 lifetimes later she was reaping the consequences of her actions through the loss of her 100 sons. Worldly laws state that justice delayed is justice denied. So, how come the rules are different in God's kingdom versus the world? Secondly, we are preached to practice kindness and compassion towards one and all, whereas when a major calamity befalls someone, it is explained away as the inevitable result of praarabdha karma. If there is no compassion in God's kingdom, why are we expected to practice compassion and forgiveness while others are committing sins/crimes? Why this disparity between divine and worldly dispensation?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Look, Divine and worldly dispensation are one and the same, they are not discrete. God is inseparable from this world. He is all permeating. Sarvam khalvidam Brahma - All this is verily Brahma. If you stick your hand in a fire, you get burnt instantly. However, if you sow a mango seed, or for that matter a coconut seed, in the ground, how long does it take to grow into a fruit-bearing tree - 4-6 years? Similarly, there are some actions whose consequences are immediate and there are some actions with a delayed outcome. If your grandfather/forefather toils for 20 years to set up a factory, who will enjoy the fruits of his labour - you will! Applying the same logic, karma and its consequences are eternal and beyond comprehension. Some karma can be resolved only by dealing with the consequences, whereas the outcome of some karma can be modified / modulated. For example, while preparing sooji (semolina) halva, the proportion of ingredients can be adjusted with respect to one another. However, once cooked sooji cannot be reverted back to its uncooked state. Similarly, what your height is today is praarabdha karma, but what your current body-weight is can be changed (reduced/increased). That is why doing dhyaan (meditation), jaap(chanting), havan(sacrificial fire), daan (charity) help change karma. We may have, unknowingly, harmed someone. Our shaastras (scriptures) recommend sharing a few grains of rice from our meal with birds and other creatures; having an attitude of gratefulness for all we have received in life also resolves karma. Do not criticize or condemn anyone. However, on the path of Self-knowledge forget about your sins and merits, and just relax and be happy. The more relaxed we are, the more spontaneously (naturally) things get done. When we were building the ashram, I did not seek advice from a Vaastu consultant. Several years later, some Vaastu specialists commented on how all structures were in their proper place with respect to one another. Our consciousness itself is Shaastra, so if we listen to our consciousness, our intuition, we will function in accord with nature. Everything will be okay. That is why it is called intuition. Suppose you have no knowledge of electronics, but you need to tackle an electronics issue. You intuitively play around with the wires, and eventually the problem will get resolved. Many people have experienced this. Once I was going from London to Birmingham where I was scheduled to give a talk. This happened more than twenty years ago. Birmingham is a big city. One gentleman realized an hour after we had left London that he had forgotten to obtain the address or the directions to the venue in Birmingham. There were no cell phones in those days. So I decided to intuitively guide him, telling him to take this turn here and that turn there, until we reached the street in Birmingham on which the venue was located! What I am saying is, the Shaastra is not a book, you yourself are Shaastra. If you study your consciousness, your mind, that is what is in the Shaastra. This is how the knowledge of Vaastu Shaastra, Ayurveda has been derived. In this country, dance, music, art, science, have all emerged from the consciousness of the spirit, through meditation. So meditate, meditation is supreme. All this will manifest when you meditate. In english it is known as intuition. Intuition means that which is 'right'. This power is within everyone, but use it occasionally, not all the time.Q:
After passing MBBS (medicine) there is too much pressure to pursue post-graduation because it is quite genuine that our MBBS curriculum doesn’t create enough confident doctors to do independent practice. Guruji please say a few words for the young doctors.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You have a great responsibility to take care of the health of the people but never stop studying.Q:
Gurudev, I was thinking since you spoke about Pakistan, so don’t you think Art of Living is a better option than educational reforms in Pakistan because any educational reform in my opinion is going to cover people of age group, let us say, five to twenty five; any one older than that might be reluctant to go to school or attend educational seminars or things like that, but Art of Living is such that it covers the whole range of population?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
That is what we are doing. We are educating people in all levels.Q:
We are using a very small percentage of our brain now, how to increase that?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You at the right place! And you will get exactly the right thing to increase the percentage.Q:
Every thought that comes to the mind is either related with acquiring security or running away from security, so how to come out of this?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Is it so? Every thought! (Answer – 'Almost every thought') Now you came from every thought to almost every thought, again analyze. (Answer – 'Not sure') Not sure! So ‘not sure’ question does not get a ‘sure’ answer! If you think you know your mind then you really don’t know and if you know you don’t know your mind then you really don’t know. So what you need to do is observe your mind, ‘Oh wow look at this mind saying so many things’, right. So in-between when your mind remains quiet, those quiet moments, even for a few seconds, few minutes, morning or evening or afternoon, anytime, you recharge your whole system, got it. Just being afraid of yourself or your situation in life is not going to make you any better or give you any security. See you have been dependant when you were a baby right. Did you earn your own bread when you were 5 months old baby? Then nature put the thought in somebody’s mind to feed you. When you were a baby you were so dependant, right! You could not walk, 5 months old baby, where does it walk. So everything, you were dependant when you were born. And whomsoever you think my father, my mother, somebody will do, it is that one intelligence, that Divinity through those people it provided everything for you, right! Got it or not? Then you grew older, and you grew older and older and then much older and then again somebody has to help you out. So in-between these few years you think you are independent, it is just an illusion. Even then you are dependent on some unseen force or power which rules everything, which rules your breath, which rules your circulation, which rules almost every moment of your life. But in-between this age, in-between being too old or too young we think we are in control,that too only in your waking state of consciousness.You are not in control in your dream or your sleep also. If suddenly your breath stops coming in and going out of you while you sleeping, what to do! There is some power which propels the breath to keep moving in and out, yes! And that power, that consciousness has all intelligence of the world. And when the cell phone came you start realizing there is a power in the space. See you take a cell phone, press some letters, some buttons and that’s it, that electromagnetic wave goes to America and types out the same message in that person’s phone box. Isn’t this a big miracle, we take it for granted. We don’t see that whatever was typed, that was absorbed as energy and that intelligence went through the space and is exactly being produced the same at the same spot. That means the space between this and the tower and the tower and the other tower is filled with knowledge. Are you getting what I am saying? This space around here is filled with all that knowledge in the world. When I used to say this some 25 years ago, people would not understand. I was wondering how I am going to make them understand this. I said the space in-between is spirit. There is knowledge filled in every particle of space and I found it very difficult to explain this. But this cell phone has explained this very nicely. First what came was the fax machine. I said,'See', whatever is written on this piece of paper we put is in the machine and it reaches the other place. So when the fax machine first came I said 'hah!, now I can explain' and after that with cellphones, it is so easy to see that you don’t have to explain so much. The empty space is filled with intelligence, filled with knowledge, filled with love and compassion. The space is breathing, that is what the reality is. The space is what constitutes your inner self. So how is prayer beneficial? There is compassion in the consciousness all around you, you recognize it, and you feel it and it uplifts your consciousness, your mind. It mixes with your consciousness.Q:
Guruji, this space which is filled with consciousness, is that the Devi Tattva or the Shiva Tattva?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Both are one.Q:
Guruji, does anything called luck or bad luck exists? How to overcome bad luck?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
of course! When things happen the way you want everything to happen you say yes its good luck and when everything goes wrong you say it bad luck. How to overcome bad luck is to increase your intuition and how to increase your intuition if you ask me, MEDITATION!Q:
Guruji when I think about death, I feel dispassionate. How can one remain a karma yogi in that situation?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Look, whatever you do with dispassion (vairaagya) that has a lot of power. We work not for ourselves, but for others. Okay. When we work for others we get a certain type of satisfaction. We wish to acquire what we have not been able to get - this is called ‘Yoga’, and what we have got, we want to preserve/maintain – this is called ‘kshemam'(protection). If our mind is empty, and we are in bliss then both these begin to manifest in life effortlessly, what we have not been able to get/achieve, that comes and what we have, remains preserved. Okay, how many people have experienced this, whatever you wanted you got? And how many of you have felt that you don’t have to put much effort from your side. This is the sign of a Yogi. A Yogi does not have to make any effort to fulfil his desire but one has to perform his duties. You know all that you want, your desires, intentions are being fulfilled right, before the desire or intention arises. So that is why Yogi gets the best of enjoyments because a Yogi’s state of consciousness is such that before the desire arises the fruit is already there. He doesn’t have to struggle too hard. So for one’s requirements whatever it is, you don’t have to struggle too hard. That doesn’t mean you have to be lazy, oh Guruji says Yogis don’t need to do any work, why should I do any seva, let me just lie down all day long, let everything just happen to me. You have to do your work, not to fulfill your own desires but because you have to do certain things. You should just do it.Q:
Guruji sometime I doubt whether I am on the right path of spirituality?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
If you doubt sometimes, it is okay. If it is always there, then there is a problem. If you feel comfortable here stay on. Anyway, my job is not to take away your doubts but to increase them.Q:
To be a successful entrepreneur what principle one should follow?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes, first is confidence that ‘Yes I can do it!’ Second is ethics; you should not move from ethics. Your entrepreneurship should not move away from ethics, otherwise you will find a quick rise but you will fall that fast, as fast as you rise. Got it!