Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Soul is the English word, Atma is Sanskrit. The root word of self is swa, swa means atma. Most of the English words, when you go into the root, you’ll find Sanskrit there.Swa means Self.Swa means Atma. Jeeva is the Self enclosed in the mind. It’s like the air enclosed inside a balloon. Jeeva has sukha –happiness,dukha-sorrow, sanghata- it has associations, chaitanya- it is conscious, dhrti. These are five attributes of the jeeva, the embodied Self. Sanghata- it has impressions of associations, it is conscious and dhrti, it upholds.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Listen, our job is to empty and you want to put a concept in it! Explanation is a concept, isn’t it? Scientifically know that everything is hollow and empty, your throat is hollow. That’s how you could swallow, and that’s how you could drink. Isn’t it? If the stomach is not hollow, how could you stuff so many truck loads of food in it? Isn’t it? And it gets empty very soon. See per day, just imagine, per day you consume 2 KG of food easily, isn’t it? In one year you consume 750 kilos of food. That is almost a truckload in one year, and if you’re 40 years, 40 truckloads of food have gone through your whole body. How can it happen if it’s not hollow and empty? How can you breathe in so much air every day and breathe out if it is not hollow? Do one thing. Take a small piece of your skin and go to a lab and put it under a microscope and you will see it is like a mosquito net. Your skin is all hollow and empty. So what we are saying in hollow and empty mediation is a fact. To be with the fact, to bring to awareness the fact that you are breathing; you are there, your body is here and the body is different from the floor, floor is different from body, and the skin is different from the clothes. So when we go on analyzing, seeing like this, meditation happens. Does it happen or not? How many had a good meditation today? Three dimensions are with us: body, breath and mind. You never pay attention. Body is one dimension, breath is another dimension, then what is watching and knowing this is the mind. This is another dimension. So the three dimensions, once you see are all separate,then boom, something happens.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Well, that is done. You have promised and it’s done. Move on. I know many people have used my name that way and people also know. People take Guruji’s name and get their way through. So anyways, there is no point in regretting the past. You have taken the resolution you will not do that again. So move on, okay? Done.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
This is important. Talk less, observe more. Second, don’t put your ideas too much so that the other person doesn’t digest it or take it, got it? Don’t keep pouring your ideas. Sometimes we do that, we pour too much of our ideas. The other person, you don’t even observe whether they’re grasping it,whether they’re understanding it or not. Third, don’t bore them with your stories of failures or success. Your failure stories will bore others as much as your success stories. Oh I went here, I did this, I did that and the listener will say, ‘Oh my god when will this guy stop’! But in your own mind, there is such a joy that comes to you while talking; you don’t consider the other person’s listening ability at all. We don’t think about their listening ability or their relevance to it. How many of you agree with that? We must watch out for that. And then, instead of telling them what you like, ask them what they want, what do they like. Sometimes we declare all that we like and we dislike. Who asked you to declare? It’s not an income tax department, asking you to declare your assets or your achievements; we go out of the way to declare all of our achievements, our likes and our dislikes. For a listener,you appear to be a very self centered person, drop this. The more pleasant you are, the more centered you are, you’ll be more liked by people. What do you say? Correct. Be centered and you want nothing from the person. We, in our mind, we want some recognition from the other, we want some appreciation from others, we want some favor from others. Favor, recognition, or appreciation these are the things that puts a break on you being very friendly with people. In the heart when you say, ‘ I want nothing from this person, I don’t need to be appreciated by them’, then you will see the big shift that happens within you. It’s not out of arrogance that I want nothing from anybody, that’s not arrogance. Do you see what I’m saying? There’s a difference between arrogance and this. In arrogance still you want some recognition, yes? You don’t look for an approval or recognition from them. You should remember that everybody is caught up in their own little world.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
This can happen only happen with two things - either your job or your relationships! In these circumstances my single advice is ‘choice is yours blessing is mine’.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Shiva is the principle in which everything is born, into which everything will go. There is no escape from Shiva. Shiva tatva means Shiva Principle. Shiva is not a person. Shiva is the space, is the consciousness. To describe that they put Shiva in blue. Blue means like the sky. You know, Shiva’s description is so beautiful (reciting a Sanskrit verse) it’s like liberation, liberation from everything. It is the lord, it is the most powerful, it is all over, spread everywhere. There is no place that it is not. It is where all the knowledge is present, that consciousness, that space. It has no attributes. It was never born, Shiva was never born nor has any attributes. It is a Samadhi state where there is nothing, just the inner sky of consciousness. That is what is Shiva. Where there is alertness and no action. To describe the alertness they put a snake around Shiva’s neck. They put a trident in the hands of Shiva - means it is beyond the three states of waking, dreaming and sleeping. Shiva is holding a trident that means it is beyond the three states, in the fourth state, which is absolutely benevolent. The one state in which everything exists in the universe -the dark space, the dark energy - scientists today started calling it the dark space and the dark energy - in which everything else exists. The sun, moon, stars, everything exists in this one solid state of consciousness.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Why should we not? Listen, now why should we have so many types of vegetables? You should have had only one egg plant. You should have asked why there are so many types of fruits. There are grapes, oranges, so many types of oranges, so many types of bananas. You should have had only bananas. Nature should have created only bananas. You eat the banana and go bananas. You would have really gone nuts. Nature loves diversity. So nature made so many types of rice. You know, in rice there are 152 types in India alone. World over if you count there are thousands of types of rice. There are types of rice, types of cows; different types of vegetables, fruits. The Divine loves diversity. So the Divine can manifest itself in so many diverse forms. That is what the ancient people said. You should give the freedom for Divine to wear whatever clothes it wants to wear. Don’t say that the should come in the same dress all the time.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Practice and dispassion.I have many brilliant ideas for doing seva, but I don’t know how to go about implementing them. Also because I am not good at team work, I don’t know how to ask for help from other people.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Listen, don’t label yourself as,' I am not good at team work'. If you are not good at team work, then they will make you here. This is the opportunity for you. Accept people as they are and get into a team. Get into somebody’s team, whatever they may say, 'oh it is so sunny', when it is so cloudy, you say, 'yes okay!' It doesn’t matter what they think but what they do matters. You say,' okay, if it is sunny for you let it be sunny, come let’s sweep the floor, let’s take care of the plant, let’s keep the place clean. Let’s wash the dishes in the kitchen. How does it matter if it is rainy or it is sunny, you have to go and wash the dishes', you go and wash. So don’t sit and argue with people to see what you see, that they should also agree with you. We should agree to disagree - simple formula. You think God is blue, fine, for you he is blue, for me he is white. It is okay. He can be white, for another he is red, never mind, come, let’s all be together, dance together, eat together, do something together. This is very important. Team work is absolutely essential; we should go into such a team.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
See, God is love and that love is everywhere, isn’t it? And wherever you see that, that is your God. See God in everything, in the birds, in the trees, in the flowers, in the sun, moon, the whole universe is filled with love. God is in our heart and that’s why you recognize that and see God is in everyone.