Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
How to increase intelligence and how to be more creative?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
To increase intelligence, you need to observe some silence. Silence is the mother of all invention. Silence is the basis of intelligence. Take few moments, hours, days of silence. I wouldn’t recommend silence for more than a few days. People go into silence for months - it is useless. They shouldn’t do too much. Time to time silence will increase all our ability. Our senses will become sharp, mind becomes more alert. You become more intelligent, you are aware about what you are speaking, your intuition becomes so much better.Q:
It is said that if someone is enlightened, his or her generations are liberated. If it is so then can one choose not to have children and devote his/her entire life to seva?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Good, no problem if you don’t choose to have children that is fine. Yet what is necessary is that you have to feel that you are the parent of the entire world, that everybody on this planet is a child and that they belong to you. At least this you can have, no one can stop you from feeling that or thinking that.Q:
Is the concept of anatama (no soul) true? Modern neuroscientists are in agreement with this idea. Please tell us what the truth is.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Lord Buddha said, “I went in meditation, I searched and searched and searched for the soul, I could not find it. So there is no soul, there is no atma.” That become anatmavad. He said everything is hollow and empty. There is no soul, there is no person, no entity. It is all nothing, everything is nothing. This is what Lord Buddha propounded.Then, after sometime Sri Adishankara came. He said Ok, is that case! You didn’t find anybody. Right? But who experienced that nothingness. Who experienced that there is no self? Who searched and found that there is no self?
Someone must have searched; someone said there is no self. That is the self. That is how using the same logic of Buddha, Sri Adishankara brought back the Vedic wisdom back into India.
And the places he travelled, today is India. From Kerela to Kashmir, from Gujrat to Orissa to Kamagya. He travelled to these areas and that became India. The Self is like the space. It is not an entity or an object. In fact, what lord Buddha said and what Adishankara said there is not much difference, only one change, a flip in thinking - Buddha says it is all nothing, Adishankara says it is all fullness, everything is full, every single inch of space is filled with knowledge and information.
He says this entire universe is consciousness and consciousness is true infinity, wisdom and information. That is why great scientists like Albert Einstein appreciated this so much. They said the Bhagwad Geeta, the Upanishads are the greatest scriptures, reading which their whole life changed. What the scientists are saying today about the black hole, dark matter, dark energy, has been said long time back.
If you listen to a quantum physics scientist and listen to Vedanta, you will feel that they are talking the same thing.
Q:
What is mukti (liberation)?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
When you take the last breath joyfully that is mukti (liberation). Those who experience some lack and are sad while dying, they return. Be satisfied at the time of your death. The one who is immersed in knowledge, even while dying, will be free.Q:
How to overcome fear?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Through sadhana, Kriya , meditation.Q:
Is there a limit for tolerance?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Sky is the limit. If someone is doing injustice, don’t tolerate yet don’t react. Respond to it. Reaction is when you just do it without being aware of it. When there is injustice, plan properly and counter it with awareness. I am not telling you to tolerate if somebody does any injustice.With skill, see how you can educate them. Tolerating means giving others sometime to improve. If their behavior is creating pain for you and you want to give them some time to improve, this is tolerance.
Then educate them with this idea that what they are doing is going to harm them so they must be educated. And then ignore because you cannot correct everyone on the planet. Some people are that way. If you go on thinking about them, then you will be spoiling your own peace of mind. So tolerate, educate, ignore and don’t react but respond.
* Yes +! is an Art of Living course, designed especially for the youth.
Q:
Whatever we see and experience in the past life regression process- Eternity - is it really our past lifetime or our desires or imaginations?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes, it could be everything, hidden desires, impressions on the mind. So take it in a light way.Q:
I feel that prayers do not come from my heart. What to do to pray from the heart?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Nothing. Do not do anything about it, just be natural. You cannot force yourself to like anything or force love and devotion. The more effort you make, the longer it takes. Be clear about two things. First, never doubt someone’s love for you or your love for someone else. Second, don’t make an effort to love or insist that someone should love you. These are the impediments on the path of love.Q:
How to decide that enough is enough? I have a child and want to go for a divorce.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Ask yourself, have you given 100 percent. If the mind says no, you have given your 80 percent or even 95 percent, then wait till you give your 100 percent. Even better, give your 101 percent for the sake of the children. A little sacrifice for the children will take you a long wayEven after that if it does not work, then in a friendly manner tell your partner that your paths are different and it is better to part.
Q:
Please tell us more about dispassion on the spiritual path.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Dispassion is centeredness. Dispassion is not disappointment or having a long face. It is being satisfied looking for something higher.