Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
How can I get rid of my fear of failing? I can’t engage or start some project because of my fear of failure. How can I help myself? Thank you for all that you have done for me.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Accept: ‘Ok, I am going to fail. So what? I still want to do it.’ It's like a game you play, whether you win or lose, you play the game. Correct? If you are playing soccer, you just play, no matter if you win or lose, you just play. In the same way, don’t be afraid of failure. If you fail, never mind, still do it. Ok?You need to take some risks in life.
Q:
How can we make a change in the economic system when the capital and big corporations control the world today?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You think about it, let me also think about it. One thing is for sure, make people more human. When people become more human, business develops the human touch. When greed disappears from the field of economy and business, a better system will definitely evolve.Q:
I am a vegetarian, can I take non-vegetarian medicines?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
What you are asking me is about the gelatin capsule. It is ok. Vegetarian capsule is preferable. At times, if the medicine is non-vegetarian, it’s ok. Don’t make a big fuss about it. If it is not available, then it is ok.Q:
I pick up garbage for Seva and I see we produce a lot of garbage every day. We are throwing away society. What can we do in our everyday life to diminish the amount of garbage? We want to take care for the environment, for our planet, for our future generations.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes, less waste is better. If you see the forest, you will realize that all the animals leave the forest very clean. There is an ecological balance. There is never a disaster in the forest. They keep the forest clean. You don’t find dead bodies of animals everywhere in the forest. Right? Nature takes care of them so well.Similarly, we should also adopt more organic methods. All the organic dispose should be more organically composted. So, such garbage, which can be put in the compost, is not the problem. Our problem is plastic, which must go to recycling units.
Q:
Is eating vegetarian food said to have better karma than eating meat? I’ve also heard that all things have consciousness. What should we do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
There are several angles to it. Karma means the latent impression in a substance and how your body matches.Suppose a lion hunts a deer and eats the deer, the lion does not get the karma. A cat eats a mouse, the cat does not get the karma of the mouse. All these animals are designed to prey and eat. However, if you see the human physiology, it is more akin to herbivores. There is a substance called ptyalin in our saliva which is present only in the cow, elephant, horse, goat – in all the herbivorous animals. This indicates that that the human saliva is made for herbivorous animals.
Secondly, the human intestine is so long – six feet. This is not present in lion, tiger or dog but it is present in all herbivores. Human beings don’t have canine teeth. All herbivorous animals don’t have canine teeth. Only the carnivorous animals do.
If you look at these aspects, physiologically our system is more akin to vegetarianism. So in that sense, we say, when you eat a vegetarian diet, you don’t get the karma of it. If you eat anything that is not aligning with your body – like if an elephant eats an egg or if you feed a cow with meat, then the cow will get the karma.
What is karma? Karma is the impression which is against the nature that can produce some change in the consciousness. It can be harmful to the consciousness.
Similarly, when we are exposed to radiation, which we are not supposed to, we get diseases. That means, we acquire those karma. Karma means the strongest impressions on the nervous system which is not all the time necessarily desirable.
If you have drugs, you have drug karma and the karma of the drug on the nervous system is so huge that after sometime, you can’t stop the drug. Then your body craves for it. Your body distorts. You go through so much of pain and suffering. It needs lot of de-programming to come out of drug addiction. It is the same for alcohol.
Food is not that strong. Yet our system is made for herbivorous, especially, if you want to go to a more subtle level in your mind and in your consciousness.
All top scientists, many achievers are vegetarians. It naturally happens. Your system wants only that. That means they are in tune with nature. That’s all. It’s not that those who are not vegetarian are not good. No, they are as good as you are. But their consciousness is much better if they tune themselves to nature.
Someone from the audience: We’re organizing a peace march in a high school. Will you come?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:i>: I’ll be there in spirit. The spirit is much bigger. Body is small. The body is like a tiny stone, tied to a huge balloon.
Q:
If someone is very stressed, how do we explain the benefits about the Art of Living program?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Just tell them, ‘Hey, I want you to do something, just sign here.’They need a little push and encouragement. When stressed, logic does not work, the mind will not work, and clarity will not be there. Decisions are never correct in that state. So they just need some help.
Q:
Should we meditate after Sudarshan Kriya?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Meditate after kriya. Don’t get up immediately after Sudarshan Kriya. Meditate for at least 10 -15 minutes. Learn Sahaj Samadhi meditation. Mantra meditation is good. Practice a guided meditation and just let go.Q:
Why is there disturbance in the world?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
There will be some pockets of disturbances in the world. There could be some gap or interval between conflicts. It is our responsibility to increase the gap between conflicts and bring peace.Q:
Is knowledge born out of meditation or is meditation born out of knowledge?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
The knowledge which is born out of meditation is authentic knowledge. Even astrologers and astronomers experience good meditation. They think about stars, galaxies and about quantum physics and they go into deep meditation. From knowledge, meditation is born. Both – knowledge and meditation - give birth to bhakti (devotion). If you do meditation, a fountain of devotion flows in your heart. Bhakti also rises in the heart of the knowledgeable person. They all are one. They seem to be different only from the surface.Q:
First, there was silence. Then an impulse came and manifested as word. Please tell us the mechanism by which yesterday’s impulse becomes today’s thought.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Have you all heard about Anadi and Anant? That which has no beginning, nor an end. Nobody knows when it started. It is present from millions of years. If we don’t know how it started, how can we know when it will end? Children often ask, ‘What is above this sky? How far does the sky go? We want to go above this sky.’ They speak this in ignorance. They say that this sky is a curtain and we want to see beyond it. Sky is ananta. It has no end.