Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
How to control HIV?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
The awareness campaigns have already brought HIV under some control. Education is the only way you can stop it. Medical education as well as spiritual education has to be emphasized. Pranayama, breathing exercises, learning about the breath and meditation can arrest promiscuous tendencies to a great extent.Q:
How can we attain that wisdom?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
By adopting an attitude of enquiring.Q:
Who am ‘I’? And what ‘that’ is? Can these two questions coexist?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Of course. Yes. The theory of relativity has already accepted this. The observer has an impact on the observed. This was taught some thousands of years ago. But people kept it a secret. This is where we missed out.Q:
What is true happiness?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Know the reason of your unhappiness. If you remove it, then there will be happiness. Meditate. Just do the Sudarshan Kriya and you will find out.Q:
How do you know all these things?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Life is a journey from an angry “I don’t know” to a beautiful “I don’t know!”Q:
Why do other people’s feelings inflict us?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Because you are not a single individual but a part of a single collective consciousness.Q:
Why don’t you suggest government to include spiritual knowledge at the level of class 10th, at least in India?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
I have been telling it. Now, you all should give voice too.Q:
Why are we attracted to objects we should not be attached to, even though we know this is unhealthy?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
We don't understand this aspect well enough. We still feel there is some joy in those objects, and this misleads us.Q:
What is pooja? You said that giving a big smile in the morning is pooja. Is it ok to smile instead of washing the idol and offering it incense and flowers?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Absolutely, there is no need to wash the idol and decorate it, and in the night you needn’t put it to sleep.Just do sadhana and feel the Divinity within yourself.
However this doesn't mean that you stop doing pooja on special occasions. Doing meditation is important, but on special days, make sure you do pooja.
If you don't do this, then children won't get the sanskaar (culture) of prayer. Children should feel the sense of belongingness with God. If you don’t do that, then the first thing they will do in the morning is to turn on the television. This is because there is no memory of God. You should have God’s pictures in the house. After seeing God's pictures, children light incense, and offer flowers.
Life is a celebration, sit, pray, light lamps and incense and do kirtan (singing in a group). This is important.
Read some mantras, say, “Om Namo Bhagvate”, “Om Namo Narayanaya”, “Om Namah Shivaya”, then the prana shakti (life energy) in the environment will get awaken.
Q:
Should we follow the advice we get in dreams?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
There are five sources for dreams:1. Your dreams may come from your desires
2. Your dreams may come from your fears
3. Your dreams may be delusions
4. Your dreams may be premonitions of future events
5. Your dreams may be a result of the place you are sleeping in
We experience different things in our dreams. Usually, our dreams are a mixture of the above. Our dreams are of things from the past, future, and of various types.
Don't analyze your dreams too much. If a dream comes, let it come, and just go ahead with your life.