Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
Guruji, when are you coming to my home? I want to cook Rice pudding (Kheer) for
you and serve it to you.
you and serve it to you.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
If you have to make a wish then make a great wish. This is just a small wish. If many people wish to do the same then I would have to change my name to Ganesh. So make a wish that everyone stops the use of alcohol and drugs, and takes interest in meditation. More and more people start to walk on the spiritual path and start to live in knowledge. Drop your small wishes and start blessing people with the wish that their work is done. This knowledge has such power that you can do anything in the world. All of us have that capacity. You start using yourwill power, mind power. This will benefit you and others also. How many of you have already experienced this? See a lot of people have such experiences. You know you keep stepping up from success to success. There is no option of stepping down.
Q:
Guruji is there any special message for us?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Special message is that that you are very special. All of you. When I say you, it is not for any one person but for us. All of you are very special.Q:
What is sattva and what is it’s contribution in our lives?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Sattva means that which brings harmony, that which makes you happy, that which makes you enthusiastic, that which brings knowledge in you. This is all sattva.Rajas makes you go too much up and too much down. Either you get too excited and you feel I can’t even handle this excitement or it is so down. This is rajas.
Tamas is when you feel so lazy and so negative that you don’t want anything. You dislike everybody. That is tamogun. So When you feel tamogun get up and start working, then rajogun
will come. Then when you are too much into action, I would say just sit back and
relax then you will get into satva. So, before meditation do some exercise. When
you do all this the restlessness or rajas in you calms down. Then you are able
to meditate. Didn’t it happen to you today? (Audience:Yes). How many enjoyed the
meditation. Raise your hands (Lots of people raised their hands). You meditated
nearly 20 minutes.
Q:
I don’t easily get things in life? Recently, my case was going on and it got dismissed?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Listen, you have made this notion in mind that you don’t get things easily in life. Who has said this? First remove this label from your mind ok? Whatever you want youask for that and go ahead with confidence, ok? Don’t think that you always fail, your things get haphazard. This is wrong. It doesn’t happen like that. Everyone faces some problems initially. It has never happened that nobody faces no problem initially, and it will never happen like that.
Q:
I am not able to sustain any work I do. What should I do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Whatever work you do you’re not able to sustain it for too long. You don’t need to sustain it for too long. Do you sustain it for sometime at least? Sometime? Good. Then slowly increase that sustainability little longer, little longer, little longer.Q:
Sometimes I am confused whether it’s my mind or whether it’s my true self. How do I clarify which is which?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You know doubts always come when something is positive. Do you know about it? How many of you don’t know? Raise your hands. You know if someone tells you ‘I love you very much’. You say ‘Really’? But if someone tells you ‘I hate you’, you never say ‘really’, - correct? And similarly you doubt your capabilities; you never doubt your weaknesses. If someone asks you are you happy you say oh I’m not too sure. But you’re so sure about your depression. Correct? So that’s why our doubt is always about something that is positive. We doubt in the honesty of someone, we never doubt in the dishonesty of someone.Q:
Vairaghya(Dispassion), Moksha (Liberation) & Siddhi ( - Is this escapism or the path to enlightenment?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
The path of enlightenment is freedom/liberation. Wanting freedom is not escapism. Freedom will allow you to complete your duty sincerely.Q:
If being vegetarian is prescribed in Spirituality, according to the Bible, Jesus was not vegetarian! How do I reconcile the two?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
I can’t really comment on that. There is one complete book in Christianity, The Gospel of Thomas, in favor of vegetarianism. The Gospel of Thomas also talks about Pranayama. The bible was written decades after Jesus, so what should be taken as authentic is itself in question. Take good things from the scriptures. There is no mention of TV or aeroplanes in the Bible. One doesn’t ask why I should use these. There are certain things not mentioned in Bible but if it is good for you, you take it. Knowledge is both ancient & modern. Respect ancient knowledge and accept modern knowledge. Modern Science says vegetarianism is the best food practice. So turn vegetarian. In more than one way it is good- both for you & the planet. So accept & acknowledge this wisdom.Q:
This time you have come after 5000 years. Will you take me with you or I would have to wait for another 5000 years?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
What is the question? It’s more a wonder, isn’t it? So you have plans to come back? (Laughter).Ok, we will see, we will adjust our times (Laughter again). One life time is not enough? It’s not enough to just come back at the same time. You must be aware also of the Master.Q:
We relate ego to I. Is it not ego when Krishna, Jesus or other masters asked people to surrender to them only?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Ego wants others to think high of you, to worship you. If someone says something, see where the words are coming from. Look for the space from which those words are coming. Their speech does not originate from the small mind but from some other space. Jesus said- I am the only way. These words are from a different space- an Inner voice, Divine voice. The way a mother tells her child, “Do as I say!”- that is not ego but belongingness. The way a teacher tells a student,” Do what I tell you!”- That is not ego. Ego is being unnatural. Ego is when you want to hide your mistake. If the way you are an open book, you can interact with people with an open mind/heart. In case, while working together, you feel that you have become egoistic, then don’t try to get rid of the ego. To say ‘I am removing my ego’ makes for a bigger ego. Don’t try to maintain it even. Being natural is the only way.Sri Sri Tells a story…..
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Once we meet we never get separated. Long time back, some 30 years back, I was travelling from Dharwad to Delhi- a 24 hr journey. In our compartment one boy was there. We talked to each other. Then 20 years later he met me in Vrindavan Gardens. He was Muslim and by now he had got married and had kids also. He came to me & said “I met you in a train 30 years ago. After that day my whole life has changed. I remember you every day and was waiting to meet you again. Please bless my wife & children”. Connection is there in mind every day. You know there are people from Iran, Iraq, Mongolia whom I have never even met but they would say how close Guruji is to them. If there is a distance in the mind then there is distance even if you live in the same house. Else even a distance of 1000 miles doesn’t matter.