Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Yes, it is true.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Become calm and listen to your inner self. Do you all have cell phones? What do you need for the cell phone to work? If there is no SIM card, will it work? If there is a SIM card, but you are far away, will it work? You need a SIM card, signal and the battery must be charged. So all three are required: battery, SIM card and closeness to the tower.

Even if you have all three but you don’t dial, will it work? You need to do that much. The spiritual connection is the tower. Self-effort is that little dialing and meditation is charging. Then our prayers will be answered. Sometimes the prayers are not answered. Why? Because there is no SIM card. You have the ability to bless and grant others’ wishes when the mind is serene.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Your desire for perfection is the cause of anger. Leave room for imperfection. Perfection in action is almost impossible. Only 95 percent perfection is possible in action. Though, perfection in speech and mind is 100 percent possible.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

I can give some advice on this.

First for women: Are you all ready? Never step on the ego of your man. Never tell him that he is good for nothing. If you do so, he will become like that. Always praise. Tell him he is the best. Give him compliments.

Now advice for men: Never step on a woman’s emotions and never comment on her family. She may complain about her family, but you better keep quiet. The moment you start joining her she may attack you. Never step on her emotions. If she wants to go shopping, give her your credit card. Her emotions need to be taken care of.

To both men and women: I advise not to ask for proof of love. “Do you really love me?” Imagine what a burden it is to prove that you really love and care for someone. Even if you find some lack just say, “Why do you love me so much?” Even if the Spring has died out, it will start again. Ask only questions that are useful. Never ask someone to prove their love. Take it for granted.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

I would like to give one advice for men, one for women and one for both.

First for women: Never hurt your man's ego. You should always pump his ego.
The whole world may say that your husband has no brains, but you should not say that! You should tell your husband that he has the best brains in the world. And that just because he doesn't use it, doesn't mean that he doesn't have it!
If you call him a vegetable, he will become one. A woman should never demand proof from a man. Men are not so expressive, so don’t expect compliments. Instead, she should compliment him.

For men: Never hurt the emotions of a woman. She may sometimes complain about her family, about her brother, or her father, or her mother. You should not agree with that. If you do, then she will take a U-turn. Never insult her family. Don’t stop her from going for shopping, or going to a spiritual or religious program. If she wants to go for shopping, give her your credit card.

Now for both: Never ask for proof of someone's love for you. Don’t ask each other, “Do you really love me? You don't love me like you used to earlier.” It is such a load for someone to prove their love to others. If someone asks you to prove your love, you would say "Oh my God! How do I prove it to this person?”
Catch the rest of the conversation in the next post..

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

On the level of consciousness, there are certain experiences which you feel you have already experienced. Scientists say that life is only replay, shooting has already been done and we are only being projected on the screen. Also they say, according to string theory, that it is all vibrations. And this is coming from a scientist and not a philosopher.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Yes, many youths have benefited from the course. There are 43 universities in America where there are Yes Plus clubs, and students also get some credit in some universities if they do the course.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

The whole world is made up of the five elements. We honor all the five elements.
There is a great tradition of honoring rivers. The river does not want you to offer flowers or fruits. This is not the way to worship. Also by putting sewage or garbage into rivers, how can you say that you are doing worship? Worship means honoring, and you can only fully honor once you stop dumping sewage, garbage, plastic into the rivers. A few years ago you could directly drink from a river. Today, no river is fit for drinking even from a hundred kilometers away from its source. Earlier even thousand kilometers away from its source, the river water was fit for drinking. In this country (India), people used only charcoal ashes, and not soap powder to clean vessels. They would use turmeric and many other herbal elements, which are bio-degradable. We are pouring so much industrial waste into the rivers. This is not honoring the jal tatva (water element).

Honoring the Earth element means we don't pollute the earth with plastic, poisonous fertilizers and chemicals. It means we are environment conscious.
Then there is the air element. We need to have clean energy. We have provided smokeless stoves in the villages of Maharashtra, which have been very successful. We need to honor air, and do whatever we can to have a clean air.

Then there is the space element. This is very abstract. You cannot catch space. When you save your mind from negativity, you are filling the space with joy. Then the air around becomes like that. You can create a space of mistrust, anger, greed, jealousy and selfishness. Or you could create a space of fun, joy, confidence, and coherence. You could create an accommodating space around you. If we always speak negatively about all mistakes, then there is nowhere on earth you can really survive. Everybody is imperfect. When we try to see perfection in others, then we forget to see our own imperfection. Protect the space, save the mind at any cost.
The five elements are part of the creation. You have to honor this beautiful creation and sustain it.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

That is a big job. In the Geeta it is said, even the most brilliant people are confused about what to do and what not to, and how to handle the mind. Protecting the mind is a very great task but we need knowledge to do it. Up to this moment, see all that has happened so far, it’s all gone! Finished.
Wake up.
When you are full of energy, prana, you suddenly see it’s all gone. Now! All that has happened is ok. Think about what to do now. Sometimes 100 percent of what you do will be successful, sometimes not. A farmer knows that not every seed, that he sows, will sprout. He takes the seeds and throws them in the field, and does not worry that this seed will sprout, this won't.
From now on, it’s a new chapter. Every day is a new chapter. Bring up this awareness again and again that the whole world is filled with my atma (soul) – it’s all Me. It’s one Consciousness. This one consciousness works through one person in one way, through another person in another way. It is one ocean with many waves.
If this vision comes to you even for just five seconds then there will be such a major transformation in your body and mind. Then a realization will spring in you ‘Aho!’
All worries are washed off. Just for a second, recognize that it’s only me in my enemy. I myself have started the Game. Understand this, but don't turn it into a mood making. Have this understanding only in the nivriti, not in the pravritti mode. If we bring advaita (non-duality) in vyavahar (behavior), we only create more delusion. In pravritti, see duality. Taking up of the human form is impossible without pravritti. How much pravritti and nivriti one should have is a very sensitive matter. When there is more pravritti, then one becomes too negative and one is asked to be in nivriti.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

There is nothing new to follow the principal of non violence which is being applied since ancient time. One should follow and keep the principal of non violence in life. Sometimes if one has to slap someone for his good, but does it with a smile then it is not violence. See, one has to kick with a cane to make a buffalo move forward, where as a cow just moves with a sound. The gentle animals may not need the cane, but for animals like buffaloes and donkeys, cane is the only language they understand.
If we do any work with anger, hatred, jealousy, feeling of revenge etc. in mind –then that is an act of violence.