Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
I don’t like it when my wife stops me from coming here.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
She could be doing it because she might be worried about your dropping your family and becoming an ascetic. So you should give her the assurance that Guruji will not let you become ascetic in the first place.Q:
Where is Bhagwan(God)?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
It consists of four syllables - bh, ga, wa, na. bh comes from bhoomi(earth). One who has patience like Earth, fluidity like water, sharpness and focus like fire, subtlety like air and is all-pervading like space.Q:
Why do we want to be liberated?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Wanting freedom is a natural phenomenon. What you feel after your exams are over is a little experience of liberation (moksha). In life also you burn in your own hopes and desires. These desires have only brought you misery. When you relax taking a step outside all this, there is liberation (moksha). When you sit for meditation with the feeling, I am nothing, I want nothing, and I do nothing - this feeling is the feeling of freedom. It is fun, it is freedom.Q:
What is the difference between prayer-oriented and meditation-oriented religion?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Everything has its own place. Prayer is asking from God and meditation is listening to the God. Both are important.Q:
Can a person struggling for livelihood progress on the spiritual path?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Some people say that to walk on the spiritual path you have to abandon your professional life. But I say you can continue pursuing your profession or business, and progress on the spiritual path as well. In fact, they are complementary to each other. Pursuing the spiritual path makes it easy to accomplish tasks in your professional life as well. Only listening to this knowledge doesn’t help. Doing your practices along with it is equally important.Q:
Why is getting married so important in India?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
To live in a society, we have to follow the norms of the society. These norms are there to maintain orderliness.Q:
It is said that after lots of merits one gets a human birth. Then how come the population of humans is increasing in the world because people are not very meritorious in the world today?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Population of many animal species like scorpions, snakes is also decreasing. Animals in forests might have taken birth as humans. You think over this.Q:
What do you advice to farmers?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
The crops which were produced in abundance in India are now being imported and hence their prices have also been raised manifold. Earlier three crops were grown in one field and even if the yield of one crop is destroyed, the others would give the farmers a living. So this system of growing multiple crops would never let farmers be in debt. But with the hybrid crops you get a good yield only in the first one or two years and then it decreases the soil fertility. It leads to depletion of essential salts in the soil. So I suggest to all to adopt the ancient methods of farming. Multiple cropping yields a good profit.We have also started a seed bank in Maharashtra. 1 kg seeds have been given to 50 farmers this year. 1kg seeds will give them a yield of 40 – 45 kg and next year they would be returning 2 kg seeds. This way 100 farmers can get free seeds next year. It will be good if such banks are started in Punjab and Haryana also. Farmers will be happy and we will also get a good crop. Otherwise the crops which we get with chemical farming cause pain and other illnesses in the body here and there. So multiple cropping and chemical free farming are the best solutions.
Q:
What is ignorance and what does it mean to be in knowledge?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
If you are bombarded by so many thoughts in solitude also, you are in ignorance. If you are calm even amidst a crowd then you are in knowledge.Q:
Guruji, are we influenced by mistakes from previous birth? If so, then how does one prevent getting influenced by that or find a way to remove that influence?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You don’t have to make too much effort. Just do your practices, your Sudarshan Kriya, sing and meditate and all the bad karmas and impressions, they will get washed away by themselves. And with few advanced courses, few hollow and empty meditations, all impressions get released.