Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

‘Ratri’ word means that which gives you deep rest. Deep rest or relief from three things or three tapas. ‘Tapas’ means three types of fire, three botheration, the physical, the subtle and the causal. The three type of botheration are aadi bhautik, the worldly botheration. Aadi daivi, the divine one and then botheration of the soul. All these three botherations are relieved by a deep rest. So it is a time of prayer and rejuvenation. You know, a child is born in nine months. It takes nine month for a child to get formed and be born. So these nine days are like coming out of mother’s womb once again, having a new birth. First three days are dedicated to tamo guna, inertia. The second three days to rajo guna and the last three days, sato guna. The three gunas that we all possess, sattva, rajas and tamas and gaining victory over all the gunas and being centred and celebrating life. The final day is called the victory day, Vijayadashmi. So for all nine days, ten days we virtually do meditation which is the best way to celebrate. People usually fast and pray, and then feast in the end. Fasting always goes with the feasting. I won’t recommend all of you to fast without any food at all. You can have limited or eat less. Suppose if you are eating one whole meal you can cut down to half or quarter, like that, and don’t keep munching all day. Usually people have the habit of popping munchies the whole day, now and then, here and there. So don’t do that and don’t indulge in any other sensory activities of any other senses; giving deep rest to all the five senses. No touching, no watching movies, not going for fragrances and all that. Not listening to music all the time with the, what is that, ipod?! As soon as we wake up we turn the radio on or put on the ipod and put the ear phones. Even when we are jogging we are listening to sound. So the mind is constantly bombarded; bombarded by sound, by music. These are the days when you don’t bombard your system with so much music. There will be chanting here for some time. You know the last couple of days when there will be ‘yagyas’, of course you can just sit and bask in the chanting. Take bath in the, what is called ‘mantra-snaana’; means bathing in the mantras. The mantras are being chanted; you just sit in meditation and bathe in that vibration, that is good. Everyday there will be little bit time, an hour or so of mantra chanting. Other than that it is good to refrain from over-eating, over-listening to music, or watching television or any type of activity which stimulates your system. It’s a time to calm them down. Yes, and on the last day, of course, you end up in celebrations. You get emotionally charged, spiritually charged, intellectually uplifted. It’s time for getting all these things done.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Look, present moment is very deep that is where all the energy exists. Outside the present moment there is nothing but in the present moment the future and past is also there. So the present moment is not just some small thing, it is multidimensional. You got it? Time now and here, that space is so vast so deep the mind cannot fathom it. Mind simply dissolves in the present moment.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Some karma can be eliminated by sadhna, mediation, chanting Om Namah Shivaya and by doing good service. Helping out all these things will do that. But there are some karmas which you will have to experience which cannot be avoided.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

See divinity is all over the place, in every particle of creation. But sometime a devotee wants to play with the divine. So from the mud he makes a form. Ganesh is formless, but we would like to play with him in a form. So we make a form and invoke him telling ‘Ganapati, though you are everywhere I would like to offer my gratitude to you by offering sweets, by offering all that you offer to me; flowers, fruits. You take sun and moon around me and I take a little camphor around you. So all that you gave me, I offer back to you.’ With this intense feeling pooja is done. Thanksgiving is done expressing one’s gratitude to Ganapati. And in the end say, ‘you have come from my heart and you will get back into my heart.’ Like that, saying that, Ganapati, the idol you leave it in the ocean or in the water, from where you took it. The Visarjan is for you to understand that Ganapati is not just in the idol. He has come from your heart into the idol. The prana has come there and then the prana gets back into you after fulfilling your desires. Putting forth your desires in front of Ganapati you then say, ‘Ganapati you are back in my heart.’ Then you leave that idol in the water.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Blame neither the position nor the individual. If you identify the fault, try to remove it. And removing those faults is what we are doing here through meditation and practices. If people do these practices before getting into power, it is good. And if they do them after assuming power that also is good, so that they remain balanced. Balance the mind, since all negativity arises in the mind and spreads from there. There is no sense in blaming the seat. Through awareness every position of authority can be managed properly.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

They will have to pass it now.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Yes, anywhere we see injustice we must stand up. If there is ignorance we must stand up against ignorance. We should stand up against injustice, and where there is inefficiency and inadequateness we should stand up, for that. What do you think? Isn’t it? Wherever there is lack we need to stand up to provide. If there is injustice we should stand and fight against injustice. Where there is ignorance we should stand up and educate. Educate where there is ignorance and stand up against injustice and provide where there is lack.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Don’t worry about every single thought that comes into your head. They come and they go, don’t worry. If you don’t act on it you are not making a karma out of it. You can have peaceful nights.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

First of all remove that label from your head, ‘I am all the time fickle-minded.’ Who said that? If you are over-ambitious then you become fickle-minded. Just relax! Whatever is yours will come to you. When you are over ambitiousness and want to do a hundred things it makes you uncomfortable.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Well this is wonder more than a question and I leave it to you to wonder about it.