Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
Could give us some suggestion on career development, especially during the economic crisis?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
This is just a passing phase, don’t worry about it.Q:
If the thing that steers us through changing emotion is commitment, how do we develop this commitment?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Firstly, be committed to lead a good life and make the world around us a better place. These two things are connected because we can only be really happy when those around us are happy.Commitment is taking responsibility for our own life. I’m responsible for feeling what I feel. Come what may, I’ll keep my calmness, serenity and alertness.
(Someone from the audience asks a question about relationships.)
A. There are many questions about relationships. I’ll say the following things ... one piece of advice for women, one for men.
For women - Never step on the ego of your man. The whole world may say that your spouse has no brain, but you should say, ‘You have the best brain. Just because you never use your brain doesn’t mean you don’t have one!’
A man shouldn’t have to prove himself to his wife. He always has to prove himself outside, and if he also has to prove himself at home, he has no place to call home. Don’t make him repeatedly prove his love to you, and don’t call him a vegetable ... he will become one with your blessings!
In the Indian ceremony, man holds the toe of the woman and drags it onto a stone. He says, ‘I put all my life and my honour at your feet. I know your emotions are always changing, but you be stable and support me. The stone symbolises this stability and solidity.’
Now some advice for men: Women are more emotional and all the more about their family. She may complain about her family, but you never do that. Even if she’s complaining about her mother, don’t even nod your head in agreement, or she will turn right around. When it comes to her family, you keep your mouth sealed. Also, when she wants to participate in singing or shopping, just give her the credit card. Always nurture her emotions.
Q:
You say from movement to stillness is meditation, but to attain stillness through karma would be a bondage, isn’t it Guruji. So how do you attain stillness in spite of karma?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
That is what the whole skill of meditation is. In meditation, you somehow skillfully make the mind settle down and then, those few moments it settles, it is really still. It can’t be still forever, then again it starts, and some karma gets released. You know, not all karmas are active all the time, some are dormant, and some are active. So the dormant karma starts becoming active. When it is active, then you open up and you come to the surface. And then again after sometime, karma cannot be active all the time, so in-between, again and again you go and become quiet again.Q:
his is my first meditation course. So far, it’s much better than I expected. I am worried because I would like to meditate all the time. What should I do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
his is my first meditation course. So far, it’s much better than I expected. I am worried because I would like to meditate all the time. What should I do?Q:
Youth support your vision for change. There is no role model. When will the Art of Living come up with a political party?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
There is no role model because the spot is waiting for you. You be a role model. It is only spirituality that can bring transformation in the nation. Devoid of spirituality, politics becomes so corrupt.Q:
When I prepare for my exams I set my goals of what to study and how to study, but I always get distracted and study half the time, what do I do Guruji?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
In-between studies take some time to relax, listen to music. Eat proper food, sometime it is the type of food you eat. Junk food can also block your mind. Have confidence that everything will be okay - this is number one, then prayerfulness - the best will happen to me, and then proper food and rest, pranayam and yoga - all this will help.Q:
You said in an interview that you see the world as one family?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
The world is one family - language is no barrier, religion is no barrier, culture is no barrier. It's the love in our hearts. The love in our hearts connects us all with one another.Q:
Guruji, what is the relation between Mantra and Yantra?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
One is mantra is for one yantra. Mantra means word, yantra means picture. Mantra has a sound and yantra has a form.Q:
Guruji, what is Patanjali Yoga Sutra?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Patanjali was a Rishi who lived some thousands of years ago. He worked on Ayurveda to reduce the impurities of the body, from the body. To eliminate the impurities he wrote on Ayurveda, his treaties of Ayurveda. Then he wrote on grammer, phonetics. How sound is formed, how form and sound are connected. The meaning the sound and the nature of the object and the connection. All that he made. Nobody can study Sanskrit if you don’t study Patanjali. So Patanjali has written on grammar also. Then Yoga Sutra, he is the one who wrote the Yoga Sutras.Q:
Do you need to be aggressive or calm to achieve your goal?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Both. You have to be calm and dynamic. I won’t call it aggression. Sometimes you have to be dynamic – whenever needed.