Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes, definitely. When you make good business and you pass on to your children, you have passed on your Karma to them. Similarly, if you create a big hell, your children will have to bear it, or your parents will have to bear it. Definitely, Karma is not an isolated Island. It spreads on to the people around, into the family, into the nation. There are different levels in karma.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
I have no idea. Perhaps it’s because I always walk my talk and talk my walk.)The satsang ended with a group of volunteers presenting a contribution of Rs 3 lakh for relief work in Sri Lanka. This group taught the Breath-Water-Sound workshop in 12 villages in the last week. They shared their sankalpa (intention) of reaching out to 1,000 villages in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu within a year’s time. From April 15th, a Youth Leadership Training Programme will commence in a village where alcoholism was rampant. “Even the police were unable to reach the residents of the village. Someone went and spoke to them about the YLTP. They agreed to participate in the programme,” shared a member of the group.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Soul is the English word, Atma is Sanskrit. The root word of self is swa, swa means atma. Most of the English words, when you go into the root, you’ll find Sanskrit there.Swa means Self.Swa means Atma. Jeeva is the Self enclosed in the mind. It’s like the air enclosed inside a balloon. Jeeva has sukha –happiness,dukha-sorrow, sanghata- it has associations, chaitanya- it is conscious, dhrti. These are five attributes of the jeeva, the embodied Self. Sanghata- it has impressions of associations, it is conscious and dhrti, it upholds.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
No you don’t need to, of course everything little thing has some influence on you but you know you are much more powerful than a piece of stone. So if you like you can do it. Otherwise chant ‘Om Namah Shivaya’, that is most powerful mantra which takes care of all the bad effects of any planets.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
There could be many ways. You think. You all sit and brain storm what we can do, how we can change the education system. Education should have more compassion, not commerce. Of course it has to sustain, anything you make should have a self sustaining model but it should not be like a cash cow. That is what has happened nowSri Sri Ravi Shankar:
When an instruction is given, at first you are unsure whether you are following it correctly. Even to find the tip of your nose can be hard, so when you are told to look within, you’re not sure what exactly to do.You will find that different types of thoughts and emotions come up, but over time you should find that your meditations improve. We have shoved lots of things under the carpet in our minds, and in the first meditations, while we are in silence, they all come out.
It is like the first time you do Kriya. You feel rebellious and think you are wasting your time. In the same way, you may think that why should I be in silence? Let me go out and have fun.
But remember, you are doing this in order to have real fun. When the system is cleansed, real fun happens.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Okay now, you are both matter and spirit right? Are you only matter? No! You are matter and you are also spirit. Our body is matter, our mind, intellect, emotions, they are part of the spirit. So anything that nurtures the mind, that keeps you sane, that keep you intelligent, that keeps you good hearted, kind-hearted, loving, creative is all spiritual. That which uplifts the spirit is spirituality. What can uplift the spirit? Meditation, knowledge! Knowledge about what is true, what is not true; what is real, what is not real. And then service activities, sharing yourself with others, those who are in need. Contributing to the poor, having compassion, all this is part of spirit. And anything that uplifts the spirit is spirituality. So in spirituality, meditation is the first thing. 60% of spirituality is meditation, going in and cleansing your heart and mind and then 20% is service and then 20% is knowledge, wisdom and that makes spirituality. Is that not useful? This is very much essential for you to be a good human being. Spirituality is essential. It is because of spirituality that there is honesty, there is creativity, there is compassion, there is service to society, dynamism and most of all, energy. If people are getting depressed in the world today it is because of the lack of spirituality. You know, there has been a study in Europe stating that the rate of suicide is high and depression is very high. 30% of Europe is suffering from depression. So some communists from this country went abroad and they convened with the World Health Organization and came up with a report that more than 30% of India is depressed. A recent report, 38%, I don’t know what specimen, and where they took! They went to some place in UP and they took some samples and they said this country is depressed. But you don’t find that! You see after the factory, the workers are dancing. They go home with a smile. You go to any slum, they have television and they are dancing. People are laughing in the slums, haven’t you see this? (Many say ‘YES’). You go to any slum in this country, irrespective of their religion, Hindu, Muslims, Christians, everybody gets together and they dance, they sing, they celebrate life. Some fool somewhere got this idea to declare India as depressed. He has no idea; depression is not there in this country. Bangladesh, you see depression is very low, they are much poorer than India. We need to reintroduce spirituality in the society. Only that can check the depression - depression and corruption, both.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You should simply say, ‘I am going to be a vegetarian’, finished, they will accept it.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Become more hollow, and empty. Practice more meditation. Do more seva. Seva brings the merit to go deep in. When you go deep in, the mind becomes fresh, energetic, and intuitive to do more seva.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Good idea. Some things are good as ideas.