Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
Guruji any particular message you want to give us, anything at all?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Have a vision. Move with confidence. I am with you. Move with that vision inyour life and share this joy with others. The happiness that we have got, we need to bring this joy to more and more people around us, don’t you think so? How many of you feel your lives are transformed?
Audience: Yes
It is our duty to share and spread the happiness that we have got.
Q:
Where is that point?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Are you breathing? You are aware of that? Find out then…Q:
What is the spirit of enquiry?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
This question that you have asked is the example of the spirit of enquiry. What you are asking, itself is the answer. It is similar to someone asking what is sound.Q:
I am a student of media, and I am always asked why the media doesn't report the truth. What is the truth? Does it exist?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Only truth has existence. Everything else is maya (Illusion)!Q:
How do we free ourselves from bad karmas of previous births?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Sri Sri sings “Paap kya punya kya to bhulade, kal kal kal ki chinta mitade” Forget what is bad karma, what is good Karma, be free from the worries of tomorrow. There isnothing greater than Pranayama which can make you free from your past impressions. Seva, Satsang & Sadhana
(Service,Dance & Celebration and spiritual practices) will help.
Q:
What is the most important gift you are blessing me and the world with?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
If you go to the pharmacist and ask him: ‘Give me the best medicine’, what will he say? ‘I have the best medicine, but for what disease?’ Isn’t it?Similarly, this knowledge gives you everything that you need. You have a headache, you have the best medicine. You have a leg ache, you have the best medicine. You have an ear ache, a heart ache, the best medicine is available to you.
When you are determined to be useful to people, useful in anyway, you don’t have to ask: just be useful. Do whatever is needed whenever, and you will be useful for that purpose.
I would always say that this knowledge in the Art of Living is like an ocean. If someone wants to just walk by it, take fresh air, they are welcome. Someone wants to swim in the ocean, they are welcome. Some others will take salt out of the ocean, yes. Some others want to dig deep and take oil, you are most welcome. Someone goes for fishing; take a few fishes, fine. Some others go and find all that precious stones, gems, it’s your choice.
All is available here and what you make out of it, how you use it, is entirely up to you.
Q:
I am a wife, daughter, daughter-in-law, and am on the spiritual path. What is my dharma, especially in light of my husband who is also on the spiritual light?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
It is easier for you. So, all the roles are coming together. Just be at ease with it. The question comes: ‘Am I balancing all my roles?’ You are, and you will be. Especially if you are a mother, you feel you have not done enough for the child. All mothers feel like that. No mother feels she has done enough for the child. It is the same if you are a daughter. You feel you have not done enough for the father. With the husband, you feel you have done enough! (laughter) I can’t answer that. Just have an intention that you have that balance. If you open your eyes, you will see there is the balance.Q:
How can I love and respect myself? And break a pattern that has been in me since I was seven years old?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Forget about it, take it for granted. And this is one such thing. If you try to love yourself, you would be in trouble. The more effort you put, the longer it takes for you to realize this. So take it for granted that everyone loves themselves for sure and you too love yourself. You are love. Love is not an act, it is a noun.Q:
Can mantras change what astrologers predict?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Mantras have power. It is good to chant. That is not to say that what astrologers say is not true. We should practice dana (charity), yagna (vedic ritual) as good vibrations come to us then.Q:
I don’t know how to pray, I understand meditation but I don’t understand prayer. How does one pray?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Meditation is the finest form of prayer. Prayer is ‘Oh God give me this, give me that’ or ‘Oh, I am so thankful to you because you gave me that or this’.But meditation is just reposing and that is the best form of prayer. Prayer happens when you are utterly helpless or when you are very grateful. There are two situations in your life. Either you are so helpless, when you have no other way. Like if you are very thirsty and you need water, you say please give me some water. Please help.
Asking for help is one form of prayer.
Thanking is another form of prayer.
And the third is just reposing, being quiet.
The third is the most supreme type of prayer.
You can be grateful for all that you have had, that is a sort of prayer. You don’t have to use particular sentences or phrases or verses for it.
The yagyas that are being done here is not just some sort of prayer. It is a technique, a procedure. You don’t need to understand what those chantings mean. The chantings, the vibrations have an impact on our whole body, mind and the environment. That is the most important thing about yagyas. It is not asking God for this thing or that. It is just chanting those shlokas. Hearing the chantings is even more beneficial. You don’t need to chant with them. Simply listening to it, itself creates the vibrations in the consciousness.