Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
Guruji is there any wrong time for meditation? Is it ok to meditate any time?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You can meditate any time when your tummy is not full.When you have eaten, you are full. When you sit for meditation at that time, that is not good. Either you will not have meditation, you'll fall asleep or you’ll have indigestion.There will some difficulty in metabolismQ:
If I am you and you are me, then when will my mind become your mind?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
All the difference is only on the gross. The subtler we go, we see there is only one consciousness.Q:
Guruji, you said tear is ego. In front of you- uncontrollable tears come up. What to do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
No, No, this is different tears. There are many types of tears- like crocodile, then salty, sweet ones are of gratitude, love. Angels long for it. It is very good- the mind is healed and purified.Q There are dilemmas in life and I lack decision making power. What should be done?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Wherever there is duality(Dvet), there will be a dilemma . Whenever you are in daily activities(vyavahar), there will be dilemma. There is no choice, accept it.
Q:
Why do some people love others so much, knowing that they have nothing to get from them?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
There are two types of joys – one joy is that from getting, another joy is giving. That’s a more mature joy. When grandfathers and grandmothers come to meet their grandchildren, they are not waiting for some gifts. They just want to be with them.With children, it’s the other way around – children wait for their uncles and aunts to get gifts.
So the joy in giving is more mature than the joy in getting.
(A child from the audience shouts out - Happy b’day, Guruji! {It was Sri Sri’s birthday on May 13}.)
Q:
How to improve my self-esteem? Sometimes, I feel invisible. People forget about me, where I am.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Be useful to others. When you do that, they remember. If you only think about yourself, then they forget.Q:
There is so much conflict and violence in world in the name of religion. Is there a need of religion?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Communists opposed religion for 50 years. They didn’t get success. Communist people think religious people, especially in Russia and China are very authoritarian, they don’t give freedom. So they want to be done with religion but did they not unleash much more violence? In Stalin, Lenin and Mao Zedong, millions were massacred in the name of communism. Religion ruled with fear, fear of you being sent to hell. Religious leaders were authoritarian, trying to get hold of society by creating guilt and fear in people. Communist also did the same thing but not with guilt but with fear. They remove only guilt but they couldn’t remove fear, instead they instill more fear and violence in society. I don’t think communism did any better. It didn’t make people rich. After 50 years, people have come back. A big church in Moscow was demolished and a swimming pool was made instead of it. Today that swimming pool is demolished and a church is made again. I think it is humanism which is most important. If humanism is there in religion, it does good. And when humanism disappears from religion, it becomes like a mafia. In the same way, communism also ignored humanism. So when humanism went away, violence and fear dominated even in communism. These Maoists party! Did it do any good in the country, in all 213 districts? Itdidn’t make anybody rich. So you can’t be done away with religion.We need to have inter-religious communication, inter-religion faith. Every child should know a little bit about other religions also. Yes, we don’t need religions if all become spiritual. If we can transform this world into a higher plane of religion, which is spirituality then it will really be an intelligent thing to do. But just opposing religion ascommunists do, can’t serve any purpose. It is like throwing the baby with the bath water. Because religion has some moral values, some human values, it gives somestrength and solace, and if you also take solace without replacing it with spirituality then you are doing injustice in the society.
Q:
When a mother denies love, and tells her child that he is an unwanted one, what should the child do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You should know that the mother is saying this out of too much love. If the mother says ‘Get lost!’, and you really get lost, then she would be more worried than you. If a mother is saying this– know that she is just very stressed, and that she needs your care and help.Q:
If we are all God, then why do we have so many Gods and Goddesses?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
The sun’s light is one, yet when it goes through a prism, seven colors come up. All gods and goddesses are part of one truth. One Supreme Self is referred to as Devi, Shiva, Ganesh, Kartikaya. Lord Krishna says rudranam shankaraschasmi, of rudras, I am Shankara. I am the moon, the sun, I am Shiva, I am the Ganges river, I am everything.Q:
God is all-abundant, totally full, and we are all connected to God. Then why are we in debt, except for some? Why do they have, and we don’t have?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Is it only money you lack? When you say you are indebted, that means you have received something! Otherwise how can you be indebted? Those who have received should feel indebted. Be thankful for having received. The more abundance you have, the more indebted you will feel. And when you feel indebted and grateful, more abundance comes to you.Feel indebted. Feel grateful.
Then abundance grows.
Abundance and indebtedness coexist.
Someone in the group: An abundance of indebtedness!
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You think you are indebted, but you really are not.
Yet it is better to feel totally indebted, because every bit of what you have doesn’t belong to you anyway, including your own body. When you are infinitely indebted for your body, for Knowledge, for things you have received, and for your own life, then you bask in the abundance of the Creator.
Someone in the group: I feel very indebted. Thank you!
(February 8, 1996 - Miami Beach, Florida)
Yet it is better to feel totally indebted, because every bit of what you have doesn’t belong to you anyway, including your own body. When you are infinitely indebted for your body, for Knowledge, for things you have received, and for your own life, then you bask in the abundance of the Creator.
Someone in the group: I feel very indebted. Thank you!
(February 8, 1996 - Miami Beach, Florida)
Q:
Guruji what do we tell people that have been through a calamity?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Tell them to give all their worries to me. Disasters and calamities also have a positive side to them. They bring people together.There is a new creation after every calamity. Nothing is permanent. In every crisis there is an opportunity. The Chinese word for crisis contains the word opportunity in it. Every crisis reminds you to smile, makes you aware of the impermanence of everything, even ourselves. So instead of sitting and blaming, lets see how we can move forward, rebuild and help others.