Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
How is it that some people are peaceful by birth even though they are not really doing any spiritual practices?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
If you heard the yoga sutras of Patanjali – there are some people who are so by birth, some are peaceful because of their past impressions. They would have done these practices in some previous lifetime if not now. That has brought them peaceful impressions in this life time. If parents are very peaceful, mother had a peaceful time during pregnancy – that also creates strong impressions. Some people have had a tough life from the very beginning – things don’t disturb them – they have endurance to disturbances. Someone has lived in a noisy area, then any sort of noise doesn’t disturb them.How much stress you could handle, how much contrast you have experienced in situations, makes the difference. In third world countries – arguments don’t bother them. They fight and have tea together. You are not used to fighting and then sitting with them immediately. These are all how we have trained ourselves, our mind.
Q:
What to do when responsibilities come between you and your practices?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Guru Nanak or one of the ten Sikh Gurus has spoken on how a student should be. Like water. When stones are there on the path of water, what does it do? Water rises above the stones and flows. Similarly obstacles are there in life. You rise above obstacles and move through it. Have patience and flow over them.Q:
What are the three most important values?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You want to limit it to three?!A sense of belongingness with the whole world. You have to take this stand, feel that you are part of the whole world and all are part of you.
Commitment to whatever you take up, and an integrity inside of you which says you are going to see your commitments through.
The third value is living in the present moment, not holding onto the past and getting into trouble in your own mind. Do you know how many problems we can create for others when we hold onto the past?
Q:
why does judgment exist? where does it come from?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Judgment is a set of concepts which appears to be obsolete. An opinion or a concept which becomes obsolete, you call it judgment.Not the judgment that the judge gives in the court, but the one you come up with.You have an opinion of a person or a concept or a situation, when that breaks then you look back and you say, ‘Oh, I have a judgment of it.’ If it doesn’t break that’s when you say, ‘Oh, I know it is knowledge, oh you know I know that’s how it is’. You call it judgment when it is obsolete that means it has broken or proved to be false. Right?Judgment is opposite of intuition, intuition is the right opinion. Judgment is the wrong opinion.
Q:
Do we all have a purpose in life or we can all come and go when it is? If there is one purpose what is it?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You know it’s best to take out paper and pen, and list out what is not the purpose of life. By negating it will be easier for you.Q:
Guruji, what is the purpose of my life?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You are very lucky. So many people live life never asking this question. Nurture it. You have this question in your heart, you are very lucky. I will tell you one thing. One who knows the answer to this question will not tell you and one who tells you does not know.Q:
In an interview you mentioned that you are connected to Higher Consciousness? Guruji please tell us what actually is that Higher Consciousness?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
It is right here, right now. Inside us and outside us. it is everywhere. Don’t look for it somewhere in the sky, it is right here.Q:
Guruji, are there a fixed number of souls or one soul in the whole universe?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Infinite souls. It’s like asking are there fixed number of stars in the sky? There are infinite stars. Vedic shastra and Agma shastra says there are 224 earths, worlds like ours in this galaxy. There are many but mainly 224. These are the visions of saints who have gone deep in meditation and explored the universe.Q:
What is the secret to having a strong will power? Please tell me as I have so many bad habits that I would like to change about myself.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Now, three things can help you to get over bad habits.1. Love- If you love somebody or something, then promise them for their sake that you will continue the good habits.2. Fear - When there is a fear that this bad habit is going to bring great problems to me, then you will get out of it.3. Greed - If someone tells you that by leaving this bad habit, you will get a million dollars, you would not do that (the bad habit), you want a million dollars in your pocket. If someone tells you, don’t drink or smoke for the next one week, then you will be entitled to one million dollars. Will you smoke, will you drink? No ways! If someone tells you that you will get 10 million dollars or 10 million euros if you don’t smoke for one month or 30 days, they will say, ‘Why only 30 days? I will not smoke for 35 days. I am sure of the number of days, as I want to be sure. Not 29 days. Some months are only 30, some are 31, so let me do for the maximum of 35 days’. Because you know, when you value some thing much more than the habit and you know that you are going to get that, then the habit will drop out of it. So through love, fear or greed you will stop doing it. You know, promiscuity has reduced to a great extent because of the fear of AIDS. After the dreadful disease of AIDS started appearing, then promiscuity came down to a great extent. So similarly, commitment to a higher cause can help you get over small little attractions.Q:
When we do mistakes, people get angry. But even when we rectify the mistake people don’t leave their anguish? What to do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Bring them to the course. They are not living in the present. Bring them to the present. They keep on hanging on to the past. You have changed but they forget to change.