Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
Is there any maximum limit to how much we can meditate?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Just do as much is necessary. There is no need to do too much. Meditation is like taking a bath. To wash the mind, you need meditation. And once the mind is clean, you will be well.Q:
If whatever we do is in search of happiness, then why is there so much pain and misery in the world?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
There is a story of Mullah Nasurudin. His wife was pregnant and the time of delivery had come. But the baby was not coming out. When doctor told this to Mullah Nasurudin, he ran to the market, bought a toy, and kept that toy in front of her wife. He said, “After all this is my child, so he will surely come out with greed”. Whole our life we keep on running behind things with the hope of getting something. We keep on looking for some kind of profit. How would such person experience happiness? Neither does a greedy person get happiness nor does a person who is bombarded with too many desires. The one who relaxes in his consciousness is happy. One, who is centered, experiences the true happiness. I am not saying there is no happiness in the outer world, but the happiness you get when you go within is incomparable.The world is running in search of happiness. The body gets baked, the mind gets baked, the intellect gets deluded but still we keep on getting stuck in the same repetitive cycle. When you meet Guru, you come to know that you are the source of happiness. Then the mind calms down, and you realize that you are the one in whose search you kept on running here and there.
Q:
My heartiest gratitude to you. Who are you Gurudev?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
: First, you know yourself. Why are you putting your effort in knowing me? You don’t know who you are. First, know that how many times have you come in this world? When you know yourself, it will be very easy to know me.Q:
You told that God can be experienced in a state of effortlessness. What does it mean to be effortless?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
: Being effortless does not mean stop eating, drinking or doing other work. This has a deeper meaning. Keep on doing all your work, and while doing your work, know inside you that you are doing nothing. In the beginning, you sit for some time and experience that you are doing nothing. Then you will start experiencing that even you are doing but there is a field in you which is not doing anything. Ancient sages had beautifully explained this. There are two birds sitting on the same tree. One is eating and the other is only witnessing this. In the above context, it is the free bird which is being discussed, the bird which is effortlessly witnessing. Pay attention to that also. The two birds are friends. They live together. One is always witnessing and other is involved in all the work. Effortlessness does not mean sitting idle. Lord Sri Krishna said in Geeta that you cannot be without doing any action even for a second. Keep on doing your karma and at the same time be the witness of your karma. This is very deep knowledge.After the session a book was released – Understanding Shiva. While launching the book Sri Sri Ravi Shankar told that the book also included a scientific perspective of all pervading Shiva tattva.Q:
How can we strengthen the faith?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Your very thought to strengthen thefaith strengthens it. Move ahead assuming that your faith is very strong. Whenyour intellect is purified, faith automatically gets strong. We should have apure diet in order to purify the intellect. So, pay attention on your food. Ifyou eat food thinking all sort of negative things in the world, that alsoaffects the intellect. Many times people get time to converse only duringmeals, and they discuss about topics like diseases while preparing and eatingthe food. This is very wrong, and we need to get rid of this habit. You becomewhat you eat. The type of food you take governs your mind. And again your mindhas a direct impact on your body. That is why you should eat food with a happystate of mind. If we are very excited, we cannot swallow food with ease. Alsoif we are restless, we end up eating more food. So, it is important to havefood with awareness.Q:
You told that God can be experienced in a state of effortlessness. What does it mean to be effortless?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Being effortless does not mean stop eating, drinking or doing other work. This has a deeper meaning. Keep on doing all your work, and while doing your work, know inside you that you are doing nothing. In the beginning, you sit for some time and experience that you are doing nothing. Then you will start experiencing that even you are doing but there is a field in you which is not doing anything.Ancient sages had beautifully explained this. There are two birds sitting on the same tree. One is eating and the other is only witnessing this. In the above context, it is the free bird which is being discussed, the bird which is effortlessly witnessing. Pay attention to that also. The two birds are friends. They live together. One is always witnessing and other is involved in all the work.
Effortlessness does not mean sitting idle. Lord Sri Krishna said in Geeta that you cannot be without doing any action even for a second. Keep on doing your karma and at the same time be the witness of your karma. This is very deep knowledge.
After the session a book was released –Understanding Shiva. While launching the book Sri Sri Ravi Shankar told thatthe book also included a scientific perspective of all pervading Shiva tattva.
Q:
What role has a woman to play in bringing transformation?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Woman has great role to play. Women can influence many men around them – father, brother, children, spouse. They have more power and more influence. In Indian mythology all the powerful portfolios like defense ministry, finance and education are with women. What else do you want? In India we believe man and woman are equal partners. There is concept of Ardhnarishver – God is neither male nor female. Divine is half male and half female. Everyone is like that. Nobody is full male or full female. There are genes of both mother and father within each one of us. So, we must respect women. Women should take more lead in the society. And I think that women can be better peace maker, and then less conflict, greed and corruption will be there in the world. Corruption can only happen outside the boundary of belongingness. Heart can never be corrupt. It is mind which goes corrupt. Heart always longs for old and mind for new. Isn’t it so? You want more and more in mind but the heart says,” I am happy”. Heart wants to give and mind wants to take. women are more with their heart. She should keep that quality while developing leadership and taking more social responsibility.Q:
I have done many sins in my life. Am I a right candidate for this sacred path? I want to repent for my wrong deeds.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Your very wish to repent has solved the purpose. This wish to repent is an indication that your intellect is getting matured. Otherwise, you would not have been aware of your wrong actions. Something wrong has happened through you and you want to repent for that, this means you are out of it in the present. The wish to repent arises only in the matured intellect. You are innocent in the present moment. Don’t live in the past, but take this sankalpa (Resolution) that you don’t have to do this in future.One with deluded intellect supports even his/her wrong actions. Know that the one who does a mistake and supports it is lacking in maturity of intellect.
Some people do repentance with guilt. That also doesn’t solve the purpose. That is why Master/Disciple tradition exists. Master would guide the disciple to do something to be free from the guilt. Or if you simply tell the Master that some mistake has happened through you, then also you come out of the guilt. Even if you tell this to yourself in your mind that you have done some mistake, the mind calms down. Why does a mistake happen? Because of ignorance. When you have lighted the lamp of this knowledge inside you, you become free in the present.
Q:
Many people have started preaching their own practices like Sudarshan Kriya. What to do about it?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Many people have started their own things. These kind of wrong practices don’t work in the long run. Don’t worry about all of them. People try, get headache and then they come here.The spiritual practices like Sudarshan Kriya are not only at physical level. It is the divine grace which works.
One can do 21 days teacher training, and spread this knowledge everywhere after becoming a teacher.
Q:
Is memory a blessing or curse?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Forgetting bad things is a blessing. Forgetting good things can be a curse.
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