Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
What is the role of surrender in fulfillment of desires? And what is the difference between desires and intentions? Which is more important – putting effort or relying on the God?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
There are two schools of thought. One is you visualize dream and work for it. Other school of thought says surrender everything to God, whatever God gives you is the best, and God will take care of everything for you. Where is the compatibility? They appear to be completely opposite. One is your own visualization, your own dream and your perseverance, and another is having trust in God and leaving everything on God. They appear to be incompatible but I would say they are very much compatible. It is good to have an intention or a goal. You don’t need to keep on visualizing your goal 24*7. But continuing to work for that, you leave it to the Divine. Only the combination of two will work. It is beautifully described in scriptures: You take a vision or goal and then you offer it to the Divine while working for that – “This is what I want and you know what is best for me. If this or anything better, I am ready to accept.” Sometimes you don’t know what you want. If you know what you want, it is not difficult to get it. Half the time we are unsure of what we want. Often you find if you are persistent to get something, you don’t want the same thing the next week, the next month or the next year. So, before you take an intention, you expand your awareness. So, put an intention in the universe - I want this or anything better. Now, what is the difference between a desire and an intention? Suppose you want to go to Mumbai from Bangalore. You buy a ticket and travel for around three hours and go there. But you don’t keep chanting in your mind all this time that you want to go to Mumbai and you are going to Mumbai. You may even land up in a mental Hospital like this! Desire is the feverishness that clogs on to an intention. An intention is a desire free from feverishness. And then working towards your intention, this faith is to be there that whatever nature brings back is for my growth.
What to do with choices when both choices seem to be difficult? In the short run and in the long run you don’t know?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Choice is always between bad and worse. So worse is just a little step more than bad. So never mind (Laughter). Why to struggle so much!!
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. You take shower in the morning to clean your body. After that you do all the daily activities. You don’t have to keep on taking a shower throughout the day. It is like that. You meditate and calm your mind, then go on with other activities.
Guruji I want to know how to have harmonious relation with juniors and at the same time take work from them?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Create a sense of belongingness with your juniors. You know that they respect you and you need to be cordial with them. Respect needs some distance, this distance is good but that should be of an arm’s length and not longer than that. A little distance is ok to keep the respect among your juniors but too much distance will bring a breakdown in communication. You need to maintain that balance. A little bit distance needs to be there so that respect is maintained at the same time communication is cordial.
I feel happy and peaceful here. My heart is really contented. All negativity comes when I go out. I encounter all problems like corruption and bribery. How to face these problems? How to maintain the same positivity when I go from here?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You forget strength in you – prayer and power of your Sankalpa (positive intention). You keep doing practices and your things are taken care of. Don’t ask for small things in your prayers. Ask for big things – Let government be good and stable, let this knowledge reach out to many more people. It is up to you to make a divine society. You can start a collective moment. There are many good people, and a very few people who cause disturbance, but their influence looks like they are many. You come together and you will find what difference you can make.
I want to quit addiction to intoxicants and have come to you with a lot of hope.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Good. You have come to the right place. If you wish to get rid of a bad habit then there are only three ways for it. The first is your love for knowledge, the Divine or some dear one - whether parents or Guru. By promising some dear one that you will quit the habit, you will be able to get rid of it. This is the best way out. The second way is greed. If you will not consume intoxicants for six months, then you will get ten million rupees, or that your luck will shine and you will succeed in everything. The third is fear - if one day you do consume intoxicants, then you will suffer a loss of one million, or you will have to suffer from a major ailment. If such a greed or fear enters you, even then you will be rid of your addiction. Along with these three ways, do yoga and pranayama. The best is that along with yoga and sadhana (spiritual practices), you take a vow that you will not indulge in addictions. Take a vow for forty days, then six months and then a year. After that, you would have come out of the habit and won’t look back at it.
In one of your talks ‘Journey towards Enlightenment’ you said we are born with innocence and we move towards intellect, we are born with heart, feelings and emotions, and we move towards head and thoughts. Enlightenment is reverse journey from head to heart, from intellect to innocence. But the heart is in a mess, so confused. So where is the question of seeking enlightenment when it is so confused and so emotional because the heart is where all problem starts.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Heart without wisdom is a market place of problems. That is why you have to go to your head and bring wisdom into your heart. Everything has a place. Wisdom, knowledge has its own place. Intellectual discussion has its own place. This is an intellectual discussion that we are doing. And your emotions have a place. It is beautifully said in the Bhagwad Geeta ‘Nastibudhi rayutaya, najayuktasya bhavna’ naja bhavyata shanti, ashantasya kutah sukha’ Mahatma Gandhi used to chant this daily and made his followers also do the same in their prayers. When you are not united with your spirit, your intellect can’t be sharp, is not complete and your feelings are ruffled. But when you are united with your spirit, your intellect becomes sharp and alert and your feelings blossom flawlessly like flowers. When you don’t have feelings, you can’t have peace, and how can you be happy if peace is not there. This is what Krishna asked Arjuna in Bhagwad Geeta: Where is happiness if there is no peace, if one is disturbed.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
It will happen. Your intention is enough. Main thing is Sadhna (Practices and self effort), next is awareness, and third is - no feverishness.How can I overcome anger and resentment?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Don’t try to overcome both. Tackle them one by one. I say, stop the resentment and agree to be angry. Anger and resentment have a chain reaction – you get angry and then you resent; resentment will then turn to anger. Either you are angry with somebody or you are angry with yourself. You are angry with yourself and this causes anger towards somebody else. You may be angry with somebody else but then, as soon as your anger fades, you resent yourself and feel, “How could I lose my temper like that?” So, first decide to be just angry. It does not matter. Just get rid of resentment. This is the first step you can take. Anger is part of your life. As a child you would get very angry. Look at a small child who is holding a toy; just take the toy away from him and see his reaction. His whole body shakes and he gets angry. He yells and shouts, but he is normal the next instant. It doesn’t take a child very long to do this. You get angry but the next moment bring the smile back to your face. Don’t resent. Laugh at your own anger – “Oh, I had a big blow-up today! It was fantastic. It is such fun to watch others’ faces when I get angry! How they reacted to my anger! How soon they caught on to it!” You will soon see that the anger in you turns into alertness; into awareness. That is where pranayama and kriya will come to your aid over a period of time. The resentment had stopped earlier, now the anger will gradually disappear.
Guruji this question has bothered me for a long time. Billions of people have been born and billions have died. I am born and I will die. Then what is the purpose of life? Why are we here if all are going to die?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Why not? So many people were born and died, so many are living and they will die and so many will be born in future and they will also die. You are thinking from a business mind – what am I going to get? - What is the aim? What is the purpose? There should be something coming out of everything. So when you think from a business mind, this whole exercise appears totally uneconomical and futile. Biggest disadvantage is that it seems God hasn’t studied economics (Laughter); else Einstein would be given another 100 years so that he could perform some more experiments, discoveries. So many leaves are coming up every spring and then they fall. Such an economical disaster! People are dying and new babies are born, go to school, college – job – get married – have children – and then die again. It appears to be completely bizarre. But that’s how it is.