Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
If fast and aggressive minds led to progress, then Iraq and Afghanistan should have been the most prosperous countries in the world. Afghanistan has had aggression for more than 30 years, they’ve seen nothing but war. The Human Rights Commissioner came to our German centre. He did the part I course and requested to be allowed to cook his own food. He was not eating anything. What was the matter? He thought everybody at the ashram ate drugged food because everyone was so happy.He was scared to eat our food. Then, our people spoke to him, I also spoke to him. For the last 20 years, he had never seen happy people. And here he couldn’t believe that people were so happy. He realised that people could be happy after doing the kriya. You don’t need to be on drugs to be on a high. It was so funny.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
This is just a passing phase, don’t worry about it.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
I am still a child. My childhood will never finish, I will never let it finish.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Just one drop of blood is enough to test the blood in your body. From just one drop of saliva, doctors can determine your DNA. The functioning of the kidney, pancreas… everything can be detected by one drop of saliva, one drop of blood. You can virtually create every possible creature from one human DNA. Did you know about this?Scientists say a single human DNA has the DNA chains of all the animals on the planet. An elephant, crow, mosquito, even a hippo …. so there is a hippo hiding inside you. But inside a hippo, there is no human being. At least, science hasn’t made any claims on this yet.
Modern science and ancient knowledge are in the same boat. The most ancient Vedic knowledge says the same thing.
There is a doctor from Germany who has scientifically proved that everything is nothing, the whole universe is nothing. What you think as a solid substance is actually nothing. People think he is crazy. But he gives scientific explanations for every fact.
It is startling to hear the same truth as the Vedantic Truth that has been around for thousands of years.
From subjective and objective analysis, they ultimately mean the same thing.
Anyways, enough discussion for today. Remember: Just drop all that is bothering you, if you are not free today, you can never be free anytime. Don’t expect freedom to come to you.
Tonight I am free, everything is going to happen the way it is going to happen.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes, they say everything is fair in love and then it turns into a war! (laughter)When they say everything is fair in war, they, in turn, get jailed. That’s what happened to Miloshevich and many other people who just didn’t care for any rules and thought everything is fair in war and love and finally, they landed up in jail.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You know, in Tamil it is difficult. Soghum in Tamil means sadness. In Tamil, there is very little difference between soghum and sohum.It is not soghum, it is sohum.
It is the natural sound of the breath. Sohum. If you deeply observe the breath, you will observe that with every inhalation, there is sohum.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Evil things happen through people who are victims themselves. Inside every culprit, there is a victim crying for help. You have to correct that person, heal that person. Then such things won’t happen. If you have worked in any prison, you will know. And if you’re an Art of Living teacher and worked in prisons, you will appreciate this. You will see how those people whom you think are evil people, are actually good people. Unfortunately, they were not exposed to the type of knowledge and culture that you have been. They have been victims themselves. So we need to heal them. That is why spiritual knowledge is so much needed. When people do the course in prisons, they say if only they had this knowledge before, they wouldn’t have been there. They wouldn’t have done the things that they had done.So it’s our responsibility to reach out to those people who are doing wrong.
Even terrorists, they (Art of Living teachers) have taught so many terrorists in the world who are in prison as well as outside. Their lives changed the moment they did the Sudarshan Kriya.
Last month I went to one of the toughest parts of India, where Maoist violence is rampant. They had declared a 72-hour bandh. Nobody could stir out of their homes. My programme was organised there. Over 1,50,000 people came in a remote village and they lifted the ban to allow the people to come. And it was very nice.
People have changed, have transformed. When I went to jail, I met a lady and a man who have been ambushed. Not one or two – dozens and dozens have been ambushed. There are people there who have 200-300 cases against them.
The wife of a high court judge in the area is an Art of Living teacher. She went into this prison and taught these people. Their lives have been transformed. I had a talk with them.
After Iraq, the country most affected by violence is India. It is the highest in terror-hit regions. These communists are against spirituality, technology, business and industry. They are against democracy. They are against everything that is good. They don’t know why they are against them. They are indoctrinated by Maoist principles. Just as jihadis are indoctrinated by the promise of heaven: ‘If you kill the non-believers, you will go into heaven right away.’ Maoists are brainwashed – ‘If you throw out democracy, religion and spirituality, you can establish a just society.’
One approach is so material and another is so religious. These two types of violence are created to brainwash people. And if these people are educated in non-violence and spirituality, they will turn around. That is what is happening.
So we need to bring spiritual education in schools and class rooms. Talibans hit a young girl with big knives, suspecting her to have an illicit relation. Last month, they bombed five schools for girl children in Pakistan. I tell you, it is terrible, these people are being brainwashed because they never studied anything other than their fundamentalist religious beliefs.
They all should learn meditation, they all should know spirituality. We must teach them. They were never exposed to anything else, not a multi-dimensional or a multi-cultural education. ‘Only my way is the true way, only my God is the true God’: this sort of mentality puts the whole world into trouble. When someone thinks: ‘Only I will go to heaven and everyone else goes to hell, they will create a hell for everyone else.’
We need to change this. That can happen only through education.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Firstly, be committed to lead a good life and make the world around us a better place. These two things are connected because we can only be really happy when those around us are happy.Commitment is taking responsibility for our own life. I’m responsible for feeling what I feel. Come what may, I’ll keep my calmness, serenity and alertness.
(Someone from the audience asks a question about relationships.)
A. There are many questions about relationships. I’ll say the following things ... one piece of advice for women, one for men.
For women - Never step on the ego of your man. The whole world may say that your spouse has no brain, but you should say, ‘You have the best brain. Just because you never use your brain doesn’t mean you don’t have one!’
A man shouldn’t have to prove himself to his wife. He always has to prove himself outside, and if he also has to prove himself at home, he has no place to call home. Don’t make him repeatedly prove his love to you, and don’t call him a vegetable ... he will become one with your blessings!
In the Indian ceremony, man holds the toe of the woman and drags it onto a stone. He says, ‘I put all my life and my honour at your feet. I know your emotions are always changing, but you be stable and support me. The stone symbolises this stability and solidity.’
Now some advice for men: Women are more emotional and all the more about their family. She may complain about her family, but you never do that. Even if she’s complaining about her mother, don’t even nod your head in agreement, or she will turn right around. When it comes to her family, you keep your mouth sealed. Also, when she wants to participate in singing or shopping, just give her the credit card. Always nurture her emotions.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You think God is a person sitting there. (Sri Sri points upwards.) That is only in Michelangelo’s painting.God is not a person. God is a field of energy, like a magnetic field. The whole universe is pervaded by this field and made up of that substance. In meditation, we are in communion with this.
But this is not a dead field like a magnetic field. It has life, consciousness.
There are five attributes of God – God created this world, sustained it, dissolved it, he also blesses and veils it. Like air, although it is all around us, we only feel it when a fan is switched on. In the same way, we sometimes experience the blessing, but at other times God’s presence is veiled from us.
Spiritual practices unveil God.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
That is not the real world, this is not unreal. It is difficult to keep equanimity in the midst of the world’s problems. But have you noticed a qualitative difference in your life since you started on this path?All you need is re-enforcement. This is required up to a certain point. It’s like watering and nurturing a small plant. This is very important, but when the small plant becomes a tree, this is no longer required.