Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Q: Is it ok to forego discipline to experience immense love?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

They go together. Discipline has to be followed. I have spoken about this in Narad Bhakti Sutra.

Q: Can the soul come to the same world or can we born in other worlds too?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

All possibilities are open.

Q: Isn’t insincere praise same as pleasant lies?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Why should your praise be insincere?
Your praise cud be a blessing. Blessings are for the future only. So u can praise someone as a blessing. If someone is stingy, you say….. That praise can become a future blessing.

Q: What about people who haven’t come to you yet?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

They will come in sometime.

Q: What makes this form of meditation (Sahaj Samadhi) so unique?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

It is very simple and profound. Usually the common notion is that what is profound must be complicated and what is simple is not effective. But Sahaj Samadhi Meditation is a very rare combination of simplicity, profoundness and depth.

Q: It is said that God likes innocent people and luck supports the innocent. What should I to do to be innocent?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

To be innocent, drop cunningness. Innocence is naturally present in everyone. You just need to blossom it. And how do you do that? Just be in meditation. ‘I am nothing –Akinchan, I don’t want anything, and all are my very own; I accept all and all accept me.’ When you know that everybody is accepting you, you move ahead with naturalness. When you think people are not accepting you the way you are, then you think of doing something to gain acceptance and you start becoming unnatural.

Q: Self-effort is required for enlightenment. But then you said effortlessness is the key. There is a paradox. So, what is the way?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Both. To get into your train, you need to put effort, you take your luggage and go to the right platform. But once you are on the train, you put your luggage aside and relax.

Q: I have been told since childhood that eating non – vegetarian is like committing a sin because we are killing helpless animals. Is it so?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Don’t think those who eat non – vegetarian are sinful. It is only thattamsictendencies are encouraged when one eats non – vegetarian. That won’t be good for them, for the world and for society. My dear, don’t make your stomach a graveyard.

Q: Is someone’s destiny fixed orcan it change as well?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

A part of destiny is fixed, and certain things can change.

Q: What is greater – moksha or love and gratitude?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Love and gratitude cannot happen without some degree of freedom within.Moksha is freedom. They go hand in hand. To the degree of freedom that you experience, to thatdegree you feel gratitude