Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
Is it possible to be both ethical and practical?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes. Your yukti should be like the salt in the food - just a little bit salt in your business. If there is too much salt, it becomes like food in the salt.Q:
How does the Art of meditation help the mind, the body, spiritual aspirations and relationships and society as a whole?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Meditation helps to change your perspective. It improves the way you perceive things. It brings clarity in the mind. It improves your interaction with people around –what you say, how you react and act in different situations, you become more aware. In general, from a stress-free society to peace and health in individuals and from a violence-free society to a sorrow-free soul – all are side effects of meditation.Q:
When we do seva (service), especially us youth, how do we balance seva, studies and family?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
How do you ride a bicycle? Do you allow yourself to fall on one side? When you are more towards one side, you just balance. But one strong conviction should be there – I will do seva, I will do studies, I will take care of my family and respect the elders as well. These are not opposites but complementary. When you do seva, you get power and achieve merit, and that gives you good fortune. So,spirituality brings strength. Through meditation, you will progress in the world.This conviction, ‘I will be able to do all’, works miracles.
If you find any doubt, just know that it is temporary. The most important thing is to develop a strong personality. Going to college, stuffing your head with information and just passing the exam, no! How much strength and humility have you gained? Are you blossoming into a complete person? It is important to check this. Enthusiasm with awareness!Seva brings out the skill in you that will again make a difference in how you relate to all types of people.Softness and depth will come to you.With enthusiasm, there will be awareness. All can be threaded on a string.
Q:
Some dreams don’t come true in spite of putting efforts. What should one do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You keep putting your effort. There is a proverb ’Try and try again and at last you will succeed.’ So, perhaps you don’t succeed the first time or second time. Yet if your intention is strong, it will happen.Q:
If a person thinks he is good for nothing in whatever he does, how should he move ahead in life?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Just be here for a little while and know that God doesn’t create garbage.Everyone who is created on this planet is good for something.Q:
From the time, the Universe has been created, there have been souls. I wonder are they increasing or do they remain the same? I don’t understand the mathematics of souls.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
There are lot many species which are getting extinct too! Lots of snakes,scorpions, sparrows, butterflies… They could have come as humans.Q:
Why does one marry? What is the secret of a successful marriage?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
A successful marriage is when both are happy. Then the children will also be happy. You choose! Choice is yours and blessings are mine. This is something that you don’t choose with your head. If something clicks in the future, make a choice.Q:
What is the purpose of my life? Why have I taken birth on this planet?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
The way you are smiling right now, to bring that smile on the faces of others as wellKnowledge BYTE:
Do you know the meaning of the month December? (Audience says No!) November? (No!). December – Dash + Ambar, Dash in Sanskrit means ten and ambar means sky. So December makes the tenth sky. Similarly November (Nav + ambar) makes ninth sky and so on. All these names have Sanskrit roots.
Once upon a time March was celebrated as the New year. March is the first month which means go ahead, to move on. And that is when Sun enters the first constellation – Aries. Even today in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey and in many parts of India, March is celebrated as the start of the New Year. So the real new year begins in march. January is the eleventh month and February – the last month.
Q:
How does it differ from our guided meditation?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
In guided meditation, you don’t have to do anything. Meditation will be done for you. Just feel, "Divinity is doing meditation for me, let me just relax". Someone else is piloting the plane and you simply have to fasten the seat-belt, sit back and relax.Don’t use Om as a mantra for meditation be cause then there is an effort. It is good to enhance the prana as pranayama in the beginning or in the end. But don’t sit and say, om om om. It may shoot up your energy too much and you may not know how to handle it. You may not get sleep.
In the beginning we chant Om three times, five times or seven times, and relax.
Q:
Could you please discuss the value of Vedic tradition of masters who have preserved
this meditation for thousands of years in its purity? Why is this important? Can we
describe the Art of Meditation as a gift from the masters of the holy tradition?
this meditation for thousands of years in its purity? Why is this important? Can we
describe the Art of Meditation as a gift from the masters of the holy tradition?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
From thousands of years, many sages down the line have preserved this art of meditation and it is a gift to the humanity. In the middle ages, people thoughtit should only be given to a very qualified student and real seeker. They used to give it only to a sincere seeker. But I thought, on the contrary, if you give meditation to somebody, sincerity will blossom in their lives. So, I thought (I should) give it to everybody and it will bring a change in the quality of their life. And when they want higher knowledge, they will go deeper into it. So, for everyone it brings some benefit or the other. To whatever extent they go into it! I usually give the example of the ocean. Some people take a walk along the beach and they get good oxygen, fresh air and they are happy with that.Others would put their feet in the water and feel that scintillating impact of the ocean.
Some others go surfing or scuba-diving and they find corals and precious things. So, it’sup to you – if you want to take a walk on the beach or go for a swim or go deeper and go scuba-diving, Ocean is there available to you. It is the same with meditation. You can do meditation to improve your health or your mental faculties or further if you want to go, spiritual elevation can happen in the same meditation.