Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
How to balance excellence and dispassion?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Whenever you are out of balance, it pinches you. Listen to the pinch, that's all. If you have too much passion and no dispassion, you will lose night's sleep. When you cannot do anything, you cannot meditate and passion catches you like a fever, then remember dispassion. Know that there is a bigger power that is taking care of everything, I have nothing to do! Then you will become calmer.
Remember the dream nature of everything. Everything is a dream, then the dispassion comes up automatically. If you find yourself being too lazy, thinking everything is dispassion and why do I have to do anything? Why do I even have to do my yoga class in the morning! C'mon! Wake up, do something. Never mind if it's a dream, you have to do something in the dream also.
Gurudev could you please speak about the great Jupiter transit that is happening tomorrow.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
This keeps happening every year and planets are changing all the time. You don't have to worry about all of this. Yesterday only I told you that, for a 'sadhak' everyday is a good day; every time is a good time.
Gurudev in all these years of teaching, have you seen any difference in people from 30 years ago to now?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Oh yes! On one level, everything is changing -- people's thinking has changed from place to place and from time to time. Change is a constant thing. At another level there is one thing that is running throughout; that has not changed. A lot has changed and a lot has remained unchanged. Both exist in this world.
Meditation is often called 'Turiya avastha', where wakefulness and rest exist simultaneously. If this state is so efficient, then is it possible to stay in this state for longer period of time and not just during the 20 minutes of meditation ?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You know, you take shower only for ten minutes, but the freshness stays with you the whole day. Meditation is like that. If not the whole day, it stays for at least half a day, till you take the shower again.
You have mentioned that the education is essential in order to combat terrorism. Could you please shed light on how we can educate someone who doesn't feel the need of being educated?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Skill. This is where your skilfulness comes into play. How skilfully you can manoeuvre the situation.
Education is not just the technical education. When people say that education is the antidote to terrorism, I don't agree with them because when you see, the biggest terrorists on this planet are all highly educated. One of them was an engineer, the other was a doctor and even today all the terrorists that are caught are not illiterates. They are technically educated and qualified in modern standards. But what they lack is spiritual education. Here we need to be very specific. It is the spiritual education, which broadens the mind, enhances one's ability to honour and respect everybody and everyone's religion. Spiritual education gives one a very compassionate heart. That type of spiritual education is needed, and not just education.
If I am suffering from inside, can I still stay happy and keep a smile on my face?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You know life is like a 'Thali'(plate) in which you have something sweet, something salty, something pungent -- all different tastes are present. Like this, in your life you have little sadness (maybe you have lost something, or lost money), yes that pinches but if you just hold on to that pinch only, hold on to that pain only, then life cannot go on. Unless you are so well soaked in wisdom, in spirituality, you will continue to have some little grievances here and there, and if you stop smiling because of that, you will find the world to be a very depressing place. You should keep smiling, having a strong hope that whatever pain and suffering that you have inside will vanish, anyway it doesn't matter. One should have the wisdom to bear discomfort and move forward with a smile.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You know whenever I am talking, I am only talking one to one. Others are just sitting around and listening, so remember I am talking just to you and you only.
In ‘wonder’, is intellect not active?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
In ‘wonder’ the mind comes to a stand-still, the intellect which poses question comes into exclamation. Exclamation or wonder can happen only through intellect.
Gurudev, you said there were three people fortunate to see the supreme form of Krishna. One was Arjuna, second was Krishna’s mother. Who was the third person?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Uddhav. Lord Krishna gave the last Gita to Uddhav -- The Uddhav Gita.
Whenever I listen to knowledge I sleep. What should I change?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
One devotee asked this question, "How come when I watch any movie or television serial, I am all awake, even if it is in middle of the night. The moment I come for a spiritual discourse, I doze off".
You know, the answer is -- because movies are bed of thorns, it keeps you awake. Knowledge is a bed of roses, that’s why you sleep. Well this is said with humor. But never mind, the deep rest somewhere sends the knowledge to our subconscious mind and sometime it will come up.