Q: How to have celebration when I feel tired with service?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: That means you have not completed your service. And when service is done with the spirit of celebration, then it does not tire you or wear you off. See you have been so enthusiastic for two –three days, but I don’t see any of you tired. You gain so much silence with meditation, and you should take care of that. There should be moderation in activity, moderation in talk, moderation in everything. Do not over do in anything.
Q: Guruji, we get plenty in life yet a feeling of dissatisfaction remains with unfulfilled desires, which really give pain sometimes. How to deal with them?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You have done the basic course. What did you learn in the basic course - There is failure sometimes and there is success sometimes in life, and you have to accept both. You can never be satisfied with a failure, it will give pain only. Then what to do at that time? There are two methods for that-‘so what?’ and ‘so hum’! So you have these keys to handle the situation!
Q: Guruji, I was doing service today and I must admit that I did service only to draw your attention.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Never mind! You know, don’t feel guilty that you did service to get attention. At least you did service! And as you will move on, you will improve. Many times people also ask questions just to draw attention, I know that! But don’t make the habit to have just attention, do both.
Q: We have heard you saying that plenty of blessings are being given here, but how much amount we can receive depends totally on the capacity of our container. So, is there a way to increase the capacity or size of our container to have more?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: yoga increases your capacity, your skills. Yoga, Pranayama, Dhyan- all the things which you are doing here increase your capacity and your qualities. Service does that too.
Q: How should the breath be –long deep one or restful slow ones?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You should take long as well as restful breaths sometimes. When you take long and deep ones, it gives you prana, and slow and restful ones will give you rest and meditation.
Q: In the modern world today, many suffer from diabetes which cannot be cured fully with allopathic medicines. Can it be cured by yoga?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Some types of diabetes can be cured with the combination of yoga and ayurveda , but they may not work in certain type of diabetes. Here at the Research Center, some research has been conducted by Dr Vedamurthacharya who has published 43 papers on it. You can talk to him. He has tested on over 1000 diabetic people, who after doing sudarshan kriya and following proper diet have overcome diabetes.
Q: I have to struggle all the time for every work, and I don’t get the satisfactory results either. What should I do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Why do you have to put these ideas in your mind- ‘I have to struggle for everything, and I don’t get satisfactory results’? You only put this sort of affirmation on yourself –got it? It may be like that at sometime in the past, but it may not be like that in the future.
Q: What should I do to increase concentration?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Do more advance courses.
Q: What should I do so that I get enlightenment? I want enlightenment, I want to see God.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You want enlightenment? You want to see God? Do service and just relax!
Q: I do sadhna every day, but I want to be with you all the time and if I see other people talking to you, I keep hallucinating that you speaking to me only. Sometimes I feel any gesture of yours works and I feel alright, but today while meeting our entire group, you didn’t even see or look at me. So, I don’t know if that is obsession and how do I get over it?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: See, the moment you knew it was obsession, you already got over it. OK? So, it is OK to draw attention for a while but you don’t have to draw attention all the time. You be happy, be centered, keep doing service, sadhna, satsang. Don’t sit and do analysis –“Was it devotion or was it hallucination?”- Analysis makes it even worse. Just be natural, move on, and take it as it comes-OK? Got it? See, we always get what we need. This basic principal we must keep in mind and keep moving.
Q: For doing any work, I think Guruji is asking me to do it. It works, but it has hampered my normal living.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You should have a balance - what your inner voice says, what your gut feeling is, and then use your inner strength rest of the time. The one hampering you-that’s called ‘yoga maya’. Sometimes ‘yoga maya’ comes in mind and says things which are not correct also. That’s why we shouldn’t lose our intellectual discrimination ability while ordering and understanding to inner dimensional consciousness. This state happened to Sri Ramkrishna Paramhansa also, and to many enlightened people in the world that the inner vision comes, a voice comes. So, go with a balance. Go slow with both intellect and feelings. Got it? Your feelings are as important as your intellect. Many people survive only on intellect and some survive only on feelings. The best thing in life is to have a balance between emotions and intellect, between heart and the mind.
Q: Guruji, in Geeta what does Lord Krishna mean by the world as play of gunas?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: If we start about Geeta, it will take a long time. So, not now. You read again. Sometimes you read and immediately understand it, and sometimes you read hundred times and then understand the same thing.
Q : Sometimes I feel good and sometimes bad. How to balance?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Keep silence for a few days and then essential right things will come out.
Q: I have been doing sudarshan kriya for last 6 years and living totally a new life in terms of getting over negative emotions etc. But I have a small problem of forgetting things; my memory is not as sharp now as it used to be. How to get on with this problem or I should leave it?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You should take ayurvedic medicines- brahmi, and shankhpushpi etc. as per your age. And the food habits that we have in our country is not good for memory power because we eat so much starch, so much of carbohydrate and so little vegetables. So, change your diet. Have more intake of proteins, vegetables and fruits, and some ayurvedic supplements like brahmi etc. This, along with your pranayama and yoga will improve memory.
Q: You say, choice is ours and blessings are yours. For two-three years, I have not been able to decide my career. I take up jobs and then leave. Can you choose one for me?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Any career you choose, after sometime you may feel oh, this is not the right one. People who have become doctors say, ‘we should have become engineers’, those who are engineers may feel they should have been lawyers and make easy money! So every profession has its dark side. That’s why I say you move on in any profession of your choice and do it. And I chose one career for you? No way! I refuse to. You chose the profession; I give the blessing. My blessings are there.
Q: Guruji, what is Time and can we modify time and its speed?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Time is distance between two events or happenings. It appears longer in sad moods and shorter in happy moods, and its speed can be modified by silence.
Q: In your discourse on Narada Bhakti Sutra, you say everything is illusion. Then if everything is illusion, does that mean there is no need to do anything?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: First you hear the full talk. Making concepts after hearing half or one tape is not advisable.
Q: Whenever I meet you, I don’t feel satisfied. I feel you give more time to others than me. Today also in darshan line, you never looked at me and moved ahead. And whenever I get a chance to talk to you, I just don’t know what to talk! Then I think, “Oh! I forgot to ask this, forgot to tell this”. The analysis starts in my mind. What to do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: How can I not see you? I leave none unseen, I see each and every one-all who come to visit me in the darshan line. And you forget to ask or tell anything on meeting me, that’s OK. You have told it now, got your chance, yes?
Q: We heard that Abhimanyu learnt one of the difficult and tactful war act called ‘chakravyuh’ while he was in his mother’s womb. So, is it possible to learn something while in womb also?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes, it is true.
“That which you cannot express is Love.
That which you cannot reject/renounce is Beauty.
That which you cannot avoid is the Truth.”
That which you cannot reject/renounce is Beauty.
That which you cannot avoid is the Truth.”
~ Sri Sri Ravishankar
© The Art of Living Foundation
