Continued from the Last post..
Q: But how to have people to get out from their anger because sometimes it is so difficult to be with them because of their anger?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yeah, how to help people come out of anger? Only through WISDOM! Knowledge, wisdom and meditation.
Q: What if one of our levels of existence has been affected by shock or something, like memory, is it necessary to transcend and reach the self or how does that impact?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Meditation! Just exactly what you are doing - yoga pranayama, meditation, it heals everything. See, we have given so much shock to our body, used it and misused it that it needs this kind of attention. Similarly, we have used and misused our breath, our mind and our intellect that our whole system has been in Topsy turvy, in turmoil and all this gets stored in the memory but remember they all can be easily handled through the practice of meditation. Once you go to the SELF, it heals the memory also. Once you are aware what you are worried about, a shock or an experience, you find you are so much bigger than any experience, and see, in the world how many millions of people are there and how many experiences they all have. Do you see what I am saying?
See what is happening now in Pakistan, flood, how people are traumatized. What happened in India in Leh Ladakh! Suddenly a cloud burst and everything is gone, people’s homes are gone, and see how the terrorists or the Taliban, and these other groups are terrorizing people. If you see the Time magazine’s cover page, it’s so horrifying. In Afghanistan, women, their noses are being cut by Taliban. With all these experiences in the world, people are still living alive. What are we worried about, we are worried about our little unpleasant experience. See, life has both pleasant and unpleasant experiences. Everybody gets a little unpleasant experience, but when you open your eyes, you see our unpleasant experience is nothing, it is minuscule when compared to the other things. So your problem is almost nothing when you look at the big problems in the world, yeah!
Q: Can I ask you something? I was also thinking about all that has happened in Pakistan and this was the region which was also most affected by terrorism. Is there any relation how the karma is of the people’s action and the nature’s response?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yeah, at this time it is not wise to say, ‘it is because of your bad karma you are suffering’. It is not a wise thing to say, people are suffering from natural calamity. That is why they always categorize three types of calamities affecting people.
Three categories, one is Adi Bhautik means natural calamities, nature’s response brings you into misery. And then Adi Daivik - a calamity that is manmade. You can say through one’s own wrong doings. And then the third calamity that comes in life Adhyatmik, What is it called in Christianity? Something like the dark age of the soul… what is it called? (Audience - The dark night of the soul). Yeah,that is you have everything but then depression sets in. You have money, all that you could have achieved in society you have achieved but you find there is darkness and you don’t know how to go in, how to cut the darkness. Your spirit is longing, missing something but it does not know what. There is type of inner vacuum. That inner vacuum where there is no joy, everything appears completely dead and meaningless.
This is called Taap Athreya. Taap means anguish, three types of anguish. Human life is faced with three types of anguish and how it can be overcome? Through Tapas!
Tapas means endurance, knowledge, wisdom, meditation, yoga, pranayama, all this comes under Tapas, from Tapas the three Taaps can be overcome, okay!
Q: Sometimes we feel disconnected with you how to overcome that?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Sometimes only na! So you got disconnected and then you feel the connection again, it will happen.
Q: Why do natural calamities occur only in specific areas?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Why natural calamities occur only in specific areas, I have no idea! You have to ask mother earth but one thing I tell you we are misusing this planet so much. Every day we are putting so many dynamites under this earth and blasting it. Why will it not shake? Mining has become such a business, five to six companies around the world are doing mining and mining and mining… depleting this earth more than it can recuperate itself.
© The Art of Living Foundation
Q: But how to have people to get out from their anger because sometimes it is so difficult to be with them because of their anger?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yeah, how to help people come out of anger? Only through WISDOM! Knowledge, wisdom and meditation.
Q: What if one of our levels of existence has been affected by shock or something, like memory, is it necessary to transcend and reach the self or how does that impact?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Meditation! Just exactly what you are doing - yoga pranayama, meditation, it heals everything. See, we have given so much shock to our body, used it and misused it that it needs this kind of attention. Similarly, we have used and misused our breath, our mind and our intellect that our whole system has been in Topsy turvy, in turmoil and all this gets stored in the memory but remember they all can be easily handled through the practice of meditation. Once you go to the SELF, it heals the memory also. Once you are aware what you are worried about, a shock or an experience, you find you are so much bigger than any experience, and see, in the world how many millions of people are there and how many experiences they all have. Do you see what I am saying?
See what is happening now in Pakistan, flood, how people are traumatized. What happened in India in Leh Ladakh! Suddenly a cloud burst and everything is gone, people’s homes are gone, and see how the terrorists or the Taliban, and these other groups are terrorizing people. If you see the Time magazine’s cover page, it’s so horrifying. In Afghanistan, women, their noses are being cut by Taliban. With all these experiences in the world, people are still living alive. What are we worried about, we are worried about our little unpleasant experience. See, life has both pleasant and unpleasant experiences. Everybody gets a little unpleasant experience, but when you open your eyes, you see our unpleasant experience is nothing, it is minuscule when compared to the other things. So your problem is almost nothing when you look at the big problems in the world, yeah!
Q: Can I ask you something? I was also thinking about all that has happened in Pakistan and this was the region which was also most affected by terrorism. Is there any relation how the karma is of the people’s action and the nature’s response?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yeah, at this time it is not wise to say, ‘it is because of your bad karma you are suffering’. It is not a wise thing to say, people are suffering from natural calamity. That is why they always categorize three types of calamities affecting people.
Three categories, one is Adi Bhautik means natural calamities, nature’s response brings you into misery. And then Adi Daivik - a calamity that is manmade. You can say through one’s own wrong doings. And then the third calamity that comes in life Adhyatmik, What is it called in Christianity? Something like the dark age of the soul… what is it called? (Audience - The dark night of the soul). Yeah,that is you have everything but then depression sets in. You have money, all that you could have achieved in society you have achieved but you find there is darkness and you don’t know how to go in, how to cut the darkness. Your spirit is longing, missing something but it does not know what. There is type of inner vacuum. That inner vacuum where there is no joy, everything appears completely dead and meaningless.
This is called Taap Athreya. Taap means anguish, three types of anguish. Human life is faced with three types of anguish and how it can be overcome? Through Tapas!
Tapas means endurance, knowledge, wisdom, meditation, yoga, pranayama, all this comes under Tapas, from Tapas the three Taaps can be overcome, okay!
Q: Sometimes we feel disconnected with you how to overcome that?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Sometimes only na! So you got disconnected and then you feel the connection again, it will happen.
Q: Why do natural calamities occur only in specific areas?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Why natural calamities occur only in specific areas, I have no idea! You have to ask mother earth but one thing I tell you we are misusing this planet so much. Every day we are putting so many dynamites under this earth and blasting it. Why will it not shake? Mining has become such a business, five to six companies around the world are doing mining and mining and mining… depleting this earth more than it can recuperate itself.
“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