Bangalore ashram, Jan. 23:
Q: Guruji, I think life is miserable. What should I do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You think life is miserable because you are
hanging onto
desires of the past, impossibles of the past, you are not accepting the present,
you
are not moving ahead or you are hoping for something too much. Correct? Be
practical.
Life is a mixture of problems and pleasure. What does your mind do? It messes up
the
problems and blows it out of proportion and makes oneself miserable. So who is
responsible for your misery? Yourself. So when is the program? When is the
program
not to be miserable? (Laughter) Now, right now have you gotten over your misery
right
now? (A dim ‘yes’ from the audience) The ‘Yes!’ should be louder (A strong ‘Yes’
this
time).
That is it.
You know, if the room is dark for 20 years, it doesn’t take another 20 years to
bring
light in. it just needs one connection, one switch on and the whole darkness
goes
away. Your life may have been miserable in the past, but wake up and see, so
what?
Problems come and go in everybody’s life. Look at your past, problems came and
they
have all vanished. Right?
We forcefully make the problem stay, just wake up and see, where is the problem?
The
problem is not there. You can have some physical problem in the body sometimes,
some
pain here and there but is there anyone who has never suffered physical illness?
Everybody has some physical problem at some point in their lives and when you
violate
laws of nature, pain comes, suffering comes. Pain is inevitable, suffering is
optional.
Q: Guruji, is there any past birth and rebirth?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: This question is futile now. You know why?
Because it is proven
by the scientist community, it is beyond doubt now. Parapsychological department
in
psychological clinics have done experiments and past life regression is used as
a
therapy in most of the clinics and many people have gotten well. You can also do
an
eternity process hereand ask the teacher to take you deep in it. Have your
experience,
it’s not a big thing.It is beyond question now, it is a fact.
Q: How to overcome fear, anxiety and insecurity?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Fear, anxiety and insecurity are same shades of
the same color.
One is slightly brown, another is dark and the third one is the darkest brown.
Grey is
a better color, light, medium and dark gray.
Meditation, pranayama and the faith that you are not alone, faith in the Divine
will
definitely help. Divine faith is very abstract, at least faith in the Guru,
teacher is
there, Master is there, faith in yourself, faith in the universal spirit, faith
in the
goodness of people around. There are good people in the world. When you think
everybody is wrong, everybody is bad then insecurity dawns. Suppose this is not
your
experience and you have found wrong people, who had deceived you all the time
then at
least look for good, enlightened people. Ok, now if you understand all this
intellectual stuff and still anxiety comes, then what to do?
Sudarshan Kriya,
pranayama and
meditation.
After the
Tsunami (in South-east Asia, 2004), so many people could not sleep,
they
couldn’t even see the ocean. A lady witnessed her three to four children being
washed
away, she had a child in her arms and she couldn’t do anything for she had to
look for
her own self. Such incidents happened in front of so many people. So many
families,
somebody’s children, somebody’s wife, somebody’s parents were flooded away. All
people
were saying, ‘Take us anywhere but not the ocean’. And all those were fishermen.
What
would a fisherman do on mid land?
After the earthquake, people couldn’t get into their homes. For days, people
slept
outside their houses on roads till our workers, our volunteers went there and
taught
them Pranayama, bhastrika and meditation, and then they went to their homes.
That is where trauma relief, meditation, pranayama,
Sudarshan Kriya helps
tremendously. We have hundreds and thousands of such experiences and you should
go
through their experiences. In a matter of two days fishermen said, ‘Give us
boats and
we want to go out into the ocean’. They had come out of fear, anxiety. This has
happened with thousands of people.
I am telling you we have such beautiful knowledge, practices that can take us
out of
misery, worries, anxiety, conflicts and suicidal tendencies.
Just in the recent past, 20 students in Bombay alone committed suicide. In
Bombay,
Maharashtra, suicidal tendency among youngsters is so high that we have
announced that
anybody having the slightest tendency to commit suicide, call us at the Art of
Living
helpline. Our volunteers and teachers are working 24x7 to help them out.
The
YES!+
program (Youth empowerment seminar) has helped 1000s of youth to come out of
suicidal
tendencies.
All this happens because we don’t see life from a bigger, broader perspective; A
girl
got 92 percent and committed suicide for she could not get admission in the
college of
her choice. Because you don’t give them spiritual education, a bigger vision and
ask
them to only perform and perform that the pressure of performing better,
pressure of
marks becomes bigger than life itself. Don’t pressurize children too much, we
have to
give them a broader vision. Never mind you lose one year. Life is more precious
than
your profession, your success, your so-called success, your finance, and your
prestige
in society. Finance is for life and not life for finance. These all are only
periphery, accessories for life and not the core of life, existence. This vision
has
to be brought to children.
Wake up and see everybody is caught up in their own things. Whether your
financial
status goes up or down, whether your relation is going good or bad, who cares in
society? I tell you, nobody cares. Don’t worry about what others may think, what
will
my status in society be? If you are doing well they are jealous of you, if you
are not
doing well they don’t even count you. In either case, you don’t have to worry
about
others’ opinion about you, to show yourself up.
And these inter cast marriages; parents are worried what others will think of
their
children. Who has got time to think to whom your son or daughter got married to?
Whether it is in outcast or same, let it be, let it be outcast, you be more
free,
happy. (laughter and applause)
These are silly, insignificant things that people have put in their minds and
worry.
Wake up and see, there is so much love in life, there is so much wisdom in life.
Q: Do impressions in the mind have a role to play in the next birth?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes, your impressions in the mind are
responsible for your next
birth. Your strongest impression is the factor.
Q: Yesterday, you said there is no significant purpose for the universe but it
is also
said that every individual is born for some purpose. Isn’t it contradictory?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Truth is contradictory. Every little thing has a
purpose, at the
same time, it has no purpose because this whole thing is a game. If you consider
the
world as a game, then there is no purpose. A game has no purpose, it is an
expression
of joy.
Dance doesn’t have a goal because dance in itself is an expression of happiness.
What is the purpose of you laughing? Does laughter have any purpose? You are
happy, so
you laugh. You don’t have to wait for a joke to laugh. You know, children don’t
understand jokes but they laugh, babies do laugh. If you think jokes are the
only
reason for one to laugh then babies would never laugh till they understand your
jokes.
You have an illusion that you have to listen to a joke to laugh. Laughter has no
purpose because it is an expression of being, an expression of joy.
Love has no
purpose because it is your very nature. The sun has no purpose to send its rays.
If
you ask me, why does sun shine, what does it achieve? I’ll say, ‘Oh my God, you
are
such a businessman, you need a purpose for everything!’
The sun shines because it is its nature. It can’t but shine. So, in this
context, I
said, ‘Whenever you think, ‘what is the purpose?’ you are caught up in the cause
and
effect phenomenon. No doubt, the cause and effect phenomenon is there, it is a
law of
nature but truth is beyond the cause and effect phenomenon. Divinity is much
bigger,
more vaster, Divinity is beyond that. It is much bigger and vaster, so in this
sense I
said, there is no purpose.
Sun shines because it is its nature, wind blows because it is its nature. What
is the
purpose of the tsunami? Was it just to kill people? If it’s purpose was to kill
people
only then it must have hit only those areas in which people lived. But it hit
those
areas also where there were no people. Nature is beyond cause and effect or
conclusion, theory, understanding or misunderstanding. It is the existence which
is
total, beyond purpose. So you can say, virtually there is no purpose.
If at all you have to pin down to a purpose then the purpose of nature is to
take you
to the Source, is to remind you of the Source, connect you to your Source.
Q: How can the Self be love, joy and peace? Aren’t they all different?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Can there be joy without peace? (No, said the
audience). If you
want to make a distinction, then peace is very mild and always connected to
disturbances, love is more to the heart and could be hate or love. Then joy, you
find
small or big joy. But they are all your nature. Like you can see, you can hear,
you
can smell, you can taste, but it is all you.
There is something deep inside you which unifies all. All emotions are part of
you.
Their functions and expressions are different but all are in you. All arise in
your
mind. In this sense, they all are one, in another sense they are all different.
When
you smile you are different, when you sleep you are different, when you eat you
are
different but all are you. In this sense, they all are one.
When someone dies, people stand up and say, ‘Let’s have a moment of peace’.
Certainly
that is not a joyous occasion and nobody will say, ‘Let’s have a moment of joy,
somebody has died’. In some joyful celebration, like marriage, people don’t say,
‘Let’s have a moment of peace’, that will always be called a moment of joy.
My dear, all are part of you, all arise in you and in that sense all are one,
all are
linked.
Q: What is thought, Why it comes and from where it comes?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Is this a thought? It came in you? Why did it
come? Now find
out. As soon as you realize this, the question is, itself, a thought and it has
come
in you, you have answers for the first two questions. And why does it come?
Because of
a lack of any other questions.Now I want you find its source. When you start
finding
source of thought, you have started on a journey for which you are here. Our
journey
is to find the source, from where this thought has arisen. I want all of you to
be
scientists. Scientist goes on experimenting, asking questions. It’s a very good
opportunity to find out where it comes from? What is its origin? Since it comes
in
you, you find its answer. If it doesn’t come in you and somebody else, then I’ll
answer.
Q: There is so much conflict and violence in world in the name of religion.
Is there a
need of religion?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Communists opposed religion for 50 years. They
didn’t get
success. Communist people think religious people, especially in Russia and China
are
very authoritarian, they don’t give freedom. So they want to be done with
religion but
did they not unleash much more violence? In Stalin, Lenin and Mao Zedong,
millions
were massacred in the name of communism. Religion ruled with fear, fear of you
being
sent to hell. Religious leaders were authoritarian, trying to get hold of
society by
creating guilt and fear in people.
Communist also did the same thing but not with guilt but with fear. They remove
only
guilt but they couldn’t remove fear, instead they instill more fear and violence
in
society.
I don’t think communism did any better. It didn’t make people rich. After 50
years,
people have come back. A big church in Moscow was demolished and a swimming pool
was
made instead of it. Today that swimming pool is demolished and a church is made
again.
I think it is humanism which is most important. If humanism is there in
religion, it
does good. And when humanism disappears from religion, it becomes like a mafia.
In the
same way, communism also ignored humanism. So when humanism went away, violence
and
fear dominated even in communism.
These Maoists party! Did it do any good in the country, in all 213 districts? It
didn’t make anybody rich. So you can’t be done away with religion.
We need to
have inter-religious communication, inter-religion faith. Every child should know a
little
bit about other religions also. Yes, we don’t need religions if all become
spiritual.
If we can transform this world into a higher plane of religion, which is
spirituality
then it will really be an intelligent thing to do. But just opposing religion as
communists do, can’t serve any purpose. It is like throwing the baby with the
bath
water. Because religion has some moral values, some human values, it gives some
strength and solace, and if you also take solace without replacing it with
spirituality then you are doing injustice in the society.
Q: Why are love marriages and arranged marriages increasingly leading to
divorces?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes, divorce is happening day by day while
family values are
eroding, the generation gap is widening and interdependence is being forgotten.
Husband and wife forget that they are interdependent. They need each other and
both
look for independence. I haven’t done any research on this why this is
happening.
(laughter) but if some of you do that research and publish a paper it will be
good.
Atleast people will be aware of these pitfalls.
Whether it is a love marriage or arranged marriage, marriage is always a chance,
if it
clicks it is a chance. Sometimes it may appear to have clicked for a short
period of
time but in the long run, it becomes a question mark. And vice versa also.
Sometimes
in the beginning it may appear to be completely incompatible but as time goes it
becomes very compatible. It is like a chameleon – changing colors all the time.
If
someone can see this, they have a hope. And if it appears to be not so, then
move on
without guilt because there is no point in suffering life long. If you have
given 100
percent then you better move on your path and let the other move on his/her path
rather making the whole live of both, miserable. But the question is whether you
have
given your 100 percent, have you made all the effort to make it work? That is
important.
Q: What is the importance of horoscope matching when it comes to marriage?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Astrology is a science but all astrologers are
not scientists.
(laughter) First of all, you don’t know whether the time of your birth and all
other
factors are right or not. Sometimes, we don’t keep records and there are various
factors. There is probability in all those factors. So, if you find someone who
is
good, the astrologer says, ‘Good, it does have a value but it is always with a
pinch
of salt.’
It is said that there was a great astrologer of this country and he made all the
horoscopes of his daughter. But his daughter’s marriage didn’t work. It was
quoted as
a probability factor.
In all scientific experiments, there is always a probability factor – may be,
may not
be.So we must take it with that probability and not as definite.
Q: What is the difference between God (Parmatma) and Devta?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Parmatma is the sun,
devta is its
ray. Without the sun, there is
no ray and without the ray, there is no sun. A ray has all seven colors, these
all
different devtas. God is the combination of all the seven colors. God is
certainly not
made of one color. When all colors combine, white is obtained and that is
Parmatma.
You can understand this like different organs - eyes, ears, nose, all combine to
form
you. Your eyes are different from ears, your nose is different from tongue but
all is
part of you. The totality of the whole creation, with all the energies is given
a name
and it is called
Parmatma, Parampita (supreme father). In ancient
terminology, God is
called
Parmatma, Parampita.
Why only Parampit , He is also Parammata (Supreme mother).Why should God be
called
father only? God is also the mother. God is father, mother and God is also the
Self.
All Gods, goddesses are like rays of the sun, one sunlight and all the rays
together
is God but these are all different aspects of God. All are different aspects of
the
one Divine like in one human being, one cell somewhere becomes the eyes,
somewhere the
ears, somewhere the nose, and all this has happened from one fertilized cell,
embryo.
So, God is the sum total of all Divine elements and in the Vedic times, ancient
rishis
identified all these elements and called then devtas. They designated 33 types
of
Divine energy and called them devta and they tell how these are connected with
the
cosmos, like the eyes are connected with the sun. They established connection
between
the micro cosmos and macro cosmos. …It is very amazing analysis, amazing science
of
unity of the universe. It is not too many Gods, it is aspects of God. Though you
are
one, you have different functions. When you sleep you are different, when you
smile
you are different, when you eat, you are different. Crore means category, 33
crores
means 33 categories of devas. Crore is also a number, 10 million but here it is
not
referred to as a number. 33 crore means 330 million and so people started taking
that
way.
Q: What is difference between prayer and meditation?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Prayer is asking,
meditation is listening. In prayer,
you ask,
‘Give me this, give me that’, giving instructions, demanding. In meditation, you
say,
‘I am here to listen, what is it that you want to tell? Tell me, whenever you
are
free, I am here. Culmination of prayer is meditation. Prayer goes to the peak
and that
is meditation.
“That which you cannot express is Love.
That which you cannot reject/renounce is Beauty.
That which you cannot avoid is the Truth.”
~ Sri Sri Ravishankar
© The Art of Living Foundation For Global Spirituality
