Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
My partner cheated on me. When I confronted him, he says, ‘You do not possess me'. What to do in such a situation?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
When someone is cheating on you and their mind is going towards someone else, what do you do? Just pray, have patience and understand their mind. Give them three warnings, and even then if they don’t listen, then take some drastic steps.Q:
Please talk on the origin of life.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
When we think linearly, we think something should start somewhere and end somewhere. But we should think spherically. Can you tell me where is the beginning point of a tennis ball? No! So when you can’t find the beginning point of a tennis ball, why do you try to find the beginning of this universe? The mathematics is wrong. There are two types of thinking, one is spherical thinking and other is linear thinking. The world has neither a beginning nor an end, this is spherical thinking and this is what the Vedic concept is. The Vedic understand is that three things are eternal: The universe, Divinity and Life. They have no beginning and no end, they just go in cycles. This is the most interesting and most scientific understanding of the universe.Q:
What is the use of Astrology?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Astrology only points the direction for you. In astrology, they will tell you - you may come across these problems, so take precaution. It is like a doctor who says, "You have high cholesterol, you should take care and work out". Similarly, if you have diabetes, you should be careful. So, their predictions are according to what medical problem you have and then they give you some remedies – if you do these things, you will have no problem. In the same way, astrologers also say, "Oh, you are going to have Jupiter coming into the eighth house and so your mind will go topsy turvy. All the faith will go. You will have no confidence in yourself, no faith in anybody, no faith in the work you do and you will be worried. This will continue for one whole year, but it will be too much during these four to five months. So, do your meditation, pranayama, prayers regularly and you can pass that stage. Also, don’t take any decision at this time." So, these are little predictions about the tendency of the mind and how it goes.Q:
Can you please speak about the palm leaf Nadi reading?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
In ancient India, the Rishisused to have universities in which they used to train psychics. Psychic meansthe one who can see into the future. So, people would stay for twelve or thirteen years, meditate, go deep within and then the master would give them a task. He would say, "In 2015, on this particular day, at this particular minute, somebody will be born. Astrologically, you calculate and predict how their life will be." It involved two things – astrological calculation and an insight into space and time. So, this is what they used to do. However, since this was written by the students, it need not be hundred percent true. Students can make mistakes. They will be seventy to eighty percent correct. Second thing is that they can only give you a possibility, saying this may happen. If you are a meditator and if you are on the path of spiritual knowledge, you keep changing your destiny, since you are bringing more positivity into your life. If you chant, meditate and do pranayama, your freedom increases and you don't feel bound by certain events of life.Q:
I am torn between spirituality and sex. I feel a sense of guilt mixing both. I am married and have a good relationship with my wife.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
When you are married, that is your duty. You have to grow together with your spouse and help them to grow.Q:
Is celibacy the middle path? How do we get to know of God’s expression in its totality without the feminine-masculine principle?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
See, you are made up of both, feminine and masculine. Both aspects are in you. Now, celibacy is not the only way. It is not a practice. Celibacy is something that happens when you realize that you are not the body, and the genders masculine and feminine are only for the body and not for the consciousness. The consciousness is beyond. When you realize this consciousness is beyond, then you go beyond the gross pleasure. At some point of time you will say, "Enough is enough. I want to just go inside". That is when the mind turns inward. So you should not negate anything, but when the energy in you rises up, then you will naturally move towards a joy that is free from feverishness and excitement. It is said, one minute of samadhi (experience of meditation) is equivalent to 1000 units of sex. How much joy you get in one unit of sex, a thousand units of sex is one samadhi. And that one minute of samadhi is equivalent to a billion years of rest. Do you want that? Then you have to go beyond these regular things. See, you have to give up something to get something. If you want to really enjoy a nice good meal, you have to give up eating junk food all day. If you are stuffing yourself with a bag of potato chips from the morning, you can’t enjoy your lunch because you won’t have the appetite for it, right? When you are hungry, then you are able to enjoy a good meal.Q:
What do your teaching hold for me as an atheist? I really struggle with this concept of God.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
I would like you to be a sincere seeker of truth. Don't label yourself as a theist or an atheist. It's very difficult to be an atheist, do you know why? You say that something is not existing. When you say that something doesn't exist, you should know everything about the universe to be able to say that, and it is impossible to know everything in the universe. The same is with a theist also. Believers or non-believers, they are on the same boat because both of them think they know it all. I would say, it is better to be a seeker of truth. If you are a seeker of truth, you don't have to believe things that you don't know. You know you exist and you believe you exist, then explore who you are, forget about God, keep God aside. Let's just go with this self-inquiry ‘Who am I?’Q:
Gurudev, can wisdom happen instantly? Is it the same with enlightenment?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes, it can be gradual also! The other day, someone was telling me, “Gurudev, suddenly, I realized that I am happy all the time now, which I never was before!” A sudden realization comes that gradually you have become more and more happy. One day you find yourself saying, “I am so happy, so centered; nothing can shake me, nothing can take my smile away!” And then you are there! Sometimes, there is a flash of lightning, and suddenly you see things, and then it disappears. Sometimes it is like when the sun rises, dawn comes first, then gradually darkness disappears, and day dawns very gradually, and that stays! So both phenomena are there. For some, it can come as an electrical transformation, for others it could be a gradual change. Sometimes you don’t even notice it, but one day, you say, “Wow! Aho!” Just like what is said in Ashtavakra, “Aho! Yes, I got it!”Q:
Gurudev, what is dispassion, and how do I live a life with dispassion?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Let us take dispassion to mean contentment. Whenever you are content, that is dispassion. If you have had a full meal, and someone brings more food, you will say, "No I am full", that is dispassion. You cannot exist without vairagya. Just as you breathe in, at some point, you have to breathe out. Breathing in is raga, passion, and breathing out is vairagya, dispassion. Breathing in is passion and breathing out is dispassion, and both are essential in life.Q:
Is it important to meditate? Do all the people who meditate become successful?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Absolutely important to meditate! When you meditate, you have a healthy body and mind, your intellect becomes sharp and memory becomes very strong. India’s meditation has been taken up by so many universities abroad - Stanford, Oxford, Harvard. Do you know that now they call pulling the ears super brain yoga? When you meditate daily for some time, circulation in the head and the brain improves, and even the grey matter increases. A lot of research has been done recently which states that meditation is very important. Not only does stress get eliminated, but the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) also increases.Founded in 1981 by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, The Art of Living is an educational and humanitarian movement engaged in stress-management and service initiatives.
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