(Ajay Shukla, a representative from Door Darshan, conducted an interview with Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar at The Art of Living International Ashram on 23 September 2015, reminiscing his childhood days and the discovery of the Sudarshan Kriya. Below is the transcript of what Gurudev said:)
I always had this deep feeling right from the beginning that the entire world belongs to me and is my own family. I always felt that there were so many people waiting for me. When I used to say this in those days, people would not believe me and would say that I am lying. They would often catch my ear and also scold me. They would tell me, “You never lie about anything. Why are you lying to us about this?” I could not understand how I should help them understand this. So this used to confuse me many times in those days.
My parents were very nice and they taught me many good things as I grew up. My mother was deeply spiritual and my father also had a very strong inclination towards spirituality. When children grow up in a spiritual environment where there are some poojas being done, then they imbibe and pick up those habits from an early age.
See, I always had some interest in spirituality since the beginning. We all carry certain samskaras (impressions) through lifetimes; some we imbibe from the environment and some we carry with us through lifetimes. So the seed is always there.
This is not the first time that we have come on this Earth. We have been here many times before as well. If you pay close attention to children, you will see that any child up to the age of three years is able to remember the things about his or her past life. Children also try to express about it in their own way, but many people around them do not take it very seriously. If we actually try to listen and understand them then we will be able to know what their past was like. The past for each and every one of us is very deep and vast, but we never really pay much attention to this. When we go deep in meditation, when we go deeper in our sadhana then all these levels open up. All our past impressions from previous lives also emerge. The good impressions get carried forward with us while the meaningless ones get left behind.
Yes, for me both spirituality and my education always went hand in hand. I would say it has been my good fortune indeed. Even as I continued to go deeper in Spirituality, my education also continued. I always had a strong interest in Science. And I never thought that Indian Spirituality is separate, or far away from Science. I never saw any contradiction or conflict between the two.
A person should attend to both spiritual knowledge and science, and should have a scientific view or approach to everything. One should not blindly accept anything without asking questions about it. That is a sign of having a scientific perspective. For progressing in spirituality all you need is unshakable faith. Life should be a beautiful combination of the two.
A great part of my childhood was spent in the company of the wise and the elders of my family. Now the latter part of my life is being spent with children ( laughter ).
When I was young, I never used to have much interest in sports like cricket, etc. I used to force myself to take interest in games but used to find it quite meaningless most of the times. But I used to really like sitting with wise elders and asking them questions. I was surrounded by wise elders most of the time. My teacher, Pandit Sudhakar Chaturvedi Ji, was a very close associate of Mahatma Gandhi. He had spent many years with Gandhi Ji. He was the one who taught the Bhagavad Gita to Mahatma Gandhi. He even spent time with Bapu (Mahatma Gandhi) in the Yerwada Jail when Kasturba Ji (wife of Mahatma Gandhi) was breathing her last.
My teacher used to narrate many stories to me from the Vedas, Puranas and the Upanishads. In those days there was no television and the radio used to be on air for a very short time during the day. There was nothing else other than that for entertainment. There used to be musical gatherings for classical music on festivals such as Ram Navami , and during Navratri . I used to take a lot of interest in music and entertainment.
I had the good fortune of meeting many great people during those years. I met the Shankaracharya Ji of the Kanchi Math. They would always regard me as their equal and gave me a lot of respect when I would go meet them. But I would feel a little uncomfortable because I was very young and they were quite elder to me. After some time I became used to it ( laughter). Anything new does feel a bit strange in the beginning, but eventually one gets used to it over time.
Well, I never had any such shocks or turning points in life where I got cheated or got heart broken in love. Neither did I go through any kind of loss like how people suffer in business. I fortunately have never faced anything like this, and I never had to run away from home because of depression. There was nothing traumatic in my life. Yes, there were many experiences that I had and each of them were interesting.
Once when I was in Delhi, I was invited for a program in Surajkund which is a resort. We had organized a two-day workshop there, everyone really liked and appreciated it. Some people from the group of participants that day approached me and requested me to come to UK, and to Italy. In this way, I kept getting invitations from different people and places and I traveled. Slowly and slowly, things started happening and before I knew it, I was already going round the world every now and then.
See, I do not know what this attraction or persuasion is. But I will say one thing here, when your heart is pure, then you can always be childlike and innocent. Every child has the power to attract and draw everyone’s attention to them. When there is purity in heart, clarity and sharpness in the mind, and there is spontaneity in action, then we can return to our childlike innocence.
