Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q: Dear Guruji, when you say I am different from the body I understand that, but when you say I am different from the mind I do not understand that. How am I different from my mind?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Gurudev: Okay, now are you your thoughts or the thoughts are yours? Mind means thoughts. Thoughts come and they go. So many thoughts come and so many thoughts go. Many you agree and many you disagree and those you agree, later on, you disagree with those same thoughts, isn’t it? You sit and write down all your thoughts. Later on, you will find, 'oh, am I the same person who is thinking all this?' You would wonder, correct? So, in that sense, you are different from your thoughts. Thoughts come and go but they come in you and go in you. Its like clouds in the sky. The sky cannot be clouds. But when there are so many thoughts, and it is so cloudy, you feel, 'oh sky means clouds'. But if you have had a taste of clear sky, a few moments of open sky, then you see, 'oh the sky is beyond the clouds, not just the clouds' and that is the beauty in the sadhana. In the very first Sudarshan Kriya, what happens? The very first time you experience few moments without anything. Just a few moments; that opened up your awareness through the clouds. You think the clouds are what the sky is, but you got a little hole, and you could see the blue sky beyond the grey clouds right? isn’t this your experience?
Now you turn back and see what were you before you did your first course, first meditation or Sudarshan Kriya? Who were you before that? Who are you now? How many of you feel you can’t relate to the person who was ten years ago? (Many raise their hands)
See, that very clearly shows you are not the thoughts. What you think as a person ten years ago is just a bundle of thoughts, the mind. But you got a little space, glimpses outside the mind into the no mind or the space that we are; and meditation is being that no mind. But sometimes clouds come and thoughts come and they go and skillfully between them you just stay centered.
Dear reader the remaining knowledge given by Guruji on July 29 will be available to you shortly
What message do you want to convey to the next generation?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Study well and excel. Make one new friend every day.
Children from the ongoing Art Excel programme performed a skit. Over 1,400 yuvacharyas (youth leaders) from the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh participated in the satsang. Some of them shared their experiences.
The Urdu translation of Gurudev’s book ‘Celebrating Silence’ was released. “Take this book to different places … Pakistan, Lucknow, Hyderabad and Lahore,” said Gurudev. We need to give all our knowledge to India and Pakistan so that both countries can stay peacefully. With this knowledge we can eradicate terrorism.”
Is education all about passing examination and getting good marks. Is it not about something more?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
What do you think?
I’m not strong enough to take a commitment for whole one year. What can I do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Not strong enough? Take one day at a time. You are strong enough to take commitment for one day, and that is enough. And each day you can continue doing it. Don’t think of one long year, “oh my God! One year I’ve to do something! Today I do, that’s good. Tomorrow I do, that’s good”.
In Celebrating Silence you say that ambition indicates lack of self-confidence. Is this so?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
If I say, “I have successfully lifted this bottle of water”, this indicates I was not confident that I could have done it. Being ambitious is when you are not confident of achieving something. ‘I ran ten miles. I did not think I would do it’ - Claiming success indicates your limitation. You are unaware of your huge potential. So, the attitude should be ‘I ran ten miles? I don’t realize that I can also do 100 miles’ Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Is your question that people are not happy in spite of prosperity? Bring them to me. Bring them to the teachers. They will have no choice but to smile. Stress can be eliminated through stress management, dispassion and through a broader outlook to life. When you are 90 yrs old what do you want from this life? What do you want to take? What do you want to give? What impressions do you want to give to the world? What impressions do you want to take from the world? Just ponder. Just be with these few questions and the stress will leave you. Dispassion and breath uplift you. A little bit of devotion or bhakti uplifts you.
What is the significance of Kumbh mela?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
The Kumbh Mela is one of the most sacred pilgrimages in Hinduism. The word Kumbh has been derived from the Sanskrit word Kumbh meaning 'pot' or 'pitcher' and Mela means 'festival' that is why it is known as "the pitcher festival". It is a fair that energizes your mind and soul) Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Ganga is a symbol of knowledge and Yamuna symbolizes love. Prayag (where Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati meet) is the unity of love and wisdom. When love and wisdom meets, celebration happens. Kumbh means coming together of saints, scholars and katha vachaks (story tellers). They participate in discussion and meditation with the sankalpa (positive intention) of universal benefit. People needn’t go to all the different places. They can all come to one place. The concept of mela started in India. Nowadays we call it expo. There are expos for motors, books, clothes to present all the products in one place. On similar concept all the saints used to congregate in one place once in 12 years. In those days transport facilities were not so extensive and traveling would take so much time. Kumbh mela provided an opportunity for people to converse and exchange knowledge with each other. If you see it from planetary perspective, Kumbh happens when Jupiter enters Aquarius. By bathing in the Ganges, the chitta (consciousness) becomes joyful. Your consciousness is purified. The sins are washed away. It's so beautiful. The sins are so superficial that just by a dip in the Ganges they can be washed away. The ever-pure consciousness can never be dirtied.
Gurudev, some rapid fire Questions?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Art Excel?
Excellent Art
Master?
Inevitable
Sudarshan Kriya?
Gift to humanity
An Art of Living Teacher?
Example of character
Heartbreak
Doesn’t happen here!
Studies?
A lifelong thing to do.
Patriotism?
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Most needed at this time and at this hour.
A broad vision?
That which education is supposed to give you.
Smoking?
The ills that burn life.
Ojasvita?
Just drink it!
Cricket?
Today in big trouble!
Parents?
Respect them
Seva?
Make it a part of your life
Smile?
Keep it and put it on everybody also.
Teenager?
Challenge for parents, problem for oneself! But you will overcome it.
Success
The world is running behind it but it runs behind us!
Anger
Should be used as a good tool to fasten action.
Rash driving
Unfortunate.
Goals
Set them and then change them. Set a goal and then change them because you find it’s too small a goal, then you set a bigger goal.
Devotion
The lucky ones have.
Friends
One who points out your shortcomings
Exams
Do them well with a relaxed mind!
Teamwork
Needed for fast progress and productivity.
Games
One should play and sometimes win and sometimes make others win.
Gurudev
Always there with you and for you!
Dearest Gurudev, I believe that we are eternal. But what does eternal mean?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Listen, the Sun has been there since a long time, right? And it will continue to be there. So the Sun is eternal; Earth is eternal. Everything that surpasses time, is eternal.
Like, you are the same person yesterday, today, and tomorrow. You were the one who went to school, and you are the one who went to college. There is something in you that is continuing, but your body has changed. Body is not the same, every cell in your body is changing. Old cells go away, new cells get generated. But still there is something that is continuing inside, isn’t it?
What is Art? Where does poetry come from and what does it do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Oh! Anything that you appreciate becomes art.
You see a heap of stones lying somewhere and you think it is just a heap of stones. But if it is arranged a little bit, you start appreciating it. Then it becomes an Art.
On a piece of paper when you start putting or splashing some colors and then start appreciating it as a painting, it becomes an Art. It gives you some meaning, isn’t it?
And for poetry, it comes from a subtle level of the mind. When your breath flows in a particular rhythm, when a particular Nadi or channel in you gets opened, in that particular moment, something comes up and you write. Then the words rhyme. So it is a gift! Imagination is a gift.
It is all how the consciousness expresses itself; how your mind expresses itself. And when you appreciate, it becomes Art.
If you don’t appreciate and just blabber some words then that is not it. See the modern poetry needs certain intelligence to appreciate it.
Have you read modern poetry? Let me read you something.
A leaf ruffles on the ground; Water carries it along.
That is it. (Laughter)
And the way you write it – ruffles on the ground; water carries it along – this is poetry. Now this can have so many meanings, instantaneously.
A leaf is on the ground or a leaf was in the air and it came to the ground. It was on the ground could mean it is almost dead. It fell on the ground and it is love that carries it along – water is synonymous to love.
Water carries it along, yes! So it could mean with every desperate moment there is hope.
So you can interpret it in so many ways.
Poetry is like that. Words carrying the feelings, a little exposed and little covered.
Poetry is words capsuling feelings, a little exposed and a little hidden or covered.
That is what it is – a little mystic and a little obvious.
A poet said to God, ‘You are in control of the world. But make it more obvious.’ (Laughter).
To those for whom it is obvious, became saints. Those who don’t see that You are in control of the world, they struggle. You can understand it this way, isn’t it?!
If someone appreciates you then you say, ’Oh, that person is trying to hook me in.’ And if they don’t appreciate you, then you think, ‘They are jealous.’ Same thing if you are rich, you think, ‘They are attending to me because I am rich. They are interested in my purse.’ If they don’t, then you say that they are arrogant, they are jealous. My God, the mind plays so many tricks.
Similarly, someone can get into the labor union mind-set. Do you know what is the labor union mind-set? ‘I don’t want to listen to anybody! Everybody is against me.’
Who is against you?! The mind makes a whole bubble about it. They think, ‘Oh, someone is trying to control me, dominate me, and harass me.’
The other day one person came and said, ‘Everyone is harassing me at work.’
How could everyone harass you? You must be doing something really horrible.
’Everyone is harassing me at my work place’ – you know, this is labor union mentality. Because one does not feel good about oneself, they project it on everybody else thinking, ‘Everybody is bad, everybody is after me!’ Who is after you? What do they get by harassing you and making you miserable? You make yourself miserable. Got it?
In many companies, the establishment suffers because there is one manager sitting there who is like that. He wants to show his or her power and he plays all sorts of tricks. He doesn’t realize that he is cutting the tree which he is sitting on.
There are people like this. You know, in the World Bank, two teachers from The Art of Living went and conducted the corporate program and many of these things came up. Isn’t it? Now there is complete transformation in them, in just 3 days; 3 hours each day. And they have said that all the World Bank employees must do this course. They have incorporated it in their Leadership Training Program – The Art of Living Corporate Program.
They have also said that in Africa and different countries, the leaders should do the Sudarshan Kriya. So I have just put the Short Sudarshan Kriya in it. The Long Kriya becomes too much, so I said only little bit Kriya. And that is bringing sense into people and making them wake up. Otherwise in many countries they feel they have been victimized by somebody else.
The victim consciousness haunts this world and that is why many countries remain poor. Because the people think, ‘Oh I am a victim.’
When you find yourself as a victim, you don’t have power and you feel weak.
It is the same with women empowerment. Don’t ask anybody to empower you. You have a place, you ascertain your place. Don’t go and ask people, ‘You should empower us.’
Many women activists are so angry, isn’t it? Women activists are so uptight and angry. There is always rebelliousness and anger in them, and it doesn’t lead you anywhere.
I’m not saying all are like that, but some women activists are so agitated and angry.
I tell you, anger is not going to lead you anywhere. With a calm serene mind ascertain your place. You have a position, climb it! It is all in our own mind.
See, if you are not looking beautiful, don’t feel low because someone else is beautiful. They may have a beautiful body, you have a beautiful mind. Remember that. Not everyone with a beautiful body has a beautiful mind. Sometimes when you look at their face, it looks so dull. Somebody may have a beautiful mind but they may not have a sharp intellect. You have a sharp intellect. So look into what you have.
Someone may have lot of money, so what? You have talent, you have a good heart, you have something. So when you start comparing with somebody else, you forget there is a dimension inside you which is much bigger than anything else, and which gives everything to everybody. When you latch on to that then you will get over all these complexes. Do you see what I am saying?
The world is full of so many complexes in the mind. You should overcome those complexes. And what can make you come out of complexes? Not psychotherapy, but spirituality. Latching on to the inner space will lift you from all complexes – inferior, superior, exterior, interior, all of them. All types of ’rior’ and irritating complexes will go away! You will find that, ‘Ah! So nice, and so peaceful.’
In Hindi there is a saying – Mann Meetha Toh Jaag Meetha. When there is sweetness inside of you then everything around you is also sweet.
Look, life itself is an art, okay! The Art of Living. Art can be a business, but don’t think business is an art. You can say business is an art in a sense that one should manoeuvre properly how to do business. In a very complex and corrupt world how to keep ethics and still do business – that is an art. In that sense!
Now again in business it is a different phenomenon. You have to watch the market. You can’t say, ‘I don’t care what the market is like, I will create my own thing.’ No!
Business is a different art, it is not like the Fine Arts. In Fine Arts you don’t look at others, you allow the creativity to come out.
Business is dealing with the world, with the market. So there you should know what others are doing. Because you are selling a product, you should be very well aware of how others are marketing their products, and what price structure they are keeping. All that you need to look into.
Gurudev, you are an amazing manager. The Art of Living organization has grown in such a short time, beyond what one can imagine. I am a manager too, please give me some management tips?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes, all these programs, the APEX (Achieving Personal Excellence) program and the corporate programs are all to give you those tips in packages and capsules.
Remember one thing, the manager of the Universe is not so obvious. The one who manages this universe does not make it so obvious that he is doing it; or that He is in control.
Similarly, manage from behind. Leading from behind is the best.
When you want to lead a project you should not emphasize your leadership too much. You should do it from behind.
There is a saying in Sanskrit, Paroksha Priyahi Vai Devaha, which means that the Gods like to do things indirectly and not so obviously.
A person feels, 'I am doing it', but it is the Gods who make them do it. So they give the people the joy of feeling that they are doing it, but in reality, it is the Divine energy that does it in a subtle manner, which is not so obvious.