Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Should the change be top driven or bottom up approach?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
I feel we need to drive change from both ends -- we need the top down and bottom up approach. If you ask the people at senior levels, they will say, "What can I do? If we try to do something, people resist. What to do?"
Suppose the head of a religion wants to bring about a change, but he faces enormous resistance from the bottom. You need to work on both, have a top-down and bottom-up approach.
We need to secularize religion, socialize business and spiritualize politics. When I say spiritualize politics, I mean that every politician should see his job as a service activity and not as a job per se. E.g., during the time of Mahatma Gandhi, he and all the other people took to politics as a service to society.
When I say secularize religion, I mean that every religious head should pray for the whole population and not people of his community only, which means he should respect all the other religions. And socialize business means that every business entity should also play a part in developing society.
Gurudev, why do people resist change?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
People resist change because they are afraid that they would lose something precious, or the change could bring about a disaster for them. But if you communicate to them that the change would make them better, they would definitely take it. Nobody dislikes climbing up the ladder. People do want something positive, more happiness or whatever. What we need to do is to communicate better with them, speak in their language, and explain that the change will make things better. It will take some time, it cannot happen overnight, it takes some persuasion but it does happen.
Gurudev, how to protect children from negativity in the world?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You cannot bring them up in isolation, some day they will be exposed to the world and then it would be shocking for them. All we need to do is balance the negativity in the world with positive things. Talk to them about compassion, about heroic people. It is possible for us to balance all the negative horrible things with good and beautiful things.
What is the biggest currency today, God or money?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
What if they both become the same? God is the biggest currency. If you have God with you, you have everything else.
Some people think money is God, money is everything for them. We are made up of both - matter and spirit. While our body requires amino acid, carbohydrates, proteins and all that; our consciousness, our mind is made up of happiness, love, caring, awareness, intelligence etc. You cannot ask, do you want this or that, you need both, right? When you watch TV, do you see or hear first? It has to be simultaneous. Similarly, you need some wealth to live in this world, to maintain yourself in the world, but money is not everything. If you have ideals, goals, you will see that money comes by itself -- that is pursuing God. Suppose you want to do some big service activity, when you move in that direction, you will find that you get help from every corner. Help will come from the most unexpected corners.
Gurudev, what is your opinion on meditation being rebranded as mindfulness,, which means that people will not really know the roots of meditation?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
This is because of some prejudice still prevalent in some circles. When we started teaching meditation 35 years ago, many thought that it was not for the so-called ‘normal’ people. This is because we all lived in our own little isolated concepts, and friend circles. We were not exposed to the diversity, multitude, and magnanimity of our beautiful planet.
It does not matter what you call it; if you are doing it right, that is all that matters. There are people who may call this piracy!
Gurudev, how do we keep love in our heart and act when challenged?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Love is in your heart only, isn’t it?
If your actions are being challenged, then look into them -- are they alright, did you do something wrong, can you do any better, or is it just the other person’s perception?
When people criticize you, welcome them with all your heart! Why? Because they are putting their friendship with you at risk, being bold and brave enough to comment so that you improve! Don’t they need some appreciation? If they are doing it out of jealousy, or if they are upset with you or at your accomplishment, then you can spare some compassion for them.
Whenever someone criticises you, first welcome their criticism, thank them and stand up to it! No one has any interest in putting you down, why would they do that? A normal healthy person will not try to put someone down. People either need your compassion because they are not normal, and if they are normal and healthy, then they need your appreciation, I don’t see a third angle here. Life cannot be goody-goody all the time. Challenges exist, and it is for us to take them with a smile. What do you say?
Today, let us all take up this one intention, "Come what may, I will not lose my smile, my spirit, and my enthusiasm!" Then you can be of great help to people around you. You will be a guiding light in your family, to your friends circle, in society -- everywhere! You will be the most 'wanted’ person, in the good sense, not in any other sense.
In Hindu temples, an ‘aarti’ is performed, i.e., a wick is lit up and taken around the deity. Do you know why they do that? Because life is synonymous to light. When you light a candle and turn it upside down, where does the flame go? Up or down? The flame always goes up! Similarly, the meaning of ‘aarti’ is ‘let the light of my life always go around the divine; let me see divinity everywhere, let me see light everywhere!’ This is the purpose of aarti.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
When you are facing the light, you do not see your shadow; it is only when you move away from the light that you see it. Evil is just the shadow, and a shadow does not have an existence of its own!
If you look inside each culprit, there is a victim crying for help. If you heal the victim, the culprit will disappear. If only we had educated the people who have gone into terrorism with a broad mind set, taught them human values, do you think they would be treading the path of violence? No way! I see them all as victims of ignorance. If you see from my eyes, inside every culprit there is a victim crying for help!
Gurudev, what happens when we die?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Why do you want to know? I don’t want you to feel bored afterwards. It’s like knowing everything about a movie before you go for it, then there is no thrill in it. Have some suspense. There is so much to know about life. If we don’t know what life is now, and want to know about it after death, you will come back again. It will be like that movie, Groundhog Day. Let us see what life is!
If you go deep in meditation, there will be no fear of death. We will leave this body with a smile, with contentment and become richer souls. A dimension which is so huge, so beautiful will be ours. Our life here is just a tip of the iceberg. Let’s live this life with contentment, love, sharing and caring; doing service to everyone around us!
Gurudev, meditation does not seem to come to my mind, and this makes me even more anxious. How do I deal with this?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Meditation makes you anxious? Then you are not doing it right! Today, I don’t know what all is done in the name of meditation. There are so many schools of thought on yoga, meditation; so many things are prevalent. As a result, the Government of India has recently made me the chairperson for a QCI (Quality Control for India) for yoga and meditation. We had a real hard time putting things together to bring about a standardization. You should sit with a qualified meditation teacher and ask why you feel that anxiety. They can explain the right way, and correct your mistake.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Love is in your heart only, isn’t it?
If your actions are being challenged, then look into them -- are they alright, did you do something wrong, can you do any better, or is it just the other person’s perception?
When people criticize you, welcome them with all your heart! Why? Because they are putting their friendship with you at risk, being bold and brave enough to comment so that you improve! Don’t they need some appreciation? If they are doing it out of jealousy, or if they are upset with you or at your accomplishment, then you can spare some compassion for them.
Whenever someone criticises you, first welcome their criticism, thank them and stand up to it! No one has any interest in putting you down, why would they do that? A normal healthy person will not try to put someone down. People either need your compassion because they are not normal, and if they are normal and healthy, then they need your appreciation, I don’t see a third angle here. Life cannot be goody-goody all the time. Challenges exist, and it is for us to take them with a smile. What do you say?
Today, let us all take up this one intention, "Come what may, I will not lose my smile, my spirit, and my enthusiasm!" Then you can be of great help to people around you. You will be a guiding light in your family, to your friends circle, in society -- everywhere! You will be the most 'wanted’ person, in the good sense, not in any other sense.
In Hindu temples, an ‘aarti’ is performed, i.e., a wick is lit up and taken around the deity. Do you know why they do that? Because life is synonymous to light. When you light a candle and turn it upside down, where does the flame go? Up or down? The flame always goes up! Similarly, the meaning of ‘aarti’ is ‘let the light of my life always go around the divine; let me see divinity everywhere, let me see light everywhere!’ This is the purpose of aarti.