Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
I recently read a book ‘Many lives many masters’. It is a story of a patient who through hypnosis is taken to her past 89 lives. Also secrets are revealed of different stages of the soul in the book. Would you like to throw some light on the stages of the souls?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Don’t get into all that. Our consciousness is infinite and eternal, you never know how many impressions we have of how many life times. If you want, you can do the eternity process. You don’t have to go beyond 5 to 7 lifetimes, rest all are mostly imaginations. And there is no need of hypnosis, one can go to past life through meditation
What are the various paths to liberation?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Wherever you are, that path is the only path. So you are on the right path to liberation.
Once you recognize the God in your inner-self, after that, why and how can one see God in an idol?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
That is not required. We do it to preserve the tradition for future generations. When we offer flowers and go around the idols in temples, it is to preserve the rituals. God is all permeating, he is there everywhere. Most importantly God is present in you. You can experience it during meditation.
It is not that these rituals don't have an effect, energy is definitely there. If you sit and meditate in the same place every day, and someone else comes and sits there, he can feel the difference. How many of you feel that once you step into the ashram, you start feeling good vibrations? (Many in the audience raise their hands). This is because many people meditate here together. Similarly, when in a temple, an idol is established and when people worship together and offer prayers, then those vibrations are created.
What is Guru Nadi? Could you please speak about it?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
There are about 1,86,000 subtle channels (nadis) in the body, and different impulses open up different channels. There is a nadi for poetry, another for being interested in knowledge, and even one for being confused! So don't worry too much about them. Just do alternate nostril breathing, meditate and relax. Everything falls in place with these practices.
What is Guru Nadi? Could you please speak about it?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
There are about 1,86,000 subtle channels (nadis) in the body, and different impulses open up different channels. There is a nadi for poetry, another for being interested in knowledge, and even one for being confused! So don't worry too much about them. Just do alternate nostril breathing, meditate and relax. Everything falls in place with these practices.
Gurudev, could you please speak about solidified silence. I have often heard this phrase from you.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
It is only in experience, it cannot be explained. It is something like when you feel that space is like solid. Knowledge, space and silence can all feel as though they are a substance.
Solidified means that which is real. If you ask scientists, they say what appears to be real or material is not real. It is all just space, but it feels real to us. In the same way, it is an experience in meditation when the mind is absolutely still, you will find that the silence is solidified. That’s why they say 'Gyan Ghan' (solidified knowledge). This is a term often used in Sanskrit. It is an experience.
My son is 20 years old and has done the happiness course, the DSN course and he has also joined the Advanced Meditation Program, but why is his heart still not peaceful?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
He needs to do more of these courses. It is not enough.
I am sure that, we all at some point, have gone through some difficult situations. Is it one's fate or should it be left to God's will. What should one do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Dwelling on the past events and worrying about it does not benefit you at all. Just believe that whatever has happened in the past, that was your fate. Whatever is going to happen in the future is your own freewill and live happily in the present.
Foolish people think that everything in the past was free will. They think about how they could have done things differently and become sad. People feel that future is fate and remain sad in the present. This is foolishness.
I want to hear Amma’s stories from you. We have not heard much about her. Could you tell us stories that you have not told anyone?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
I have to think about it. My mind is like a blank space. I have to go into the memory, and we will do that some other time.
Nothing stays here, nothing sticks. Have you heard of the word ‘Kamalanayana’? Kamalnayana literally means eyes like a lotus. It does not literally mean just a lotus flower, but it refers to what the lotus flower depicts; nothing sticks to a lotus.
Whatever you say, if it doesn’t stick in the eyes and it doesn't stick to the mind, that is Kamalanayana. To some extent everybody is Kamalanayana. Many times we see many things, but they don’t get into our heads.
Dear Gurudev, is my enlightenment my responsibility or your responsibility?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
If you give it to me, it is my responsibility. If you take it, it is your responsibility.