Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

I never lose hope in anything. I only wish that everyone gets a taste of this.

See, deep inside, everyone is a human being. If you keep aside your concepts and if you keep aside your intellect which has shrouded the beautiful soul, you will see the world from a very different angle. I have malice for none. I have hatred to nobody. I only have compassion. My dear, they are our own people.

People who are engaged in violence are mentally, emotionally and spiritually sick. A doctor never dislikes any sick people. If he hates anybody, he is no longer a doctor. He has to come out of the chair of ‘vaidya’. It is a different issue that he may not be able to heal or cure everybody, but as a doctor, he never dislikes anyone. He may say, “I am sorry, I cannot do anything about this.”
I have not yet gone to the corner of ‘sorry’ as yet, that I cannot do anything about it. I cannot say right now. There is a hope somewhere, sometime. We have done it in the past, whether it is in the north-east (of India), with the ULFA, or some people in Kashmir, or in Kosovo, or when our teachers went to the FAARC people in Columbia. We have had good experiences of bridging the gap, creating back the trust they had in each other and uplifting human values.

Today morning only, one teacher from Maharashtra has shared her experience on how ten dacoits barged into her house and how she reacted to them. She didn’t have any fear. She told them that her home is an ashram and they could have food and go. The dacoits first tried to cover her with a blanket but when they saw her courage, they asked if she was not scared or something like that. They knew that she was on the spiritual path, and so they ate the food and went away! I am not saying that everyone should try that, but faith in humanity, faith in love, faith in values is what really pays off finally.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

See, teachers get so much respect. You get so much respect, and when you have to face disrespect, what happens to you? You get shaken. If you are not shaken even when people are hurling abuses at you, that is when your real quality shines up.

When you are respected, your real quality does not shine up. But you say something that people don’t like and then see how much of abuse they hurl at you, and at that time if you are calm and collected, your true quality comes out. Then you can say you are centred now. How do you know whether or not you are centred? Not when you are given a lot of adoration but when you are given abuses or when you are disrespected. Then you can think that none of this touches me. I am centred, I am happy, I am content and I am committed.

You know, many times when there are hurdles or people disrespect you, for example with volunteers whose good work is not recognized, what happens? The volunteers do not feel like doing anything more, and wash their hands off. “See, I worked from morning to night and nobody has recognized me or thanked me, they even pushed me out”. These sorts of complaints may come up with volunteers, where there is an expectation - I do a good job and I should get a reward back. This is normal with people, but with teachers, you have to pass this threshold and then you can say that you are centered. Going off-center is a normal thing but if a teacher is off-center, then it is a sad thing. For a teacher, the knowledge helps you to keep to the center and adverse situations will make you realize your inner strength.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

See, teachers get so much respect. You get so much respect, and when you have to face disrespect, what happens to you? You get shaken. If you are not shaken even when people are hurling abuses at you, that is when your real quality shines up.

When you are respected, your real quality does not shine up. But you say something that people don’t like and then see how much of abuse they hurl at you, and at that time if you are calm and collected, your true quality comes out. Then you can say you are centred now. How do you know whether or not you are centred? Not when you are given a lot of adoration but when you are given abuses or when you are disrespected. Then you can think that none of this touches me. I am centred, I am happy, I am content and I am committed.

You know, many times when there are hurdles or people disrespect you, for example with volunteers whose good work is not recognized, what happens? The volunteers do not feel like doing anything more, and wash their hands off. “See, I worked from morning to night and nobody has recognized me or thanked me, they even pushed me out”. These sorts of complaints may come up with volunteers, where there is an expectation - I do a good job and I should get a reward back. This is normal with people, but with teachers, you have to pass this threshold and then you can say that you are centered. Going off-center is a normal thing but if a teacher is off-center, then it is a sad thing. For a teacher, the knowledge helps you to keep to the center and adverse situations will make you realize your inner strength.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

I never lose hope in anything. I only wish that everyone gets a taste of this.

See, deep inside, everyone is a human being. If you keep aside your concepts and if you keep aside your intellect which has shrouded the beautiful soul, you will see the world from a very different angle. I have malice for none. I have hatred to nobody. I only have compassion. My dear, they are our own people.

People who are engaged in violence are mentally, emotionally and spiritually sick. A doctor never dislikes any sick people. If he hates anybody, he is no longer a doctor. He has to come out of the chair of ‘vaidya’. It is a different issue that he may not be able to heal or cure everybody, but as a doctor, he never dislikes anyone. He may say, “I am sorry, I cannot do anything about this.”
I have not yet gone to the corner of ‘sorry’ as yet, that I cannot do anything about it. I cannot say right now. There is a hope somewhere, sometime. We have done it in the past, whether it is in the north-east (of India), with the ULFA, or some people in Kashmir, or in Kosovo, or when our teachers went to the FAARC people in Columbia. We have had good experiences of bridging the gap, creating back the trust they had in each other and uplifting human values.

Today morning only, one teacher from Maharashtra has shared her experience on how ten dacoits barged into her house and how she reacted to them. She didn’t have any fear. She told them that her home is an ashram and they could have food and go. The dacoits first tried to cover her with a blanket but when they saw her courage, they asked if she was not scared or something like that. They knew that she was on the spiritual path, and so they ate the food and went away! I am not saying that everyone should try that, but faith in humanity, faith in love, faith in values is what really pays off finally.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

See, teachers get so much respect. You get so much respect, and when you have to face disrespect, what happens to you? You get shaken. If you are not shaken even when people are hurling abuses at you, that is when your real quality shines up.

When you are respected, your real quality does not shine up. But you say something that people don’t like and then see how much of abuse they hurl at you, and at that time if you are calm and collected, your true quality comes out. Then you can say you are centred now. How do you know whether or not you are centred? Not when you are given a lot of adoration but when you are given abuses or when you are disrespected. Then you can think that none of this touches me. I am centred, I am happy, I am content and I am committed.

You know, many times when there are hurdles or people disrespect you, for example with volunteers whose good work is not recognized, what happens? The volunteers do not feel like doing anything more, and wash their hands off. “See, I worked from morning to night and nobody has recognized me or thanked me, they even pushed me out”. These sorts of complaints may come up with volunteers, where there is an expectation - I do a good job and I should get a reward back. This is normal with people, but with teachers, you have to pass this threshold and then you can say that you are centered. Going off-center is a normal thing but if a teacher is off-center, then it is a sad thing. For a teacher, the knowledge helps you to keep to the center and adverse situations will make you realize your inner strength.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Your body has different parts, isn't it? And you have a foot cream and face cream. You don’t apply your foot cream on your face, or your face cream on your feet. Hair oil is different and body oil is different. You don’t say that you will not apply toothpaste on your teeth but somewhere else. Similarly, these are two different things. One is, there is one divinity, and then, for specific actions or things, there is a ‘yagna’. These are different concepts.

Yagna is a science where specific materials and herbs are used that impact specific parts of our body. Don’t think that the Navagrahas are just planets, they are specific vibrations in the cosmos and they relate to different parts of our body. The whole science behind a yagna is the connection between microcosm and the macrocosm. For example, Mars is connected to the liver and to proteins.
Like this, there are many connections between different herbs, different materials with cosmic vibrations. The cosmos has a number of vibrations and specific vibrations are named for different planets and they also relate to the movements of planets. You doing something here is not going to affect the Sun, but you holding an umbrella definitely protects you from the sun.

Similarly, in different seasons, you take different foods. Nature grows different foods in different seasons. You don’t get mangoes in the cold winter. Mangoes come only in the summer. If you consume them only during the season nature grows, your health is better. Nature has designed this, and so the time, vibrations, food, environment and even animals are all connected.

Another important thing is that all the Grahas (planets) and their Devatas (vibrations) come in specific vehicles. What is the vehicle? This is interesting to analyse. A goat carries the Mars vibrations, and like this every animal brings down specific vibrations from nature on to the ground. It is fascinating to go deeper and analyse this.
In the middle ages, people never understood that butterflies have very specific things to do. If there are no butterflies, food cannot be grown. People with less knowledge question what butterflies have to do with having more food. In the US, when the pesticides were spread, they never considered butterflies or insects as an important phenomenon. So what happened? All the butterflies disappeared! Now they are bringing butterflies in containers and leaving them in the fields so that pollination can happen and food can be grown. The quality of food suffers a lot when pollination does not happen. So, from an ant to an elephant, everything has a role to play in this planet. Honouring them is what this is about.

When you say that there is only one consciousness - this is quantum physics. But there are also many different materials and that is classical chemistry. They are not at loggerheads with each other, and can both go together. You don’t have to pray to all the Navagrahas. All that you need to say is, "Om Namah Shivayah". The prayer is only to one, in that everything is contained. But in yagnas, specific things are done and you see they are all part of that whole. You don’t see it as separate.
See, in your homes, there are different rooms - kitchen, dining, bedrooms, etc. Don’t you decorate each room? If someone says, you have decorated the house from outside, what is the need to decorate each room? You simply say that you would like to decorate each room inside the house. But it is all part of the big house. This is how you should take it. Not think that there different Devatas away from Shiva. They are all a part of Shiva, each an aspect of Shiva.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Well, I think it is both. God created man in his own image and man started creating God in his own image. There is nothing wrong. There is a term called ‘co-creation’.
Man has created God, it is not a crime. Many times we think that man created God, that means he doesn’t exist, this is not so. All the art forms, sculptures, imaginations, philosophy and even science, has all sprung up from man’s mind.

What do you mean by God? God is a principle, an energy which is creative, transformative. God is the generator, operator and destroyer. Doesn’t man do all these three things? Does he not generate, operate and destroy? So, where is the difference?

You think that God is something different from you; sitting somewhere up in the heaven to give you a little finger and when you try and catch Him, he runs away. This concept of God is what is troubling, and this is the concept that gave rise to communism and atheism. Or (the other concept is that) you think that God is in only one shape and one form. No! You can adore Him or Her in any shape and any form. God is the summum bonum of creation, the basic existence of all that is! It is the basis of all existence, in fact it is the existence itself.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

This cannot be explained, this can only be experienced.
Till the time it becomes your experience just take the words and don’t look for an explanation.

If I say laddoo is sweet and if you ask, ‘How is laddoo sweet?’ I have no idea. I will say, ‘Just wait till you get a laddoo in your hand and put it in your mouth, then you feel it.’
In the same way when you hear the Vedantic Truth, the more explanation you seek, the more confused you become.
Vedantic words are to be heard and just allowed to sink. When it sinks in, then it comes as an experience.

If I say I am Divine, you will ask me, ‘How come you are Divine and how is it that I am Divine?’ There is no way to explain. When you go deep into meditation, you suddenly realize, ‘Ah, I am Divine.’
Just now I was meeting the Iranian group and one gentleman was telling me a story. He is making a movie, and he said that in the movie a group of 30 people go to seek God to some mystic place. So, they go and seek and finally what happens is that they see their reflection in the water and say, ‘Now I have found – I am God.’
Similar stories are there in the Pañcatantra, you seek something that you already have. But the seeking is essential because it takes you one whole round till you get to that point where you realize Anhalhak (meaning: I am the Creator), it’s an Urdu word.
The same thing has been said in Vedanta – Aham Brahmasmi (meaning: I am Brahman). So Anhalhak means Aham Brahmasmi.
But unfortunately those who said, ‘Anhalhak’, were all crucified. Their heads were cut off in the Arabic world. But in India, fortunately, that was not the case. One who said, ‘Aham Brahmasmi’, they put a nice chair for him and gave him garlands. That is what happened.

But these are truths that one needs to experience deep inside. Any explanation will spoil it.

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Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Listen, Yoga Vasistha is a very big thing. If we take it up, it will get very late. Yoga Vasistha needs to be read again and again, reading it once won’t work. If you read it every two to three years, something altogether different will come up. Okay! Read and ponder on it. You will gain new understandings. You will not understand it straight away.

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Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Discipline is essential. Without discipline, nothing can work. At the same time, creativity needs some space. Creativity needs freedom while productivity needs discipline. If you don't have freedom you can't be creative, and if you don't have discipline you can't be productive. So, life is a balance of both - creativity and productivity. You can come up with a great idea, but to realize that idea you need discipline. You know, many young people have great ideas, but they don't have the discipline to translate them into reality. And there are some people who are great managers but they don't have the time to even think about something more. These people cannot rise up to the occasion when there is a crisis, because crisis management requires creativity. Most of our education is not tuned to educate in crisis management. And when we don't know crisis management, there is always some fear and uncertainty. So education should combine these two things in such a manner so that there is a space to create and at the same time a discipline is also followed, because if it is only discipline, it will stifle you. You become so regimental that you cannot do any crisis management. So this is a very fine balance that one has to strike - freedom and discipline.