Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Students are the future of the society, and they should start owning this planet. I would just ask of them one thing - please do not sacrifice your studies for politics. Give utmost priority to your studies.

Those of you who are interested in politics, it is a good thing because all the student movements that have happened in the world have had a great vision, and they wanted to do something good for society. They want to fight injustice. Just one thing you must keep in mind is - don't have any prejudice. If the youth have prejudice, it is a sad thing. The youth should have an open mind. Don't put your mind into categories - have an open mind and be open to logic and reasoning.

Bias and prejudice are the greatest enemies for logic and reasoning. If we lose reasoning, we have lost everything in life. So reasoning and logic is essential, and along with it - an open mind.

Sometimes, values like patriotism which are essential in life, get associated with one particular ideology. When you identify yourself with one particular ideology, then you become so blind that you don't want to even look at any other new ideas or other ways. So students should be free from any sort of bias or judgements and have an open mind. There is nothing wrong in student activism but should follow reasoning.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

I never loose hope. See, deep inside everyone is human being. If you keep aside the ideology then everyone is same inside. I have Malice to none. I have hatred to none. People who engage in violence are mentally, spiritually and emotionally sick. A doctor never hates a sick person, if he hates then he can't treat them. We have done work with ULFA in Assam and Columbia, we have good experience in this field.

Save your mind and use your brain.

Nature, Divine and I bless you. You have to expand your capacity to receive the blessings.
Anything can happen with prayer and effort.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

I think everyone should be concerned about this. In the WCF event, all the religious leaders who attended the event committed to speak about this in their congregations, and they will all work towards a better environment.

As volunteers, we have already been doing this, since the past 35 years. We are glad that this has now come to the attention of the global leaders and I sincerely wish that they take the necessary steps in the fastest manner.

Many times our intentions are in the right place, but for that to become a ground reality a lot of time is lost in-between.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

When you don't find a cause, you say it is an accident. When you know the cause, then you call it destiny. It is just your view-point.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

When there is inner peace then strength comes, and you are not scared of anything. When your intentions are right and your heart is in the right place, then you know (from within) that you can go and do what you want to do. This is the real selfless service.
In the last few days, there are thousands of children and women trapped in Iraq and there is no food and there are no medicines. Our volunteers and teachers are constantly thinking how they can get relief material over there. They are also in negotiation with the army - to give them some passage through which they can get the supplies to these people. This shows how committed our volunteers and teachers are. They understand the pain of the people and that is why they have gone to serve in such a dangerous atmosphere.

They have collected around 80 tonnes of food and are waiting for the permit to go into Fallujah. This is bravery and service, and they are doing this service without any sense of doer ship. You know, service for us is natural, we are not making an effort to do it, or even thinking, 'Oh, I am doing a big service!' No. We do it because we can't but do it, that's all!

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

The consciousness is like a super computer. It is not a body but a consciousness and there is only one consciousness in the entire universe. So, to whom-so-ever you may connect to, whom-so-ever you pray to, it connects to the same consciousness. The divine consciousness is not dependent on the number of people praying; it does not have any limitation, it has unlimited capacity. It all depends on your faith!

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

When you receive even before the desire arises, that is called siddhi. Suppose you get almonds after you lose all your teeth, that is bad luck. When you get almonds when you have teeth, that is good luck.

Also, whenever you wish for something, and if there is clarity, sincerity and purity in it, and if the wish is not for your pleasure but for the good of everybody, then it automatically starts happening. What logically you may think is impossible becomes possible. This is Sankalpa Shakti (the power of intention). So intention, attention and manifestation are the 3 steps that work in this.

If you say, "I want a lot of wealth", what does that mean? Our consciousness is like a computer, so you have to define 'a lot'. Mention specifically, 'I want this', then have to keep your attention on it and see, it will manifest.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

How do you feel when your exams are over? Relieved, liberated. That's a smaller version of moksha.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Don't bother about it. Positive things have never been on the news, only negative things have been on the news. They will harp on negative news, catch it, find it with a lens and write about it. It is their behaviour, you should understand this. Don't expect them to change.

Across the world this is the case. We don't bother about it. We just do what we need to do. That's it. When an elephant walks, many dogs bark at it, this doesn't affect the elephant. So let them have fun.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Jesus is love and we are all love. Everyone is made up of love but many don’t realise it. I know it and that is all. In fact, if you have studied the Upanishads and read what Jesus has said, they are many strikingly similar things. It is a fact that Jesus spent 12 years in South India studying ancient Vedic knowledge. And so, when he was doubted by the doubting Thomas, Jesus said, “You go see for yourself.” So Jesus (though it is not in the recorded Bible anywhere) said to him many times to go to India and see for himself, from where he got his wisdom.
Thomas travelled to India, landed in Kochi and he started a communion. They are called Marthoma, they wear saffron robes but are different from the Roman Catholics. He started his teachings there, and from there he travelled to Mylapore in Chennai where he stayed for several years, studied the Upanishads and meditated there and even died there. Even today you have a church there where he is buried.

I want you to remember that what you know as the Bible was not written by Jesus at all. It was written 70 years after Jesus passed away. If I tell you something now and you write it down seventy years later, just imagine how many changes could have happened to it. When the Dead Sea scrolls were found, they found many teaching of Jesus on breath, food, meditation, etc. But those were not taken by the Church because those days the idea of the Church was to open more centers and to gain power and to rule the continent. To rule the continent you need to have different laws, just spirituality will not help there. You have to be worldly-wise. You have to make laws which are not right also. And that is how there are many interpolations of the Bible. The Protestants rose against this as they found that this was not correct and there was lot of corruption, and the rest is history.
There are seventy two sects of Christianity of which each one claim to be authentic. I am so surprised to hear that Protestants will never enter the Catholic Church and the Catholics will never go to Protestant churches. The Protestants will not go to the Seventh-Day Adventist churches, nor even marry among themselves. The amount of strict division among the sects of Christianity is appalling. It shows how much ignorance has entered in this field in religion. Don’t you see this? So, you need to make a distinction between Christianity and Jesus, and go into his principles when he says "Know that I and my Father are one"; "The kingdom of heaven is within you"; "Love thy neighbor as thyself". Just take the philosophy, the example of living love, expressing love, committing to do service - then it is altogether a different story. But if you want to see Jesus through the Church, then there are many questions that would come up.

I have nothing against the Church, I just want to bring it to your notice that the Church was against science, it was against rationality. It did not follow the principle of non-violence, turning the other cheek which Jesus has always stood for. We know about the Spanish inquisition, about what happened in Goa. How many hundreds and thousands were killed and forcefully converted. There are such events in many parts of the world. Fortunately today, the Church has woken up to all the past mistakes and has reformed itself. The Church now welcomes inter-faith dialogues and multi-faith celebrations. They have accepted that there are many ways to one truth which is a big step. I congratulate them for that. The fanaticism is much less and in many places it has been removed. But still there are some sects like Born Again Christians and Southern Baptist who are still very fanatic. I was shocked to see the way they tried to convert innocent people in India. When the children are travelling in the bus, the driver will stop the bus and then ask the children to chant their own Gods' names. As they chant, the driver will try to start the bus and the bus will not start. He will then say, “Now chant the name of Jesus, pray to Jesus", and when they do it, he will start the bus. This makes the villagers to believe that Jesus is the only true God and the other Gods are false. This type of brain washing is being done by some of the Evangelical groups.

A couple came to me when I was in Shillong and they were literally crying saying that their children were taken away by the Church. They said that the children think that the parents are devil worshippers, and so they cannot participate in the festivals as it is devilish. The parents are from a very respectable family and they were crying and telling me, “Gurudev, you know we celebrate Diwali and we are joined by all our family and friends since long".
Just imagine if your own children get brain washed and say that celebrating Diwali is a devilish thing to do, what will happen to you? This type of indoctrination, this type of fanaticism is wrong understanding.

Do you know, they would ask the people to bring the pictures of all the Gods and Goddesses, put them on the floor and walk on it. So, these poor villagers, they do this because they are given some money. The next day they feel so guilty to go into a temple because they stepped on the picture of Buddha, or Krishna, or Ram and denounced it all. They find themselves in a spot that even if they want to go, they feel afraid to go because they did a wrong act. These are wrong things people do in the name of Christianity, in the name of Jesus.

Similarly, people are doing so much wrong in the name of Islam. Islam itself means peace, but because they are brainwashed they think that when they kill people who do not believe in Allah, they will be rewarded with heaven. Just imagine! These people think that others have no right to live on Allah’s planet because they do not accept him, and so they are evil people. Look at the world from their eyes- they feel they are doing the right thing. If you are a faithful person of that religion and you are getting brainwashed like this, what would happen? What is happening? It is not one or two people here and there who is doing this mis-interpretation, the whole world is burning from this menace. So, that’s why I say, we have to move away from the fanaticism of religion and move towards spirituality which unites everyone. Takes the good things from everybody and then meditate, become hollow and empty.