Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

No, they are all different paths. It is better to be in one path otherwise you will get confused. Respect everybody but do not read too much of everything, because one will say something and the other will say something else. Their roots are the same but their methodologies are different.

If you are not satisfied, ask the Guru and the Guru will guide you to go on another path. If they have not given you any experience at all, there is no point in holding on to them. But you should have faith and give enough time for that.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Celibacy helps to conserve energy. Spirituality is about uplifting the energy and pleasure deplete energy and leads you to inertia. This not only applies to celibacy but to the five senses also. When we overdo it, how exhausted one becomes. For example food - if you take little food you feel energetic and you can meditate, but if you eat too much, you do not feel energetic. You feel dull and feel like lying down. You feel a sort of inertia has overtaken you.
Similarly, sex can lead you to heavy inertia. Spirituality is against inertia of any sort, whether through food, or watching two movies consecutively, or TV.
Watching anything for too long can cause inertia in the brain. One never gets that bubbling enthusiasm of energy from over-indulging the senses. So, eating, touching, seeing or smelling, any of these done excessively can cause inertia and that is not congenial for spiritual advancement.

If you ask me, as a couple, if you should never have sex at all to move forward in the spiritual path, I'd say that is not the case. It is not a hindrance when it is in moderation. In excess, it is a disaster. Suppression is also not needed. If you have that feeling and you are trying to suppress it, it is not natural and can create the same inertia.
As spiritual growth happens, celibacy is a spontaneous thing because you are already in a state of peace and you need not rub yourself against another body to get some experience. There is a natural outburst of energy inside of you and celibacy has happened. If you ask me personally, it is not something you practise with force, it is something that comes to you naturally and it happens to you. Either through age because as you progress in age, sex does not attract you as much as when you were a teenager. Or past life samskaras (impressions); if you have been a yogi in the past, it does not create the urge or taste in you. Or the third thing is, if you are moderating your intake of food, you are not indulgent, then also you can have a say over it.

Lust has created humungous problems in the world and many crimes have happened or are happening today because of uncontrolled lust. It has spoilt relationships between people also. One of the reasons for bitterness in the world is the lack of control over oneself. With lack of spirituality, what happens? The intense joy or pleasure one experiences with your partner can turn bitter and cause much more heartbreak if there is no wisdom. This is what is happening all over, isn’t it? Someone has given you intense pleasure and if you have no wisdom, you will find them to be the cause of intense misery also. If you feel miserable, do not look at the cause, point at the one who has given you physical pleasure.

So, it is the wisdom that takes you away from misery. Observing at the sensations within you, whether pain or pleasure brings a different view altogether about the entire phenomenon.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

I want to tell you something that was recently discovered. I was talking to one of the judges in the Supreme Court of India during a conference of judges, in Bangalore ashram. He drew my attention to a practise that everyone thought is superstition. What is that? In India, when women are in their menstrual cycle in India, those three days they are not allowed to enter the kitchen, nor are they allowed to touch any food. If that happens, others will not eat it. This appeared completely superstitious and I used to also think, "Why should she not touch the food?"

In Hungary, an experiment was done by a scientist. The scientist had a maid in the house taking care of his garden and watering the plants, Every month, for three days the flowers would wither away but come back on the fourth day. So, he asked her what did she do? She said that she did nothing. He later came to know that she was in her menstrual cycle during those three days. So, for two and half years he did research on this and found out that when women are in their menstrual cycle, their body emits menotoxins. I also heard that in the vineries in France, they do not allow women during their menstrual cycle to work as the wine turns sour. I heard it is a practice. I also read on the web that in bakeries, the dough does not rise when women in their menstrual cycle touch the bread. So flowers wither away, wine turns sour and bread does not rise.
Similarly, even seeds don’t sprout. So, these are the four visible effects of menotoxins.

There is another thing also, when a woman in her cycle holds a baby that is not hers, the child gets a stomach upset! Even the stool of the child goes green. This is amazing! So what I thought to be superstition for some time, now has a validity of its own. So, we cannot discard it unless the phenomenon is studied thoroughly.

So, why they say women in the menstrual cycle should not touch food, the first thing is they need rest, that is necessary. Even Sufis do not allow women in the mosque during their menstrual cycle because they took their customs from Hinduism. The Hindus do not allow. The world is full of information, you take what is needed. It is like a map of a country, but you are only interested in the road you need to go.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Celibacy helps to conserve energy. Spirituality is about uplifting the energy and pleasure depletes energy and leads you to inertia. This not only applies to celibacy but to the five senses also. When we overdo it, how exhausted one becomes. For example food - if you take little food you feel energetic and you can meditate, but if you eat too much, you do not feel energetic. You feel dull and feel like lying down. You feel a sort of inertia has overtaken you.
Similarly, sex can lead you to heavy inertia. Spirituality is against inertia of any sort, whether through food, or watching two movies consecutively, or TV.
Watching anything for too long can cause inertia in the brain. One never gets that bubbling enthusiasm of energy from over-indulging the senses. So, eating, touching, seeing or smelling, any of these done excessively can cause inertia and that is not congenial for spiritual advancement.

If you ask me, as a couple, if you should never have sex at all to move forward in the spiritual path, I say, that is not the case. It is not a hindrance when it is in moderation. In excess, it is a disaster. Suppression is also not needed. If you have that feeling and you are trying to suppress it, it is not natural and can create the same inertia.

As spiritual growth happens, celibacy is a spontaneous thing because you are already in a state of peace and you need not rub yourself against another body to get some experience. There is a natural outburst of energy inside of you and celibacy has happened. If you ask me personally, it is not something you practise with force, it is something that comes to you naturally and it happens to you. Either through age because as you progress in age, sex does not attract you as much as when you were a teenager. Or past life samskaras (impressions); if you have been a yogi in the past, it does not create the urge or taste in you. Or the third thing is, if you are moderating your intake of food, you are not indulgent, then also you can have a say over it.

Lust has created humungous problems in the world and many crimes have happened or are happening today because of uncontrolled lust. It has spoilt relationships between people also. One of the reasons for bitterness in the world is the lack of control over one self. With lack of spirituality, what happens? The intense joy or pleasure one experiences with your partner can turn bitter and cause much more heartbreak if there is no wisdom. This is what is happening all over, isn’t it? Someone has given you intense pleasure and if you have no wisdom, you will find them to be the cause of intense misery also. If you feel miserable, do not look at the cause, point at the one who has given you physical pleasure.

So, it is the wisdom that takes you away from misery. Observing the sensations within you, whether pain or pleasure brings a different view altogether about the entire phenomenon.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Oh! Good, that is a good explosion, but let it not explode at the sight of every man you meet. Both will be in trouble then. Anything can trigger it, Instead of looking at the outside, look at the feeling it triggers, focus on the energy that has exploded within you. This is one of the techniques of meditation in the olden days, actually.
If you see something beautiful, something romantic, that kindles something beautiful inside you, then you turn your attention to the energy that is rising up in your heart, and at that moment meditation happens. This is the reason in ancient temples, in India, you will find all kinds of beautiful and erotic statues all around, because beauty kindles something deep inside. The ancient people knew this and that is why they first asked you to around the temple and see the beautiful figures - to arise those feelings inside you and then go in and sit in front of the Deity.
Even the Deity is decorated so beautifully. They put statues of both male and female, like Radha and Krishna, so that you realize that you are both inside, a father and a mother. You fill yourself with the beauty and dissolve in it. This is a technique by itself.
In fact, there was no person as Radha at all. Radha is only the power of Krishna, the female aspect of Krishna. If you read the biography of Krishna written as Shrimad Bhagvatam, there is no mention of Radha anywhere, it is just to create that romantic, beautiful feeling they said that Radha is the power of Krishna.
Radha means longing and Krishna is the attraction. So, they created both and said, look at this which is so beautiful and sit and meditate.

Lord Buddha is little different from Lord Krishna. Lord Buddha is only peace, only silence and emptiness. So, when you look at a statue of Buddha, you become silent, quiet and empty.Emptiness was the whole goal of Buddha. But with Krishna, it is the fullness of joy, fullness of romance, fullness of ultimate bliss and so they depicted it that way. But the aim of both is turning inwards to meditate.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

When you are totally content, then you can say 'This is my last incarnation'. Even then, there is no criterion. Maybe nature wants you to come back and do some work, then you have to come back again.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Even wanting nothing is a want! Got it? Just relax. Just remember when you have finished eating and you are so full, then even if someone comes and asks if you need more, you say 'No'. Don’t you say that? Remember that state. There are times when you say, 'I want nothing'.
Ask all these kids here, what do they want, when they are not hungry, they will say, 'Nothing'.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Know that you have the power to do it and just do it. Open your mind to the vastness of this universe. Wake up and see that seven billion people are on this planet, everyday many are being burnt, everyday many are dying. Whatever big thing you are hanging on to about someone’s action towards you, know that it is your karma that made them act that way with you. If not that person, some other person would have given you the same experience. This is what you need to realize, this is what you need to see.

Look at life from a bigger perspective. That’s why I keep saying, behind every event there is knowledge, behind every person there is love, behind every object there is infinity, just know this, watch this, get this, that’s it.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Knowledge does help you. If you are just flowing with emotions alone, you will be an emotional wreck. But time to time, it is knowledge which steps in and reigns in the emotions. May not be all the time, but most of the time it does. Many times you get so angry but the knowledge comes, "Okay, cool down". When your intellect says this then you cool down.

So intellect cannot win all the time, but most of the time that is why you are sane. Insane people have no intellect, they are only ruled by emotions.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Krishna also says, "In the world, you cannot be without doing anything". Not even for a few minutes someone can be without any activity. At the same time he says that also. So you cannot just take one thing out of context and try to understand it. You have to go step-by-step, otherwise you will be in conflict because the Gita is from one step to another; one step to another. You cannot understand anything in isolation.
Even Arjuna says, "Why do you confuse me, you say all sorts of opposite things. One time you say Karma is important, other time you say drop all Karma and surrender to me. I am so confused". The Bhagavad Gita is meant to confuse you. Whenever confusion arises in you that time one level of understanding is broken down, and a paradigm shift is happening. .It is good. So go step-by-step.