Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Yes, if your emotions are shaken, let it be shaken as much as it can be. You know, there is nothing called compassion here. In higher knowledge, compassion is stupidity. Why? You can be compassionate only to somebody else, who is not you. Suppose your hand got hurt , you don't say, I am so compassionate towards my hand. Do you ever say that? When you say that everyone is part of you, where is compassion there? Okay, you got hurt, it's because of your own foolishness you got hurt. Put some ointment and forget about it.
When you get hurt, it's your karma. You must have hurt somebody sometime and so you got it back now. Nothing happens without a reason. This is the highest knowledge.

So, some Masters will always say that if you are suffering, it's not because of somebody, it's because of you only. You better suffer and get rid of it.
Instead of that, if you say, "That person is responsible for my suffering", then you are making more karma and carrying it on to the next lifetime. But if you say, "My suffering is because of me, and I take ownership of the karma", then you become free.
Saying, "My suffering is due to that person", will continue the karma because that impression will be there in your mind. Why are you not looking inside? Why are you not moving on? Why are you holding onto an event of the past and blaming the other person for your karma? If you do this then you will continue to be miserable.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

You better learn to listen to my silence more, I am an expert on it. I am not an expert in any language per se.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

What you call fate is that which you think you cannot change, right? Now, some Masters from ancient times, what they would do is they would cut your desires off. See, there are two ways:
1. You fulfill the desire.
2. You completely cut it off.
In Art of Living we say, "Okay, little bit of desire, let it be fulfilled", but if you see the previous generation of Masters, they would cut your desires. With Maharishi for example, if you say you want to do something, for example, express a desire to go to Milano, he will see to it that you never get to go there.

With most people, of course, he would tell them to leave all their desires to be fulfilled, but with real disciples he would see to it that their desires never get fulfilled, so that they learn to drop them. It is desires that create anger and misery in you, and presses you to hold on to them. You know, some children, you give them something and they just hold on to it so tight that you have to give them something else to get it out of them, isn't it? Otherwise they make a huge noise. So Masters in the previous generation would make sure that you just dropped your desires. You can't say, "I like this or I like that". If you say it, then finished, you will never get that. You will have to drop it because any desire, even after being fulfilled, leaves you at the same spot that you were in before it arose. So if you go to the Master and say, "That person is blaming me", then he would say, "Good, let them blame you more". I also do this. Suppose someone says, "This person is troubling me", I say, "I will ask them to trouble you even more". Why? That is how you get rid of your ego.
One aspect is making your ego bigger and the other aspect is breaking your ego. When I say, "You are so great", and I praise you, your ego bloats up and becomes bigger. But if I say, "You are so stupid, you are a blue star", and many people laugh at you, then your ego breaks. Humiliation and laughter smashes your ego. One is by praising, another is by smashing the ego. So it was a tough path in those days as this is what they would do.

Maharishi would ask someone to go and enroll 10,000 people for some program, and they would go enroll. A month later they would say, "I have enrolled 10,000 people", and Maharishi would say, "Who asked you to do that". At this time, one can't say, "Oh Maharishi, you only asked me to do it". There is no way one can give any explanation.
This man had done so much work to enroll 10,000 administrators, promising them all the money, heaven on earth and everything, and then suddenly what happened to his ego? It got totally shattered. He can't say anything now, he can't complain, he can't say, "How will I face those people", because the Master will say, "That's your problem, you face them, it's not my problem".

You cannot complain to the Master about anything. It's sometimes completely crazy, but this gives you a good solid training so that you don't ever become a weak person crying over things that are immaterial.

If it is told to you before, like in the DSN course (a rigorous transformational course that empowers participants to break through personal inhibitions and barriers and access inner stability and power) that this is what you have to do, then I think it's effectiveness is less. But when the person doesn't know, and you also don't know, and things happen in such a way (as it happened in the above example), then it is very powerful. You cannot say that they are doing it with some intention. From your side also, you are not even aware, and so you are totally torn apart, and that makes your personality so strong and flexible.

See, what throws you off your balance is your ego. Ego is the reason many things are broken and many things are made. If you pump someone's ego, they can do some good work, and if you smash someone's ego they can break other things also. Ego can create havoc. It can break and it can make, and when your ego is just nicely kneaded like dough, then it is like a croissant with layers and layers and layers. Do you know how a croissant is made, and how the layers come? When you knead it and knead it, the layers come, and that is how the ego is transformed (by kneading it).

I remember, when we were in Saltsburg, I was 20 or 21 years old at that time. Someone came and complained to Maharishi that so-and-so did this. He turned the whole thing around and pinned it on this person saying, "You are hand in glove with him, and you are part of all of this". The person could not say anything. Maharishi said, "You were waiting for that person to make a mistake so that you can come and complain to me, and so you are also a part of it". The man was so shaken and completely taken aback. It was like shock treatment. So the ego, desire and intellect were dealt with like that.

When it came to the intellect, all these Nobel scientists and intellectual people would be there and Maharishi would talk on something which nobody would understand. He would say, "'Aa' became 'Ga' and 'Ga' became 'Na' and 'Na' became 'Ya'". He would say some such thing and nobody would get it. We had to simply sit, including the Vedic pundits. It was such an exercise for the intellect to just let go of the position it takes.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Never mind. Take a deep breath in and know that only the best will happen to you. Take it as my word, that Gurudev has said only the best will happen to me.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Why do you want to draw me into a controversy? I feel marriage is an individual thing, and whatever an individual feels or likes, is to be respected. Individual’s choice should be respected. God accepts you and respects your choice, and that’s why he gives you a choice. Otherwise he would have not even given you a choice. So I think we must respect an individual’s choice as long as it doesn’t harm the society. We can’t say the same thing in the case of a terrorist who wants to gun down everybody -- we can’t say that God has given him that choice, no!

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

If you understand, it is no longer a mystery, and God loves to be mysterious and mischievous also. You can experience mystery but you cannot understand mystery. You can live life of God, which is a mystery.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

It is not difficult at all. Self is love, do you get it?
From childhood you have been told that you are bad, and it is the mind which is the enemy of the self. Through this knowledge the mind understands that 'I am love and I don’t need to love myself'. You don’t need a torch to look at a torch. Do you need a candle to look at a candle? The candle itself shows itself. Similarly, you are love. You don’t need to sit and say. "I love myself".

However you are, offer it all to the Divine; your thoughts, your emotions, your mind, positive or negative, however it is, offer it all and be free. Know that this is not your mind, these are not your thoughts. Actually, you might have experienced this -- sometimes for no reason you get angry or upset. Just being with some people or in a certain place suddenly gets you angry. How many of you have experienced this? Suddenly you get angry. It’s not yours. That place had these vibes and when you went, you started reflecting that.

Many times you don’t want to say things, but some people’s vibes make you say things and then you regret it. How many of you have had this experience? (Many in the audience raise their hands).

So you are not living in an island. We affect others and others affect us. Can you say this is my air? No, the air that you breathe out goes into others' lungs as well. We exchange air. When you can’t even protect your air, mind is thousand times subtler than air. And definitely the thoughts affect you, and this is where mantras are very useful. For thousands of years people have chanted these mantras, so when you sit and chant 'Om Namah Shivaya' for a few minutes, it somehow strengthens the mind and energy, and it keeps you away from depression.

You know, your subtle body is bigger than your gross body. Your pranic body is one and half feet bigger than your gross body. Have you heard of phantom pain where a person whose hand or leg has been amputated experiences pain in the part that has been amputated? The doctors don’t know what to do with this. If there is a physical hand, you can apply some balm on it, but the hand is not there and they have a phantom pain in it. This is in the pranic or subtle body. When you do pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya and meditation, you can snap out of it in no time.

So our subtle body is bigger than the gross body, and when the subtle body shrinks, that is when you feel depressed. When it shrinks a little you feel sad, when it shrinks more you feel depressed, and when it becomes smaller than the physical body, then suicidal tendencies come.
Suicidal tendency is what? If this dress gets too tight for me, I just want to get out of it. See, if you are putting on a coat which is two or three sizes smaller than yours, can you be comfortable? What do you want to do? You just want to get out of it. This is exactly what happens when people have suicidal tendencies. The subtle body has shrunk and become smaller than the physical body, and that is why the suicidal tendency comes up. But when you do Sudarshan Kriya, or meditation, or pranayama, the subtle body increases and becomes normal, and this tendency disappears.

You know, recently when I went to Tampa, a psychologist told me that every 30 seconds one person is committing suicide. That’s a lot. I was so stunned. Then I felt we must reach this knowledge to people. When they do yoga, pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya and meditation the subtle body becomes stronger and bigger. First you feel normal and happier, then the subtle body becomes even bigger and you feel more happy. Then if it becomes one with the causal body which is even bigger, then you become blissful and are very happy all the time.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Yes, even cocaine is all natural only. It is also a herb, but stay away from it.
Look at people who have taken drugs, do they look like they are in ecstasy? Not at all. If you look at them, you pity them. All their energy gets drained. And moreover, on a subtle level, their aura gets totally broken. People who use drugs, their subtle body (pranic body) gets shattered, and their aura is all cut. So never ever use those things. Just use your breath. With pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya and meditation you can go high up and be healthier. And many people have come out of drugs with this. They realize they don’t have to spend money to do this. Wherever you sit and meditate, you are in bliss. This is a very good antidote.

If you have not done Shakti Kriya, you should do it. In 20 minutes of Shakti Kriya you can find yourself in a high and pleasant state of energy.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Listen, if you are a devotee, it is good enough. There is only one consciousness, that’s it. See one in all and all in one.
I remember a catholic nun who met with me in England way back, 30 years ago. She was very old at that time, and do you know what she said? She said, "If you don’t see Jesus in the first person you see in the morning, you are never going to see him".
So the whole principle is love, oneness and compassion, and that is what Art of living is all about.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Listen, don’t worry about surrender and all. What is there to surrender? Why do you struggle with this word surrender? No need to surrender anything I tell you, hold on to everything. God loves you the way you are, and wherever you are, you are anyway with God. You cannot go away from God at all. So what is there for you to surrender? Everything anyway belongs to nature; belongs to God. Yes, when you feel your negativity and your worries are too much, and you can’t stand it anymore, then this idea was given -- that you should surrender it.

Even surrender I tell you, is a drama. You simply have to wake up and realize that 'I don’t possess anything. Everything anyway belongs to the one divinity'. So don’t worry about it.

You say, "I give up", when you are frustrated. If you can happily say, "I give up", then you don’t reach the point of frustration. You simply realize everything is anyway run by 'UP' and that’s it. Anyway, everything belongs to someone up there or someone deep inside you, that’s it. Main thing is to relax and repose in yourself.