Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Why should life be simple? Life is complicated and that is what makes it fun. There is beauty, there is thrill in life. It is when you feel very tired that you feel “Oh, it is all so complicated. Let me get away from it all”. When you are bubbling with energy, then you do not feel this way. You feel tired from the complications when you lack energy. When you are tired, you want everything to be simple. . Got it? That is what it is.

See, is eating a banana simple or complicated? When you take a bite of the banana, then the starch gets mixed with the saliva. Then it goes into the stomach where the digestive acid digests it. Then it has to give a signal to the brain to release the enzymes for digestion. It is all so complicated. The liver, the pancreas and other organs secrete juices and it gets mixed in the duodenum of the intestine. Then it goes in the big intestine and finally gets absorbed in the blood. Oh God! It is so complicated. So do you think it is simple or complicated? (Laughter)

When you are looking at me, do you think the process of sight is very simple? When you look at me or at anything, you will realize how light falls on any object, and then enters the eye. The image formed in the eye is initially upside down on the retina. Just ask an ophthalmologist and you will understand how complicated it is. Is there any one thing that is simple in your body? No! There are 50,000 types of bacteria in your intestine. Did you know that? Even if 10 types out of these 50,000 are missing, you will have some problem or another. So, all the 50,000 bacteria need to be present for you to feel healthy. And the bacteria are very territorial. If another five different bacteria enter the body, they will send out signals and you will have diarrhoea or constipation. Similarly, there are three different kinds of bacteria on your forehead. They are called mites and they all stay in their respective zones. In the scalp there is another kind of mite. The mites on the forehead do not cross into another mites’ region. Did you know that? How many of you are hearing it for the first time? You know that in India there is a custom of applying Vibhuti (sacred ash) on the forehead in the form of three lines. There must be some correlation between this and that (the three mites on the forehead and applying Vibhuti). Three different kinds of mites live on your forehead, and it is different for different people.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Definitely. Technology and spirituality should go together. Then technology can bring comfort and progress. Otherwise technology can be used to destroy mankind. Technology can be used to create terror on the planet. Is it not happening already? Technology can be abused to hurt people if human values are missing from it. By combining spirituality with technology, you can prevent so much disaster and bring comfort to people. Technology can be used to feed millions, to educate millions. When technology is combined with Spirituality, it can bring physical, mental and emotional comfort to everyone.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Come on, this is a story of the past. Wake up now, and resolve that 'I am not going to worry'. Invoke the valour inside you. If you find it difficult to do so, I would suggest that you practice Bhastrika and do the Sudarshan Kriya.
Do you feel worried after Bhastrika and the Sudarshan Kriya? You do not look worried to me. You seem very well today. Do you feel the difference after doing these practices? Go for a walk in the morning, and then make the “Ha” and “Ho” sound. You will feel an increase in your energy levels, you will start bubbling with enthusiasm.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

You absolutely should. Have you not noticed that in all advertisements for cigarettes there is a warning message that says, “Smoking is injurious to health”. So you should leave smoking. It is like diving in the swimming pool. You do not hold on to the rails, you simply dive into the water. In the same way, just take a firm decision that from this moment on I will not touch cigarettes. I am not going to look at it, I am not going to touch it at all. You will feel such an enormous sense of self-empowerment within you. Your lungs will feel so happy. When your lungs are happy, your breath will be happier and joyful. When your breath is happy, your brain will be happy as well. The brain will feel, “Ah! I am getting fresh food (oxygen) today and not stale food”.

We have introduced a Smoking Pranayama technique here as well. I have never smoked in my life. But I have often wondered what makes one get addicted to smoking? Is it the smoke, or something else? Or is it that style of breathing that stimulates something in the brain? It seems to relax the brain. Try keeping the fingers on the lips without having a cigarette and breathe, then see what you feel. Breathe in and out 5 to 10 times, and you will find the same impact that you would have gotten with a cigarette (laughter). You will get the same relaxation but without any harmful impact on your lungs.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Oh my God! God only can help you, and God is very helpful, provided you help yourself first. God helps those who help themselves.

How can you help yourself? First, create some space for imperfection in life. Do not expect everyone to be perfect overnight.
It will take quite some time for you to get to that level, where anger does not even touch you. It will keep coming in different shades and intensities. Instead of looking at the cause of anger, look at the effect it is producing in your system. And then keep relaxing your system, attend to yourself.

This world cannot be so perfect, so broaden your vision. You cannot make everyone the way you want them to be. Unpleasant things are bound to happen. When it happens, you should have the strength and courage to move on. Meditation will definitely provide you that much needed strength to overcome anger. Once in while if anger comes up, don’t start blaming yourself. One thing that can be very detrimental on the spiritual path is you blaming yourself. Keep moving ahead. This is where Sangha, group or company can also help. Whatever things you cannot do alone, you can get help and support from a group, from good company.
Sangha has many benefits, but a few drawbacks also. It can also take up a lot of your energy. It can be draining at times. Many times you will have to compromise on something. The positive effect is that Sangha helps you to move forward. It gives you that much needed support to move forward. Whenever your mind goes topsy-turvy, or if your emotions are going up and down, when your inner faith is shaken, then at such times the Sangha will carry you forward. It will help you move through the situations. One negative effect of the Sangha is that if someone in the group is negative and miserable and you are not careful enough and join hands with that person, then it can bring you down as well. Sangha is also a strength.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

There are people who are married and are happy, and there are people who are single and still happy – you better belong to this category. There are people who are single and unhappy, and there are people who are married and unhappy. It is better you do not get into that category of people.
See, the example of Ramakrishna Paramahamsaji. He was married, Sharada Devi was his wife. There are many such examples like this. So even couples can attain enlightenment. Enlightenment is not something that just drops from somewhere. It is present in us all. Lord Rama was married, Lord Krishna was married. Of course, you cannot compare Rama and Krishna. In the previous birth of Lord Krishna when he was Kapila Muni, he was a Brahmachari (celibate) from childhood. In the next life he chose to be married. But he was anyway a Siddha (perfected being).

The other day, someone was asking me, “When Lord Shiva can have Bhang (an intoxicating drink made from the fruit of the Cannabis plant) and smoke opium, why can’t I?”
I said, “Well, before Lord Shiva drank Bhang and smoked opium, he also consumed the deadly Halahala poison (a fiery poison that emerged during the churning of the Cosmic Ocean). Why don’t you also first take poison and after that you can consume all these? Do not take that as an excuse to consume Bhang. Lord Shiva also consumed poison. When poison could not affect him, then Bhang also cannot affect him in any way. But both of these substances can affect you!" (Laughter)

There is a story of Lord Krishna. Once when the river was in full spate, he said, “If I am a true Brahmachari then may the river stop swelling and resume its gentle flow”. It is said that when he said this, the flood in the river disappeared. Have you all heard this story?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Yes, they do pass on to the children. There are four factors that affect the life of an infant. 25% is attributed to the impressions that they carry from past lifetimes. The next 25% of impressions come from the mother and father. 25% of the impressions are caught on from the immediate environment that they are in. The kind of environment and the company they keep plays a big role in this. The remaining 25% of the impressions come from the kind of actions a person does by himself. So in this way, many things make an impression in the life of an infant. A teacher makes a big impression in the life of a person.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

See, Goddess Ganga represents knowledge. A single person cannot receive or hold so much knowledge. Only Lord Shiva can contain and uphold so much knowledge. It means only the blissful Infinity (Lord Shiva) can contain and hold so much knowledge.

A normal person can attain contentment and bliss by just a small spring of that eternal river (of knowledge). See, in a library, there is a tremendous amount of knowledge that is stored. Yet how much do you actually need to become still and content in yourself? You need just a little bit of it. You will only look into that subject or area of knowledge that you actually seek for. When only a small spring of knowledge comes forth, then it gives you joy and comfort. But if instead of that small spring, the entire river of knowledge were to flood open, then a person becomes uncomfortable ( being unable to comprehend or contain so much vast knowledge in one go).

When Lord Krishna revealed his supreme Universal form to Arjuna, Arjuna became so afraid, he started shaking all over. He pleaded to Lord Krishna, “O Lord! Please end this vast and magnificient yet equally fearful divine form and return back into your earthly form. I am not able to behold the infinity of your divine form”. This is what Arjuna prayed to Lord Krishna. Knowledge is vast and endless. Yet a small spring of knowledge is sufficient to bring contentment and peace to the soul.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Look, they are doing something with a wrong understanding. They think that if they kill somebody here then they are going to go to heaven. They think that they are doing God’s work here. This is their conviction. How can you say it is joyful moment? It is especially not so for those getting executed.

Do not misinterpret or stretch knowledge into avenues which do not make any sense. This is a strange question. There are many things you can do, or also not do, to be in the present moment.
These are all Vikrutis (distortions) of the mind. When you get into this, then the mind wrongly thinks that “Oh, this is also joyful! ( Killing innocent people) Why do I not do this then?” This is why we speak about the Six wealths ( Shatt Sampatti) one should have – Shama (equanimity of the mind), Dama (restraint or say over one’s senses), Uparati (ability to enjoy what one has), Titiksha (endurance or fortitude in both good and bad), Samadhana (being established in the Self, in the Divine) and Shraddha (deep unshakeable faith).

Until and unless a person is well-founded in this Sheela ( a system of virtues), until one is established in the four pillars of knowledge, one cannot speak about Vedanta. Without being well-established in these, you may argue that “Oh, everything is God. So If everything is the Brahman, then those people who are killing others are also Brahman. If everything has come from that Ananda (blissful One Consciousness) then they too have come from the same Ananda”. This is misuse of the highest knowledge. The highest knowledge is not given to anyone until and unless they are well founded in Viveka, Vairagya, the Shatt Sampatti, and Mumukshatva (intense desire for liberation). All these four principles have to be well established within us. Only then can you talk about Vedanta. Then you can say that “Everything is One, all are One”.

In the ethics of teaching it is said, “Do not give this knowledge that ‘Everything is God, everything is Brahman’ to people who have not come up to that level of discrimination. Otherwise a thief also can misuse this knowledge. A thief may also think “Oh, never mind, anyway everything is the Brahman. So how does it matter whether this money comes from my pocket or someone else’s pocket? My pocket or his pocket – it is all the same. So why not steal and take it?” ( Laughter) If this were the case then all the pick-pockets can also talk and justify their actions using Vedanta. So that is why this knowledge is not given in such a way.

If without proper understanding you just think, “Everything is Brahman”, then you would not make any distinction between mud and a banana. Then you should be able to eat mud also. People many times use knowledge for their convenience. This is misuse of knowledge. Knowledge gives your comfort, but using knowledge for your convenience is unethical. If you live the knowledge, then it surely gives you absolute comfort, absolute joy.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

No. “Sri” has various meanings. “Sri” can mean this creation, or knowledge, wealth, etc. All this is contained in the meaning of the prefix “Sri”. Everything that is manifest is “Sri”. The glory of the unmanifest is called “Sri”. “Sri” refers to the glory and magnificence of the unmanifest consciousness that cannot be seen or perceived. “Sri” also means brilliance, strength, health. All this is “Sri”.