Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

You can receive the Gayatri Mantra from the parents or from the Guru. Simply listening or chanting along with a tape recorder or audio does not help. When one gets initiated into the Gayatri Mantra by following the proper rituals and process to receive the mantra, then the mantra becomes powerful and effective.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

I would say it should be the other way around! You should be able to meditate more easily when you wife is around, so that you get relief at that time ( laughter) instead of engaging yourself in an unwanted conversation. Just sit in meditation. Then she too will be in peace, perhaps ( laughter).

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Well, there are many traditions like that. If people are so compassionate then they should first ban all the slaughterhouses, and all the horse-riding tournaments.

In the Rajpath in New Delhi, there is a horse-riding sport. Horses are tamed and trained and people ride those horses. Jallikattu is one such game and there are proper rules for that which were made thousands of years ago: You are never supposed to harm the animal. You are never supposed to go play with the animal if you are drunk.
These are all a kind of ancient sports. I do not see any big harm being caused to the animal through this. In Tamil Nadu this sport has been in practice since many centuries, even millenniums. I would say banning will create more passion. Persuading people not to play or engage in it is a different thing. The moment you ban it, then people would feel that their rights are being infringed upon; they would feel that their cultural age-old traditions are not being respected. This is an issue. I am not in favour of Jallikattu but I am also not in favour of banning Jallikattu. People should have the freedom as long as they cause no injury to the animals.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Why do you want to know all the secrets? What will you do by knowing the secrets? ( Laughter) Even if I tell you all the answers, what will you do with all the answers? You will anyways go to sleep – with or without getting the answers. You already have a question, now why do you want to burden yourself with an answer also?

An old lady used to sing a song quite often, which went like this – “Santo ne jagaaya parr tu toh wapas so gaya; Maya ke baazar mein lal kho gaya” (Dear one! The wise have awakened you from ignorance but you have gone back to sleep again; You have lost yourself in the play of Maya).
My dear, come on! Just wake up! When you wake up, then all the questions and complaints automatically fall apart and disappear.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Who is the one that is feeling it or not feeling it? Just focus deeply on that. You are saying, “I am not feeling it”. Just focus on this “I” – that much is good enough. Just become aware of where your focus is when you say, “I am feeling this”, or “I am happy”, or “I am unhappy”, etc. In all this, there is the “I”. The “I” continues. You simply have to focus on that “I”.
When you say “I have no experience”, then just focus on who says that. It is not the experience of the feeling that is important, whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, but the one who is experiencing. Your goal is to go into this “I”.

You constantly think “I am happy”, “I am miserable”, “I want this and I do not want that”, or “I have made big advancements” etc. You have to go beyond all this because all this is a part of the scenery. Simply take your focus away from all of this and your attention on the “I”. What is this “I”? That is good enough.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Yes, it is quite possible. Our Intuition Process for young children is already showing amazing results. Children are able to develop these abilities quite well. Yes, it definitely takes some time to develop Avadhan. So those who have a lot of time can explore Avadhan.

You know, in earlier times when we were in school and college, we had to memorize everything. Today with calculators and so many other gadgets, you do not need to memorize so many things. Everything is quickly accessible at the tip of your fingers. When our generation was in schools and colleges, we had to go to the library, search for all the books by going through the index and it took so much effort. Today it is all available at the click of a button, you can Google everything. You can carry your entire library with you in your pocket, in a tablet or a smart phone.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Yes, this is a great mystery. You can only live the mystery, you cannot comprehend it. Do not think that there is only one dimension to the creation that we are in. There are many dimensions – one within the other. That is why it is unfathomable.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Absolutely yes! But he should remove the label ‘I am an atheist’. If he is a ‘nobody’, he can get liberated.

If you simply say, "I don’t know whether there is some other power or not, I have no idea", then you are not an atheist. One who admits ignorance is not an atheist. Who is an atheist? One who says, "I know there is no God", he is atheist.
What do atheists say? "What I know is all that is, what I don’t know does not exist! If something exists, I must know it! Since I don’t know, whatever I don’t know, does not exist!" If that is the atheism (that you believe in), then you will miss many things because you already ‘know’ that nothing exists, so you will not want to know whether anything exists or not.

If you are agnostic, it is fine. If you say, "I don’t know, I won’t believe unless I know", this is fine. In fact, the Oriental philosophy never asks you to believe something that you don’t know, unlike the Occidental philosophy. In the Occident, they say that you believe in God, then one day you will get an experience. In the Orient, they will never say that.
In the Orient, first know the knowledge of the five principles (earth, water, fire, air, ether), then the three principles (mind, intellect and ego), and then the ninth one (the Self). If you know these eight, then will you know the Self. Once you know the Self, i.e., atma, then you will know that which is beyond the Self, i.e., Paramatma.

Beyond I, there is something called Eswar , which you know only by experience. When it comes to your experience, only then can you say you believe it! Before that, you don’t need to believe it. However, you can’t say, "I don’t believe it existS!"
If I ask you, "Do you believe that you exist?" You will say, "Yes". And what is you? Who are you? This is what meditation is all about! This is what the Upanishads do; they take you step by step into the unknown.
The Upanishads never tell you to believe in something that you don’t know. This is also the reason why the Oriental philosophy has never been in conflict with Science, ever! Science also goes with a systematic understanding of what you know, to what you don’t know. And the Oriental philosophy also goes from the known to the unknown. And there are some unknown things. Accepting the unknown and loving it is what is called Shraddha (faith) . Once you have Shraddha then you get it.

See, if the Wright Brothers didn’t have faith that they could fly, they would never have attempted it. This is the philosophy of the Darshan Shastras.
There are six Darshana Shastras (schools of philosophy which are Nyaya, Samkhya, Mimamsa, Vaisheshika, Yoga and Vedanta).
The first Nyaya is about the means of knowledge. It helps one understand whether the means of knowledge is correct or not. For example, when I say, "I am seeing the sun setting and rising", is this knowledge correct? This is Nyaya Darshan.

In India, it was known 5,000 years ago that the Earth is spherical and all the planets go around the Sun. That is why the study of the Earth (Geography) is called Bhugol, and the study of the universe is called Khagol; gol means spherical . It was only in the West that Galileo found out that the Earth is spherical. The Indians knew it much before.

In very old temples, maybe 1,500 to 2,000 year old temples, there is a Varaha Moorthy (the statue of Lord Vishnu in the form of a boar), and on top of his nose, a sphere is kept (to indicate the Earth). If you go to any old temple also, they would have put all the planets with the Sun in the middle.

Even today, if you see the Indian calendar, Panchanga,it determines exactly what time the Sun and the Moon rise, what time the eclipse starts. All this information is very precise to the minute! There could be a variation of just a few seconds, twenty seconds and not more in some places. This is what we see in the calculations which have been happening for such a long time. This is possible because we have understood even philosophy with a scientific temper.

Now, having said that, don’t think that we have no superstitions in this country. We have plenty of them, such as, ladies should not touch the Shiva Lingam, ladies should not chant Gayatri Mantra and all sorts of nonsense! All through time gender equality has been emphasized, but in practice it is not being done!

In temples, people go and pour liters and liters of milk on the statues and it all goes into the gutter. Nowhere has it been said that you have to put so much milk on the statues. I always say that you should not do this. You can pour some milk but then give it to people later on. There are so many types of things done out of ignorance, things which have no scriptural injunction are being practiced. Someone started some practices, it just continued without any basis. We need to apply some philosophical wisdom here.

At the same time, there are differences in tradition and culture also. Here in Karnataka, a bride wears only a white saree on the wedding day, while in Tamil Nadu, the bride wears a red saree. In Karnataka, a red saree is not considered auspicious on the wedding day. Similarly, there are different customs. In Rajasthan, ladies pull the ghungat (a scarf) to cover the head, while in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, women will never do that, it is considered inauspicious. These are all customs that make the country very interesting!

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

The word 'Pu' means fullness, and 'Ja' means that which is born out of fullness. So puja means that which is born out of fullness. And what you get out of doing puja is also fullness, and contentment. Doing puja creates a subtle vibration in the atmosphere which brings positivity.

Diwali is festival of lights. Lord Buddha said, "Appo deepo bhava", you become a light unto yourself. And the Vedas and Upanishads say 'You are all lights, some of you are lit and some of you are unlit, but the potential to glow is in everyone'.
So Diwali is the day to remove darkness. And to remove darkness, one light is not enough, the entire society will have to light up. It's not enough if just one person is happy in a family, every member has got to be happy. Even if one member is unhappy, the others cannot be happy. So said every home should light up.

The second thing we need to bring into our lives is sweetness. Distribute not just sweets but also sweetness to everybody. The festival of Diwali is to remind you that if you have any bitterness, any pressure, or any stress in your heart, like fire crackers burst it all out and start a fresh new life, and make it a celebration.

Diwali is celebrated on a new moon day, and on this day we invoke the Goddess Lakshmi. Goddess Lakshmi represents the divinity manifesting as the giver of prosperity. In India, God is not only 'He', God is also 'She'. So sometimes God is addressed as 'He' and sometimes as 'She'. Like how white light has seven colours in it, similarly the one divinity has many different flavours. So today is the day we will invoke Lakshmi with all the ancient chanting from the Rig Veda and feel the positive vibrations and the abundance.

The day before Diwali is called Dhanteras. In the ancient days, people would bring all the wealth on this day to the house and place it in front of the Divine. Usually people keep their wealth in the bank, or keep it in the lockers and hide it. But earlier, on Dhanteras day, they would put all their wealth in front, see it and feel abundant. Wealth is not only gold and silver, wealth is also wisdom. So it was celebrated like that. You also must cherish your wisdom and feel abundant.
Dhanteras is also the day of Ayurveda, as herbs are also a wealth. Herbs and plants are wealth. It is said that it was on the day of Diwali the nectar was given to mankind.

So today, move ahead in life feeling that you are blessed, and feel contented. Whenever we feel blessed, more comes. There is this saying in Bible, "Those who have will be given more and those who do not, whatever little will also be taken back".
From the ancient time, the thought is -- you must feel the abundance. Abundance starts from within and then manifests on the outside. So you have plenty of blessings. Go with this feeling.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

You be open and be available. Suppose your parents want you to come there and they're not well, or they need you desperately, you should go there. If they're fine, comfortable and you want to pursue your career, do that. They don't need to be in conflict with each other. Of course the mind sometimes gets into conflict. When you go there you want to come here and work. But just take it easy.