Questions & Answers: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Wisdom by Spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Q: Gurudev, please ask the people here to plant one tree each when they go back to their homes in the towns and villages so that the proportion of oxygen increases in the atmosphere. I find that many of them do not do so once they return from here.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

I would not agree with your request of just planting one tree only. I would suggest that each person should plant five trees at least. You know when we had come to this land here where the Ashram is now, it was completely dry and barren. You could not even find a blade of grass growing here. But just look at how green and beautiful our Ashram is today. So we must all keep planting more and more trees continuously.

Q: Gurudev, how can we be your Masterpiece?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

You are already one! You are a piece ofthe Master, and you should go and spread the peace of the Master.

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Questions & Answers : Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Wisdom by Spiritual leader and Art of Living Founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Q: What is Vayu Sthithi?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

I know what paristhithi (situation or a particular condition) means. I am not aware of this term. As per my understanding, Vayu means the air and sthithi means its condition or quality. For example, the quality of the air is quite poor in large metro cities like New Delhi. etc. Everyone is thinking how one can improve the atmosphere of New Delhi. Vayustuti is again something different. Just like there are different hymns sung in praise of different deities, the Vayustuti is a hymn of verses dedicated to the God of Air (or wind).

Q: Gurudev, I feel like a puppet in the hands of the Divine, due to Karma, sickness, pain, old age and death. Where is my freedom?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

When you have this deep realization that none of this is you – be it sickness, pain, old age or death, then that is freedom. This afternoon when we all meditated, so many people felt relieved of body aches and pains, isn’t it?

Q: Gurudev, I have been here since two years but I do not see much change in my attitude, my work and my relationships. Why is this so?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Do not be too hard on yourself. Take a look at yourself honestly. How can you say that you have not changed? It is impossible for you to have not changed. You are changing. You may be expecting a lot of drastic changes immediately – and that may not have happened. That may take a little while. So have patience. Patience and perseverance will make the difference, so do not give up.

There is a part in you that does not change – latch onto that. That is the true you. It does not change at all. Do not get confused with that part that keeps changing all the time.

Questions & Answers : Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Wisdom by Spiritualleader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Q: I am not able to do my sadhana properly because of my job, but I really want to do it more regularly. What can I do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Alright, I want to ask you a question. When you have to go for work, do you ever leave without brushing your teeth? Even if you have a lot of work to do, do you leave without brushing your teeth? I also had a lot of work to attend to today. I was meeting thousands of people today since morning. But do you give up drinking water because of so much work?

Suppose today you know you have a lot of work in the office. Do you simply get out of bed, change into your shirt and trousers and run off to work? Do you go to the restroom or not before leaving? If you do not brush your teeth one day, no one will be able to sit near you. So it is necessary to brush your teeth every day. This is dental hygiene. In the same way, doing pranayama and meditation every day is mental hygiene.

To free the mind of all stress and to go to work with a cheerful and happy mind, you need to invest a few minutes every day for this as well. Take some time out for this. Once it comes into your routine, then it becomes a part of your day and it does not disturb your schedule anymore.

No matter how urgent things may be, just have this firm determination that I will sit for 10 minutes and leave only after completing my pranayama and meditation. Once you discipline yourself this way, then that’s all that is needed. Even if you do it just once in the day, that is good enough. And if by chance you miss it one day, it is alright; do not worry too much and do it the very next day. But I am not willing to agree that one does not get time to do this.

See, everyone has only 24 hours at their disposal. One who works in a job too has only 24 hours, and even the Prime Minister has only 24 hours for himself. Both of them feel that there isn’t enough time. How much we are able to do and achieve in the time we have is a measure of our skilfulness.

Q: My dear Gurudev, we often commit mistakes and when we do so, you punish us. But when we do not realize that it was a mistake, what do we do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Listen, I do not punish anyone. I do no such thing at all. You simply bear the effect of what you did. That’s all. There is cause and effect. If you overeat too much food, then I will not punish you. It is you who will get a tummy ache, or you get diarrhoea or constipation. That is the effect of what you ate. Got it? I would say, learn from your mistakes and move ahead. Do not sit and keep cribbing or brooding over it. Where is the time to turn behind and cry over what is past? Look forward and march forward.

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Questions & Answers : Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Wisdom by Spiritual leader  Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Q: Gurudev, you always say that joy is in the present moment. But there are some events of the past that hold me back from being totally in the present moment. Despite wanting to, many times I am not able to be totally in the present. What should I do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

See, if you try to walk ahead keeping you head turned back, how will that be possible? Just wake up and see, whatever has happened has happened, it’s finished. Life is new every moment.
Just focus on life right now, this very moment. Drop this questioning, “Oh, why did this happen this way? Why did it not happen that way?”

There is nothing to gain by thinking about the past over and over again. Let it go!

Q: If I am the source of thoughts, then is there any difference between the source and the soul? If it is the same, do bad thoughts affect the soul?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

See, when do you realize that a thought is good or bad? You can realize this only when the thought has already come. You cannot stop a thought or know a thought before it comes. And when it comes, it also goes away immediately. If you are a witness to the thought, it simply drifts away and vanishes. But if you hold on to it and chew on it, then it stays with you.

Thoughts come and go, but that which is the basis of thoughts – is the atma (soul). And that is what you are. You are like the sky, and thoughts are like clouds. This could be the nearest example one can give. Clouds come and go in the sky, but can they disturb or limit the vastness of the sky in any way? No, not at all.

So when you fly above the clouds, when you go beyond the clouds, you see that the sky is untouched. It is the same, it is unchanged. It is only the thoughts which keep moving. This is what happens in meditation, when you come into Sakshi bhaav, i.e., when you simply become a witness to the thoughts.

We do not have to attach ourselves to the thoughts. That is foolishness. Whether they are good thoughts, or bad thoughts – they come and go. You are far above and beyond all this. This is called the Vihangam Maarg – it means rising above thoughts and seeing that you have nothing to do with these moving thoughts.

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