Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Today choice is yours, what do you want to know? What do you want me to speak about? Silence? (Guruji chuckles) You should have belongingness. Silence is mother of all creativity. Silence is mother of invention. Silence is basis for love. You know when you love somebody and you sit and talk… blablablablabla. You know while you’re talking, you’re not enjoying the communication that could have done with silence. You see what I’m saying. So you need to create a belongingness with silence or for silence. What do you say? Do you all feel like you belong to the whole world anytime? That’s very precious in life. This realization, I belong to the whole universe, will give us an insight into something that is so stupendous, magnificent in life. We know we belong to this family, this community, this locality, this culture, this country. All is identification we have. But expanding on it to the infinity, to the divinity. That very moment you feel you belong to God. And you’re part of him or her or it… whatever. I often wonder why people don’t have sense of belongingness, even with this whole world, the globe, to all the cultures in the world. See we accept food from every part of the world, you have no objection going to a Chinese restaurant. You don’t have to be Chinese in order to have Manchurian. Or a Danish in order to have Danish cookies. Isn’t it so? Or Indian to eat gulab jamun. Similarly with music, we seem to accept music from every part of the world. But when it comes to wisdom people shy away, shrink away. They’re all reservations. That is strange. Isn’t it? See if you read Buddha, Jesus wont be angry at you. (Applause/Laughter) Same with, you know Mohammed wont get upset if you read Bible or if your read Gita. Belongingness to the Universe to the Divinity, to everybody. So done? What’s the next topic?

People normally ask questions after the knowledge sessions and Guruji answers aptly.

Fear?
– Fear is love upside down. Next. (Laughter)

Love?
– Love that is what you are. Next. (Laughter)

Faith?
– To understand faith you must know doubt. And is always about something that is positive. Isn’t it so. When someone tells you I love you so much you ask them ‘really’? When someone tells you I hate you, you never ask them ‘really?’? (Laughter) So your doubt is always about something that is positive. Like, you know you doubt your ability you never doubt your weakness. You doubt the honesty about a person you never doubt the dishonesty. You never doubt your depression, you never say I’m not sure if I’m depressed or not. (Laughter) But when someone asks you, are you happy, you say … well I’m not sure. You’re never sure about your happiness but you’re so sure about depression, unhappiness. When you understand doubt well, then something in you stirs up, comes to the surface, and that is faith. It is innate in you, its inborn, it’s your nature. Next?

Surrender?
– What is it that you want to surrender? You want to surrender something that you cannot handle. Right? Which you don’t want. What is it you don’t want? Anger? Frustration? Worries? Sadness? Sorrow? All these negative emotions, which you don’t want, which you cannot handle you want to give up. Right? So just do it. You don’t want to surrender your good qualities. You don’t want to surrender your love, truth, beauty, because you cannot it is part of your nature. In fact when you surrender, all these qualities will come up in life. If surrender is difficult, don’t bother about it. Don’t surrender. Just wake up and see nothing belongs to you. I’d say surrender is an antidote because you think only some things belong to you. Do you get what I’m saying? Wake up and see, what is it that belongs to you on this planet? Nothing.

Grace?
– That comes with gratitude. When you feel grateful, then something comes up in your life… that is grace.

Liberty?
– Birthright.

Destiny?
– That which you cannot change.

Acceptance?
– That gives you peace.

Breathe?
– That keeps you alive and clear.

Money?
– A means to keep breathing. (Laughter).

Wisdom?
– Which you cannot escape in life.

Negative dark side?
– Throw more light on it!

Why is it hard to be good?
– Because you think pleasure is not being good. You think you will miss some great joy if you’re good. Only thing that can pull you on the other direction is that ‘oh something else will give me joy’. But it is not so. You try once, twice, thrice and see. Tell a lie and see does it give you any comfort. Be nasty to somebody, does it make you peaceful, does it give you a peaceful sleep. No. So goodness is your natural state and any of this other bad behaviors or tendencies that you have, is a temporary-ish cover that comes over you due to situations, circumstance or your own lack of awareness. So don’t think that is your nature to be bad or to be nasty. Its not. So shake up and wake up. Next?

Religion?
– Religion is the banana skin and spirituality is the banana.

Music?
– Sound in harmony. Silence in its clarity.

Poverty?
– Originates in the mind.

Forgiveness?
– Forgiveness is seeing someone as a culprit. But if you expand your vision and see inside every culprit there is a victim sitting and crying for help. And if you can heal the victim there is no culprit left on this planet. And when there is no culprit left, whom will you forgive? (Laughter/Applause)

Nature?
– Need to be cared and protected.

Poetry?
– Make your life one.

Inspiration?
– That comes from within.

Enlightenment?
– Your true nature.

Astrology?
– Studying of the planets. (Laughter) And their influence on you.

Happiness?
– Just being here and now.

Death?
– An inevitable end of all life.

Debt?
– Better to be indebted than be in debt.

Longing?
– Prelude to love.

Dispassion?
– That gives you all joy on this planet.

Conscience?
– That can either prick you or give you strength.

Politics?
– In its right track – caring for people. In its wrong track – destroying the beauty of society.

Integrity?
– That gives you comfort.

Loss?
– Opposite of gain. You can say every loss is a prelude to a bigger gain.

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Karma?
– My karma is to listen to your questions. (Laughter) And my free will is weather to answer or not.

Does it really matter what I speak on all these topics? You know one thing, we’re all going to go from this planet sometime right? Do you all know that? In 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 years. Who knows, maybe 10 years, 1 year, 2 year. But don’t we want to leave a better world behind us. More beautiful world behind us. If we happen to come back, we definitely want this place to be a nice place. So what are we doing to do that, towards that goal? This is what we need to think. If we worry about the creation and the creator’s job, the creator will worry about you. Mutual agreement, mutual understanding. If we do the work of the creation, the need of society then the society will take care of you. So we all should start thinking on those lines.

Don’t you all think so? Can we not all spare 1-2 hours, half a day every month or 1 day every month. All of us sitting here, if we all meet every month one day and do some good service project. There are so many kids at risk in the city of LA. You know we can do a lot to better their lives. Don’t you agree? There are so many kids, so many children who are seeking truth, they don’t know where to go. How to find that calm and quiet place deep within them. There are so many kids who feel so frustrated and violent and they do not know how to get rid of these negative feelings out of them. Nobody has taught them neither in school nor at home how to handle their emotions. Can’t we not do something to them? You know we can all do some service right here. If only we can take a commitment, ok lets meet, lets all meet every month. First, second or third Sunday, whatever is convenient. On one day everyone meets, do a guided meditation, few minutes go deep within. So that you don’t get burnt out. You know often people who are engaged in service activity I’ve seen, they burn out… burn out? What you call it? They undergo this sense of burn out, oh I’m so tired and sick and tired. Sick and tired of even service. Because you do no know how to go to your center. Calm down. Look this is absolutely necessary. We need to meditate for a few minutes, relax, go deep. And then come out and you’re able to serve the society better. So if you all can take that one commitment, ok every month one Sunday we’ll get together. Each one can bring food for 2 persons. Everyone can share together, eat together and do some service work. We can educate people, the children who are restless and violent. We don’t have to wait for children to go to jail and get transformed. We can do the same with people who are alcoholics, depressed, sad, we can do something. What do you say? Ya everyone? (Applause) Some service activity and meditation go hand in hand. If you do some service you’re able to go very deep in your meditation. And what we see, what we live, this life, this is not it, not all that is. There’s so much more to our life, so much potential, so many avenues deep within us where we are. We can explore and understand.

Self?
– The self is like the sky it includes everything. Don’t sit and wait for some self to come down and meet you. The moment you relax deep within your silence, you perceive right here.

Fun?
– I don’t need to do something to have fun. This is all fun even listening to your question is a fun. (Guruji laughs).

Do you dream?
– I consider this is all a dream. This is nothing more than a dream isn’t it. Just wake up and see all that happened till this moment… is it more than a dream? Is it? You went to school, college, bus, bicycle, this that. Just wake up and see till this moment, does it exist now. It’s all like a dream. And this could be dream too. Are you sure this is not a dream? (Laughter)

Unimportant?
– That which makes things important. (Laughter) Did you get it? Suppose there is nothing that is unimportant, will anything be called important? (Guruji laughs). Are you all here 100%? Did you get what I’m saying? What is most important, to have something important is that which is…… well if you don’t get it never mind. (Laughter)

I enjoy comfort, how can I be more disciplined?
– You know you seem to forget that discipline gives you comfort. There are certain things that give you direct comfort, certain other things that gives you indirect comfort. Like brushing the teeth doesn’t give you a great joy. Ask the children are you happy brushing the teeth. No they are not. Kids mothers have problems for some days at least to introduce that discipline in kids, isn’t it? Parents have to remind their kids every night. See that gives you freedom from toothache. It gives you so much comfort you don’t have to run to the doctor. So many disciplines does give you comfort in an indirect manner. But you don’t have to be so rigid on that also, you can relax. Don’t make a discipline as a weight on your head. Ok once in a while if you break your discipline that’s fine. But know that it is beneficial to you and continue. Ya? What do you say?

Why are sex and wealth so attractive?
– Coz you’ve not seen your self. Your self is 100 times more charming than sex and the whole wealth of the world cannot buy the peace and the charm of this being. Of your innermost existence. You’re so much interested in wealth why? Coz you think it gives you freedom, it gives you comfort. You know I often say people earn a lot of money, billions and put that in the bank and they die. And what happens with that money is that children start fighting amongst each other. The brothers and sisters who were a happy family breaks up and misunderstanding comes up. Because of inheritance. 40% of the court cases are inheritance and most of them are fights betweens brothers and sisters. So the parents, neither did they enjoy, half the health they spent in earning that wealth. They lost their health, they lost their piece of mind and made their children lose their human values. Do you think it’s an intelligent thing to do? I mean wealth is needed, it’s a means, but what is most needed is the values and ones piece of mind. What do you say? Isn’t it? And if there is wisdom you know wealth comes. And if you’re doing something useful in the society you don’t have to think how the wealth will come, how the money will come. I tell you don’t have to think it will just come. That’s my experience. You know last year I decided to adopt many villages, 7000 villages we started doing this 5H program and whenever money is needed it automatically started coming. We didn’t go to people oh give me this that. No grant application written to any government, nothing. Said let us just work, just go ahead and do it. And when the results came people were astonished, the government astonished, with an eighth of the money achieved so much work what the governments could not do. Many big NGO’s could not achieve. So these things can happen you know just with your intention to do something it all comes.

What is your view of Buddhism? Rebellion against Vedic Hinduism or something more?
– Actually Buddhism is not a rebellion against Vedic Hinduism, not at all. It was against only about the ritualistic part of Hinduism. The philosophy is very similar, same things are there. Many of the Upanishads are so close to Buddhism and Buddha was even taken in Hinduism as an incarnation of Vishnu with all the symbols, many of the rituals are common. So Buddha in those days when people thought they knew everything without experience he brought them back to the experiential aspect. Tatha gatha is the way Buddha is addressed in the Hindu religion. Means the one who has reached. There was never any big fight between Hinduism and Buddhism as such. Very compatible. Actually Hindu religion is not an organized religion at all just a way of life wherein everything is acceptable. All forms of philosophy, an open-ended invitation for progress in thought and debate.

Why is music important?
– Don’t you know there’s left-brain and right-brain. The right-brain is music and the left-brain is logic. And music and logic go together, then there’s more harmony, more fullness.

How come you’re always so happy and how does someone achieve that state of happiness?
– First know that it is possible, you can also be that way. Second go more deep into knowledge. You know there is this book Celebrating Silence and Intimate Note to the Sincere Seeker. Read one of these books or both, you’ll get answers to many of these questions. (Laughter) You know these 6 days, 2 hours each day just spend and learn all this basic pranayam, Kriya, it’ll be so useful to you. Absolutely useful, you’ll never regret those days. You’ll be very grateful for learning the practices isn’t it? (Applause) You’ll understand how your own breath can bring so much change in you, bring so much joy, peace, love. It’s beautiful. Those who’ve already done basic course take some times off 3-4 days go deep in silence. Few days aligning yourself with nature makes your growth so fast.

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