QnA With Sri Sri

Q: Guruji, what are your views on organ donation, gay marriages, blood donations and abortion?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Organ donation is okay, you can do it; there is nothing wrong in it. All these issues are very relative. You don’t need to label it as good, bad, I want it, and I don’t want it. Whatever choice you make, never mind, it is okay. However, you should not forget that life is much more than these smaller happenings, that is important. A few moments of something beyond the material world, even one percent belief in this, is good enough for you to rise above. When you are in the water, in the ocean, all that you need is a rubber float; that is good enough. That is how you learn to swim, right? Similarly, a little bit of faith in something beyond is good enough. In Sanskrit, there is a word called shraadh, means that which is with shraddha, with faith.
When someone has passed away, you remember them, you don’t doubt whether they were there or not. You know they were there with you, and they have gone. When they have gone, on the day you remember them, that is called shraaddha, means faith. You have the faith that they are still there. And what do you do? You take a few sesame seeds, pour water onto it, and give them the message, ‘Be content, be content, be content. If you have any desires in your mind, it is all as small as a sesame seed, just drop it. I am here to fulfill your desires. You move on, be happy, and be content.’
This is what children tell their parents, who have passed on to the other side. It need not be children only; anybody, any friend, any relative can do that. It is a ceremony that is done here in Bali also; it is very prevalent. In this ceremony, all the five senses are satisfied; there is food for taste, incense sticks for smell, singing for sound, and a lamp or light for sight. It is a way of expressing one’s gratefulness to people who have passed across to the other side. This is also done to make you remember that there is another world, there is another realm, and there is another plane of existence, not just this one. So, life gains a bigger dimension. Your eyes lift up.