QnA with Sri Sri
MONDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2014

Q: In the last five years the ashram has become like a fortress. It was easier in the older times to get peace in the ashram than now.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Be in the present moment and listen to the knowledge. In earlier days, there may have been a few people. Today there are more people. When more people are there, there is more possibility for you to share your knowledge and wisdom and gain patience.
You should also grow. You cannot get stuck to what you were 30 years back. 30 years back you could interact with 10 people. Today, you may have to interact with 1000 people. So we should expand as time passes and not shrink into shells.
We have said, 'Vasudaiva Kutumbakam' (one world family). We have accepted the whole world as our family. Then you should rise up to that idea. Feel at home with anybody and everybody. Don’t just focus on what is comfortable for you and what is not comfortable. You should get out of your comfort zone and bring comfort to others. This is most important.
See as to how many people are comfortable with you. You can do a survey about yourself and see how many people you make happy and comfortable? If you dislike people, you will find you are not friendly.
As we expand, we become friendly with people of different natures and different parts of the world. Sometimes, we feeling comfortable with people of our own state or country or religion. Here you have to mix with everybody. We have people of different faiths all here, Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Sikhs. We have people from every state of India, right from the Northeast to Kerala, and right from Jammu to Tamil Nadu. We also have people from all over the world and everyone has their own mannerisms and food habits. So you need to learn and bring comfort to others. You have had enough peace, now it's better you give peace to others.

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