KNOWLEDGE SHEET BY SRI SRI RAVISHANKAR

KNOWLEDGE SHEET BY SRI SRI RAVISHANKAR
POSTED ON: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2026

Two types of knowledge

There are two types of knowledge. The first one is pure knowledge and the second one is applied knowledge. Applied knowledge may benefit you directly and immediately but pure knowledge benefits you indirectly in the long run.

If there are some things that you have studied or understood that you are unable to put into practice, do not get disheartened. Sometime in the future, if you do not discard the knowledge you have as impractical, it will be of use to you.

Often people discard the pure knowledge for its lack of immediate application. In fact these two types of knowledge compliment each other. Applied knowledge without pure knowledge remains weak. And pure knowledge without application will remain unfulfilled.

Do not discard or label the knowledge as impractical. Do not label yourself as weak or unworthy because you are unable to apply the knowledge in your day-to-day life.

Sometimes when you are alone in nature, silent, taking a walk, looking at the sand on the beach, a bird in the sky, or while meditating – suddenly the knowledge will emerge and you will recognize the knowledge dawning in your life.

II JAI GURUDEV II

 

QUESTION & ANSWER WITH GURUDEV

QUESTION & ANSWER WITH GURUDEV
POSTED ON: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2026

Q: How to overcome doubts?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Where are you?
Which planet are you on?
What is your world?
Are you sure you are not dreaming?
Are you sure you are here on this planet?
Are you sure earth is beneath you?
What is it you are hanging on to?
How long will we continue this play, this drama?
What is happening?
What is the origin of this mind?
Where do all these thoughts arise from?
Where does all this grumbling arise from?
Where do all your concepts rise?
How do they rise? How do they fall off?
How do your likes and dislikes of people arise and fall off?

If we don’t get these doubts, we will not ask ourselves these questions. Not that they don’t arise; they do but we brush them aside. We don’t ride on the horse of these questions. We don’t ask very basic questions. Instead, we keep asking silly questions in our mind. Our doubts are all so silly! Our questions are also insignificant. They mostly concern trivial matters, like a dress, a tape recorder, etc. These are the types of questions we ask. We spend all our lifetime asking questions that do not mean anything; which do not take us anywhere.

In Sanskrit, doubts are called sandēha. Dēha means body. Sandēha means doubt. They’re very close. It is a state of mind. Doubt is a state of mind. Do you know when there is this state of mind? It is when we are body-conscious or body-bound, and are not aware of the life within us.

When a child starts becoming aware of its own body, it starts asking more and more questions. And when the body matures into the adolescent stage, there are ever so many questions that reel in the mind.
Doubt is that state of mind where it’s not fully alive. Answers cannot satisfy doubt. Hearing and seeing cannot eliminate doubt.

The life in you is dull. The wick in the lamp is going down. On the day you do prāṇāyāma or Sudarshan Kriyā, you are so alive. Every cell in your body is alive, and then there is no doubt in the mind. You feel so wonderful because of this. There is no split in your consciousness. Doubt is the split. A portion is awake and another major portion is asleep — the unfulfilled state of consciousness.

When the prāna is low, you feel unfulfilled. And when the prāna is full, you are so fulfilled. So when you have doubts, do more sādhanā or practice. This is called shraddhā or faith, the opposite of doubt. It starts with self-doubt — doubting the self, doubting everything in the world and doubting the Divine. There are three types of faith in the world (being Hindu, Muslim or Christian, is not what I call faith). There are only three types of people who have faith, i.e. there are three types of faith — in the divine, in the universe and in the world.

Faith in your Self, faith in the world and faith in something we do not know, the Divine. You can start from anywhere. Any one point will lead to all three; all three come together. When doubts arise in you, fast, meditate, do prāṇāyāma and prayers, and see whether the doubts remain. There is a shift in your consciousness.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

 

WISDOM QUOTE OF SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR

WISDOM QUOTE OF SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR
POSTED ON: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2026

“Human evolution has two steps - from being somebody to being nobody; and from being nobody to being everybody. This knowledge can bring sharing and caring throughout the world.”

― Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

 

KNOWLEDGE SHEET BY SRI SRI RAVISHANKAR

KNOWLEDGE SHEET BY SRI SRI RAVISHANKAR
POSTED ON: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2026

How to conquer jealousy or envy

Know that the person that you are jealous or envious of has done some good karma in the past and they are now reaping the fruit.
Take it as an inspiration to gain merit now.
Create a sense of belongingness with them. See that they are a part of you.
Think of all you have that they don't have and feel grateful.

Ananda says, "Observe the sensations."

Join hands and form a team with them.

Realise that in the current of moving time all will perish.

Think of everyone that is jealous of you for what you have. Stephano added: "And see that all that people envy you for has not brought joy anyway."

Stephano: "Go and ask them 'are you happy?' " Caroline: "And what if they say 'Yes?' " (Laughter!). If the answer is "yes" then they must be in the Art of Living (Laughter!) "What to do if others are jealous or envious of you?" Ananda: "What to do if others are jealous or envious of you?"

Praise them in superlatives.
Create a sense of belongingness in them by your kind actions.
Know that their feelings are temporary.
The best is not to recognise their envy or jealousy at all. If you recognise a feeling as a reality it only makes your ignorance grow.
Know all feelings and emotions are just like passing clouds.
Do not show off your talents to them.
Know that they are puppets. They will all perish like apples and tomatoes - just a longer shelf-life (Laughter!).
If nothing else works just go to sleep (Shirley: "And don't forget to take a pillow").

II JAI GURUDEV II

 

QUESTION & ANSWER WITH GURUDEV

QUESTION & ANSWER WITH GURUDEV
POSTED ON: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2026

Q: Dear Gurudev, is there a difference between the soul and the mind?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Mind is that which perceives. See, 'you are looking at me' is through the mind. If mind is elsewhere, you can’t see me, right? If you’re not paying attention, if you’re not being mindful, you can’t hear what I’m saying. When mind is elsewhere, can you hear what I’m saying? No, right? Though the sound is falling on the ears, if mind is elsewhere, you cannot hear. So our perception depends on the mind. But the totality of energy is what the soul, or you, are.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

 

WISDOM QUOTE OF SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR

WISDOM QUOTE OF SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR
POSTED ON: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2026

If someone deceived you, they are going to face the consequences. That is the law of karma. If you got deceived, you were not careful. You should have been careful. You have learnt your lesson by being deceived. Now move on!

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

 

KNOWLEDGE SHEET BY SRI SRI RAVISHANKAR

KNOWLEDGE SHEET BY SRI SRI RAVISHANKAR
POSTED ON: MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2026

Jesus - Embodiment of Love

Love is the most sought-after but least expressed mystery of life. We try to express love in so many ways, still it remains a mystery. And it rarely happens that love is expressed in its fullness, in its totality.
Jesus and love are synonymous. If you say love, you need not say Jesus and if you say Jesus, it means love. Jesus once said, “If you call God in my name, whatever you ask shall be given. For God is love.” You find such a complete expression of love in Jesus. Whatever little glimpses you may get here and there indicates that fullness, that ultimate expression of the inexpressible that life is striving to express all the time.

Love makes you weak, but brings you the kingdom of heaven. However strong you are, you are the weakest when you are in love. Yet love is the strongest force on this universe. Since love makes you weak, it also is scary. Among thousands, just a few followed Jesus. Many heard, but just a few came. Even after performing many miracles, only handful of people could recognise him.

Jesus said, “I have come to put man against man, father against son, daughter against mother.” Very few people have really understood what it means. Whom you think is your friend is really not a friend because he or she makes your faith on the matter strong, and spirit weak. “I have come to put one against each other, I have come to put fire, not make peace.” Jesus said this because he knew the depth of slumber.

When you talk something nice, peaceful, everybody will go to sleep and when there is something sensational, people wake up and listen. This is how the human mind operates. And Jesus made all efforts for one to cross the mind and get into the soul, the spirit, the source of life, the Self. You break through the limited identities and recognise the Divinity within you. You are much more than just a human; you are part of the Divine. And you inherit the kingdom. And that kingdom is right here, right within you.

Love has no name, nor form. Love is abstract, yet it is very concrete. It has no name or form but manifests in all names and in all forms. This is the mystery of creation. You can see love everywhere in this creation if only you have an eye to see it. Just see a bird, and a small one in the nest. The bird comes and how it feeds its young one. See how the young one waits for the mother bird to come. There is love in it. There is love among fish. There is love in the sky. There is love underneath the water. There is love on the ground. And there is love in the outer space.

Every form is full of love and every name represents love. And that is how Jesus is One with the Father. Father is One with his creation. In India, the creation and creator are compared to the dance and the dancer. You cannot have a dance without a dancer. Dancer is in every move of the dance. The creator is in every spec of the creation. That is what is omnipresent, omnipotent. If God is omnipresent, he is present everywhere, isn’t it? The creator, if he is different from the creation, then he is not present in his creation. Then he is not omnipresent. The whole definition of God is gone.

Love is present everywhere, but somewhere it finds total expression. And the knowledge of the Self leads you towards that total expression of love, of blossoming of love. It lifts your eyes from all tiny little things. One Divine is providing for everybody. Neither the python goes to work nor the birds toil. Everybody is taken care of. Everything is taken care of.

Jesus said, “Love each other as much as I love you.” What more do you need to see that embodiment of love?

II JAI GURUDEV II