Q: Guruji, you say that we are here to serve other people, then what are other people here for?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Certainly not to create trouble for you. Other people are here to teach you some lesson. Everyone teaches you some lesson or other; learn from everybody. The world is filled with teachers, you only have to be a good student. There is an ancient proverb in Sanskrit that says, ‘First salute the wicked, and then the good. For the wicked is teaching you a lesson at his own cost and the good walks his own path and teaches you a lesson.’ The good is just pointing out; but the wicked is teaching you a lesson at his own cost. He is falling in a pit and telling you, ‘Hey, look what has happened to me. You better don’t do it.’ So, it is a costlier lesson that he is teaching you. ‘Durjanam prathamam vande, sujanam tadanantaram’, first salute the wicked because he is also teaching you a lesson. The whole world is filled with teachers. Every little creature in this universe is teaching you something. In Srimad Bhagavatam there is a chapter by Dattatreya, where we see how he learns from a crow, to a swan, to a mouse. He says, ‘Every animal is giving me some message; everything is giving me some knowledge, some education.’ You only need to be an eternal student, that’s all. Life is a continuous schooling, which never ends.