QnA with Sri Sri

Q: How to deal with so much injustice in the world?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: If you only think about all the injustice, you will keep boiling. When you keep boiling, you cannot think clearly. When you cannot think clearly, your action will also not be right. And at another level, your action will also contribute to the injustice.

When you see injustice, there are three things to do:

• Take it piece by piece, bit by bit
• Know that there are good people in the world in every field. This world has a hundred good people, and only five bad people. If the world is bad today, it is not because of the five bad elements, it is because of the hundred good people who are sleeping. So wake them up
• Know that there is a universal power that loves you. This power or law will always take care; have that faith.You are not going to protect this planet forever. You are here only for 80-100 years. You have no control over what will happen after 200 years. Nor did you have any control over the 19 billion years that the planet has existed. Know that you don’t have control. All that you can do is pray and wish that the best happens.

Do you know our scientists say that the whole solar system is moving in between many black holes? It is just escaping the black holes. At any time the black hole can just suck the solar system, and everything will be finished.
Not just the Earth, the Sun, Moon, Jupiter, everything will be gone, it will disappear into nothing. So when you get so worried, or get so angry about injustice, go to a planetarium and watch! That is the last option! Before that, wake up people. Create awareness in people, create activism.

Guru One Liner of the day

Q: I don't want to get married.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Okay! If you don't want to get married, it’s fine.

Wisdom Quote of the day

If the husband and wife will focus on each other and police each other, they will clash. If they have a common goal, then they will be like parallel lines, they can be together and go on forever. - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Knowledge Sheet

Friendship for a Cause

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Examine your friendships, they are often for a cause. There are several reasons for your friendships:

• You make friendships because you have common enemies. Fear and threat to survival can bring people together.
• You make friendships because you have a common problem. You talk about your problems and become friends. For example, sickness, job dissatisfaction, etc.
• People get together because they have common interests. For example, through business or a profession (doctors, architects, social workers, etc.)
• You make friends because you have common tastes. You have similar tastes in sports, movies, entertainment, music, hobbies, etc.
• People become friends because of compassion and service. Out of compassion and pity for someone, you become friends with them.
• People become friends merely because of long-term acquaintance.

Brave are those who nurture friendships for only friendship’s sake. Such friendships will never die nor become soured for it is born out of one’s friendly nature. Only through wisdom can one become friendly by nature.

Guru Punch of the day

If you want to remove the violent tendencies from someone, then there is no other way apart from meditation and knowledge. - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18 - Verse 35 http://bhagvadgitaa.blogspot.in/2014/06/bhagavad-gita-chapter-18-verse-35.html

Knowledge Sutra for the day!

Perfect balance is like a razor's edge, it can be found only in the Self.
- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Today morning's Rudra Puja Vishalakshi Mantap. Be a part of Rudra Puja every Monday morning @BangaloreAshram

QnA with Sri Sri

Q: How do we cope with small minded people?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: See, there are so many types of people in this world. How many people do you know who have for no reason to become your enemies? Your good friends have become your enemies? Isn't it?
Similarly, so many people who were unknown to us have helped us at some point of time. We may not have done anything for them, but they helped us out.
So friends or enemies are all a cause of our karmas. If our time is wrong, friends can become enemies, and if our time is right, enemies can turn into friends.

Guru One Liner of the day

Q: What is the Atma (soul)?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: It is the cause behind your very existence. Without it, you would not exist. The Atma is that which listens through the ears, perceives through the eyes, smells through the nose, tastes through the tongue, and which is the reason for everything that happens.

Wisdom Quote of the day

Our mind is like a blackboard in a school. If the teachers don’t wipe it after using it, and other teachers keep on using the same blackboard, will it make sense to the students? Our mind is the same. We use it a hundred times but never clean it. Pranayam, and meditation are useful for cleaning it. They will keep your mind fresh, and ready to learn. - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Knowledge Sheet

Dreaming the Impossible

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Question: Guruji, how can we control daydreams?
Sri Sri: Dream in the night!

What is daydreaming? You have a desire but you do not have the faith that you can achieve your desire - that is what you call daydreaming.
You can control daydreaming by having a strong goal and believing in it. Like the scientist who wanted to go to the moon and kept dreaming about it - for him it was the goal of his life but for others it was daydreaming.
Either you drop that it will not happen or you believe! When you do not know yourself, your potentiality, you have no faith and confidence in your dream. Once you have faith and confidence in your dream, it is no longer a daydream!

Guru Punch of the day

Attachment happens when we do not do seva; when we lose our commitment to service. When we do seva then attachments simply disappear. Keep the desire and commitment to do seva. - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Knowledge Sutra for the day!

Effort is the key in the relative; effortlessness is the key to the absolute.
- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

QnA with Sri Sri

Q: How to get rid of negative karma? How does it come into existence?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: I want to ask you a question. When the lights were not on in this room, there was darkness here, right? When the lights came on, where did the darkness go? Did it go to that room? Did the darkness escape through the window? Got it?
In the same way, if negative karma is there, there is little darkness, there is no light there. Put the light on, it vanishes. How to get rid of negative karma? By meditation, service and knowledge. Serve the needy. Know that it (the negative karma) does not touch you; a shadow does not touch me.

Guru One Liner of the day

Q: If I do not do sadhana, seva and satsang, are you still with me?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes! However you are, I am always with you. But the real question is, will you always be with me?

Wisdom Quote of the day

Observe your thoughts. Silence makes you observe. As you observe, your thoughts will reduce. The thoughts were always there, but only in silence can you observe them! - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Knowledge Sheet

Varieties of Spirit

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Why should you think God is only one? Why can't He also be many? If He has made man in His own image, what image is He? An African, a Mongolian, a Caucasian, a Japanese, a Filipino? Why are there so many types of man, and so many varieties of things?

There is not just one type of tree, not just one type of snake, cloud, mosquito or vegetable - there is not just one type of anything, so why should God be only one? How could this consciousness that manifested this whole creation and loves variety, be monotonous? God seems to love different varieties. He must be of infinite variety Himself. God can manifest in many names, forms and varieties.

Some schools of thought may not give God the freedom to appear in His many forms. They want Him in one uniform!
You change your appearance to suit the occasion. When such is the case, how could you think there is no variety in the Spirit. The ancient people knew this and that's why they cognized the Divinity as infinite qualities and forms. The Spirit is not dull and boring. The Spirit which is the basis of creation is dynamic and ever changing. God is not only one, but is many!!!

When you accept the variety of Divinity you cease to be a fanatic or a fundamentalist.

Tommy says God is many, God is One, he made so many just for fun.

Guru Punch of the day

When you feel weak I am with you as your strength, you are not alone. Whenever you feel weak, know that you are not alone. - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Knowledge Sutra for the day!

When seva is made part of your nature, it happens without doer-ship
- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Guru One Liner of the day

Q: To develop patience do we just observe the impatience?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Just observe the thoughts and feelings and don't regret about it.

QnA with Sri Sri

Q: What should we do when someone in our class teases us a lot? Should we scold, shout or hit them back? Even though we keep calm, they keep teasing us.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You know, when someone teases you, you should laugh louder than them. Then you will see that they will be baffled. They will say, 'I am making fun of you and you are laughing?'.
You should clap and say, 'Yes, you are so funny. Why don’t you tell me nice things like this every day?' Just say this once and see how they react.
See suppose they make the same comments about someone else, will you laugh or not? So think that they are making fun of someone else and laugh louder than them. Got it?

Knowledge Sheet

Prestige and Honor, Your Golden Cage

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Honor reduces the freedom. Your fame, honor and virtue can limit your freedom. Nobody expects a good person to make a mistake. So the better person you are, the higher the expectations people have of you. It is then that you lose your freedom. Your virtues and good actions are like a golden cage. You are trapped by your own good actions, for everyone expects more from a good person. Nobody expects anything from a bad person.
Most of the people are stuck in this cage of prestige and honor. They can not smile. They are constantly worried about keeping up their prestige and their honor. It becomes more important than their own life. Just being good or doing good to keep the prestige and honor is worthless. Prestige and honor can bring more misery in life than poverty. Many desire fame, but little do they know that they are looking for a cage.
It is an art to be dignified, and yet not be suffocated by it. Only the wise would know this. For the wise one it is natural to be in honor, and he has no concerns even if it falls apart. Despite having fame or prestige, he will live as though he has none. A wise person can handle any fame without feeling suffocated, for he is crazy too!

By doing good in the society one gains prestige, then enjoying the prestige and honor, one loses their freedom.

Question: Then how do you keep your freedom?
Answer: By being like a child, considering the world as a burden a joke or a dream.

Wisdom Quote of the day

We don’t need anything from anyone. We should keep that sankalpa in mind. Then we can be content, and we can do whatever is possible from our end. - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Guru Punch of the day

Good luck does not come by lucky charms. It comes from good work. Good deed is to bring happiness into the lives of people. This is the best way. So bring this joy, solace, and happiness in people’s lives. When the hearts and minds of people get healed, their spirit blesses you. That becomes your real merit, good luck. - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Knowledge Sutra for the day!

Your friends tie you to the world, to matter. The Master ties you to the Divine, to the Spirit.
- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Guru One Liner of the day

Q: What do you mean by 'Owning God?'

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: The Divinity belongs to you. It's not like shopping at the supermarket in a hurry and rushing back home. When you see the whole store is at home, you are not in a hurry to shop. You are at ease.

QnA with Sri Sri

Q: When I listen to knowledge, I feel the change in my mind. But the change is not firmly established. What should I do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You will have to listen to knowledge again and again. Then it will be firmly established in you. But it will take some time.
When you dye a piece of cloth, what do you do? You dip the cloth in the dye and dry it. And you repeat the process again and again.
When you paint your house, you paint it with three or four coats and dry it every time. Isn't it? Similarly, when you keep listening to knowledge repeatedly, the mind becomes pure and strong.

Wisdom Quote of the day

All of us want to be happy and have the willingness to do something to be happy. What is the way for this? What is the formula? You should always think, "I don't need anything from anyone.", because attachment causes misery. - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Knowledge Sheet

Faith is Your Wealth

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Faith is a wealth. If you think, by having faith in God you are doing a favour to God, you are mistaken. Faith gives you strength instantaneously. Faith brings you stability, centeredness, calmness and love. You having Faith In The Guru Or God, Does Not Do Anything To Guru Or God. Your Having Faith Gives You Immediate Strength. Faith is a great wealth; it is a blessing.

If you lack faith, you have to pray for faith. But to pray, you need faith. This is a paradox. (Laughter)

People have faith in the world - but the whole world is just a soap bubble. People have faith in themselves - but they don't know who they are. People think that they have faith in God - but they have no idea of God. If you want to doubt, you have to doubt everything

There are three types of faith : faith in yourself, faith in the world, and faith in God. You need to have faith in yourself - without faith, you think, I can't do this. This is not for me. I will never be liberated in this life. You must have faith in the world. Without this, you cant move an inch in the world. Banks give you loans having faith that you will pay it back. You deposit money in the bank having faith that it will be returned. If you doubt everything in the world, nothing will happen. The same is the case with faith in the Divine - have faith in the Divine and you will evolve. All these faiths are connected. You must have all three for each to be strong.

Bill : Atheists have faith in themselves and faith in the world, but not in God.
Sri Sri : They don't have complete faith in themselves. Lack of faith in God, in the world or in the self brings fear. Faith in the world cannot be constant because there are always changes.

Faith makes you full - faithful. If you have faith, you are full.

Rajesh : What is the difference between faith and confidence?
Sri Sri : Confidence is the result. Faith is the beginning.

Faith in yourself brings freedom.

Faith in the world brings you peace of mind.

Faith in God evokes love in you.

You can be at peace by having faith in the world and without faith in God, but it is not complete peace. If you have love, there is automatically peace and freedom. People who are extremely disturbed should only have faith in God.

Guru Punch of the day

Don’t cry if you make a mistake. Just learn from it, and move ahead. But, don’t repeat the same mistake - that’s foolishness! At least be smart enough to make new mistakes. - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Guru One Liner of the day

Q: You have written a book called 'God loves fun', and yet you say that if we follow fun misery follows us. It is correct?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes it is very correct. If you follow fun misery follows you, but if you follow wisdom then fun will follow you.

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QnA with Sri Sri

Q: I am in the ninth standard. Many of my friends are into smoking and drinking and they force me to do so too, but I know it is not correct. But if I don't do it, I feel left out.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: See, never mind being left out in those things which they all will regret later on! You stand out with principles. I had the same challenge when I was in college. Everybody around me was smoking and some really macho guys surrounded me one day and asked me, 'you must smoke.' I just stared at them and said, 'no!'. I was the youngest in my class. Everyone else was older than me. I said, 'I will not do it!' They just looked at me baffled and then left. So you will become a hero if you say in front of them, 'no way! I won't do it.'

They started liking my company very much later on. 'Yes, here is somebody who has strong resolve.' Show your strong resolve for something that you believe in. These are the things which we must believe and acknowledge. 'I am not going to do anything which is bad, which is injurious to my life and to the society.'

Will you all take the promise now, today? 'We will not touch any of those drugs, alcohol or cigarettes.' Can you promise me?

Wisdom Quote of the day

Problems should be taken as an opportunity to be prayerful, and in gratitude. - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Knowledge Sheet

Beyond the Rational Mind: Breaking the Barrier

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We Usually Do Only That Which Is Purposeful, Useful, And Rational. Everything You See, You See Through The rational mind. But an intuition, a discovery, new knowledge goes beyond the rational mind. Truth is beyond the rational mind. The rational mind is like a railroad track that is fixed in grooves. A plane has no tracks. It can fly anywhere. A balloon can float anywhere.
Some people step out of the rational mind in order to rebel against society. They want to break social law but for the ego's sake. They do it out of anger, hatred, rebelliousness, and wanting attention. This is not stepping out of the rational mind (though they think it is).
We step out of the rational mind when we do something that has no purpose. Accepting that, as an act, makes it a game. Life becomes lighter. If you are stuck with only rational acts, life becomes a burden. Suppose you play a game without a thought to winning or losing, just act irrationally. Making an act without any purpose attached to it - it is freedom - like a dance. So just step out of the rational mind and you will find a greater freedom, an unfathomable depth, and you willl come face to face with reality. Reality transcends logic and the rational mind. Until you transcend the rational mind you will not get access to creativity and the infinite. But if you do an irrational act in order to find freedom, then it already has a purpose and a meaning. It is no longer irrational. This knowledge sheet has already spoiled it's own possibility.

Break the barrier of the rational mind and then find freedom for yourself.

Guru Punch of the day

You always have the choice to do good or bad. The fruits of your deeds are good or bad according to the choice you make. - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Knowledge Sutra for the day!

Make others comfortable and you will see that Nature will take care of your comfort.
- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Wisdom Quote of the day

Guru is knowledge, Guru is love. Guru is light, There is no difference between Guru, God and the Soul. - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

QnA with Sri Sri

Q: What is the best way to control the mind?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Why do you want to control the mind? You want the mind to stay in one place, right. That is what you mean by control. Why is it going here and there? If there is a nice program on television, do you need to control your mind to watch it? You love a child, you love your spouse, do you have to try to focus your mind on them? No!
Whatever you love, your mind is already focused on that.
When do you need to focus? When you do not like something. Even there, if you do not like something, you don’t need to focus, as the mind already does not like it.
Focus is needed when your mind is looking for something else other than what is right now. In such situations, breathing, Sudarshan Kriya, and yoga will help.

Guru One Liner of the day

Q: I wish I was also a child.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: If you become empty, you will become a child.

Rockstar @SriSri !

Knowledge Sheet

God as a Child

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Can you see God as a child? You have always thought of God as a father, up in the heavens somewhere. Can you see God as a child?

God is the very core of your existence. You are pregnant with God. You have to take care of your pregnancy and deliver the child into the world. Most people do not even deliver. One who delivers can also grant wishes.

God is your child. He/She clings onto to you like a baby till you grow old and die. God keeps crying for nourishment. God clings onto the devotee. He/She needs you to nourish Him/Her in the world. Sadhana, Satsang and Seva are the nourishment.

You always think of God as a father. Then you want to demand and take from God. But when you see God as a child, you have no demands.

Belma says: You cannot pray to a child; you can only pray to your father.
Sri Sri: Why do you want to pray? Why do you want to ask? A good father knows what to give.

Belma: What about surrender?
Sri Sri: Your surrender to a child is more authentic as it has no demand.

TAKE CARE OF YOUR GOD! Atheists are around the corner! Doubts, disbelief and ignorance are atheists in your mind, so better take care of your God!

Guru Punch of the day

It is alright to be angry, but only for a few seconds or a few minutes. But, if it surpasses days and months, it is disastrous. - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

QnA with Sri Sri

Q: Why is it that only some people get success in life even though everyone is working hard?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: No, don’t think that way. Like I said, two options, either you win or you make others win. Don’t lose your heart. Every one of us on this planet are unique, so don’t compare yourself with others.
You don’t know how much capability you have. When it will come to the surface, nobody knows. Do you know of Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the Hare Krishna movement?
He was an ordinary worker in some office. He retired at 60 and went into spirituality. He met a Guru and the Guru said, 'Yes, you should go and spread Krishna’s message in the world'.
At the age of 75, he travelled in a boat, went to New York and stayed in somebody’s basement and started a movement. Till he was 75, nobody knew who Prabhupada was. At that age, he made the Bhagvatam popular to thousands of people.
So nobody knows when what will come out of you. So don’t underestimate yourself. You are very unique. You come to satsang, and do meditation, that itself says a lot. It will bring such positive vibrations to you, and to the world.

Guru One Liner of the day

Q: Does contentment make you lazy?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: What do you think? There is a lot of difference between laziness and contentment. One who is contented has more energy. Is there energy in a lazy person?

Wisdom Quote of the day

Trust is like breath. Just like you can’t live without breath, you also cannot live without trust. There are three types of trust: Self – confidence, Faith in society, Faith in God. If any one trust is absent, then life is incomplete. - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Knowledge Sutra for the day!

When you consider life as sacred, Nature waits on you.
- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Knowledge Sheet

The Real Glory

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It is often believed that glory and dispassion are contradictory and cannot co-exist. Glory and luxury without dispassion is a nauseating pomp and show. Such glory does not bring fulfillment for anyone, it is shallow. Alternately, the dispassion that is afraid of glory is weak. True dispassion is oblivious to glory.

The glory that comes with dispassion is something that is true, that is permanent and authentic. When someone runs after glory they are shallow. Like movie stars, politicians and religious leaders who try to hold on to their status, to their glory, they are certain to lose. If you run after glory all you get is misery. When you are dispassionate, glory comes to you.
If you are afraid of glory, that means you are not well-founded in dispassion. In India, the Sadhus run away from glory. They think they will lose their dispassion and get trapped in the web of the world, the circus. The dispassion is so blissful, they get attached to the dispassion.
They are afraid of losing the dispassion, the centeredness and bliss that comes along with it. This is weak dispassion. Dispassion is a state of being and glory is the happening around it. True dispassion can never be lost or overshadowed by glory. True dispassion is glorious! Real glory is true dispassion!

Guru Punch of the day

A plant has to be watered but when it grows into a tree, it is no longer necessary. Similarly, if the inner consciousness becomes stronger, all these vikaar (distortions) get erased. Vishranti vikar mita (Deep rest removes negativity). There is no rest deeper than meditation. - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Knowledge Sutra for the day!

You are with the Master to share the joy of the Master, to share the consciousness of the Master. For thisyou have to empty your cup of what is already in it.
- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar