QnA with Sri Sri

Q: What if Abhimanyu, Nachiketa and Eklavya (characters from the Indian epics) come together? What lessons can today’s youth draw from them?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Eklavya teaches us how to be a student; how to learn, and how to feel the connection with the master. He teaches us how to have that one-sided love, one-sided connection, and how that can bring about skill within you. That is what we can learn from Eklavya.
Nachiketa teaches us steadfastness. He was determined and he was steadfast in getting to know what he really wanted to know. He could not be tempted by anything. He could not be deviated from his goal. From Abhimanyu, we can learn valor and finesse. And how, alone without losing courage, he could face everyone in all directions. If someone else was in his place they would have run away. He challenged thousands of people everywhere. Only a person who is firmly centered can accept challenges from thousands of people. He could fight thousands alone, that was Abhimanyu’s greatness.
If you go into these scriptures, you can find so many glorious qualities, and imbibe them all in you. In fact you should know that they are already present in you. If you think you don’t have them, and you try to imbibe them, it becomes a strenuous thing to do, and success becomes doubtful.
You should know you already have these qualities and you only have to nurture them. Then it becomes easier.
Do not try to develop divine qualities and think it is difficult. Whenever we think something is difficult, our mind moves away from that. This is the nature of our mind. We don’t want to do something that is difficult. One is challenge, another is difficulty. Young people want to take up challenges. A young person says, 'I want to do something challenging'. But even young people, when they find something difficult, and when they think, 'Oh, this is very difficult', that means they want to move away from it. But for a challenge, you say, 'Yes, I want to take that challenge'. There is a slight difference in our attitude. The moment we say, 'Difficulty', the mind or the spirit tries to withdraw from it. It is not natural to be in difficulty. So, you should assume that all the good qualities are already within you. Never think it is difficult to attain them. And when you acknowledge that they are present in you in the form of a seed and you need to nurture them, then you will be able to nurture it. If you think you don’t have them, then you will not even make that little effort to nurture those qualities.