QUESTION & ANSWER WITH GURUDEV
POSTED ON: MONDAY, JULY 11, 2022
Q: Dear Gurudev, is this the only path that leads to supreme peace and happiness?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
If you ask me that water is the only answer to quench your thirst, what can I say? What can I say if you ask me if breathing is the only way to fill the lungs? Any path which leads you to inner peace, tranquillity, joy and love is the path. All paths are essentially just one. The methods may be many.
Someone may instruct you, ‘Do Pranayama like this’. Someone else may instruct you in a different way saying, ‘Do Pranayama like this’. Someone may ask you to not do it at all. So there are many different ways.
What we have seen over the years is that these techniques (taught by The Art of Living) are suitable for this age, for our generation and the people. It is a time tested thing and everyone is comfortable with this.
You see, in the past, people did not have much to do. They would throw the seeds in the field and would simply sit to watch them grow. They would keep watch to ensure that the birds do not destroy their crop. So they had time, and they could meditate for eight hours or so. But it is not necessary for you to meditate for eight hours every day. Just do the Sudarshan Kriya for ten minutes every day, that is good.
Some people attend the Vipassana Meditation course for ten days, where they watch the breath for ten days, and then finally at the end of the ten days, they feel some sensations in the body. You can feel the same sensations in those ten minutes of doing the Sudarshan Kriya also. It is you choice whether you want to sit for eight to ten days to discover that there is sensation in your body; or that your body is hollow and empty. I am not saying that it is bad or anything of that sort. Everything has its own value.
When you observe silence in the four or five days of the Advanced Course and do different meditations, and then when you stand up to do Yoga and Pranayama, it increases the circulation and energizes the body. It also brings experiences along with it.
Luckily in The Art of Living, we have all the avenues open (for one to go deep within). We have the knowledge, we have the devotional aspect in the Narada Bhakti Sutras (A commentary on the Aphorisms of Love by Sage Narada); then we have the intellectual inquiry and stimulant in the Ashtavakra Gita. We have the knowledge of Yoga through the Patanjali Yoga Sutras. So it is complete from all aspects: for our awareness, our well-being, and it is also very scientific.
I believe we should go ahead in a scientific manner and not by blind faith. That is the speciality of The Art of the Living. People usually fast without any scientific understanding about fasting. They usually fast all day and then eat heavy at night. Or they fast all day, and break it by eating fried food.
During Navratri, many Hindus usually fast and eat only fried potato (chips or wafers), sweets, etc. Eating sweets is still okay, but having fried potatoes during fast is no good. In South India, people say it is okay to have idlis (fermented and steamed rice cakes), but not rice itself. It is okay to eat puffed rice like in Avalaki, but they would also eat other things with it. It is the wrong method of fasting.
The Muslims too fast the entire day and then in the evening at the time of breaking the fast, they eat a lot. It is so jarring to the system (body) and it is a very unscientific way of fasting. We should always follow science here. Fasting is good, but you should follow a scientific way of doing it. Have juices, and fruits during fast. When you have to come out of your fast, you must come out of it very gently (meaning, without taxing the body that is cleansed through the fast). Then it is good for both the body and the mind.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
POSTED ON: MONDAY, JULY 11, 2022
Q: Dear Gurudev, is this the only path that leads to supreme peace and happiness?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
If you ask me that water is the only answer to quench your thirst, what can I say? What can I say if you ask me if breathing is the only way to fill the lungs? Any path which leads you to inner peace, tranquillity, joy and love is the path. All paths are essentially just one. The methods may be many.
Someone may instruct you, ‘Do Pranayama like this’. Someone else may instruct you in a different way saying, ‘Do Pranayama like this’. Someone may ask you to not do it at all. So there are many different ways.
What we have seen over the years is that these techniques (taught by The Art of Living) are suitable for this age, for our generation and the people. It is a time tested thing and everyone is comfortable with this.
You see, in the past, people did not have much to do. They would throw the seeds in the field and would simply sit to watch them grow. They would keep watch to ensure that the birds do not destroy their crop. So they had time, and they could meditate for eight hours or so. But it is not necessary for you to meditate for eight hours every day. Just do the Sudarshan Kriya for ten minutes every day, that is good.
Some people attend the Vipassana Meditation course for ten days, where they watch the breath for ten days, and then finally at the end of the ten days, they feel some sensations in the body. You can feel the same sensations in those ten minutes of doing the Sudarshan Kriya also. It is you choice whether you want to sit for eight to ten days to discover that there is sensation in your body; or that your body is hollow and empty. I am not saying that it is bad or anything of that sort. Everything has its own value.
When you observe silence in the four or five days of the Advanced Course and do different meditations, and then when you stand up to do Yoga and Pranayama, it increases the circulation and energizes the body. It also brings experiences along with it.
Luckily in The Art of Living, we have all the avenues open (for one to go deep within). We have the knowledge, we have the devotional aspect in the Narada Bhakti Sutras (A commentary on the Aphorisms of Love by Sage Narada); then we have the intellectual inquiry and stimulant in the Ashtavakra Gita. We have the knowledge of Yoga through the Patanjali Yoga Sutras. So it is complete from all aspects: for our awareness, our well-being, and it is also very scientific.
I believe we should go ahead in a scientific manner and not by blind faith. That is the speciality of The Art of the Living. People usually fast without any scientific understanding about fasting. They usually fast all day and then eat heavy at night. Or they fast all day, and break it by eating fried food.
During Navratri, many Hindus usually fast and eat only fried potato (chips or wafers), sweets, etc. Eating sweets is still okay, but having fried potatoes during fast is no good. In South India, people say it is okay to have idlis (fermented and steamed rice cakes), but not rice itself. It is okay to eat puffed rice like in Avalaki, but they would also eat other things with it. It is the wrong method of fasting.
The Muslims too fast the entire day and then in the evening at the time of breaking the fast, they eat a lot. It is so jarring to the system (body) and it is a very unscientific way of fasting. We should always follow science here. Fasting is good, but you should follow a scientific way of doing it. Have juices, and fruits during fast. When you have to come out of your fast, you must come out of it very gently (meaning, without taxing the body that is cleansed through the fast). Then it is good for both the body and the mind.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
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