wisdom from guruji

Q: Gurudev, please talk on the art of asking questions since, at times, I
am not satisfied with an answer I get, or I get more confused with the
answer.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Meditation!
When the mind is restless, no matter what the answer is, it does not get
in. When your mind is quiet, just a sign is good enough and you will pick
up the answer, for you are the source of all answers. When you are quiet,
then, from within you the answers come up. That is why, a few moments of
relaxation is essential.

Whatever you tell a restless person, he will say, ‘But’. You give them an
answer, even then they will say, ‘Okay! But…’, and then they go on changing
the topics. This is the sign of a mind which is so filled with ideas and
concepts, that there is no place for new wisdom or knowledge to enter in.

The same thing happened with a Master and a disciple.
A disciple came to a Master, and he was asking some questions,(a very
similar situation as you are in.) He was asking question after question,
but was not satisfied with any answer that the master gave. So, the master
said, ‘Okay, come! Let us have tea.’
The master asked, ‘You like tea?’
He said, ‘Yes.’
So the master started pouring tea in the cup of the disciple. The cup got
full but still he kept pouring. The tea overflowed from the cup and spilled
on the table, and the floor.
The student asked, ‘Master, why are you doing this? The cup is full. You
can see the tea spilling all over the carpet!’
The Master smiled and said, ‘That is what the situation is. Your cup is so
full that it has no more space to take anymore, but you are wanting more.
First, empty your cup, drink what you have.’

The ancient Rishis in the Vedas have said, ‘Shravana’, first listen, and
then ‘Manana’, i.e., contemplate about it, or think about it. You listen to
an answer, and you think about it. Then make it your own. See if it is in
your own experience? Don’t believe anything because someone says it. This
is the basic thing that one has to remember.
My experience is my own and your experience is your own. Don’t take
anything just because I am saying it. Simultaneously, don’t discard what
anyone says; you should be a good listener. First, listen, and then
contemplate on it. Then, make it your own experience. Then, that becomes
wisdom. Knowledge turns, and becomes wisdom – Shravana, Manana, Nidhidhyasa.

After speaking all the 700 verses of Gita, Lord Krishna says, ‘Look Arjuna,
I have said it all. You think about it. If you find it suitable, take it.’
That is what needs to be given, freedom of thought, freedom of opinion,
freedom of belief and faith. You can’t force a thing on everybody’s head.
Faith has to be developed from within one’s self.

Q: Gurudev, these days everybody is giving hate speeches and creating
turmoil in people’s minds, and then they get arrested for it. No political
leader is giving any love speech. What to do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Now, first of all, you have to take back that word
everybody.

Everybody is not doing it. There are some people, one or two, here and
there. They do such things, because only then the media will pick them up.
The hate speeches are picked by the media. They want media attention, so
they do it. And if they get arrested, they become a hero within a
particular community. What can you do? They go for negative publicity
because they cannot get any positive publicity. So the easy way is to get
negative publicity is to go and blabber something about somebody, or give
some hate speech somewhere.
Surprisingly, so many people clap for that, because it is a thrill for them.
Sweetie-sweetie talk, some good love stories don’t interest people. ‘Hey
come, let’s punch that guy’, and everybody agrees.
This is what is called mob psychology. The mob is interested in doing
something destructive in the world. Never ever has a mob done something
constructive; mob has always brought destruction.

Sometime destruction may be essential. One such example was the Freedom
Movement, when they wanted to root out this colonial system. So the mob
joined, but peacefully. And why is that? The leader was a spiritual man –
Mahatma Gandhi. He would do satsang, just like what we are doing. Every day
there would be singing, meditation and discussions on the issues of the
country, and the world those days.
So there was a movement to dismantle the current regime, but without
bloodshed, without violence. It was a unique thing in the history, where
the mobs gathered but didn’t destroy anything, didn’t bring pain or
suffering to anybody.
The same type of mob is happening now all over the world. In the Arab
Spring, see what is happening? People are killing each other and there is
so much suffering.

I am dreaming of a very different aspect. I want people to come up with
creative ideas and plans. A seed for one such revolution was sown on 3
February, in Delhi, where the gathering who attended the event was three
times more than that of the anti-corruption movement.
A record crowd gathered together, and took a pledge to do something
constructive.
The government was a little concerned and they posted so many police.
Everybody was screened when they were coming in, and so it took a long time
for people to come in and go out. However, everyone was so surprised that
there was no blame game, no hate speech; everyone joined to do something
very constructive.
Our youth have this energy, we only need to channelize it.
Can you imagine, just in a matter of 2 months, with no resources at all,
1,000 projects were completed in Delhi? These were 1,000 small projects in
the slums that were completed in 17 slums that were adopted by The Art of
Living. Sothe volunteers have started working in 100 slums now.
India is wobbling between scams and slums, and we need this sort of
enthusiasm in people to do something creative.

There is a river here which is called Kumudavati, which has almost dried
up. So, some of our volunteers have taken up the task of reenergizing the
river from the source, through all the twelve tehsils (similar to a county)
that the river moves through. It is a very good initiative and it will help
solve the water problems of so many villages.
Water level has gone down. It used to be 20 to 30 feet, now it has gone
down to 600 feet, so much below! So these volunteers are going to
reenergize that! They are doing rain water harvesting, ad all things
necessary to reenergize it.
One would have to spend crores of rupees on such projects. But people are
using their own petrol, and going by their own cars, and doing the work.
This is the joy, the intoxication of service.
Also, two of our volunteers here today have announced the signing of a
project wherein they are planning to build 1,000 toilets for the poor
people.

Q: Gurudev, there is an ancient proverb that says that when you come to a
true master, the skills in you start to manifest. Is that true? Because I
even see the elephant here, in the Ashram, play the mouth organ.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes, it seems to be happening that way here.
Many who have never been into music have started singing. Many people write
poems. I see a lot of creativity around. Looks like they are making the
ancient proverb come true!
See, whenever your mind becomes quiet and silent, when you meditate, when
you are happy from inside, creativity is a by-product. It is only natural,
and if it doesn’t happen, then you should be surprised.

Q: Gurudev, today in every field, whether it is Corporate or Social
Service, it is very difficult to make out the good from the bad. Now that
CSR is a compulsory aspect of corporate entities; how to choose the right
NGO to work with?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: See whether the NGOs are transparent and they have no
religious bias; this is very important.

Sometimes people do CSR activity, but their motivation is different. They
want to convert people from one religion to another religion, or from one
ideology to another ideology; one set of vote bank to another set of vote
bank. These should be avoided, because it is not really charity, it is a
business in the garb of charity and should not happen. There should be pure
intentions; the heart should be clean and pure.
There are many such NGOs who work with the mere intention of bringing
happiness and smiles on the faces of people. So look into that; whether
their intentions are correct, whether their balance sheet is correct,
whether they are transparent in the spending of their money, and their
administrative cost is low.
Their administrative cost should not be too much. Sometimes administrative
cost is so high that very little goes to the beneficiaries; that should not
happen.
Many NGOs, have said that 40% to 50% goes towards administrative
expenditure .That is not desirable .It should be kept to a minimum of 5% to
10%, or a maximum of 15%. So look at that, and then see people who are
working with that NGO, and take their help.

Q: Gurudev, today alcoholism is the biggest challenge to move towards
spirituality, and a safer society. However, in these two days of the
Corporate Culture & Spirituality conference, nobody spoke about it. Please
guide us.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: We tell people that we have a greater type of
intoxicant here – meditation, singing, and serving. This is a better
intoxicant; it takes you to a greater height. People simply don’t know of
this brand of whisky, that’s all.
There is a joy in serving people and seeing the smiles around; many people
don’t know of that intoxication. There is a joy in meditation; deep peace
and deep sense of comfort that people don’t know. We need to make people
aware of this, then they will just throw all the alcohol bottles away.

Q: Gurudev, how did a handful of British people rule a spiritual giant like
India? Is there something to learn from this?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Well, you can wonder about it! One speciality of
India is that there was never any unity here.
Once I was in Europe and a journalist asked me, ‘Gurudev, tell me, how come
the Indian journalists criticize India more than anybody else?’
I said, ‘This is our speciality, we fight with each other.’

It was the internal fight between many kingdoms, and the selfishness of the
kings that led to that sort of thing. In some way, it was good; the British
did some good also to colonial India. You should see the positive side of
everything. Of course, there are many negative aspects of the colonial
rule, but there was also some positivity, you have to see that also.
Otherwise, we wouldn’t have been speaking in English today, and India would
have never gotten into computers at all. It would be like China. We would
have all had our own different languages; 600 dialects, 24 languages, and
India would have been really fragmented.
Today English, somehow, has become a very common language, and India can
connect itself with the entire world. So there are advantages, there are
some good things.
Of course, there were many bad things too. Many laws from those times that
are obsolete today, are still in place. So all the young people, like you,
should become law makers, and change all these laws.
Women have already taken the reins in their hands, and have started
changing some of the laws. I am sure more will happen.

Q: Gurudev, how can I earn a lot of money without putting too much effort?
Is there any mantra?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: This is how the scams begin (laughter).
You have heard about all the scams, isn’t it? There are plenty of them, one
after another, every month.

No, don’t go for quick money; you will lose it also that fast. A sustained
economy is good.
If your ethical principles are strong, you will say, ‘I am going to make a
lot of money, but with ethics. And no money in an unethical manner.’
In the past century, people had the fear of bad karma, or that God will be
unhappy. Fear of God, or fear of karma, would ensure that people didn’t get
into unethical practices.
People would say, ‘Oh, that is a bad karma; I don’t want to take that
money.’ Do you know why? It is because people had a strong belief that
money earned in an unethical manner will have to be spent in a manner which
will not bring them happiness.
They would say, ‘It’s going to make me more miserable’. This was a strong
belief. In fact, people would say, ‘If you earn money unethically, that
money will be spent in courts and in hospitals.’
So that consciousness was there, pricking people. Today, that is missing.
They say, ‘When we do CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), it is going to
come back to us many times, multiplied.’
CSR was always thought of as an investment, and unethical money was thought
as a punishment. Those values have almost disappeared today. So we must
re-look at this.

Q: Gurudev, my father says that I don’t take stress,but end up giving a lot
of stress to other people. If I give stress, I ask, why do they take it?
Shouldn’t other people be managing their own stress?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: That’s another way to look at it too.
Sometimes people say, ‘I am here only to test your patience. God has put me
on this planet to test everybody’s patience.’
There is an old proverb which says, ‘Nobody is the giver of problems or
comfort. Problems and comforts are created by our own mind.’
We can feel comfortable anywhere and we can feel miserable anywhere we
want, the choice is totally ours.

Q: Gurudev, I am not able to achieve excellence, so I remain unsatisfied.
Is satisfaction possible without achieving excellence? If yes, please guide.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: : If frustration is the mother of excellence, then
there are many countries which are so frustrated, and we don’t find
excellence there.
People say, ‘Oh, satisfaction can make you dull, and inactive.’ If
frustration can bring creativity, then Lebanon, Afghanistan, and all these
places should have been the most creative parts of the world. But it is not
so, isn’t it?
So, satisfaction is one thing, and then creativity is another thing. When
you are calm, serene and quiet, deep inside, then you get access to the
source of creativity.

Q: Gurudev, being on the spiritual path, sometimes makes me inefficient at
my work place. How do I balance the two?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Then drop the spiritual path; be efficient in your
working place. Why do you want to do something that would make you
inefficient? The spiritual path is meant to make you more efficient. If it
is making you inefficient, just wash your hands off. Say ‘Bye Bye’ to the
spiritual path and focus on your work and see, whether you can do it. Don’t
put the tag of inefficiency to your rest or your meditation. It is not
possible as far as I am concerned, but you should try and make an
experiment.

Q: Gurudev, I find that in spite of producing educated graduates, we still
need to train them again before they can be used in our industry. How can
we partner with your University, and introduce some education that is
relevant for our industry?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Definitely; we can have skill centres. You may talk
to Dr. Mishra, the Vice Chancellor (of Sri Sri University in Orissa) and
the Board members, they are present here. We will think and design new
programmes and new curriculum for the students.

I want to give the best of East and the best of West to students.
Today, borders don’t matter; borders have disappeared actually. We are
living in a global society, and the coming generation should gear up to
that global vision of a united world. We should forget ‘my country’ and
‘your country’. We are moving towards a society where virtually there is no
distance at all.
See, yesterday, a conference happened here, but 90 countries participated
in it on-line.

People from so many countries were watching the webcast. We are moving into
a different era of knowledge; of wisdom. So we have to adjust our mind-set
towards this, and so I want to give the best of East and the best of West
to the children of this planet; so that they become a global citizen, and
serve the country that they live in.

Q: Gurudev, is lust bad? Should we just go with lust, because if we resist,
it persists.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Moderation! Nothing should be done in extremes.
Lust is because you don’t have much to do. If you are busy, then it doesn’t
take over your mind as much. You should use your energy more creatively,
then you will find you will be more centred.