What quality should an ideal disciple have? Do you differentiate between disciples?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Don’t worry so much, just be like a child, and take life with ease. Yes, I differentiate between disciples and you are very special. Each one of you is unique and each one is special, so everyone is different.

Instruments and their effects on the chakras

The drums affect the Mooladhara (the base chakra or the first chakra).

The big and small drums, their effect is from the Mooladhara to Swadishtana (second chakra).

The big wind instruments like trumpets affect the second to third chakra (Swadhisthana to the Manipura).

Metallic sounds affect the Manipura to Anahata (the fourth chakra). When you hear a metallic screech, something happens in your belly. How many people have noticed this?

The string instrument has its affects from the naval to the heart. Veena and Sitar – stringed instruments affects the Anahata (the heart chakra).

Flute music, wind instruments and sometimes the piano sounds affect the Anahata to Vishudhi (the throat chakra).

Bells, sounds of water, bird songs, very soft and subtle sounds have its effects from throat to the Agna Chakra (in between the eyebrows).

Then finally the Sahasrara the (top of the head) is affected by meditation and all other instruments put together at once.

If you watch any Indian rituals, you will understand that they knew this. In the temples, they placed the drums on the periphery, then there are the big wind instruments, and on the very inside of the sanctum sanctorum are bells and conch.

So, sound vibes are balanced from the drums to the wind instruments, then stringed instruments, then again wind instruments and then bells and finally, it all ends in silence. The purpose of sound is silence. Did you all know this? Sound originates from silence and its goal is silence. Silence simply means total harmony. When there is total harmony deep within you, then even sound seems like an object, it seems heavy. But the way is through sound, through music. Music is that which connects the individual to the universal. The limited mind expands through music and realizes it is already part of the big consciousness or the big mind.

Knowledge came from hayagriva

It is said in the Vedas, knowledge came from Hayagriva, the man with a face of a horse. What is the significance of horse in the scriptures?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Horse is called Ashwa. Shwa means yesterday or tomorrow. Ashwa means now. So the word 'now' in Sanskrit, is the same as horse. That one word, Ashwa has two meanings:
1. Now or the present moment
2. Horse
So instead of saying - all the knowledge came in the moment, they said it came through the horse!
In Hayagriva, haya means head.
When your head is in the present moment then knowledge just comes up from within.
I know all The Art of Living teachers have experienced this. Haven’t you? You don’t know the answer to the questions that your students ask, but you are able to answer them! So where did the knowledge come from? You were in the moment, you were connected to the ocean of knowledge, the tradition of knowledge and so you were able to just download it instantaneously. That’s what it is.

The science of aggression

Being right does not mean being harsh and being kind doesn’t mean just letting anything happen. Kindness is not complacence and righteousness is not just aggression. Unfortunately, today, when we are right we get aggressive. It need not be, it should not be. In fact, aggression only shows our weakness; our lack of faith in our own power. Isn’t this strange? You think that the powerful will be aggressive? No! People who feel they have no power, or they have lost power, they become aggressive. Just look a little deep into it. When do you get aggressive? When you can’t do things easily. When things can happen easily, will you get aggressive?

So when you don’t have confidence in your power or the power of your being then you get aggressive. I know it is difficult to get that! When all these things were happening in Delhi, someone asked me, "How were you so cool Gurudev? We were all tensed!"
I know everything will happen well. And when I know that everything will happen, then what is the point of becoming aggressive, upset, sad or unhappy.
When you know the power within you, you don’t get aggressive. The powerful don’t get aggressive. Who gets aggressive? When you feel that the situation, person, people are beyond your control, or you feel that it is not possible. Or when you feel that you are smaller than the situation, then you become aggressive. I think you should ponder on this. Often you see a person with aggression, you feel that he is powerful. He is really not!

Guru one liner: when do you get aggressive?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When you feel that the situation, person, people are beyond your control, or you feel that it is not possible.

Guru punch - do not sit and analyse

You should not sit and analyse yourself too much, may be you have too much free time. When you are busy, where is the time to sit and analyse? Action is spontaneous; sometimes you do the wrong things and you bear the consequences and move on. - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

you will never perish

You should know that you will never perish. There is something in you that stays forever. The water in the ocean is always there, and the pattern of waves that rise and fall, that is always there. Similarly, our body is like the pattern of waves, but the spirit is like the water of the ocean. It always stays.