Wisdom Of gurudev sri sri ravi shankar

  Question : Guruji, There are many cultures in the world. Are there things which work same everywhere?   Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Certain things work everywhere.  Sudarshan Kriya works everywhere. Today you go to any part of the world you will find someone doing the Sudarshan Kriya. That is why everything in the Art of Living is kept so universal. At some point in time, there was so much oneness in the world. People of Peru in Argentina do similar things as that of the natives of Arunachal Pradesh. Native tribes of Arunachal Pradesh do similar things as done by people in Venkovour in British. People from both the places worship all four directions. There were lots of similarities among native inhabitants of different parts of the world. People in Lithuania greet you with bread and salt. As there is no ocean there, salt is a very precious commodity there. Similarly people in Kerala put a pot flowing with paddy outside their homes, which shows there is abund...

Question:- Guruji, Money cannot bring us happiness this knowledge happens after accumulating money or before it? Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:            If you are intelligent, it happens before. And if you are little less intelligent, then it happens afterward. An intelligent person also learns from others experiences. But this realization is only authentic if you can experience someones experience as your own. It doesnt carry any value if a beggar says that he has abandoned everything. How can a beggar abandon anything? He has not earned anything at the first place. Also there are some people who do not understand this even after accumulating a lot of money. But this doesnt mean that you should not earn money. If you are too feverish for money thinking that only it can bring you happiness, then either earn money and see yourself, or learn from others experience.

Question - How to handle negative emotions? Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar  :-            There are two kinds of mind. One is an open mind. Another is a closed mind. A closed mind is that which says, “This is how it is. I know it. That is it.” It gets hardened. An open mind says, “Oh, maybe, perhaps. I do not know.” Limited knowledge, and the conformity about it, makes a mind very hard. Whenever you seem to understand a situation and you label it, “I know this is how it is,” that is the beginning of your problem. And always all problems arise from knowing but not from not knowing. If you do not know, your mind is open, you say “Oh, maybe, something, perhaps, don’t know.” You wait. You cannot label something when you do not know. Whenever you think an injustice has been made to you, or whenever you think you are suffering, whenever you think you are a victim, whenever you think something bad has happened to you— all this falls under the category of “...

Sevak (volunteer) Sri Sri:          As a Sevak(volunteer), you should remember that even if you get stones in return for Seva, it’s fine. If someone scolds you or curses you, you remain unfazed. Don’t make yourself sad or anyone else sad. Remember this - you need nothing in return forSeva - not even a ‘thanks’. Do not say: ‘I have never needed anything else, only a few words of gratitude’ - you shouldn’t expect even that. If you do Seva without expecting anything, then that is bliss. If you expect people to praise you or thank you, then the quality of Seva goes down. Seva should walk hand in hand with sadhana(spiritual practices). If one is absent, you will not gain anything from the other. From sadhana you get strength to do Seva, and from Seva you get depth in sadhana. But remember that sadhana is your first priority! You should make time to do sadhana, you should be smart in managing time. There is no end to work, there is always work every day. S...

Question: How does Seva help us grow in this path? Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: The way to expand from individual to universal consciousness is to share others's sorrow and joy. As you grow, your consciousness should also grow. When you expand in Knowledge with time, then depression is not possible. Your inner most source is joy. The way to overcome personal misery is to share universal misery! The way to expand personal joy is to share universal joy. Instead of thinking "what about me?" "what can ℹgain from this world?" think "what can ℹ do for the world?" When everyone comes from the point of contributing to society, you have a Divine society. We have to educate and culture our individual consciousness in order to expand in time with the Knowledge from "what about me?" to "what can I contribute?" If you are not having good experiences in meditation, then do more seva - you will gain merit and your meditation will be deeper. W...

Human Values: The Common Ground Of All Religions I see a crisis facing the world today. It is fundamentally one of identification. People identify themselves with limited charac­teristics such as gender, race, religion and nationality, forget­ting their basic identity as part of the universal spirit. These limited identifications lead to conflict on a personal level and globally. Every individual is much more than the sum of these limited identifications. The highest identification we can make is that we are part of Divinity, and only secondly are we human beings and members of the human family. In divine creation, the whole of the human race is united. Along with the proper identification of our true nature, we need to return to the values that are the essence of all major traditions. Religion has three aspects: values, rituals and symbols. The moral and spiritual values are common to all traditions, and the symbols and practices--those rituals and customs that form a way ...