Prayer is an expression of the deepest anguish and or the deepest gratitude

October 10, 2011

Montreal Canada

Q: Guruji, does the soul choose to take birth at a certain time in history, planet, and consciousness or is it all random?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Well planned, no random.

Q: Our thoughts tend to be about the future or past. If our mind is in the present moment, will we have no thoughts at all? Will we be able to think only when required? How does it work in your mind?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Everything that happens happens only in the present. Worries are also in the present, past thoughts also in the present only, future thoughts are also in present only. What exists is only the present. When you’re aware then the thoughts are not so much and not gushing like that and you are able to experience your consciousness.

Q: Dearest Guruji, just like on the knowledge tape you mentioned putting a toll gate on your thoughts. They are changing and it is a waste of energy when they are about the past or future. How can we put a toll gate on our emotions? Should we scream for negative emotions before expressing?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: That any way you do. You can’t control emotions by thought you can invoke emotions by thought. Only by being more aware emotions settle down. Thoughts, emotions, and awareness: the more subtle and more basic level of consciousness. That happens and there is no how to it, it just happens. Pranayama, meditation, listening to knowledge all of this indirectly helps. Usually the example would be when you want to get the mango from the tree which is so high you hit the branch, you don’t hit the mango directly. Then you will not get the mango, you will only get juice on your head. You throw the stone in such a way the stone doesn’t land up on your head or on the mango but land up in your hands. So you throw the stone at the branch and the mango falls. In the same way, all the techniques, everything we do is an indirect way to invoke consciousness. Got it?!

Q: In one of the knowledge sheets during Navaratri you said that 64 Divine impulses get awakened. Can you please talk about what the 64 Divine impulses are?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes, there the angels, 64 Arc Angels are there called Yoginis and their existence help people to meditate, or do yoga. Yoginis are very important to bring experience to people. And so it’s part of this Navartri that we invoke those names of the Yoginis. See ‘yagna’ means what? Five elements, with this what do you do? That which is so subtle through chanting you bring it to the air element, then fire element, then to the water element and then to the earth element. So, how has the creation happened, from the space first the gas was there, from the gas fire came, from the fire it cooled down and became water then the earth. So in the yagna the same process is used. Have you seen the water crystal formation? How many of you have seen this? You know a gentleman in Japan photographed water when it forms crystals. So when you keep chanting the different songs to water, and the type of formations it does is so interesting. The most perfect crystal formed was when ‘Om Namah Shivya’ was chanted. You know they chanted all different things. There was one jar of water when they chanted amazing grace and the crystal were nicely formed but in the center it was disturbed because in the song you say some self-blame words; a wreck like me or wretch is it? Save a wretch like me, and because of the words, ‘wretch like me’, in the song you find it in the crystal formation. In the center it is disturbed, but nicely formed in the circumference. And like that Beethoven songs, different songs, different chantings when they are chanted with a jar of water they photographed the water. They also photographed the water with Sanskrit chants of ‘Om Namah Shivya’, and I tell you it’s amazing. You should watch it; it’s the most perfect one. The crystal has totally formed very well from center to the circumference. Same way when you say to the water, ‘thank you, thank you very much, thank you very much’, it’s very good formation. When you tell the water some bad words and the crystal formation is so different. So this is very true that when you chant and put the focus on the water in a pot, that absorbs and the molecules changes. This is interesting and ancient people from ten thousand years ago, twenty thousand years ago knew these things. You know they have different herbs to attract different things and different energies. See, the universe is made up of bio-energy, bio-rhythms. Each animal brings down a certain rhythm on planet Earth. Human beings bring a particular type of energy on the planet Earth. So the whole thing is play of consciousness and the layers and layers and layers of consciousness and that’s what this is. Navratri is the time you realize the whole universe is made up of one consciousness. It’s like suppose you have ten television sets in your room and you are watching all different channels and you find some horror channel and you throw stones at the television, it’s not going to work. You simply have to switch the channel, correct! If there is a sad story and a pleasant story in different channels an engineer would not even look at it. He would only look at it all as television tubes and its one electricity which is playing through all the televisions, and it is bringing up hundreds different channels, thousand different channels today, right! Our mind, our consciousness is the same.

Q: In many books I have read, including in yours, that there comes a time in a person’s life when only a guru can help them move forward. Especially if the something that is holding them back is from a past life. With all these hundreds of people around you how will you be able to recognize me, how will I know you have heard my call for help?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Oh ho! There could be a million TV sets but the program can be seen in any, every television, 100%. Isn’t it?! When news is broadcasted, it does not say in only twenty televisions I can project myself, no. There is one television station which broadcasts but it can be caught in a million TV sets, just tune in, that’s it!

Q: Some devotees are fortunate enough to be beside you physically and be guided by you. Guruji, what about those devotees who can mostly talk to your photo only? Please tell something to this category of devotees.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: They are as dear to me as anyone else. Even I work better on the photos. That’s what people tell me.

Q: You say that with sankalpa anything can happen, but for me sometimes even though I have a very strong feeling to get something I don’t get it. Why is this happening?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Just have patience.

Q: Gurudev, have any of the presidents of the US been enlightened? What will it take to get the USA government to be functional and focused on the people they are there to serve?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Just wait for the elections and choose a more enlightened president. You know, in fact you cannot judge someone as not enlightened or enlightened. Sometimes you occupy a seat; it is not one man’s job. The whole system is such, with all good intention a person goes and sits as president in a chair but he’s unable to do what he wants to do because he already received a huge baggage from the past and he has a million pressures from all corners. So you don’t think that one president can change the face of a nation. He’s dependent on so many aspects for his own judgments, his own action, and his own knowledge. That’s why believe in one divine power which rules the whole world and which brings what is needed when it is needed.

Q: What is the best way to drop my doer-ship? Sometimes I’m very aware of it, but unable to drop the feelings?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Drop the question now. (laughing) You have no option. If I don’t answer, you have no option you have to drop the question.

Q: Jai Guru Dev, of late a lot of our course participants are going through relationship problems, worries and I have given them Om Namah Shivaya meditation CD and they find things are getting solved and it’s getting smooth. They are conveying their gratitude to you Guruji.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Very good, very good, very good!

Q:What is the best prayer to say?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There is nothing called best, better prayer or best prayer. Prayer itself is best. You can’t choose, ‘I will choose a better prayer’, no. Prayer is like a cry. It’s like asking how can I cry better, How can I laugh better? There is no way. Prayer is deeper than your emotions. It is just an expression of your innate need or innate gratitude. Yes! We are so used to choosing things and we try to choose even prayers, no. Prayer is an expression of the deepest anguish and or the deepest gratitude and let it happen, let it flow.

Q: Dear Guruji, I go between an intense need to connect and merge with people to intense loneliness and a painful feeling of disconnect. Can you please help?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Good, good as long as you keep moving from one thing to another and have not gotten stuck in something, I’m happy. Keep moving.

Q: How to live with an abusive husband not physically, but emotionally and verbally?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Have earplugs. (laughter) If it is just verbal have ear plugs and move on with a smile if you can put up with that. See everyone changes. Peoples’ habits change so wait, if he changes its good, if he doesn’t then find your path. But give 100 percent before you take any decision and this must be a good idea, earplugs!

Q: I’m learning about Astrology. What is it that we should first understand so it helps us progress faster in our spiritual growth?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: oh, yes, spiritual energy, spiritual power is stronger than astrology, just know that. If you believe that spiritual power is there and it’s much stronger than astrology, and it can change the course of astrology also.

Q: Guruji, I’m having a hard time going deep into meditation and lots of thoughts are coming to my mind. I’m not a coffee or tea drinker and I do my meditation in the morning, but still lots of thoughts come.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Reasons for too many thoughts could be several. One is lack of enough circulation in the system. Do some vigorous exercise, run, go to gym, do some exercise. Then there is that little exhaustion, not too much. Less than half of your energy is spent on exercise then mind becomes calm. Second, when your pitta is very high then also there are too many thoughts. So to lower the pitta, take triphala. Or many others drink the gooseberry drink, amla and all this. Talk to an Ayurvedic physician and consult them to reduce pitta, that is the second thing. Third, lack of prana, so pranayama will help. Fourth thing is if your bowel movements are not okay then also too many thoughts will come in the head. So for bowel movements to be good take some triphala, some purgatives. It’s good to cleanse your system, your intestines. Then also your mind becomes much clearer, okay! So these many ways are there. And even then if it happens then put on a meditation CD and then sit. How many people feel it easier to meditate with a CD on? Yes, then do that, it calms the mind down. And then time to time advance courses like this advance course, silence course will definitely help, okay!

Q: How can I experience life with the joy of an innocent child if a basic necessity like food, shelter, safety, relationship is missing from my life? The constant hunger keeps me from being joyful and I have no control over feeling the hunger.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Oh! You are talking too many things, saying so many things. Everything is lacking, food, shelter, job, husband, my God! Just look at your own mind. When you were a baby you were fed, somebody took care of you. Or you provided everything for yourself? When did you start providing for yourself? When you were a teenager or when you passed the teenage? Till then somebody took care of you when you were a baby, an infant, somebody nurtured you. And when you become very old somebody will take care of you. Nature has designed it such a way that you are taken care of all the time. Even now, even now to ask this question you are alive. Nature is taking care of you; you should have that trust. I’m not taking care of myself, but the nature is taking care of me. There is something which is providing me. If you have that feeling I will get what I need and I have been loved and I have been taken care of, you will see everything will fall in place. If you go on this trip of lack, I lack this and I lack this and I lack that, it is growing because you are putting that seed in the consciousness, in the mind, ‘oh I lack, I lack, I lack’. Get out of this circle and take responsibility. Everything ends, everything has to end. Things come your way and then the other way. Food comes and then you have to finish the food. At some point you cannot say I want to keep eating, no. All the five sense pleasures have limitations, your senses have limitations. So you must understand. Craving for a relationship can also be like bulimia. Do you see bulimia? Your stomach is full still you want to eat. In the same way it’s just in the head about relationships. Relationships can also be painful. Many people who are in relationships say, ‘I want this to end.’ Many people are no longer interested in a relationship even when it is there. They are not interested in physical intimacy even after having achieved all that because you cannot go on craving for it forever. They all have limitations. You have confidence that if I need I’ll get it and go for it when you want it, that’s it! Then don’t go on thinking about it 24 hours, craving for it. You must be aware, you’re craving is that which stops it from coming to you. You know a beggar is never invited for dinner. Food is thrown at a beggar. He will never be invited. Have you seen anywhere a beggar being invited with some card? Tonight there is dinner at my house, come for it, five star hotel? No! Those who are full, who don’t want to eat will be invited for dinner. The same way when you are satisfied in yourself, when you are stable, when you are centered all the things will come your way. This is what is in Gita, the second chapter last words are ‘vihaya kaman yah sarvan’. Like how all the rivers flow towards the ocean which is already full. So like all the rivers flow, all the desires find fulfillment in a person who is like an ocean, big. ‘Vihaya kaman yah sarvan pumams carati nihsprhah’. One who drops all desires, a man, a human who walks without worry, ‘nirmamo nirahankarah sa santim adhigacchati’. One who does not say, ‘me… me… me…’ that ego less, hollow and empty person! The one who is light in their life he gains eternal peace and to him comes everything. To him or her comes everything. Okay!