February 09, 2014
Bangalore, India
(Part 2 of 3)
(Petra Friganovic: Supermodel from Croatia)
Q: Gurudev, I have one question for you. I am very much aware that there is
this enormous spiritual and practical power in women. But I am also aware that
this power is very much hidden from us. How can the modern woman awaken this
power in her?
Sri Sri: First of all, let us understand that spirituality is not something
that is out there, that is going to come into you. We are all made up of matter
and spirit.
Our body is made up of carbohydrate, protein, amino acids, etc. Our spirit is
made up of compassion, care, commitment, love and distortions of it, like
anger. All these qualities. Nurturing the human values, the qualities in you,
is spirituality. It is seeing life from a broader perspective, i.e., 'I am not
just flesh and bones, but I am scintillating energy. I am a fountain of love. I
am feelings. I am intelligence. I am thoughts'.
This identification with our consciousness is what spirituality is.
It
doesn't take a long time for you to invoke the spirituality inside you. You
simply have to see your life from a bigger perspective.
Look
at this planet, it is huge; unfathomable. From billions of years it has been in
existence. And what’s our life of 70-80 years in comparison to this? See
your life from the context of space and time and you will see how tiny your
life is. At the same time, go deep into it. Go deep into
meditation and you will find, 'Wow, there is so much energy. I am this
beautiful energy. My thought has power, my emotions have power, and I am a part
of everybody!'.
This feeling that you are part of the entire living species is what exactly
spirituality is. That connectedness with the entire universe brings you
enormous strength.
(Marina Spadafora: fashion designer from Italy)
Q: Being a mother of three, I always ask myself, what is the best approach to
teach my son to respect women, and to respect girls. So my question for you is,
what is the best way for a mother to teach her boy that he always has to
respect women, take care of them, protect them and treat them the best way
possible. So when this boy will grow up, he will be a good man and we would not
have as much violence as we have in today’s society”.
Sri Sri: Well, I’m not so qualified to answer this question, because I have
no experience in that field (marriage and parenthood). But I have a suggestion.
In my observation, I found a mother can influence a child only to some extent.
Especially when the kid becomes rebellious, the mother cannot influence the
kid. But a good aunt can do it.
So, if you want to be a good mother, you have to be a good aunt to the friends
of your kids.
You know, the friends of your kids will listen to you much more than your own
children.
In
India, we have a saying. In the mango season, when you want to pluck the
mangoes, don't throw stones directly at the mango, but throw it at the branch,
and the mango will fall. If you throw stones at the mango, you won’t get the
mango, you will only get the juice.
So, to catch the mango, you have to get it indirectly.
In
the same way, if you want to influence your kids, you should influence his or
her friends circle. If the friends circle is influenced, your kid will
automatically get the lesson.
So you cannot just worry about your kid, you will have to worry about all the
other kids in the society. Then you will get somewhere. And many people have
been successful in doing it.
(Asha Bhosle: Playback Singer from India)
Q: Gurudev, children today are so much into phones, ipads and computers. And
not only children but adults as well. So much so that they cannot remember a
phone number if their phone is taken away. They are so dependent. Everything is
in the phone, if the phone fails then they also fail.
If children don't move forward and do anything new, if they don’t study hard,
then what is the use of these iPhones and iPads? Nobody will write songs,
nobody will sing them, nobody will write books, then how will life go on like
this? I am very worried about the kids.
Sri Sri: Yes Ashaji, you are right! People have forgotten how to count.
I want to tell you something interesting. A few people were staying here, and
we gave them a combination lock for their room. They would always forget the
combination, and would ask to be given some easy combination! What is so
difficult about a combination lock?
When we don't allow our brain to function, when we don’t allow creativity to
blossom, then it will rust! You are right, it has begun to rust due to modern gadgets.
Yes, these gadgets are necessary, you also have it, but there should be
something written, there should be some creativity; this should definitely be
done.
From
time to time, we should, for one or two days, decide that we will not watch TV.
One week should be No TV week. One week you tell kids, this week
you will not watch any TV. At least they will start reflecting upon something.
Otherwise they are simply bombarding information and impressions into their
little brains, and they are unable to use it in other ways. It is a cause of
concern.
Most
of the Attention Deficiency Syndrome among teenagers is a result of the mother
and father being busy and putting the kid in front of the television. If the
little 3-4 year baby sits and watches the television for 3 hours then what will
happen? Our brain needs some rest. Some relaxation, only then creativity can
happen.
(Arpine Galfayan: Human rights activist from Armenia)
Q: Dear Gurudev, in almost all religious institutions and practices, women are
not allowed to represent the word of god. Even if women are not considered
something evil or secondary, still women cannot be priests and conduct poojas.
So the question is, do you consider this to be an unfair practice? Do you see
the need of changing it, and if so, how?
Sri Sri: You know, I am a rebel in this field. I say women have equal right
as men, and here (in the Ashram), we say women can all do poojas. Women can
participate in all rituals, and be priests as well. You have the right, you can
do it.
Nowhere, at least in the scriptures, what I have learnt or whatever little I
know, is there any discrimination on the basis of gender. So, women should come
forward and take up their rightful place. Don’t ask someone to give it to you.
(Tanika Gray: News Editor at CNN)
Q: With the media reporting crime and negativity around the world, what do you
think is their responsibility towards this violence that is happening? What do
you think we should be doing differently?
Sri Sri: I think the media has two important roles to play. One is to place
the facts in front of the people as they are. At the same time create hope in
people for the future.
You
know, the present scenario can be very depressing. The media has to take
responsibility not to create more depression in society. They have to give
people hope.
Suppose there is a riot, or a crisis, or a war, in that situation also there is
hope; there are good people on the planet who are doing some very good work,
this must be highlighted. Otherwise when you open the newspaper, all you see is
bad news, which is depressing. The people feel that there is no hope in life
because the world is so bad.
The citizen of this world will not label society as bad or hopeless. This can
happen only when they are bombarded with negative news all the time. So, media
will have to balance this out. Create hope, at the same time keep the reality
in front of people.
(Dr. Preetha Reddy: Operation Head of Apollo group of
hospitals, India)
Q: Gurudev, we have been feeling of late that media, more maybe the electronic
media and the print media have not been as responsible as they should be for
the greater good.
It is right that we have to communicate the truth the way it is, but if the
truth is sacrificed for just eye ball time because someone has invested into
the media company, I am not sure that they are doing good for the nation.
What is your advice to make media more responsible to work for the greater good,
for the betterment of mankind, for the betterment of the environment, so that
the world is a better place to live in.
Terrorism is reported a lot and that is fine, but people are dying more of
health reasons and that is not reported. So I feel your advice and blessings on
this matter is very important.
Sri Sri: Yes Preetha, you are right. We are stuck in a sort of virtual
world. We are not coming into the real world.
Many kids make friends on facebook, twitter and social media, and in reality,
people meeting each other and talking is much lesser now. This needs to change,
we need to have more human interaction, not just in the virtual but in the real
world. That is necessary.
I
won’t put all the blame on media, no. Media has a role to play but the NGOs,
the public sector, the government, the faith based organizations, all these
different pillars of democracy have to work in unison. Only then can a society
be healthy.
So for the health of the society, we need doctors to do padayatras.
Take a day or two in a month from your busy schedules, go to villages and do
free medical health checkup camps.
Of course, Apollo (hospital) is also doing this. And recently in Tamilnadu, we
had 500,000 youth singing bharatiya(Indian) songs, after which they
all took a pledge towards girl education.
This effort brought people together to sing and to interact with each other.
Youngsters
singing patriotic songs, or songs of wisdom inspires them to do something good
in the society. It makes all the difference. So such mega cultural activities
can also be a way to bring awareness in people. If people take up these sort of
activities in society, in smaller groups in their localities, I think we can
bring a big transformation.
(Honorable Zara Bin Sulaiman from Oman)
Q: Women in Oman have power and good energy. Still in some parts of Oman people
do not allow women to come ahead. How can women, despite this obstacle, come
ahead and become more prosperous?
Sri Sri: I think women should talk amongst each other and come up with a
solution on how to empower and educate women.
First is education, and then have dialogue with the people who oppose the
freedom of women. I know sometimes it feels like it is next to impossible, but
I still feel that we should keep the dialogue going.
There are a lot of people who would appreciate some women leaders taking the
first step. As you carry on, I am sure, many others would come along and help
you with it.
I am not fully aware of the ground reality there, but I can only hope that the
women's group there grows bigger, and starts taking power.
Again, with religious education, I would say that our children should get a
broad based education. Every child should know a little bit about all the
different religions of the world, so that they don’t grow up thinking, 'Only
my religion is supreme, only I have the key to heaven'.
They must respect other faiths as well. They must respect women, they must
respect differences.
We need to celebrate the differences on this planet during the short span of
time what we call life. Don’t you think so?
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