Fri, 03/13/2015 Bangalore, India
Gurudev, if love is our very nature, then why do we make one person as the object of our love? Why do we think that we love that one person the most?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
From birth we have known love to be directed from a person. Love gets personalized from birth. A child opens the eyes and looks at the mother and starts feeling that love.Association kindles the feeling of love inside of you. But when it matures you start understanding love is not just an emotion, it is your very existence.
Love directed towards an individual is one aspect of universal love. First a person stimulates the love inside of you, then when you go deep in meditation you will find that love doesn’t need any stimuli from outside, it is already existing everywhere.
Actually we are floating in an ocean of love. It is like when you are in a bath tub, you feel the heat or cold as you get into it the tub. But after a while you get used to it, and you don’t feel it anymore. Same way when you get into a hot pool, for the first few moments, you feel the heat. Then you don’t feel the heat, you get used to it.
In the same way, the personalized love in the beginning kindles that. Once it is there it assumes the universal form. So you may not feel it but still it will be there. Individuals remind you that there is love in the universe, and you are love.
In the same way, the personalized love in the beginning kindles that. Once it is there it assumes the universal form. So you may not feel it but still it will be there. Individuals remind you that there is love in the universe, and you are love.
Gurudev, the theory of creation in the scriptures seems to contradict the theory of evolution according to Charles Darwin. Could you talk about which one to believe?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Which theory of creation that you are thinking is contradictory? Actually the whole world is just appearance. It appears to be so. You should read Yoga Vashishtha. You will get more idea about it.
When you keep a spoon inside the water, half of the spoon appears to be bent. If you ask me when did the spoon bend, what do I say? It didn’t bend, it appears so. When does it start to appear like that? It appears like that anytime!
Similarly, this idea of something got created at one point of time itself is erroneous, because the whole Universe is an appearance in Consciousness. When did the mirage get created? What do you say? It never got created, it appears to be like that!
Like a tennis ball for example. Where is the beginning of a tennis ball? It never begins in the first place. Can a ball begin somewhere or end somewhere? Every point is the beginning and every point is an end. That’s why this Universe is called ‘Anaadi’ (beginningless) and ‘Ananta’ (endless).
Like a tennis ball for example. Where is the beginning of a tennis ball? It never begins in the first place. Can a ball begin somewhere or end somewhere? Every point is the beginning and every point is an end. That’s why this Universe is called ‘Anaadi’ (beginningless) and ‘Ananta’ (endless).
Usually our thinking is linear - everything should begin and everything should end somewhere. But when you go into higher knowledge, it is about appearance rather than beginning or ending. This is the beauty of Vedanta philosophy, this is how it is different from all other theories that we think of the world.
See if you go to Hawaii which is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, miles and miles all around there is nothing. Now if someone starts researching - how did a coconut plant come there? Someone will say, ‘Oh from Malaysia, maybe a coconut fell in the water, it travelled all the way to the Hawaiian Island and then it became a tree’. There is no proof for this, but yes, all the fauna and flora are present in Hawaiian Islands. There are many trees, and people were also there.
So, to me it seems very absurd when people say that the first human being was born in Africa and then he travelled to Constantinople, and from there Aryans came and invaded India, and so on. All these theories are rubbish because we want to see one point from where the tennis ball began.
So, to me it seems very absurd when people say that the first human being was born in Africa and then he travelled to Constantinople, and from there Aryans came and invaded India, and so on. All these theories are rubbish because we want to see one point from where the tennis ball began.
If you see from a quantum physicist’s or from a real rational scientific view point, you will find that in the whole creation things have happened in many places simultaneously. Nature can make a coconut plant grow in Kerala and in Hawaii at the same time! It doesn’t have to export a coconut from Kerala all the way to Hawaii or vice-versa!
Now they have found that there is water on the surface of Moon and Mars. Somebody will come up with a theory that at some point of time the Moon became a part of the Earth and then water from came there, because we try to think linear.
We have to think spherical, then things will make much more sense.
Now they have found that there is water on the surface of Moon and Mars. Somebody will come up with a theory that at some point of time the Moon became a part of the Earth and then water from came there, because we try to think linear.
We have to think spherical, then things will make much more sense.
Gurudev, you said not to hurt the ego of a man. But is that valid even when he hurts the feelings of his wife? How do I change his egoistic nature?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Why do you want to change their nature? You change. When you change they may also change, or they may not change! We need to learn to see life from a broader perspective. Then things make much more sense to us.
Why do we try to change people? It is because they are hurting us. And the more we want to change someone because they are hurting us, they are not going to change, I tell you.
Why do we try to change people? It is because they are hurting us. And the more we want to change someone because they are hurting us, they are not going to change, I tell you.
If you really want them to change, you have to wish for their welfare, because what they are doing is not good for them. And if that is your intention, with that wish they will change. I tell you they will change.
Your every prayer will make them see things differently and behave differently. So that’s the power of your intention.
Your every prayer will make them see things differently and behave differently. So that’s the power of your intention.
Dear Gurudev, theoretically I can understand advaita (non-duality) philosophy. But how to bring that as an experience?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
No, no, this is pure science. For pure science, you do not need to bring it to experience.
Advaita is seeing everything is one. This will help you to be stable. But when you are dealing in the world, you have to deal with duality only. Got it?
Advaita is seeing everything is one. This will help you to be stable. But when you are dealing in the world, you have to deal with duality only. Got it?
You should know everything is made up of wood - the table, the door, the chair. But how do you apply it? There is no need to apply it! Simply know it. And you use it as per their designation. You use a table only as a table, don’t go and sit on the table, it will break. Don’t use a chair for the door, or a door for the table. We have to use them all for their designated purpose. At the same time, we should know all this is wood.
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