The more you smile the closer you are to the Divinity

December 03, 2011

Q: Dearest Guruji, how to come out from past memories that disturb my mind and soul? Sometimes it hurts a lot.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When you give events too much importance that is what happens. Know that all events are like bubbles on the surface of water. Pleasant events, unpleasant events are like waves, they come and they are gone and you are pure, untouched by them. You must remember this!

Second thing is when you are disturbed you feel some sensation in the pit of your stomach.

So instead of putting your attention on the event put it on the sensations in your body. If you observe the sensations you get transformed.

Q: Dear Guruji, if God knows everything then how is life interesting and exciting for him?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: God knows and he doesn’t know as well, both!

Its like, when a hair is pulled from your head you feel it. But do you know how many hairs are on your head? You don’t know! So on one hand you know about every single hair because if you pull it it pains you, but at the same time you don’t know how many hairs are there.

So knowledge and ignorance go together in that sense.

Like a librarian knows almost all the books that are there in the library and he can guide you to where the book is. But if you ask him on which page of which book what is said, he will not know. He knows where the book is and he knows the book but yet he does not know all the contents of the book.

Similarly the game can only be interesting if you don’t know the result of the game before hand. If you know who is going to win and who is going to lose then you can’t be sincere in playing the game.

Q: Guruji, I think the biggest attraction is to know the self, which is very abstract and remote for me. What is the quickest way to realize the self so that I do not get caught up with the mundane attractions?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You are at the right place at the right time.

Q: Dear Guruji, what is spirituality? Is it about religion or is it about the personality?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You are made up of matter and spirit.

Our body is made up of amino acids, carbohydrates, proteins, etc. Your spirit is made up of love, compassion, peace, generosity, commitment, caring, intelligence, responsibility, happiness. These are all the nature of spirit.

That which enhances the spirit of enquiry, commitment and compassion in you is what spirituality is. Your connection to the universe is spirituality.

If you go to the root of every religion, this is what it says. In Christianity Jesus said, Love is God and God is Love.

In Hinduisum it is said ‘Asti, Bhati, Preeti.’ Preeti (love) is the nature of God.

Islam talks about peace, commitment, compassion and giving.

So the forms are different but the substance is the same. Holding to the true substance is what spirituality is. And you can do that by going in deep meditation.

What words you use to pray is secondary. What state of being you are in is most important. If you have that soft, inner beautiful feeling, then you are spiritual. Otherwise you may be a priest somewhere, very hard inside but you are not spiritual. You may go to a temple or church and bow down many times, it means nothing! But if you are walking in the street with an uplifted feeling, then you are close to God. The more you smile the closer you are to the Divinity.

Q: Dear Guruji, I always feel lonely and left out even thought I have everybody around me. How to come out of this?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: It is good, take it as a gift. Don’t think it is bad.

You feel lonely then know, ‘when I am lonely I am with God and when I am with people then also I am with God.’ When you are lonely you feel free. ‘I came to this world like this and I will go back from this world like this.’

That idea suddenly will make you blossom and something from inside will just spring up.

Q: Dear Guruji, it seems like love has another side called ‘attachment’. Love is a beautiful feeling but attachment causes pain. How can one love without feeling attached?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Now don’t struggle to detach yourself. You feel attached, that is it! You are attached there is no way out of it.

If you keep doing seva then you will see the attachment will find a larger dimension.

And if you don’t put too much attention to detach, you will find detachment is also automatic. It will come to you with age, time and maturity.

Q: While doing meditation there are some vibrations which come in the Agya chakra. At that time do I do something or just keep quiet?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: If some vibrations come in the Agya chakra let them be there. Don’t try to enhance it or get rid of it, just relax and do nothing. Let whatever is happening happen.

Q: How to meditate in a chaotic city?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Now, for meditation a quiet environment is congenial, no doubt.

A serene and quiet place with good energy is best suited for meditation but it does not stop you from meditating even in a chaotic place.

Do you sleep in a chaotic place? Yes.

Someone who has lived in a quiet place and suddenly they go and live in an apartment in New York next to the highway, they say, ‘oh my God, the whole night there were sounds of traffic. It felt like the car is running over my head and I could not sleep.’

But the other people who live there are used to the noise and they sleep because they accept that chaos.

Whenever you want to go inward, you need to accept the outer. When you keep resisting the outer you cannot go inward.

So how you deal with the chaos is your own choice.

Q: Guruji, what do you suggest for Attention Deficient Adults. How do they get out of it?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: They should know that death is near.

Attention deficiency is there because they feel death is so far away. They are either locked up on what could be more joyful or there is some restlessness in the system to achieve something which is only in imagination.

So pranayama will help, food will help and time will help because nobody can have this attention deficiency for too long. Somewhere they should change.

Listen to knowledge of dispassion that too will help.

Q: Guruji, sometimes out of social obligations I need to sit in the company of people who drink alcohol. Is that okay?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: As long as you don’t start giving them company in the drinking also.

You can sit socially but you can say, ‘I prefer soft drinks and I will have only soft drinks.’

Q: Guruji, what should be the purpose of life?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: First make a list of what should not be the purpose of life. The purpose of life is not to be miserable and make others miserable. Purpose of life is not to show-off to other people. Purpose of life is not to think on small terms for short term joy and little pleasures.

So you think about it and one day you will discover. When you discover you will say, ‘wow!’

Q: Guruji, I somehow cannot allow people to be very close to me. What to do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Don’t analyze this so much. Who is anyways close to whom?

If one is not close to them self then nobody is close to anybody. If you are close to yourself then you are close to everybody.