Self is the ocean and mind is a wave

23 May 2010,
Bangalore Ashram, India

Q: I feel happy and peaceful here. My heart is really contented. All negativity comes when I go out. I encounter all problems like corruption and bribery. How to face these problems? How to maintain the same positivity when I go from here?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You forget a strength in you – Prayer and power of your Sankalpa (positive intention). You keep doing practices and your things are taken care of. Don’t ask for small things in your prayers. Ask for big things – Let government be good and stable, Let this knowledge reach out to many more people. It is up to you to make a divine society. You can start a collective moment. There are many good people and a very few people who cause disturbance, but their influence looks like they are many. You come together and you will find what difference you can make.

Q: How to overcome self pity?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: The moment you recognize, you stop it. That is it. If you are asking for someone else, then only they can come out of it. Only meditation can help. Do advance course.

Q: Many people have started preaching their own practices like Sudarshan Kriya. What to do about it?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Many people have started their own things. These kind of wrong practices don’t work in the long run. Don’t worry about all of them. People try, get headache and then they come here.
The spiritual practices like Sudarshan Kriya are not only at physical level. It is the divine grace which works.
One can do 21 days teacher training, and spread this knowledge everywhere after becoming a teacher.

Q: How to transform negative energies into positive energies?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: That is what we all have to do, and that is what we are doing. Let us get more and more youth together and change this atmosphere in society.

Q: Is memory a blessing or curse?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Forgetting bad things is a blessing. Forgetting good things can be a curse.

Q: What is the best thing to do after one recognizes one's mistake?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Recognizing your mistake and going forward is good. There is no point in hiding or justifying. Save the mind. When the mind is established, you can’t do mistakes even if you want. With the knowledge of the self, all negative emotions like fear, anger and sorrow disappear.

Q: How to achieve excellence while following the middle path?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: It will happen. Your intention is enough. Main thing is Sadhna(Practices and self effort), next is awareness, and third is - no feverishness.

Q: What is difference between self and mind?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Self is the ocean and mind is a wave.

“That which you cannot express is Love.
That which you cannot reject/renounce is Beauty.
That which you cannot avoid is the Truth.”
~ Sri Sri Ravishankar

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