Sri Sri Ravi Shankar - Clare Agius Malta - Interview Dec 09 Part 2/4

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar - Clare Agius Malta - Interview Dec 09 Part 2/4

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Clare: If all sounds so nice, simple and beautiful, but Iam sure you found people who are not ready to be reached and to in dialogue with and who are not yet ready to believe. How do you deal with people who are in that situation?

Guruji: There used to be a lot of prejudice before when I started it 29 years ago. But now with the flow of knowledge, with the flow of information they are more open now. They are not that prejudiced as they were before. Before there used to be racial prejudice, religious prejudice, even people of other religions were not that welcome, that type of prejudice was there, but now I feel that world is moving on a different note, that there is more harmony, more inter faith dialogues are happening, inter cultural events are happening, people are coming closer to each other to, understand better. Thats why I say that we need to realise this ancient idea of one family, one human family. So we drop the prejudice and we drop narrow mindedness and see the world from a wide angle lens.

Clare: One of the old technique is called the Sudarshan Kriya, perhaps to the people who have no idea about it how can you explain it to them?

Guruji: You know it is very difficult to explain. It is like the sweetness of the pudding is in tasting it. But I can make an attempt to give a synopsis of what it is. YOu know we have rhythms in the naturre, seasons flowing in a rhythm and then there is a rhythm in the body, particular time when you do want to sleep, when you are hungry and when you are thirsty. There is a rhythm in the body, the bio rhythm, like that there is rhythm in tyhe nature there is a shythm in the breath too which we have never noticed and then we have a rhythm in the thought process and then there is a rhythm in our emotions and then there is a rhythm in our inner being, soul. Sudarshan Kriya brings a harmony between all these rhythms. It is a rhythmic breathing which brings the mind to a very blissful state deep within and twice if you do it you can do it on your own. In the beginnig you need a teacher, instructions to guide you through it. But afterwards at any time, any where you can do it , sit relaxed, twenty minutes you do it, ten minutes of Sudarshan Kriya and ten minutes of pranayam.

Clare: And who are the people who have benefitted from it across the world, you are in many countries, so many people are practicing it.

Guruji: Millions of people are benefitted out of it. In prisons you know, 300,000 prisoners all over the world have been benefitted by this. Where ever there is stress, where ever there is tension, health problems and when people do it they feel so good. Neither at home nor at school anybody teaches us how to manage our negative emotions, if you are feeling depressed, upset, unhappy or angry people simply tell you dont get angry, dont get upset but they dont tell you how not to. If it is a feeling, it is a reality. You are upset and you are jealous and you are greedy and you do not know how to get it out of your system. Thats where the Sudarshan Kriya is so beneficial. And if you learn it and do it in 5 minutes you are out of those negative feelings.

Clare: And so you practice breathing technique when you have these feelings?

Guruji: When you have rage, anger and in 5 minutes you do the Kriya and you are back to normal.

Clare: In fact I wanted to ask you this, whenever I have seen you, you seem to be always happy, smiling, you hyave the right words to say to people. Is it difficult to maintain this state always?

Guruji: No, No, because I dont make an effort. Otherwise I would be terribly tensed. I just remain in my element, in my nature and perhaps that is why Iam relaxed all the time. I dont make any effort to impress anybody or any effort to show or say which Iam not. So Iam like an open book. Iam the way Iam. Thats it.

Transcribed By Lakshmi Ravishankar