Q: How should parents balance between showing affection and being strict with children?
Sri Sri: How do you balance a bicycle?
When you want to ride a horse, if you leave the reins too loose, then you have no control. If you hold it too tight, the horse has no freedom to move ahead. We need to know when to rein in and when to let go. You can keep one aspect in mind: if one of you is showing anger, the other must be supportive. Both parents should not show anger at the same time.
Q: Between doing a job and serving selflessly, which is more important?
Sri Sri: You must keep a balance in life. Our jobs are meant to bring people/families together, a means of livelihood. Spirituality is our breath, is of utmost importance. Take these two aspects together. If you are free from family responsibilities, then you can focus on service. Till that time, you must take both together. There are some people who are free to serve humanity without concern for their livelihood. In that situation, do not crave for comforts. Be content and serve. Anyway, those who are completely devoted to serving society, their needs are fulfilled even as they arise.
Q: How to be free from fear?
Sri Sri: Have faith. Have faith in the presence of the Divine; that the Divine is your very own; that the Divine is in you. When you are established in this knowledge, you are free from fear.
Q: I have experienced love in so many different relationships, but nothing like the love I have experienced here during the course.
Sri Sri: All these other experiences of love have brought you here today.
Q: While doing seva, sometimes I get attached to name and fame. What should I do?
Sri Sri: When you are centered, established in the knowledge, when you meditate, this situation does not arise. When your attachment shifts from the work at hand to name and fame, it is time to go within.
Be ready to face any challenges that society throws at you. It is said that gold shines more brilliantly, the more it is beaten. When you squeeze sugarcane, it gives you sweetness. Sandalwood, when ground, gives fragrance. Stay in your nature even while under pressure. Every situation that comes to us is for our upliftment.
Q: How to develop mastery over hunger and sleep?
Sri Sri: Rise above them naturally; not by force. Hunger and sleep are the dharma of the body. Don’t enforce limitations upon yourself. Integrate knowledge into your life. Study the Bhagvad Gita.
Q: What is the difference between the Spiritual Master and the Divine?
Sri Sri: There is no difference between the Master, the Self and the Divine. The Master can be seen, that is all. The Master is not the individual, He is the light, the consciousness.
Q: What is the importance of a name?
Sri Sri: Well, you need something by which people can call you! One name is the name our parents gave to us at the time of birth. We are deeply connected to this name. To be completely free, the last attachment that we let go is that of our name. Connect and attach yourself to the name (the mantra that you receive from the Master). The mantra establishes you in the witness consciousness. Of the mantras, the highest is the 'ajapa jap', the mantra which resonates effortlessly and spontaneously in our consciousness. It is not a doing but a happening. That is So Ham. It resonates eternally. When we experience this with awareness, it becomes meditation.
(From the Office of His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar)
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