Q & A with SriSri Ravishankar

Q. : What is meditation?

Sri Sri : It’s very simple. When the mind becomes free from
agitation, becomes calm and serene and is at peace, meditation
happens. By doing meditation, you can turn your body into a power-
house by generating an inner source of energy.

Q. : What are the benefits of meditation?

Sri Sri : You don’t get blood pressure and health problems. The mind
becomes clear, intuition develops, obstacles and negative influences
due to the planets will be removed and problems become smaller
before coming to you. Mental peace, happiness and plenty of other
benefits are there.

Q. : Why is meditation so boring?

Sri Sri : In the beginning it may be boring, but that will change.
Stay on. Go step by step. Meditation is resting in yourself,
becoming the seer from being the seen.

Q. : What is the distinction between sleep and meditation?

Sri Sri : One is vertical another is horizontal. For now, just think
that much. But tomorrow when you sit for meditation don’t think
about it. You’ll neither be able to meditate nor be able to sleep.
Now is the time.

Q. : I always go to the sleep while meditating. Does it happen with
everybody? What experience do they have? How to solve this?

Sri Sri : Don’t worry about the experiences of others. Be with your
own experience and the experience varies from time to time. So don’t
worry.

Q. : Is there any maximum limit as to how much we can meditate?

Sri Sri : Do only as much as necessary. There is no need to do too
much. Meditation is like taking a bath. To wash the mind, you need
meditation and once the mind is clean.

Q. : Why do I lose my concentration when I meditate?

Sri Sri : Concentration is not meditation. Meditation is de-
concentration, letting go. Meditation calms the mind. It feels good.

Q. : What is equanimity? What is the significance of silence?

Sri Sri : Brain has two sides. The left side is logic and theright
side is music. Both are needed to make one whole. If only music is
there the brain won’t function properly. If there is only
mathematical and logical mind, there will be no feelings and we will
be deprived of the finer aspects of life. So, both are needed. When
you are endowed with both then it becomes a satsang. Good song is a
satsang. Don’t think about what there is in singing, or whom to sing
about or
why? Just sing, open your mouth and sing along or sing from the
heart. We observe silence only during mourning. But here it’s
different. It is not like the silence of mourning. In mourning, we
can’t stand silence for more than two minutes. Here it’s inner
silence, a joyful silence. Before you go into silence, don’t
keep any troubles in the mind, put it in the basket. We are here to
calm the mind and when mind is silenced you experience true peace.

Q. : But in our daily lives, we also have to handle paying bills,
parking vehicles and other mundane things. How can we dothis with
the same calm mind without getting irritated or perturbed?

Sri Sri : You take a shower in the morning to clean your body. After
that you do all the daily activities. You don’t have to keep on
taking a shower throughout the day. It is like that. You meditate
and calm your mind, then go on with other activities. It is not easy
to keep yourself undisturbed but will happen as you keep doing the
practices regularly. Then it will become easy