We need to wake up & see that planet is our home

Q: Dearest Guruji, I’m not strong enough to take a commitment for whole one year. What can I do?      
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Not strong enough? Take one day at a time. You are strong enough to take commitment for one day,that is enough. And each day you can continue doing it. Don’t think of one long year, “oh my God! One year I’ve to do something! Today I do, that’s good. Tomorrow I do, that’s good”.
Q: Dearest Guruji, I have prayed for your coming here this week. Thank you so much, I’m deeply grateful. I’d like you to talk about prayers
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Prayers happens when you feel utterly helpless or when you feel totally grateful. The third condition when prayer happens is when you are in wisdom. Then you see that the quality of the consciousness has expanded beyond its limitations and has risen to another plane, another dimension which is so fulfilling, so intuitive and so full of wisdom and love.
Q: Please tell about relationships and why they are often so difficult.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Well! You should again start reading celebrating love. Why do you think relationship is difficult?
Q: I do not know how to express my feelings and emotions as I was trying to hide them; all the stress goes into myself. I do not know what to do with this. Is it very difficult to empty my mind even while meditating with your guidance?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Hmm! If you get too many thoughts, there are certain reasons. One of the reasons, for getting too many thoughts, is when your bowel is not clear, when your stomach is upset, constipated. If your bowel movements are not ok then you get too many thoughts. If there is no proper blood circulation in the body, then also you get too many thoughts, yeah? So, yoga and pranayama will help. Proper food and diet will help. Show to Ayurvedic doctor, he will say if there is too much pitta in your system, then he will suggest the food that will also help.
Q: How to deal with and work with the people who have negative qualities like aggression, jealousy, instability and so on?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Skillfully. See that you don’t react to them but with compassion, see how you can work with them. Yeah? One thing is it can improve your skills. Second is it can improve your patience. You can gain patience. Third is it will make you realize that the person is not constantly jealous or angry. They also change! You will see and wonder on how people change.
Q: What is the connection between being like a child and taking a responsibility?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You take the responsibility, that’s another thing ; being like a child does not hinder your responsibility. In fact it helps you take a responsibility.
What is the difference between being like a child and being childish? In childishness, you don’t take responsibility! Being like a child you take responsibility, yet you are natural, be connected with every body, take feedbacks from every one, and not get upset about someone’s comment about you or a criticism. You know, we explode when someone makes a negative remark on us or someone criticizes us. So, we should stand up to the criticism, and take criticism freely. If it is useful, inculcate it. And if not, ignore it without losing your cool.
Q: How important is it that we act for planet? What can we do? How do we sustain?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: We need to wake up and see that planet is our home and when you go higher, you don’t see borders. Borders are our understanding, our illusions. There really is no border. Sky knows no border, clouds know no border, wind knows no border. The elements of this earth have no borders. The planet is one home for every one. We are all one family. So, we need to think from a broader perspective. Which is the correct perspective? That the whole planet belongs to us. We cannot dump our nuclear waste into some other place. Any place in the earth will again come back to us! We cannot keep one place clean and pure in isolation. It is not possible. We have to care for the whole planet. We have to make the entire planet organic. When it comes to making food, growing food; you cannot say, “ok, I’ll grow organic food only in this part and rest other parts can be pollute with chemicals!” Because the air will carry! We have created so many types of viruses on this planet. Because we meddled with nature. We have destroyed many species on this planet because we have not taken good care of it and our food production has gone so low. That it’s going to be a very heavy thing on the coming generation, you know! I think every individual, every human being on the planet will have to take responsibility of not polluting the planet, of continuing sustainable development by planting more trees, preserving our lakes, preserving water. It is so important!
Water scarcity is another big issue in the world. Millions of people are into starvation! So, we need to have a global picture and care for the whole planet. Of course, we need to care for our immediate home, our immediate neighbors, the place where we live in. This is most important! But at the same time, we should have the idea about the whole planet and the entire humanity being a family.
Q: Dear Guruji, is it possible to love and stay strong? Is it possible to love andstay reasonable? Is it possible to be in love and stay dispassionate? Is it possible to be in love and be free from jealousy and possession?
Sri Sri Ravi Shnakar: Definitely. It is possible to stay in such a state of love without any of these negative connotations with that – if there is wisdom. Love with wisdom is bliss. Love minus wisdom is what you have mentioned; all this jealousy, greed, all this paraphernalia.
Q: Dear Guruji, could you please give me an answer? Is the man I’m in love with since one year is the right one for me?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Well! You are in deep love with somebody, so that person must be right for now. But whether he continues to be right in future, no body can say. It depends on you! How you handle. You are in love with some body, but is he in love with you or not? First you find that out! If that man is also in love with you, then see how you both preserve your love with a dose of wisdom and how you carry on, how you conduct yourself – all these factors are there. Correct? It’s very easy to fall in love, but many don’t know how to maintain that. Someone falls in love with you and you don’t know how to receive and nurture that love. We loose other’s love for us too. So these skills, I have spoken about these skills in the knowledge facets, in Celebrating Love, you read it.

SUTRA: "Be in the 'now'. Desire is wanting to be happy tomorrow. Be happy and joyful now. Like children, they are happy with 'now'." - Sri Sri... 

And now as promised, few pictures of me on few interesting seats/throne. I like interesting chairs.

Top: Christian Dior (Actually borrowed from sister, gifted to her by me)

Bag: Gifted by sister

Location: Nordstrom: Seattle

The throne was meant for kids. But how could I have missed an opportunity to sit and get my self shot here.

What a pretty chair? Made of red hearts. My heart fell for it. I sat on it in a way, that this chair could be shot and was visible in the picture.

Location: Shanghai.