When you are free from stress, you have a sense of belongingness and understanding’

Q: I feel very shy while interacting with people. What is the remedy for the same?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You know, when you have a sense of belongingness, shyness disappears.

Q: What is the fastest way to feel belongingness and unity?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When you are free from stress, you have a sense of belongingness and understanding. This is what happens when people undergo The Art of Living program. It happens so naturally.

Q: Should yoga become an integrated subject in school, especially if training/practicing can help our students to achieve something higher?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes, certainly. In several countries, they have already made yoga compulsory in schools.

Q: Do you follow any religion?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes, I am a born Hindu. I continue to be a Hindu, but the programs we teach are very secular. People of any religion can practice it.

Q: Please tell us what does ‘one word family’ mean to you and what should we do to make this family happy?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: What family means to me? The whole world is one family for me. You know, I feel absolutely at home wherever I am. I never have a feeling of being in a country or land that is not mine. I never felt strange anywhere. My concept is to see the whole world as one family; of course family is a very important institution, it is the foundation of a society.

Q: What shall we do to always be happy, because as I know your concept is to relax and attain happiness by that?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: What to do to always be happy? First, drop the feverishness to hold onto ALWAYS and you will find yourself happy. And then, if some moments of unpleasantness creep into life, accept that also.

Q: You have a very big dream in bringing world peace. If, in our lives, we meet people who follow orthodox and rigid ideas and are ready to die and harm other people, how should we deal with it?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: We need to deal with such people with patience and we have to educate them, it’s not an easy task. First, we should begin from prisons. When one amongst them joins us in spreading peace, it is much easier.

Q: Do you have any special courses or programs to help the people working honestly in mass media to reduce the stress?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes. You know, this program that we teach is very useful in reducing stress, irrespective of whether you are in a media company or in the corporate sector or in aviation. Stress is a common factor in any work place and this will definitely help people get out of stress. Mainly, what we need to see in the world today is a violence-free society, a disease-free body, a confusion-free mind, an inhibition-free intellect and trauma-free memory. You know, we nurture so many types of inhibitions; if ten compliments are given to you and only one insult is given, your mind locks onto the one insult. So we need to bring a change to that - a trauma-free memory and a sorrow-free soul. This is the birth right of every individual and this is what these practices bring to you.

Q: In today’s world, people really think of survival. How to deal with it?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: It is a natural concept where survival is the first thing. It is a natural instinct but when self-confidence and vision is infused, survival will naturally be included in it, without any kind of fear. I have spoken about this in our books - Celebrating Silence and Celebrating Love. You can read these books when you have a question.