Times Of India Dated: Sep. 18, 2002
Column: The Speaking Tree
By Vikas Singh

Excerpts:

Question: Gurudev, I find it very hard to see God in my enemy despite my best efforts.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Don't try to see God. Just see a human. You may not have devotion, but at least you can have compassion.

Question: What do you feel about disbelievers?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: All good things are doubted. Negativism is so inbuilt that if I say I have great affection for you, you will ask 'really'? But if I say I hate you, you will immediately accept it!

Question: I see Krishna in you.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Krishna is in every child in the world. He is in every one of us, but we have lost touch with him. And the agony every human endures is the pain to be reunited with the Krishna within us.

Question: Is there place for spirituality in a world still trying to come to terms with what happened on September 11 a year ago?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: But after 9/11, New Yorkers have become much more loving and caring towards each other. They display much less aggression.

Question: Does it mean that the overall global level of aggression declined?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Recently, I was in Bihar. I told a gathering there, give me guru dakshina. The hate you feel towards your enemy, give it to me. That place used to be rife with violence and crime. Now, things are much better. But those were simple villagers. City people tend to think in much more complex ways...

Question: Is the art of living difficult?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: The way to 'gyan' is really simple. A child doesn't know his mother, he just loves her completely. fall in love with all shrishti, gyan will come itself.
I have a letter from an Al-Qaida member, who underwent Art of Living training in jail. That man had been brainwashed into believing the only way to attain heaven was to kill other people. But today, he says he has attained heaven right here on earth, through meditation. He has written that given a chance, he would like to help others attain this knowledge.