Q&A with Guruji
 
Bali,Indonesia
 
Q: Dear Guruji, how to explain a teenager why they shouldn’t drink alcohol or taste once to know.
 Sri Sri: Teenage is a very impressionable age. If one gets addicted to something, it’s very difficult to get rid of it. It’s good to have a sense of aversion. Certain aversions help you like a shield; especially teenage & early 20’s. After you’re 30 it’s a different story. Create that sense of aversion towards violence, towards killing, torturing animals, tobacco & alcohol. No need for everyone to taste tobacco or experience drugs. Certain experiences can damage the nervous system.
 
Q: Why do the eyes flicker? Does this indicate some future ill happening?

 Sri Sri: Prana ke sanchar se alag-alag anubhuti hoti hain. Dhyana, Om Namah Shivaya se in sab par asar padta hain.
 
Q: What is the best way to personally interact with you? Whenever I try to come close to you, people stop me. I, too love to hear your answers.
 Sri Sri:: Tomorrow, I’m going to be meeting you all in small groups.
 
Q: Which is better chanting or yoga?
 Sri Sri: Yoga gives you depth. Without that cleansing, just chanting is superficial. It’s like asking while watching T.V. should I first see or first hear?
 
Q: Why do you name your program Art of Living? Why not Art & Science of Living?
 Sri Sri: I didn’t give that name. It all just spontaneously happened. Someone said  Art of Living…. & someone came up with the symbol of the 2 swans & sun. Doesn’t matter. As long as you appreciate it becomes an art. As long as you understand it is science. 
 
Q: Guruji, for the first time I have seen my mind chattering & I am really fed-up. Seeing all this, I got a headache. It is so irritating. Can I ever be peaceful? I just want to be blank.

 Sri Sri: If a particular thought is there, let it be there. Mind is like fire. Anything you put in fire, it just dissolves, purifies.
 
Q: I swear & curse a lot. Please talk about the power of words.
 Sri Sri: Often you are not sensitive to others. So we behave in ways & are very rude. Sometimes you hurt someone. The more you go in silence & meditation, you realize the power of words. & how you can use it only in the positive sense. It just becomes your nature. Bad words simply can’t come out. At the most I have said stupid. I have never said a bad word to anybody, It would not come. Not even in school & college days. As you move on the path of Knowledge, they simply disappear from the vocabulary.
 
Q: Do you exist in more than one place at a time?

 Sri Sri: Yes.
 
Q: I am not able to find happiness in anything. Everything seems so pointless. I feel low.
 Sri Sri: Feel you are here for me. I have a lot of work to do on this planet before we all depart. Think that in your mind. Help me out.
 
Q: Keep me on this path forever.

 Sri Sri: Once you come, there is no return from here. There is only 1-way traffic.
 
Q: What should I do if a friend of mine keeps stealing my friends from me. She does this to every friend I get.
 Sri Sri: Steal your friend! Oh! Very serious. Tell your friend don’t steal my friend but you can steal my mind.
 
Q: What do you look for in your followers? Does wearing white bring us closer to you?

 Sri Sri: I expect a smile in anyone who has done Art of Living. Confidence that never whithers away. Smile that never wanes. You don’t have to wear white clothes. You can wear coloured clothes or I would have ordered uniforms for everybody. It looks colourful.