Doubt is the unfulfilled state of mind. Doubt arises when we are not aware of the fullness of life. They can scatter you and destroy you. It is important to understand where doubts arise from and how they can be replaced by faith.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's wisdom cannot satisfy doubt, nor can proof or eliminate it. Only, prana can eliminate doubt. Find Gurudev's wisdom on 'Doubt' below:
Doubt cannot come where there is a sense of closeness. Doubt needs a distance to appear. You never doubt something that is dear to you, close to you.
The moment you doubt, it is no longer dear to you; a distance has come. You may doubt yourself, but you do not doubt that which is yours. Self-doubt is a lack of closeness to oneself, a sense of belongingness, closeness, intimacy are all the antidotes for doubt.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Fine, sometimes I like chaat (savoury snack) also. You know chaat? It has a little tamarind, its a little sweet and chilly and has all tastes - I don’t mind. You have a little doubt; I can make it bigger if you want. My job is not to clear your doubt but to give you more. You have to break through it; you have to work through your doubt. I can put a few more doubts into you.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: That’s the job of the mind, to give a lot of doubts.
Being in love is the job of the heart and being in doubt is the job of the head. Both have got their places. You need to have both. How much doubt you can have, just keep having and when all the doubts are over and no more doubts come up, from there the faith begins.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Doubt is because of low prana, enhance your prana. Do Bhasrika, attend to your food and exercise. Exercise makes the circulation better and then the doubts all disappear.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You know, your doubt is always about something good. You only doubt the honest, you never doubt the dishonest. You doubt happiness, you never doubt depression. If you are depressed and someone asks you, ‘Are you depressed?’ Then you are very sure, you don't say, ‘Well, I am not very sure!’ With happiness, you say that ‘well, I am not sure whether I am happy or not.’ So we doubt love. Someone says, ‘I love you so much’, you say, ‘really?’ If someone says, ‘I hate you’, you never ask, ‘really?’ You doubt! So our doubt is always about something positive. And doubts, they come and they go.
Doubt more. I won’t say, don't doubt. Doubt as much as you can. See I tell you, it will fall away by itself. It cannot stand. So doubt more. A Master only encourages the student to doubt more. He will not clear the doubts. In fact, the job of the master is to create more doubt so that you can bake well and become solid. Because if not today, ten years later you may get the doubt, better get the doubt right away! Get as much as you can. Once they come, they don't come back again. Same doubts don't arise twice. Different doubts keep coming and when they come, don’t push them under the carpet. Don’t shelve it under, go with it. And a time comes when you become solid. It only makes you stronger, powerful, focused and responsible. I would say, good! Doubts have come about the Master, let them come. Hmm? Cook with them. They are fuel by which the mind can cook. Hmm! And you will see that you are much stronger than your doubt! Your faith, your love, your beauty, your truth is a hundred times more powerful than the doubt. The faith is like the sun, the doubt is like a cloud. No amount of clouds can cover the sun for long. They just come and they disappear. Yes, there are some cloudy days and it can be there, let it be. The sun will eventually shine.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You know doubts always come when something is positive. Do you know about it? How many of you don’t know? Raise your hands. You know if someone tells you ‘I love you very much’. You say ‘really’? But if someone tells you ‘I hate you’, you never say ‘really’, - correct? And similarly, you doubt your capabilities, you never doubt your weaknesses. If someone asks you are you happy you say oh I’m not too sure. But you’re so sure about your depression. Correct? So that’s why our doubt is always about something that is positive. We doubt in the honesty of someone, we never doubt in the dishonesty of someone.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: How does one deal with self-doubt? Understand doubt: doubt is always about something that is good. Someone tells you ‘I love you’, you ask them ‘really?’, and they say ‘I hate you’, you never ask 'really?' So, doubt is always about something good. You doubt your abilities, you never doubt your weaknesses. You doubt happiness, you never doubt misery. Isn’t it? Nobody doubts their depression. ‘but well, I’m not sure if I’m happy or not, well I'm not sure'. So when you understand that the doubt is always about something that’s positive, your mind shifts to a level, a different level altogether.
Doubt is simply low prana. If you do more pranayamas you will see that you have come about that.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Nevermind, doubt as much as you can. I don’t mind you doubting, go on. Know that what we doubt is always positive. We doubt the love of someone, not the anger of someone. We doubt our capabilities, we never doubt our weaknesses. We doubt our happiness. So, understand the nature of our doubt.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: That is the time when you need to hold on to your faith. Moments of doubt are like clouds. The clouds do come, but they come and disappear. If you do not cooperate or engage with them, they will simply come and go. If you shake hands with them and flow with them, then it will take a longer time to overcome them. The truth will always stand out and win at the end.
Doubts may come, and this is quite possible because of the company that we keep. Someone may tell you, 'oh, you know, so-and-so person does so much meditation, still, he became sick', etc. What do they mean? They think that if someone who is doing Yoga and Meditation fell sick, then what is the point of you doing all that? It is not because of meditation that the person became sick. He must have done some other things which would have brought him this sickness. It could also be because of his Karma.
The theory of Karma is so deep and unfathomable that you cannot think of understanding it all in a linear manner. Someone may have lived a very good life but may face a lot of difficulties towards the end of their life. Good action will always give only good results. A mango tree will only give mango fruits. It will not give you bitter neem fruits. It is the law of Nature.
So when doubts come, let them step in and go away by themselves. You keep moving forward.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There no one solution for this.
When you know that a person is very doubting by nature, then you will not trust everything he says.
Doubt is also important in life, but only as much as salt in food. When it becomes too much, then it is a disease, it is called paranoia. When it just the right amount, a person stays alert and aware and does not get into the wrong company. So, just like salt in food, you cannot do away with it completely. But when it is more than required, then pranayamas and meditation help.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: If we have any negative energy, then doubts come. Someone full of enthusiasm or energy does not get doubts. Doubt comes when your energy is low, when the body and mind are exhausted. When there is lack of clarity, then doubts come.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Doubt, within a limit, is a sign of intelligence. Beyond a limit, it is a disease. If you have self-doubt, then you can’t do anything. Doubt can clog your intellect like a disease. Also, if you keep on doubting everybody around you, you can’t do business. Business depends on trust. Administration depends on trust.
See, if you have a collection in a hotel of Rs. 10,000, you have to send somebody with the money to the bank to deposit it. If you doubt that the person will run away with the money, then you can’t move an inch in the society.
Again, a sincere doubt is good, to awaken you towards knowledge. But beyond limit, it can cause heartaches and drag you backwards. Life should be like when you are in a car; where the windshield is big, you have a side mirror, and a little mirror to see the back. Just imagine if your windshield is as small as the rear mirror, and the rear mirror is as big as your windshield, then you are only seeing the past. You can’t move anywhere. So, you need to know a little bit about the past. Sometimes, you need to look into the rear mirror, and sometimes, you have to look in the side mirror. The windshield is your present, the vision of where you want to go.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When the mind is full of doubts or is depressed, it means that the level of prana has come down. When the level of prana goes down, doubts arise and we become sad. So, the remedy is to increase the prana level, through pranayama, proper food, exercise, singing and fasting.
Go on a fruit diet for a few days. We keep on stuffing ourselves with food, even if we are not hungry.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: That is not my job. My job is to create more doubts. Doubts are like baking soda, it bakes you well, so get baked!
Once, I was in Sweden, I was in a Satsang and there was this journalist who came and stood in front of me and said, ‘Guruji, you always beat around the bush, you never answer questions directly. I am asking you a straight question now. You should answer me otherwise I am not going to leave you’. I said, ‘Okay.’ ‘Are you enlightened?’ He asked. I looked at him, smiled, and said, ‘No.’ Why take the headache of proving? When you say no, the matter is finished. The conversation ends. Full stop! Nobody in the past could ever convince anybody or even tried to convince anybody that they are enlightened. If somebody had said that, then they would run into problems, they might be crucified and put somewhere. So I simply said no, but he would not move. He said, ‘You are simply kidding, tell me the truth.’ I said, ‘No’. He said, ‘No, no. I don't agree, tell me the truth.’ I said, ‘It would make sense if I had said yes and you did not agree; but when I said no, how can you say that you don’t agree with me. That means something in your heart is telling you that there is something more. Listen to your own mind then, why are you asking me?’
So, one is the intellectual level, and the other is something else; the sixth sense tells you, ‘Oh yeah, this is the correct answer, this is the truth.’
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Do you know the nature of doubt? How many know the nature of doubt? Doubt is always about something positive. We doubt the honesty of a person, but we never doubt the dishonesty of a person. If someone tells you this person is dishonest, you believe it but if someone tells you this person is very honest, that is when you doubt, is this person really very honest. Isn’t it?
If someone asks you, ‘Are you happy?’ You will say, ‘I don’t know whether I am happy or not.’ But if you are depressed then you never doubt your depression.
Similarly, if someone tells you, ‘I love you so much’, you will say, ‘Really?’ But if someone says, ‘I am angry with you’, you won’t ask, ‘Really?’ So our doubts are always about the positive. We doubt our strengths but never doubt our weaknesses. That is why we doubt God.
In this world whatever you see is nothing and all that cannot be seen is everything! All this is nothing and nothing is everything. Got it? Whatever is seen is all going to vanish one day. That which is not seen will never vanish. This is an experiential fact. Do not accept this just because I am telling you but experience it in your life. Having this experience for a few moments even once in your life can bring an enormous amount of peace and strength inside you. Are you able to understand this?
Just wake up and see all of this is a dream. You need to experience this state of consciousness where you recognize that this is all dream, and only you can do this. The Guru and the scriptures can only direct you, but you have to sit and think.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Why are you afraid of doubts? Faith is like the Sun and doubts are like clouds. Never has the Sun been afraid of clouds. Never have the clouds been able to hide the Sun entirely. Similarly, doubts come and pass by, but they cannot touch you.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When there is positive energy, there is faith. When there is negative energy there is doubt. But never mind if doubts come, so what!
Life is a play and display of all these. Doubts come and then faith comes. You should not be afraid of doubts. I would say welcome them all.
