I have experienced that group meditation works better than sitting isolated and doing meditation. Can you talk on the group meditation verses individual meditation?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes, it has some impact. See, we are all energy. So we catch energy from others also. We get influenced by others.
If someone in the group is mad, you also get mad. I think everybody has experienced this. Suppose you come in a room where someone is shouting and yelling, something happens to your brain. If you understand the quantum physics, then you will understand how this also works better.

A field gets created when more people sit and meditate. So automatically group meditation becomes deeper. But if you listen to some knowledge and you get some training, you can sit alone also and have the same impact.

我经验到集体静心比独自坐着静心的效果来得好。您能不能谈谈集体静心和个人静心的对比？
古儒吉：对，它有一些影响。瞧，我们全都是能量。所以我们会接上其他人的能量。我们受他人影响。
假如团体中有人生气，你也会生气。我想每个人都有过这样的经验。假设你进入一个房间，里头有个人在呼喊和吼叫，你的脑里会发生一些事。如果你明白量子物理学，那么你也会更明白这如何运作。

当更多人坐下来静心时，会产生一个场。所以团体静心会自动变得更深沉。但如果你聆听一些知识和有一些训练，你也可以独自坐着，并且有同样的效果。

You said that meditation should be done twice a day. I feel meditation should be for twenty-four hours. Twice a day is fine, but still after doing it twice a day, it does not stay with the external forces because life is so stressful!
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Shall we put the cart before the horse? In the beginning you start with twenty minutes a day so that you get into a practice, and then what happens is that the calmness and peace stays with you throughout the day. It becomes a meditation for twenty-four hours. It takes a little time and practice, then it will happen.
Do things with mindfulness, slowly, step by step. But first that should not be an excuse. Some people take it as an excuse, ‘Oh I am in meditation twenty-four hours. But mind is going buzz buzz buzz, like that.

So these twenty minutes will get you into the habit of being still. Then gradually, if you have more time, a few more retreats and you can pick up the speed where you will find that it doesn’t matter if you meditate or you don’t.

您说静心应该一天做2次。我觉得静心应该是24小时的。一天2次很好，但即使一天做2次后，外力却令它无法持续，因为生活充满着压力！
古儒吉：我们要本末倒置吗？起初你从一天20分钟开始，好让你养成习惯，然后你会全天候保持平静与安详。它变成24小时的静心。这需要一些时间和练习，然后就会发生。
带着觉知做事，慢慢地，一步一步来。但首先那不应该是借口。有些人把它当成借口：「噢，我24小时都在静心。但心智嗡嗡嗡嗡的响过不停，嗡嗡嗡嗡那样。」

所以这20分钟会让你养成静止的习惯。然后逐渐地，假如你有更多时间、多参加几次避静活动，你可以加快速度，这时你会发现无论静不静心都没关系了。

My colleagues are stressed, how do we bring them to learn yoga? How do I get them started?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: I leave this thought with you, because with this thought you will find ways to bring them in. You can either tell them, or you take up some research on pre-yoga and post-yoga and come up with a paper. Submit the paper and invite people for a discussion. I think scientific tempered people will not be in a closed mindset. If someone has a very closed mindset, I wouldn’t call them scientific, they are prejudiced.

Thirty years ago, when we wanted to do a course in Boston for convicts, people thought it is weird. They just gave us a very small and dusty room, with 9 convicts because we insisted that we want to go in there. But today that is not the case.
Today yoga is being accepted in many of the prisons. People have accepted it and they find a big difference in the way they look at life.

我的同事们压力很大，我们该怎么带他们去学瑜伽？我该怎么让他们开始？
古儒吉：我留给你去思考，因为有了这个念头，你会找到方法把他们带进来。你可以告诉他们，或者你做一些瑜伽前和瑜伽后的研究，写成报告。呈上这份报告，邀请人们来讨论。我想科学化性格的人不会有封闭的心态。假如某人有非常封闭的心态，我不会称他们为科学化的，他们是偏见的。

30年前，当我们要在波士顿为罪犯上课时，人们觉得这种做法很奇怪。他们只给我们一个很小和充满灰尘的房间，还有9个罪犯，因为我们坚持要进去。但今天情况已非如此。
今天瑜伽在很多监狱都被接受。人们接受了它，继而发现他们看待生命的方式有很大的不同。

What is meditation? While doing meditation here, I followed the instructions, but my mind wandered. But I did not feel that it went on for 25 minutes.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: That’s it. So this is the first experience. 25 minutes passed by and you did not feel the time. All the hovering thoughts somewhere became calmer, and you feel relaxed in the body. These are signs of meditation.

You know, it will take longer than just one session. There are several CDs on meditation. In the beginning you can take those CDs and sit and listen and practice. Then you may not require CDs later on.

什么是静心？在这里做静心时，我听从指示，但我的心智却到处游荡。可是我并不觉得它持续了25分钟。
古儒吉：就是这样。所以这是第一次经验。25分钟过去了，而你却感觉不到时间。所有在某处徘徊的念头变得更平静，你的身体感觉放松。这些是静心的迹象。

你知道，只是一次静心是不够的。有几张有关静心的光盘。起初你可以拿那些光盘，坐下来听和练习。然后你过后可能就不需要光盘了。

At what point does someone begin to feel that ‘I am going in the correct direction, that I am achieving some level of consciousness’, or whatever you call it?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: It will be as obvious as a pain in the leg. So when you have a pain in the leg, you don’t have to go and ask someone, is my leg paining? No!
It is a personal experience. So the same thing will come up with you. You will feel absolutely at home, totally energized, like every cell of your body is vibrant with energy.

In fact, you don’t need a yoga teacher if you observe any kid. Every baby from the time it is born till the age of three, has done all the yoga postures, breathing, meditation, everything. So by birth we are all yogis. We have done it, but somewhere later on we just forgot it. We dropped it, that’s all. This is only going back to where we began.

什么时候一个人会开始觉得「我的方向是正确的，我正达到某种意识层次」，或者无论你如何称呼它？
古儒吉：它会像腿痛那么明显。所以当你腿部有痛时，你不需要去问别人：我的腿在疼吗？不！
这是个人的经验。所以你会浮现同样的感觉。你会觉得绝对自在、完全充电了，就像你身体每一个细胞都充满活力。

事实上，如果你观察任何小孩，你便不需要瑜伽老师。每个婴儿从出生到三岁，已经做出所有的瑜伽姿势、呼吸、静心，一切。所以我们生来都是瑜伽行者。我们都做过了，但后来我们忘记了。我们放弃了它，仅此而已。这只是回到我们开始的地方。