New Delhi:

Another episode of ‘Duologue with Barun Das Season 3’ is out. The much-awaited third season of the Duologue Series has lived up to its expectations and how. A spate of thrilling, intellectually stimulating episodes that have set the benchmark for quality in conversation and content engagement. Airing exclusively on News9 and News9 Plus, the show is presented by Radico, with associate partners Tata AIG and Tata Capital. The series is helmed by MD & CEO Barun Das, and in the latest episode he is joined by revered spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in a stimulating conversation that covers everything from spirituality, identity, and the complexities of our everyday life, as we try to make sense of our time when the inner life confronts with the practical one outside.

Of identify and life

As with every show in the Duologue series,  MD and CEO Barun Das opened the conversation with expressing the feelings he has towards his guest, and this time Mr Das said that he only had one feeling, that he was “blessed”, and that he might have done a lot of things in his life that were correct so as to get a chance to have a conversation with Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. A chance he termed was a “rare privilege” for him, further adding that from the conversation “my intention and privilege to learn from you.”

When this question was posed to Sri Sri, he explained, “This is a question that every mature person will ask or should ask. Who am I? And this is the journey towards spirituality. What is this is science, who am I is the beginning of spirituality and one needs to explore this more and more.” 

Further, commenting on how the other side of feeling blessed is blaming others, Das in a personal note said how “As an individual I have lived my life without blaming anyone.” Das then with extreme perceptivity asked Gurudev an existential question that plagues us all, “Who am I?”. 

Sri Sri then talked about the importance of asking questions in our culture, explaining how even in the Geeta, it finally says one should think it over, if it appeals to one only then one should take it. “We give so much importance to our intellect (our buddhi). Our highest prayer is, let my intellect be soaked in the truth.” 

Talking about the multiplicity of our identities and how we perceive them, Gurudev then added that, “Life is much more than what we think or brand and label it, and restrict ourself.” Looking at an inherent dichotomy and complexity present such a concept when applied practically, Das then inquired how “If it too amorphous, if it is not crystallised, it is very difficult for me to fathom it, very difficult for me to understand it and then apply to my day to day life.” In extremely playful sequences of remarks, both Das and Gurudev tried to resolve this dichotomy, with Sri Sri talking about how crystallisation leads to a restrictive approach and Das on how without it one feels “a little lost.”

The inner and the outer life

The conversation then continued, delving into topics that merged both one’s inner life and the practical world around it. It was an inquiry into one’s self and its conflict with the world, and Das in this vein asked Gurudev, “Is life transactional? Is there a transaction happening between me and the rest of the life.” Gurudev, agreeing to this sentiment, explained “Everything in the creation affects everything else. You are sending vibrations all the time.” One mood for example, affects not just them but everyone around them. 

Taking the point of the transactional nature of life forward, Das then inquired that for him, “I don’t keep track of what I give but I keep track of what I get.” Gurudev explained, “You don’t need to do that. Life is not all measured thing, you cannot calculate everything.” 

Taking the conversation further, Sri Sri then talked about the importance of “expansion of your consciousness” for the importance of spiritual journey and how we are much “beyond these identities we take on. The biggest problem in the world is that we cling on to our identities.” Mr Das agreed to this sentiment of mixing up our identities by sharing a personal anecdote, wherein he talked about how his young son often would say, “You’re not a CEO at home so don’t act like one.”

Das then asked how he can also do this, as his tendency is to “calculate and put a number to anything.” But this is not in our nature and we are emotional beings, despite our attempts to not accept this. “We should overlook our feelings and emotions. There is nothing wrong about it.” A matured life, as Gurudev put it succinctly, is one where “it has the right and left brain activities are balanced.”

Utilising the chance to speak to someone as enlightened and articulate as Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Mr Barun Das optimised this opportunity and asked questions of extreme perceptivity and wit, and these questions were rooted in issues we all face today. Another such inquiry by Das pertained to keeping the balance between tradition and modernity. Gurudev perfectly explained this conflict by pointing out that “Just because something is old we can’t discard that, just because something is new we can’t accept everything.” 

“Spirituality is the banana, and religion is the banana skin,” said Gurudev when talking about the intersection of the two. “You throw the banana and holding on to the skin is not going to help you, it will only give you more conflict in life.” What is important is “value, compassion, love, togetherness, broad-mindedness, prejudiceless.” 

The conversation exemplified unprecedented spiritual insights and practical advice and it ended on a futuristic outlook, and the discussion shifted to AI and its dangers. When Das inquired of the incoming dangers of AI, Sri Sri explained how he does not see it as a risk, but a challenge that tells us that we should be more creative. “Any technology depends on the user. You can use it for good or you can use it to harm the society. That’s why it is necessary to have a moral high ground in people, ethical values. Ethics should be really implemented.” 

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