40 Quotes by Ravi Shankar

I have great difficulty sitting in the middle of the night and writing. Everything I do comes spontaneous. Sometimes it takes a long time; sometimes it comes just like that.

It is natural to have your favorite actor or actress or musician or composer. But India is the only place where we fight over it.

To me, you know, from my childhood I always had a fascination for United States.

When people say that George Harrison made me famous, that is true in a way.

In the U.K., classical music is composed by individuals and written down. Indian music is based on certain sequences called ragas. When I perform live, 95% of the music is improvised: it never sounds the same twice.

I do think that my Indian classical audiences thought I was sacrificing them through working with George; I became known as the 'fifth Beatle.' In India, they thought I was mad.

Whether you are aware of them or not, whether you recognize them as spiritual or not, you probably have had the experiences of silence, or transcendence, or the Divine-a few seconds, a few minutes that seem out of time; a moment when the ordinary looks beautiful, glowing; a deep sense of being at peace, feeling happy for no reason. When these experiences come...believe in them. They reflect your true nature.

What Sri Chinmoy does is God-given! He has a tremendous, a fantastic creative urge.

There cannot possibly be a god in heaven watching all of this calmly.