The Official Website of his holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Venue: India Islamic Cultural Centre, New Delhi

Organized by AI-Mustafa International University (Branch India) & Al-Mustafa Islamic Research Society

His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Om shanti shanti shanti. I congratulate the organisers and Mustafa university which has undertaken this project of bringing understanding between the religions. There is an undercurrent of unity among all religions. But it has to come on the surface with the practitioners of the religions. That’s most important. Earlier last month I was invited as a chief guest on Hussain martyr day in Bangalore. In martyr day they had put many posters. One of the posters said of Ali Hussains words that the first books of wisdom was written In India. I don’t remember exactly the numbers and exactly from where the reference was given. Said the first book of wisdom was given in India. It was Ali Hussains words. Prophet mohammed has said there is a cool breeze coming to me from the east, from India. (clapping) India has always sent a cool breeze to the world. And cool breeze in the desert is a very big compliment. If you say cool breeze coming in Shimla, its not a compliment (laughter) but in the desert, in Arabia, if a cool breeze has come means it is bringing me such an elevation, such comfort of my heart and soul. The purpose of religion is to unite people and unite towards god. Horizontal unity towards people and vertical unity to the universal spirit, to God. (clapping) If any one of these aims are not achieved then we have failed religion; religion has not failed us. We have done discredit, we are discrediting religion. So it’s our responsibility, the people’s responsibility to see that there is a horizontal unity. That is unity with all the people of the world, as one world and one people. As in the Vedic concept it is always said ‘Vasudeiva kutumbakam’-the whole world is one family. There are different ways of worship. There was only 1 Buddha, there are 32 sects of Buddhism today In India and world over. There was only 1 Prophet Mohammed and there are 4 or 5 different sects of Islam that is existing; Ahmadia is there, Shia, there is Sunni, and then there is Sufi Islam. Many different type of Islam is there. Similarly there was only 1 Jesus Christ, there are 72 sects of Christianity in the world. In Hinduism there is countless (laughter, clapping) (inaudible) so many different of philosophies, sects are there. In Jainism Mahavir was only 1 but after Mahavir there are 5 sects of Jainism has come in to existence. And Sikhism also there is Nirankari, there is Nihangs, so many, there is akalis, so many different sects of Sikhism has come. This is the nature of the world. Philosophies grow, different ideas come. But what we should all stick to is the one truth, there is one God, one divinity, and 1 human race, 1 human family. (inaudible) This would bring intellectuals together, religious heads together. And then the common people get inspired when both the intellectuals, scholars and religious leaders speak the same language of uniting people. Not just uniting people but uniting countries across the globe. Today we cannot afford conflicts, we cannot afford corruption, we cannot violence in any form in society. It’s become very dangerous now. So it’s high time that we move towards moral ethical values which forms the basis of any human society. What are ethics? What are the basic ethics? That You don’t want someone else to do to you, you shouldn’t do to others. This is the ethics. You don’t want anybody to obstruct your practice then you should not obstruct others practice. You don’t want to be harmed by anybody so you should not harm anyone. So these are the basic ethics. Live and let live. As our Honourable Rezamasnavi has said that India can become an example for harmony in diversity in the world. We have a long standing relationship between Iran and India, between Iraq and India. And we would like to see that this cooperation, people to people cooperation continue, people to people contact continues. And societies come close together, understand each other. Few people from Iran had come to Bangalore the other day and they were sharing with me- their new year is also sometime in March. 21 st march. And they said this 21st march has come to us from India because we also celebrate our new year on 21st march. So we had a similar culture, sort of background from the long time in the past. We need to revive those identities. We have to preserve our identity, at the same time honour others identity. And it’s such a noble work, noble cause if every university takes up this. Amity university, by name it self is amity, bringing everybody together, bringing amity. Amity university is doing quite a bit of work on this lines of bringing people together and creating value based education. Education, if it lacks value, society gets destroyed. There is unrest in society. So we need to bring back the values. I am very happy that universities are coming forward, taking up these issues. We need to reduce stress and tension in people. When stress and tension is gone then there is a hearing that develops in a human being. If you want to listen to others, first you should have a calm mind. Mind is disturbed the best of knowledge doesn’t enter your mind. You don’t receive it, you don’t accept it. So a calm and collective mind is essential. And ethics will bring that calm and collective mind. When a top business man of this country was asked why didn’t you do some unethical business, you could have become very rich very fast. He said I want to have proper sleep. I want to have good rest so I don’t want to do unethical business and loose my sleep. So these are the values that we need to inculcate. India has given this vision of ‘Vasudeiva Kutumbakam’- the world is one family. Many people think Hindusim is a religion of many Gods. We worship many Gods. That’s what people say. I say this is no it is misunderstanding. Like in Islam there are 99 names to 1 God. Why should God have 99 names, why not 1 name? There is no explanation. God has many attributes so you have 99 names. In Hinduism they say 1008 names. And 1008 names they say it can have any number of forms. But with different forms it is the same being, same divinity, same light. Like one white light when it passes through the prism it splits into 7 colours. These 7 coloured rays are not different from one white light, they are very expression of this one light. (clapping) 7 different colours, said one God has different attributes (clapping). Like Jesus, if you go to a church, you will have one shrine for mercy, another shrine for compassion, another shrine for healing. It’s the same Jesus but there are 12 stations in which they present Jesus for different specific needs or ways of worshipping. Similarly there is one God (Sanskrit shloka) - there is one truth . But the learned say it (Sanskrit shloka)- He’s been called in many names and many forms. So it is not form. God is not in idols. But idol is only to create an atmosphere of serenity. It’s said you can have idol, you can have water, you can have fire, you can have tree, you can use any element in the creation to create devotion, to create an atmosphere for you to go deep within to find one God. This is what the Vedic principles are. Vedic principle is not worshipping other than 1 God. It is worshipping the same God. But to worship you can use different things, different symbolisms. So this symbolism is very different in different religions. Where people are in conflict is not with the values, not with ethics. People get into conflicts when they just stick onto the symbol. And there is fight between different inter religious and intra religious conflicts. So these sort of conflicts can be avoided when we move into the true ethics and intellectual basis of all religion. So then it brings peoples hearts and minds together and make a more beautiful world. We need to give a better world to our children than what we have inherited. For that we all have to work together. With these few words I once again thank all the organisers. May God bless you all. He’s already blessed you all. (clapping)