24 June 2014 - QA 19

How do you deal with the problems of terrorism and religious extremism that we see increasing around the world today?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

This is a big problem. As I said, the reason is the lack of understanding, the lack of a sense of belongingness, the lack of trust between people and between communities, and also probably the misinterpretation of scriptures.
I feel that every child should know a little bit about all the world religions, and start respecting them all. Then they can grow up with a broad mindset and terrorism can be nipped at the bud.
I feel spirituality has a big role to play here. It unites people of all the different religions, and sects within a religion to come to an understanding that we are all part of one universal human family.
It is the sense of identity (towards only one particular religion or culture) which creates this sort of tension between people. One feels that I belong to a particular sect and now I am ready to sacrifice my life in order to hold on to that identity.
But if we get a bigger identity, i.e., I am part of the human society; if we hold on to that bigger identity, then the violence, the suicidal bombings that are happening around the world, and terrorism is stopped right away.

Again, scientific education combined with spiritual education is necessary. Perhaps UNESCO should take this to every country in the world. The UN can say that this is mandatory in the world. Like we had vaccinations mandatory all over the world. This could be vaccination against terrorism.