2 February 2016 - QA 7

Gurudev, with the migration crisis happening in Europe, how do people like us who live there, contribute or help?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

You know, just giving the migrants food, or shelter, or money is not good enough. We need to infuse values in them. Educate them because they come from an area where there is only trauma. There is so much trauma in their minds that they will feel everyone is their enemy. They will behave with their hosts and their friends like they would behave with the enemies back home. If there was no mental trauma, why would they run away from their countries? So their psyche is filled with aggression, fear, anger, anxiety and trauma, and just giving them food and shelter is not enough and is not going to make them grateful for it.

We need to get them out of their trauma and the psychological distress that they are in. The distress needs to be attended to. I don’t know if countries are attending to this other than giving them shelter. Here, we need to teach them how to be calm and yoga and meditation will do magic there.
It will make them integrate well with their host country, it will soften their behavior and will bring a big turnaround in the whole situation. They will not be a burden to the society that they are in, and will in fact be a boon to the society that they are in. That type of education is important.