10 August 2013 - QA 1

You own the world’s biggest army. You have the best commandos and the most dedicated soldiers across the world. Your personnel never retire. In fact, new are continuously joining, just because you pay the best salary – happiness. Yet your vision for Vasudaiva Kutumbakam (One World Family) seems a far off dream. Even in our own country, we haven’t united. How do we move ahead?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: That’s a job left for you to do. You have a role to play. This is what you need to do.

We should go from village to village and unite the hearts and minds of people. Don’t think it’s a difficult job, the unity is already there. There’s just a little bit of misunderstanding, little selfishness, and a lack of vision which is creating this atmosphere that everything is hopeless. People basically are very good. 90% of the population have a very good heart. Even those 10%, I would say, have a good heart. Something has gone wrong somewhere, but we can set them right.

Kiran Bedi is here with us today. When she was in charge of prisons in Delhi, she made all those prisons into Ashrams. They were called Tihar Ashrams.
Even today in Tihar, we have a skill training center and our programs are continuing there. We not only conduct meditations, but there is an Art of Living center as well in many prisons. Do you know that?
Not only in India, even the largest prison in Argentina, having around 5500 inmates of that country, has an Art of Living center inside. Everybody does meditation there.

When I was in Brazil, they took me to visit the prison of Rio de Janeiro, and there was an Art of Living board inside the prison! They have painted the swans as well. I was surprised to see this, and there were tears in the eyes of those people. The people who society has condemned as criminals, they have a heart too!

In Tihar jail today, the prisoners are learning different skills. We have started teaching electrical skills as well. They are becoming electricians and carpenters.
One of our Art of Living teachers (Deepak) has done tremendous work in Tihar. He has opened so many skills training centers around the country through our Rural Development Program (RDP).

So basically, people are good in nature; they are intrinsically good. They just need that spiritual kindling.
Without Spirituality, life is dry. Do you see? When you feel so dry, you can’t but make mistakes. Anything you do will be a mistake. So you have a task, a goal, a job to do. Just get on the wagon.