“We must continue to pursue the path of peace. Conflicts are bound to come and we have to make them a stepping stone to achieving the ultimate goal of global peace.” HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar at the Conference on Peace and Reconciliation in South Asia, Oslo, April 2008

Contributing to peace-making solutions at every instance and facilitating groups of different faiths to come to dialogue has been HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar ’s lifelong commitment. Perhaps the seeds were sown when a young HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar would visit temples, churches and mosques and keenly observe the rituals. His friends reminisce how HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar would during their school, urge them to embrace all religions.

Today, HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar narrates the same message to an audience which has expanded to include members of every religion in the world. HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar continues to speak out strongly against any design that could damage the social fabric of communities.

In 2002, HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar forced himself into a crowd of 5,000 passion-roused people during the Godhra riots in Gujarat, India. Perched on a narrow ledge, HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar urged the armed crowd to calm down and give up violence. This was at a time when communal tension between the Hindus and Muslims had led to death and displacement of thousands of people and made society unstable.

HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar again reduced communal tensions when he facilitated dialogue between the Hindus and Muslims over the Amarnath Shrine issue in Jammu & Kashmir, India. The government’s decision to earmark some land for Hindu pilgrims got polarized along communal lines, sparking off wide-spread violence. HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar met with representatives of both factions and catalysed a consensus.

In his bid to unite countries and foster cross border peace and security, HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar became the first Indian spiritual leader to visit Pakistan in 2004. He took his message to Muslim religious representatives as well as political leaders.

“Give non-violence a chance, give peace a chance,” was his appeal to Shia, Sunni and Kurdish leaders when he met them in Iraq in May 2007. He interacted with members of different ideological groups. One such meeting transpired in a red zone, late into the night. Later, when asked by an incredulous observer, “Were you not scared to go into those areas?” HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar replied: “When you’re spiritual, nothing can shake you. Spirituality gives you a lot of strength.”

“Religion is the banana skin and spirituality is the banana. People are throwing away the banana and holding on to the skin.” HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar at the UN Millennium Summit, 2000

The biggest casualty of religious tensions is humaneness. There has been a significant loss in the belief of the common good of all people and a progressive outlook towards development. Recognising this regression, HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has dedicated himself to rekindling human values to promote understanding.

At Parliaments across the world, while speaking to religious heads and decision makers, while visiting trauma affected people in Gujarat or talking to a group of aboriginals, HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar message to all is the same: Secularise Religion and globalise wisdom to promote inter-faith harmony in the world.

“We have to protect the human values of compassion, friendliness, cooperation and a sense of belonging to each other. This will protect our minds, save our hearts – the soul of the planet. These human values need to be nurtured so that we can have a stress-free, violence-free society,” says HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar .

Besides conducting dialogues with leaders and decision makers, he interacts with youth and people affected by terrorism. The predominant note of his travels is the promotion of a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic understanding. “Even if a small place is left without wisdom, the world is not going to be a safe place,” he says, as he urges people to adopt a secular approach.

“A sense of belongingness to the whole world is the need of the hour. We need to celebrate diversity, by honouring all cultures and religious traditions, rather than letting it become the cause of strife or violence.” Excerpt from HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar ’s address at the ‘Religions and Peace: From Terrorism to Global Ethics’ conference, Kremlin Palace, June 2005

For the past two decades, HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has brought together world leaders from various traditions and ideologies on a common platform to deliberate on world issues. His has also been the voice of non-violence and human values on various international fora. In June 2003, HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar hosted a 5-day conference on spiritual regeneration and human values for religious leaders of different faiths in India. Five years later, Sri HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Sri brought Buddhist and Hindu leaders on a common platform to deliberate on global peace. This marked the first time that leaders of both traditions came together.

Time and again, HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has impressed upon policymakers to bring in measures that would unite people and remove inequality.

HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar brought together members of the marginalised Dalit community and mainstream leaders in India at the Truth and Reconciliation Conference for social equality. “Caste discrimination can be solved only through reforms and by educating people in human values, not by creating hatred between communities. Hatred will only polarise the society and create civil wars,” he said.

Inspired by HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar , the gathering adopted a seven-point action plan which aims at spreading the spirit of reconciliation across India. As a symbolic implementation of the plan, the leaders partook in a community feast or samuhik priti bhoj. This was a leap forward in achieving harmony, especially since the groups would not even sit together previously.

Perhaps the biggest spectacle of a secular spirit was seen in Bangalore, India, in February 2006. Over 3 million people – of different faiths, religions and ideologies – gathered at the International Conference on Human Values held to mark the Silver Jubilee of the Art of Living. Hindus and Muslims, Christian and Jews, Indians and Pakistanis, Chinese,Taiwanese, Bosnians and Serbians, Iranians and Iraqis stood side-by-side, bringing alive the ancient Indian ideal of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – a one world family. The event saw over 1,000 leaders from the ten major religious traditions as well as 750 political key figures from around the world pledge support for non-violence, human values and brotherhood.

“My main concern is how to bring people together. This is not about one religion only. I want to bring all communities together on one platform.” HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar at the Truth and Reconciliation Conference for Dalit Rights, India, March 2007

To bring people of all races together, HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has also initiated several programmes across the globe to reawaken tolerance, reconciliation and acceptance among people from different faiths. Building bridges between people polarised along religious lines, the Art of Living has been conducting special programmes in places along the wall that separates Israel and the Palestinian territories. In Kosovo, Bosnia and Macedonia, HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar carried out programmes to promote dialogue between Albanians and Macedonians.

Not only in the programmes and service initiatives, people of all faiths and ideologies find a home in the Art of Living’s International Centre in Bangalore, India. Here, one finds Muslim youth from Morocco, Pakistan and Iraq, Israelis and Palestinians, among others, meditating side-by-side.

“We must know that we belong to one universal spirit, first, and then we are humans.” By harmonising people, HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar ’s vision of a one world family is being realised.