Everyone to give at least 3% of their earning for social projects; we must share

Aug 9 2011

We need to know from everyone. Perception has to be multi-direction. One-sided vision will not have so from various angles when we see a situation we become richer in our understanding. Why not we do an exercise?! Can we just turn to the person next to us and greet them, say, ‘I belong to you’. Can we do that now?

Now I would like to ask you a question! When you exchange these pleasantries, were you really from the heart exchanging those words or it was just from your lips? You don’t need to tell people next to you, I just want you to reflect on that.

You know when you get off the airplane the air hostess greets you saying, ‘have a nice day!’ they don’t mean it. And when these words come from someone close to you it carries certain energy, certain love, certain vibration. You will notice this and this is what is needed today! We need to create a field of love and energy that can uplift the humanity! We don’t need a disaster to happen for that. When disaster happens this definitely happens. Haven’t we seen this here in Oslo? After this disaster what happened? Everyone came on the streets, everyone walked with a rose, exposed their true feelings. It’s not just a courtesy, but it is the feeling that came out from that event. It was not an empty word or showing ones sympathy but genuine sympathy and a genuine sense of sharing.

Every human is bestowed with this quality. As a child we were all born with this love in our heart and as we grew up somewhere this expression got blocked. I am saying got blocked because it’s not just the society which makes your expression blocked or not just you, it is everything together. A part of it is from the society and a portion of it is from our own ignorance. So what can we do to enhance this sense of belongingness? This is what we need to ponder on. We don’t need any more disasters in this world. When it happens so far away we just read about it in the newspaper and sit back. When it happened in Mumbai, Cairo; in Pakistan everyday there is some bomb blast, forty fifty people are getting killed. But when it happens in our own backyard it just shakes us. Thanks to the media and Internet that we all are able to know what’s happening in many part of the world and really participate in it.

It is time now that we encourage our youths, our children, to see beyond their own identity. Whether you are a Christian, a Muslim, a Hindu, a Buddhist, doesn’t matter! See beyond your identity, you are a beautiful beautiful human being. This awareness we need to bring to our youths. Don’t you agree with me? How many of you agree with me?

You know recently we held this WORLD CULTURAL FESTIVAL on July 2nd and 3rd. People from 150 countries assembled in Berlin. It was the coldest summer ever. It was raining but it didn’t matter to people because they came with the spirit of celebration. And I say it is possible to make our life a celebration when we have this understanding and when we have an expression that others can understand. You know many times we express ourselves and we don’t realize whether the other person is understanding us or not. Caring for each other, sharing with each other and celebrating the ‘presence’ is the goal of our life. A decade ago if someone would come and speak on love people would say, ‘this is not the normal stuff, it’s a poetic language. It’s okay but it is not the business language, it is not what the society wants to hear or talk about; it’s a private matter.’

Love was considered as a private matter only between husband and wife. It was always connected with a relationship or lack of it. But today in public we are speaking on that and in the moments of disaster people are coming out and speaking on love. This shows the advancement in our own society here in the country. I think this is the language that the world should speak now! From Norway this message has gone throughout the world. Even during disaster we talk about love and that’s what is needed today. Not ‘tit for tat’, but healing with love; healing with wisdom.

Even if a small percentage of youngsters in this planet are left to thinking the others is a threat, the world is not a safe place. So for the world to be a safe place to be in what do we need to do? We need to bring a multi-religious, multi-culture education to all our youths all over the world.

You know when we were growing up; when I was growing up, non-violence was the pride. In our classrooms if someone gets upset or becomes a little aggressive he would be looked down upon. Because my teachers were all with Mahatma Gandhi and it was still very fresh in India at that time the movement for non-violence had so much respect. So anyone who would loose the equanimity was considered as not mature enough. Slowly, now what has happened that pride has got itself attached to aggression and violence. Now the hero in the classroom is the one who is very aggressive, not the one who is very non-violent. This shift has happened in the last few years. We need to turn the cycle back again, the clock back again to where we honor non-violence and appreciate compassion. Don’t you think so? So this is what we need to do.

When the youth grow up with the values of non-violence, compassion, service, sense of belongingness and honoring of each other, it would be a wonderful place to be in. The world will turn to be One Family and this is the dream with which we started Art of Living to see that the world realizes that we are all one human family. Different languages, different cultures, different races, different religions, faith groups but we are still one family.

See life from a broader perspective. Sixty, seventy, eighty years of our life on this planet, there is not enough time to express our love where is the time to hate? This perspective has to become a reality in ones’ life. For that we need an education that is multi-religious, multi-cultural for our youngsters; and more celebration in life.

This is what we need, vibrancy! We are one human family now with so many different cultures, traditions, backgrounds, but we all belong to each other, yes! Inner peace is essential you know every child should be educated in inner peace and should learn how to get rid of stress and stress and wrong understating. Again I would say, inside every culprit there is a victim crying for help. We need to help the victim. Help the culprit and heal the victim. This we can do through meditation.

Meditation is the journey inside where your mind becomes calm and happy, free from all stress and you feel that energy that you have been looking for all the time.

Meditation has got 3 golden rules to be followed. The first rule for meditation is for next 10 minutes I want nothing. Can we say that for next 10 minutes I want nothing? Okay, then you can want whatever you want. You can keep your wants, you can keep your desires, but just for ten minutes you have to say I want nothing for the next ten minutes. Is that possible? And the second golden rule for meditation is that I do nothing for next 10 minutes. Meditation is not an effort it is an effortless thing; we let go, relax and do nothing. And the third rule is I am nothing.

If I think I am very intelligent I can’t meditate. If I think I am very stupid then also no meditation for me. If I label myself I am very rich no way can I meditate. If I think I am very poor then also no. If I think I am very holy forget about it you are not meditating. If I think I am unholy and I am the greatest sinner no way you can meditate. So the third rule is even more important, I am nothing. I want nothing, I do nothing, I am nothing.

These are the 3 golden principles with which you can go to the source of the mind, the source of our energy, our consciousness that we are.

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