23 June 2013 - QA 20

What is peace and how can we implement the principles of peace in our life through our religion, culture and family and in our education system starting from kindergarten?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: We need to learn a lot from children. We need to make them understand that they should make one new friend every day.
If you ask forty fifty kids in a classroom how many friends they have, they can usually count them on their fingers, and they stay with only those friends for the entire year. We need to bring out their friendly nature. And to do this we should tell them to make one new friend every day. Don’t mind if you are being insulted. Laugh and let go. Have humor and be sportive. Adore diversity.
If someone is dressed differently or is looking different or doing something different, don’t feel that they are alien but make them feel a part of you.
These are some of the values which we can inculcate in children.

The goal of religion is to bring love and peace in one’s life. Getting connected with that one universal truth, universal spirit and universal love is the very purpose of religion, and also to be able to help the fellow human beings. So the essence of religion is the inner experience of Divinity, of light, of love and that is what we must aim and focus on.

Second thing is cultural diversity. Culture changes every few kilometers. You move a hundred kilometers and the dialect changes, the food habit changes and this diversity is the beauty of our creation. We must appreciate this. Instead of making this a point of contention we should turn it into an opportunity to celebrate. This is very important and to do all this we need energy.

When we are stressed how can we get energy? That’s where we need to do some breathing exercises, eat proper food and have some humor in life, and most important of all take those ten important minutes to relax or meditate every day. I would recommend this to everyone. For just ten to fifteen minutes, sit and relax, relax your mind, relax your intellect, go within, observe your breath, you will find that you are a fountain of energy, you are an ocean of love and you are a mountain of ideas.