28 January 2016 - QA 2

Europe has been bearing the brunt of the refugee crisis. How to balance compassion and practicality?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

That’s a challenge. It’s the same thing here in India. There are some beggars who are strong but people still give them alms. I would say, don’t give them any alms. There are some weak elderly women, definitely do charity for them.

In the same way, there should be training for refugees. They come from a place where there has been violence, mistrust and they have been victims of rage, anger and inhuman treatments, so we need remove these impressions of trauma from them. If they carry their trauma and violence, then they can only express or contribute what they have in their psyche. Just giving them food and shelter is not sufficient, we need to cater to their emotional scars, spiritual poverty, and intellectual misconceptions. We need to give them proper understanding through techniques and teachings which will make them feel fresh, alive and help them have a new outlook in life, and not see society from their past impressions. Unless they are given such training that will uplift and educate them in etiquettes and in behavior, there will be disaster in society. It will create more problems for people who are living in a civilized society, who are used to peaceful conditions of co-existence, of human values or etiquette. There will be a mismatch which will create problems and violence in society. So we need to attend to these issues.

We have seen this in South Africa, when after the apartheid was over, there was so much hatred and feeling of revenge among communities. Whether in prison or outside of prison, violence had escalated. I’m really proud to say that The Art of living is one of the very few organizations which had people from all communities, the Caucasians, native Africans and Indians, where everybody came together and worked in prisons. The change that it has brought in just seven days in prisons is a testimony for how spirituality can remove the root cause of violence from the human psyche, and bring harmony in the society as well as within the individual. BBC has made a documentary on this as well.

We will have to do something like this in Europe too. Along with bread, butter and shelter we need to counsel them, give them techniques to remove violent impressions. It is not their fault, it is unfortunate. The world still has many violent incidents in many societies.