MIA GUNDERSEN

MIA GUNDERSEN: Norwegian actor & singer: It is very-very nice to be with you all. I come from a country with a very strong educational system, and we are also a country which has absolutely everything. We would like to call ourselves peace loving people, who we are, but I see some lack in our educational system. (This is) because the children never-ever learn from the inside who they are. There are very good teachers giving all the knowledge they need to become good citizens, and to create good jobs. But, the inner side of us - the spirituality, we have a big lack. Also, we have a lot of anxiety in our society, because I think we don’t talk so much about the strength of love. I am just wondering, how can we influence our government to understand that this is so important for us to learn - that it comes from the inside and not only from the outside?

GURUDEV SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR: Yes, as you correctly said, you have already recognized what you need and what is lacking there. All it takes for you to make many more people understand your view point is to find out from them if they also have the same view point as yours. If a large number of people feel that they really lack something, education of love, of knowing who one is - that inner spiritual strength, getting in touch with that; then you can propose to your government, talk to your education ministers. A number of techniques are available in the world, not just one, many ways are available to bring that much needed inner strength. I think today we need to globalize wisdom. We take music from every part of the world; we take food from every part of the world. Today you go anywhere in the world, you can get Chinese food, you can get Mexican food, you can get Danish cookies, and Indian gulaab jamuns. So food is almost globalized today; if you go to China, you can get Indian food; and if you go to India, you can get Italian food. So if we can globalize food, if we can globalize music, and many things; why don’t we globalize wisdom? If every child knows a little bit about all the traditions in the world, spiritual values of the world; you know they would feel so rich in that inner strength, in that inner aspect as well. I totally agree that inner strength, a sense of … a sense of belongingness to the whole world, will come from deep within.