By Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar┃Posted: November 13, 2018

The following passages about faith in action are excerpts from a talk to youth groups by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in Kerala, India:

We mustn’t lose that identity of togetherness that our country is known for – that is, the whole world is one family.

People of faith are the motivational force of society. People of religious eminence and scholarly disposition can inspire and motivate people. In this sense, we can take up the responsibility to inspire people in every nook and corner of our country to be better citizens and better human beings.

Transforming negative emotions into positive ones

Neither at home, nor at school does anyone teach us how to get rid of the negative feelings that come to us. See, feeling negative is normal. People feel frustration, anger, jealousy, greed, and all these things. But no one teaches us how to get rid of it.

This is where I appreciate the wonderful work of Art of Living volunteers all over the world. These volunteers have been able to teach people how to handle and manage their own negative emotions and transform them into positive emotions of love, compassion, and a sense of belongingness.

Becoming an inspiration to others

This morning, I was visiting this small town in Kerala, and a group of young people came and one of them  said to me, "Gurudev, our lives have changed totally. We were caught up in addictions, and one teacher came and taught us, and we are so happy now. Our lives have been transformed. We did not know how to get rid of addictions, but now I am saved and my family is saved.” He had tears in his eyes, and he was beaming with gratitude!

So I would encourage all the NGOs to take up the initiative, including the Art of Living, because you can inspire; you can do things that nobody else can. Also, the media should create such an awareness that it will discourage young people from getting into the habit of drinking, or taking any kind of substance abuse – even to try it.

So with these few words, I congratulate all of you!

7 declarations of faith in action

There’s a declaration of faith in action, containing many recommendations that many great minds have invested their time to prepare. Here are the 7 declarations:

1) We will create greater awareness in our community about the impact of all forms of violence against women or children using our wide network and volunteer platform, to change the attitudes of the perpetrators of violence.

2) We will speak out to condemn violence and we won’t encourage acts of omission and denial of violence.

We won’t justify violence of any sort. Sometimes, we think we’ll be violent to teach the other person a lesson. Who are you to teach someone a lesson? A lesson cannot be taught through violence and punishment – lessons are taught through compassion and love.

3) We’ll promote women and children as persons with rights and dignity using our religious context.

Every religion, as far as I know, has supported the rights of women and children. We need to support women and children and their rights to education, good health and safety, full participation in society, and use our faith in promoting this.

4) We have an important obligation to teach our children and train our parents and teachers against all forms of violence.

Whether it’s the children of our community, or any other community, they’re all the same, and we must treat everyone as part of us. We can promote this through education, proper upbringing, and by protecting them from violent actions.

Today, kids see a lot of violence in games. So when they see such violence in the virtual world, then when they come to the real world, they don't see the difference.

In the USA, there are more gun stores than there are grocery stores, as I was told. And when we had seminars there, to educate people, they pledged to have 1 billion acts of nonviolence. There are 1 million acts of violence every year over there, and so they said that they’re going to take a pledge to have 1,000 times more acts of nonviolence. Violence should be countered by non-violence. In India, we need 100 billion acts of nonviolence.

5) We’re committed to inter-religious cooperation, and we’ll address violence and make use of synergies among our religious communities to promote methodologies, experiences, and practices in preventing violence against any human being, especially women and children.

6) We call upon our governments to support us in upholding the law and provide services in response to victims of violence.

Many times, victims of violence don't get justice their whole lives – it takes so long.

7) We appeal to our governments to be proactive in providing justice to victims of violence.

One year from now, all of us religious leaders can come back together and share our achievements in one year, because it's not just faith—there’s also action in society. When faith and action merge together, wonders can happen! And I invite all the faith leaders to take this up as a priority action, as a service to society and God.

May God bless you all. Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.