WORLD PEACE THROUGH INNER PEACE

Guruji Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's visit to DENVER, CO

Guruji Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's presentation of 'World Peace through Inner Peace' was held in Denver on April 20 at the Seawell Grand Ballroom in the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Almost 500-600 people were there in sessoin. I really was very happy to attend the program. On this occasion, my desire to meet guruji got fulfilled.

The World Peace through Inner Peace program started sharply at 7 p.m. with Denver's Senior Art of Living Teacher Lata More addressing the crowd. Then a 10 minute brief video about glimpses of guruji's life, his mission of achieving a violence-free and stress-free society was shown. Then Guruji came from the crowd with an ever-smiling face. As Music is an essential part of Art of Living Foundation program started with a couple of songs by the Rocky Mountain Children's Choir, directed by Lisa Cameron. After this Guruji started his speech.

Guruji's discourse was in 3 parts.

1. IMPORTANCE ABOUT GREETING FROM THE INNER HEART: We say thank you very much, we really don't mean it. It's almost like air hostess telling you have a nice day, when you get off the plane. They don't mean it. Isn't it? The same words if it com es from someone who is dear to you, your sister, your brother, your spouse, your grand mother, it carry ceratin vibration, it carry certain presence. We carry lot through our presence, infact we carry almost evrything through our presence, very little through our words. The baby conveys vibration of love like nobody else. We are all endorsed with presence. Infact presence is life. That is the present. But, some way our presence got muddled up. Neither at home nor at school nobody has taught us how to cleanse our presence. How to get rid of stress. If we are angry at home we carry that angry vibration to our office. We are upset in the office and when we get back home that thing lingers on in our system. We are unable to let go and be like a child again. Isn't it so? Now how do we gat back to our source? How do we cleanse our presence? This is what meditation is all about. Meditation is the journey from movement to silence. Stillness from sound to silence. If you work for longer hours, we get tired and we sleep for some time to re-energise ourselves. We recharge our mind and body. Meditation is conscious re-charging of the system in a powerful manner. After this Guruji has shown some of the simple facial and other exercises to energise ourselves at any time.

2. MEDITATION: How many of you think meditation is concentration or lot of effort? (somany hands raised in the auditorium) NO----------, meditation is not concentartion its opposite of concentration. Meditation is deep relaxation and not concentration. So, during meditation if thoughts come, don't try to chase them. Because if you try to chase them more they come. If you want to get rid of some thoughts, they won't easily go, they come back to you. So, we have another strategy. If we get any thought give them a hug we shake hand with them, they will disappear. Whatever thought comes don't try to stop them. It's an effortless process, you don't have to make any effort. OK? There are 3 other golden rules for meditation. First is, The next 10 minutes I want nothing. If you say I need to go to bathroom, I need to drink water, I need to do something, I need to change my position. Then meditation can't happen to us. Right? Next 10 minutes I want nothing. When I want nothing in next 10 minutes then I do nothing. Second is, I do nothing.Third one is more important that is to say I am nothing. If I think I am wise, there is no way I can meditate. If I think I am stupid then also no meditation. If you think you are rich, just forget about it. If you think you are poor, no way you can meditate. I WANT NOTHING, I DO NOTHING AND I AM NOTHING, just for thse 10 minutes. After that you could be something. That's your choice. But while doing meditation if you think you are somebody great or some body hopeless, no way our mind can settle down to the deepest core of our being to the consciousness, thought, which we are all made up of. This is our initial step for meditation. As I siad it is journey from sound to silence. Today we will use the sound OM. OM means peace, eternal peace and unconditional love. We will say this sound for 3 times and we will create the vibration. So lets sit comfortably and close your eyes. Now, Guruji led the audience through meditation for some time. When everyone opened their eyes, we were surprised to learn that we had meditated for 27 minutes.

He then talked about world peace and violence free environment.

3. IMPORTANCE OF VIOLENCE-FREE ENVIRONMENT: If any body ask what does meditation can do? I would say Violence -free society. Today is Eleventh anniversary of columbian school killings. You know, both the victims and culprits need to learn how to relax. Neither at school nor at home anyone teaches us how to get rid of negative emotions and negative feelings. They just rise and they are stuck with it. You know WHO is saying the 2nd biggest killer in this decade is depression. Fisrt is cancer and second is depression. For both cancer and depression , meditation is the solution. Pranayama, Breathing techniques, Yoga, Meditation and Sudarshan Kriya can bring such a transformation. You know, 30% of Europeans are suffering from depression now and the prediction is that it will go upto 50% in this decade and every other person is to use PROZAC. Its not a nice thing to do. I don't know the statistics of America but its growing I heard. But here papers say that violence in the college campuses have increased. We need to work towards a violence-free society. Don't you think so? And if you are not stress-free, how can you do that? Is it possible? If you are stressed your interaction will be nasty and it only creates more conflicts. Doesn't it? Violence-free society, Disease-free body---------. I don't have to talk about health, you all know about it. But, pranayama, meditation and breathing contributes enormous for your well-being. Wellness of physical health also depends on the breathing and the emotional patterns, how we handle our emotions.
Violence-free society, Disease-free body, Confusion-free mind, Inhibition-free Intellect, Trauma-free memory, Sorrow-free Soul is a birth right of every body. Are you all here? (audience saying yesssssssss) . You know if someone thinks they go to heaven and everyone else is going to hell, they create hell for everyone else. (Big laugh in the auditorium). This is the big problem in world. Everyone thinks they know the truth of the world and nobody else knows it. The prejudice has to go. I think today prople are with Information, Technology, Education, Internet and all. Prejudice is much less, people are grown out of prejudice, but still it does exist. Can we not create a sense of belongingness with every body. Can we not feel whole world is our family. Is it not possible? Is it just a dream? Even if its a dream I feel that we should dream and we'll make it possible. 30 years ago I have started ART OF LIVING, there was lot of prejudice. Meditation and yoga was something that someone who is just out there will go and do it. Its not for the normal people. But today it has changed, meditation is binding this united people of all the religions, philosophy, culture, races into one ancient wisdom of vasudhiaka kutumbakam(one world family). You know when we were growing up, we grow up with the principles of Mahatma Gnadhi. My grand father took all the gold that was in the house and gave it Mahatma Gandhi, went ot his ashram, stayed there for 20 years and did service with Mahatma Gandhi. When we were growing up we heard lot of stories about Mahatma Gandhi. Then the pride was attached to non-violence. If anyone would lose the temper in the classrooms in school, they would say what something wrong? You may need some treatment. But today the scenario is different, an agressive personality is a role model, is considered the hero. Isn't that so? We need to bring back the dignity of non-violence. We need to be proud of being non-violent. I am so proud that I have not said any bad word to anybody all these 54 years of my life. The maximum that has come out of my mouth was you stupid! I know how many times I have said this. Because it would sculptured that way the body system, mind is all manage that way never say one abuse word to anyone. What am I saying is , can't we bring up our children with this ideal of non-violence, friendliness? Can we not tell them to make a new friend everyday? Incidentally, today being the columbian memorial day I am tempted to say little more about children. Especially here in America we have everything we need lesson in non-violence. We need to bring the pride of being non-violent. If every child in the world learns little bit about all the wisdoms of world, they won't become fenantics. They won't say only I have the truth. They will recognise truth in everything. Otherwise we lose something you know? That is what I call as globalising wisdom.
Finland makes telephone but it is used by whole world. Similarly Danish cookies are known troughout the world. Sitar music though its a part of India, everyone listen to sitar music. Right? But when it comes to wisdom why people------------------------------------------------------------------------. That is the cause of terrorism. If even a small part of this globe is left thinking only they possess the real truth, world is going to be in trouble. We are not going to be in safe place. There will be suicide bombers. So we need to globalize the system. We need to educate every child in broad spectrum. Every child should know little bit about upanishad. You know what great lore is present in upanishad? Unimaginable----. There are great things about teachings of Buddha. Every child should know little bit of what Buddha is teaching, little bit about Taoism, little bit about what Jesus has said, Mohammed has said. A broad mind set develops. One can follow one's own religion. If you are a Jew you continue being a Jew, but that shouldn't stop you from understanding the other wisdom and philosophies in the world. Guruji illustrated this by narrating a story. Once Guruji went to Iraq on the invitation of Iraq's prime minister. There Guruji has taken a program for his staff. After the program, he said to Guruji " I see the transformation in my staff after they undergone your program. They are smiling, they are able to face any challenges and they calmly listen to everything". And then he sent 50 youth leaders from all over Iraq to Bangalore for a month. I'll tell you first 3 days was very difficult. They would fight among themselves, they were ready to kill at each other. There's no dialogue, simply hitting. We needed twice the number of volunteers to keep these strong men separated. First 3 days was very difficult. Because in Bangalore ashram we don't cook non-vegetarian, we have only vegetarian. They used to have non-vegetarian, they said can we have small chicken? We said what ever you want from vegetarian thats available. This is the rule of ashram and is to be followed by everyone. But I tell you next 4 weeks that they were there, transformation was so much. These people went back and they started teaching the others and were called the ambassadors of peace. 5000 people, they helped to learn and become this way (big round of claps in the room). Though its a drop in the ocean, there is a lot we can do. This is just a little bit but that gives us more hope and it encourages us to do more. Doesn't it? So Art of Living is just simple things SMILE and SERVE. Serve the needy and smile from within. Genuine smile not that smile when some one is suffering or going down or some body doesn't listen to you and they are into problems, look I told you? -----. Thats not the real smile. Real genuine smile that comes from within our heart. That can happen only through spiritual knowledge. I would like you to ask any topic or any questions. There were many questions from the audience which were answered by Guruji at the end. The program ended by Guruji cutting cake as the day was his vedic birthday.