Peace Soldiers

Talk by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar - 6th December 2008 , Napean Sea Road ,
Mumbai

It is obvious that when the society is attacked, and we lose our near
and dear ones, it causes a lot of sorrow. It also causes fear. But if
we keep reeling in this sorrow and fear, and the anger that comes
along with, then life moves towards the path to perdition. But suppose
we want to channelize this energy and prepare to face this war
bravely, we need to first calm the mind and come to a state of
equanimity.

We need to become `Sam-darshi' (One whose vision is equanimous). At
this Priyadarshini Park, let's all pray for those who have departed,
and let's take a pledge to be `Sam-Darshi', the equanimous one.

Today we are all angry with the politicians, or with our system. Our
police lack the necessary arms and ammunitions. We still find
ourselves stuck with old outdated concepts. Entire Mumbai seems angry.
I would say in one way this is good, that we at least have woken up.
We are no longer ready to take the `Chalta Hain' attitude. For so many
years India has seen terrorist attacks in different places, but for
the first- time the entire community, especially the youth, have woken
up. But I would like to say that changing one person, trading one
minister for another, is not the solution. A new minister swearing
into some position would take 6 months just to understand the whole
system. So we all need to think on how to make our system stronger.
Just by reacting out of anger, and targeting one community in our
anger is fruitless. We cannot blame an entire community for a wrong.

Firstly, we all need to come together and pledge that we shall work
for protecting our country. And let's also resolve to first examine
the qualifications of those who we elect. We need social leaders who
are `Satya-Darshi' (Truthful), `Sam-Darshi' (Equanimous) , and `Door-
Darshi' (Farsighted) . We need to protect our country from those who
manipulate issues for their personal gains and lead by playing `Vote-
Bank' politics.

Secondly, we will resolve to not act out of anger, but instead
channelize our dynamic energy for the betterment of the society. We
will also expose all those who are supporting violence, no matter what
religion they belong to. We will get rid of the mentality which asks
us to protect people from our own religion, or community, even if they
are doing wrong. This is very important. Sometime we protect the
faulty people in our families. We will not do this anymore.

I just returned from Arunachal Pradesh in the morning. We need to send
this message to all our neighboring countries that India is ONE. China
is asking for Arunachal Pradesh, I would like to tell them, "Why are
you just asking for Arunachal Pradesh, ask for the whole of India! We
consider the entire world ours, why are you stuck only with Arunachal
Pradesh then?" We will never allow this separation to happen! We are
not ready to cut one thumb out and give them, but we are ready to give
our entire hand to shake! India is ONE and will remain ONE. We might
have different religions, communities, languages and cultures, but
underneath all this diversity, every Indian is ONE. We need to send
this message to Pakistan, Bangladesh or any other nation. We will not
allow them to play with us anymore.

Today when Mumbai is attacked we all have woken up, but you go to
Assam and see the condition there. 5 districts there are suffering
from continued violence. Lakhs of people had to flee from their houses
and are living in camps. The situation in Assam is completely hand
crafted by politicians. But we never get to see this in our news.
Today, we shall pray for not just the victims of Mumbai alone, but for
the victims of terror and extremism everywhere in India.

We are proponents of Peace, but we also are the descendants of Guru
Gobind Singh. Today, we need `Sant-Sipahi' (The Saint who is a
Soldier). We don't need just saints, we don't need just soldiers, but
people who are both. Every human here shall be a Peace Messenger, and
a Peace Soldier. Peace Soldiers are those who have dynamism and a will
to stop the wrong. Peace Soldiers are those who expose the wrong deeds
and doers in the society, and stand in protest.

Today is Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar's anniversary. We all must remember
the good work done by him in starting the movement against `Un-
touchability'. Even today, some villages of India are practicing Un-
touchability. This should be immediately curbed. Nowhere in our
scriptures has un-touchability been advocated. In India, we have a
tradition of worshiping the feet (Paada-Pooja) . In fact in the west
the feet are considered low and un-holy. Washing the feet, worshiping
the feet has always been a sign of reverence in our culture. Just like
the body has different organs, the society has different castes
philosophies and religions. But all of them ultimately represent that
One Divinity. Remember this fact. Never think that our scriptures, our
religion is superficial. There is immense depth in our `Shastras'.
Sometimes we see that there is a huge valley between what is written
in the scriptures and what is seen in our daily practice. Islam, what
it actually says and the way it is practiced today is completely
different. Same goes for the Vedic knowledge.. Our Vedas say that all
humans are one, and yet we see casteism and un-touchability practiced
in places. These practices have no religious significance whatsoever.
This should be stopped.

So we need to bring a wave of social transformation, and each one of
us here will need to take responsibility for the same. Can we all do
it? Raise hands – all those who would like to join hands for this
task. Yes, we all can do it. But one thing we need to remember again
is that we should not act out of anger. When I went to Iraq and met
some ministers there, and told them that by practicing meditation we
can pacify our anger, they requested me to not pacify the anger of
their people! They want their citizens to stay angry till they don't
take their revenge from America. I was shocked! Anger will always lead
you to remorse.

Peace does not mean inaction. We want a revolution, but we want a
Peace Revolution. Mahatma Gandhi advocated Peace, but he did not just
sit back and let injustice happen. Out of peace, he took action. The
essence of entire Geeta is this – Fight with equanimity. Today, this
message of Geeta is applicable to Mumbai. Mahabharata, which happened
5200 years ago, is now repeating itself again. We are again seeing a
`Dharam-Yudha' (A Battle for Religion). And in this battle, all the
nations of the world, except a few, are with us! And even those
nations, which are not with us, it's only select people from those
nations who are not with us.

Their own missiles are now shooting back at them. Let's not make this
mistake ourselves. Whenever I have traveled to Israel, I have been
told by the Jewish leaders there that India is the only nation in the
world where a Jew has never been attacked! India is known for its
tolerance and peace. India is the only nation on the planet, which has
advocated peace and welcomed people from all religions and countries
with arms wide open. But what has happened this time has left us hurt
and wounded. However, we shall not let this stain our spirits – We
shall overcome. Are you all with me?

We will not let go of our culture, our nature – which is peace, which
is non-violence. But with this philosophy of non-violence and peace,
we shall teach such a lesson to all the terrorists, that they will not
even know what hit them!

And I would like to ask all the media and the journalists to pay some
attention towards the North East provinces of India. There is a lot of
violence happening there. Our media does not show these incidents at
all. Each state there is gripped with violence. People are living in
fear. We have completely forgotten those people. They only see Mahatma
Gandhi's name in the currency bills, otherwise there is no reflection
of his principles there.

I would like to say to all the families who have lost their dear ones
that the soul never dies. Those who have departed us have merged with
the divine, and their souls are still with you, with us, with the
entire nation. Hence we should not sit and shed tears for them, for
they are martyrs. Everyone will die, including us. But they have
sacrificed their lives to wake us up and make us realize that others
should not need to suffer, that this should not happen again. Know
that once you drop the body, there is no more suffering to the soul.
However, people who are left behind on the planer suffer for their
loss. Now this sorrow that you might feel should be channelized
properly. Don't go in depression. We are conducting Trauma Relief
Workshops everywhere. All those who saw these attacks, and are
suffering with the traumatic impressions it leaves in the mind, need
to learn pranayams and meditation to flush this negativity out. So
ensure all those who you know are feeling dejected and scared, even
just by seeing these proceedings in TV, attend these Trauma Relief
camps and learn meditation, so that they can once again be filled with
hope, enthusiasm and happiness.