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Gurudev delivers keynote addresses at prominent events in Delhi

Spirituality & Human Values | Published: | 6 min read


Gurudev delivers keynote addresses at prominent events in Delhi  

"Prosperity depends on peace. We need to give peace education. The amount of money we spend on defense, even .01% what every country spends on missiles, if they spend on peace education, the world will be a much better place."

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New Delhi, India
April 5-6, 2022

Gurudev was on a visit to the capital city and was invited as the distinguished speaker at the inauguration of the India Centre for Policy Research and Development (ICPRD) in Janpath, on 5th April.

“(Our) State of mind completely depends on the happiness of the person, make the mind free from all the thoughts and give freedom. The pandemic has taught us the lesson of mental peace; therefore, everyone should keep themselves healthy as mental health is the biggest challenge,” was the highlight of Gurudev’s inaugural address.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar at the ICPRD inauguration 2022-04-05

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar during the traditional lamp lighting ceremony at the ICPRD event inauguration 2022-04-05

Gurudev spoke about mental health, the importance of yoga and meditation, and how to sustain peace while delivering the 28th Lal Bahadur Shastri memorial lecture at the National Museum Auditorium in New Delhi, on Spiritual Values for Peace and Sustainability on 6th April.

Gurudev expressed delight to address the memorial lecture of the great yesteryear prime minister, Bharat Ratna, Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri.

“We were all children in school when we heard the news of Tashkent. There was not one dry eye when we heard the news that he has departed to the other world. The whole country was in shock. But his stature has always inspired people and continues to inspire. A calm and gentle personality. A person’s voice indicates most of his personality. If someone is aggressive or caring or loving, all is indicated in the voice. The tone, tenure, and the commitment of a person come out (through voice). In that whatever little bit we have heard on the radio, we could easily feel that what a kind person he (Shastri) was,” reminisced Gurudev.

Continuing the talk on the given topic, Gurudev said, “We think spirituality is doing some rituals sitting in some corner and Vedanta is for those who are old. Religious practices were considered to be spirituality. That was a wrong understanding. It was later that people started realizing spirituality is that which aids our lives in so many ways. It brings solutions to many things, including conflict. Can you have happiness if you’re not peaceful? No, but have we been taught how to find peace? Neither in school nor at home does anybody teach you how to get rid of negative emotions. As an adult, we do not know that because we were never taught how to handle, manage or understand even our minds. Spirituality is understanding yourself, your mind, your emotions, and your intellect. So, the way to find that peace is meditation and that is what I would call spirituality.”

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar with dignitaries at the Lal Bahadur Shastri memorial lecture 2022-04-06

Furthermore, Gurudev spoke about how the acceptance of the ancient science of yoga and meditation on the global platform, “What we need to understand is that our mind and our breath have a connection, they play a very important role. Fortunately, today that prejudice has become so much less, I would say almost gone, not fully gone. More than 2.5 billion people on the planet today practice yoga or are fans of yoga. This wealth we had in our country and we were not even honoring it. Spirituality has a role to play in bringing peace in the sense it teaches us about ourselves. “What is this” is science and “who am I” is spirituality. Today mental health is the biggest challenge that the world is facing after Covid.

All negative emotions are a sign of a lack of spiritual guidance or knowledge. Today, you see what is happening, the wars are generated in the minds of the people; not in the weapon. The source of war is in the mind because we are never taught how to handle our minds or emotions. Insecurity, lack of understanding, too much stress, improper perception, and inability to know one’s strength all together cause conflict. To resolve a conflict people will have to simply sit a little bit and relax.”

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar speaks at the Lal Bahadur Shastri memorial lecture April 6 2022

Touching upon the other part of the topic, sustainability, Gurudev added that sustainability depends on (the) state of mind.

“When greed is less, we become more cognizant of environmental issues. If we only see money then we don’t care about the environment, we are not sensitive to others at all – for sensitivity and sensibility to be kindled in us, meditation and yoga are needed. Yoga is broad-mindedness and a broad outlook towards life is essential and that makes us see things as they are and not as it appears to be when we are stressed.

There are many ways to resolve the cobwebs that get formed in our heads. If we have clarity in mind, sincerity in action, and purity in heart, I tell you, there is no conflict that we cannot resolve,” Gurudev said.

In concluding the lecture, Gurudev mentioned the importance of peace education. Gurudev briefly spoke about the transformative positive impact of meditation in resolving a 52-year-old FARC conflict in Columbia, the clarion call of ‘Bullet to Ballot’ in Jharkhand, India – which transformed the lives of Naxalites – and successful peace talks in resolving the Ram Mandir-Ayodhya issue. Citing these examples, Gurudev emphasized the importance of meditation and how it can enhance negotiations as well as play an integral role in the fruition of conflict resolution.

“Prosperity depends on peace. We need to give peace education. The amount of money we spend on defense, even .01% what every country spends on missiles, if they spend on peace education, the world will be a much better place,” Gurudev concluded the lecture and opened the floor for questions.

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