Plenary, 23 Jun 2004
Meeting date: Wednesday, June 23, 2004
Official Report
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Time for Reflection
Good afternoon. The first item of business, as it is every Wednesday, is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader today is His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Good afternoon. It is wonderful to be with you all. Time for reflection—beyond. Every human being needs to sit back for a little while, if possible every day, and find that inner peace. When our mind is agitated or restless and we are too active, we are not tapping the source deep within us that is intuitive and that gives us the correct paths, and confidence.
A few minutes of silence and reflection on the truths of our life would be extremely beneficial for every one of us. How do we do that? What are the ways and means of achieving that inner peace? This is a question that haunts everybody. Whether it is summer or winter, we need to find answers to the basic questions that come into our hearts and minds.
Observing that everything is changing in our world—in our life and society—gives us a clue that something is not changing. The reference point by which we observe that things are changing is something that does not change. That non-changing aspect of our consciousness gives us enormous strength, courage and creativity. A few minutes of experiencing that non-changing aspect that lies deep within us all energises our body, focuses our mind, and frees our intellect from inhibition and our memory from trauma. A joyful flavour to our expositions comes about and we are able to be in touch with the joy that each of us seeks.
It is not enough that we are able to experience that responsibility or peace within us; we need to bring it into the society around us. This we can do only by educating people in human values and by bringing about those human values.
If one asks a child in a school or a college today how many friends they have, they will count the number out on their fingers—three, four or five. I ask them, "If you cannot be friendly with the 30 or 40 kids in your classroom, how are you going to be friendly with the 6 billion people in the world?" The basic human values of friendliness, compassion, understanding, harmony and diversity need to be brought into schools, colleges and every environment.
Our breath can play a vital role in cleansing the negative emotions that a person has. We have tried this out in many prisons around the world: 120,000 prisoners around the world who have done breathing exercises were able to get rid of the hatred, anger and revengeful feelings that clogged or blocked them. Inside every culprit I see a victim crying for help. It is stress, the lack of a broad vision of life, lack of understanding and bad communication that lead to violence in society.
Love is the central force of human life, but it can get covered up by stress and distress. Spiritual knowledge and education in human values will help an individual to stand up to the demands of the day. It will help one to manage the problems that one faces in daily life.
Man is at a crossroads today. On one side he is violent and frustrated; on the other he is depressed or suicidal. Knowledge of our spirit—which is all love, beauty and peace—transcends the boundaries of our concepts, imaginations and identities. It can bring freedom from frustration and violence. A violence-free society, disease-free body, quiver-free breath, inhibition-free intellect and trauma-free memories are the birthright of every individual. As responsible citizens, we need to bring responsibility to the societies and communities where we are, to make people take responsibility for themselves and for the environment around them.
With those few words, I thank you all for giving me an opportunity to share my thoughts with you today. I wish you all the best of luck in your service to the country and to this province of Scotland.