Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s address at COS Torwar Stadium, Warsaw, Poland as a part of the IStandForPeace campaign, April 24, 2022
We have come here to appreciate what you have done for those who need refuge. Peace in the community is the only way to have peace in the nation or the world. World peace is impossible if the individual is not peaceful. It’s a simple thing: if the bricks of the building are weak and fragile, how can the building be strong! The message from all wise people from ancient times has always been that peace is the way.
In India, we say ‘Om Shanti’ thrice, meaning inner peace, peace in the environment, and peace amongst the nations. Wars are generated in the heads and minds of people first. Dialogue is the only way to resolve conflicts. India has always stood for only dialogue. In our families, we are different people with different ideas, and these differences do clash. What keeps us bound is the feeling of belongingness and oneness. Meditation can create this belongingness. It relieves us of stress and keeps us connected with the whole world.
When we are stressed and anxious, our decisions are bound to go wrong. What do we need to have a calm state of mind and clarity in thinking? We need meditation. In Poland, in every province, we have meditation centers. When the first Polish group came to India in 1991, only a few of them could speak English at that time. I was giving a talk on consciousness and they were translating it for 90 people. And the commitment everybody had, and the joy and enthusiasm with which people took to it, was remarkable.
Today, after the pandemic, when there is so much stress, we feel helpless. Every section of society has experienced distress in these two years. WHO says the biggest challenge after the pandemic is mental health and we see that. Conflict at home is rife: people are becoming aggressive or dropping into depression, which happens when you feel helpless. Now is the time to say ‘I Stand For Peace’. So when we all kindle the valor and commitment in us to say ‘I Stand For Peace’, we will no longer feel helpless. Every individual has the power and if we all collectively focus on peace and stand for the unity of mankind, miracles can happen.
This year, India celebrates 75 years of independence. To get independence was half a century or more of struggle. But Mahatma Gandhi stood up and said non-violence is the way; many people started laughing at him. Those days in the British Kingdom, the sun would never set. How can a simple man fight against an empire? My teacher was closely associated with him and lived with him for 40 years. He used to tell us stories when we were young. Drop by drop, people joined Mahatma Gandhi. Do not underestimate your power. If each of us says, ‘I stand for Peace’, it creates that inner power - when you invoke that inner power, then there is no more depression or helplessness, and you invoke your inner power. When there is a will, there is a way. It all depends on our state of mind.
What I have seen around the world and which everyone agrees upon is that our state of mind is important for all the work we do, whether it is positive or negative and destructive. When I was at the inauguration for International Yoga Day in New York, His Excellency Banki Moon after the meditation said, ‘Gurudev, we need this before each negotiation so we can think with a very calm mind’. This indicates that people know that our state of mind matters when we make decisions. Meditation makes us sharp in our intellect or emotions more positive and helps us be more vibrant.
