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Merciful Lord, lead us from the unreal to the real. Lead us from the darkness to the light. And lead us from mortality to immortality. Blaze our vegetation with good health. Bless all the creatures with a happy life. And bless the humans for mutual understanding. In your holy name, peace, peace, peace. Respected, dear brothers and sisters, respected brother Alfred Kocab, brother Ivan Stambach, and brother Vante Vimala, it is truly a blessing to be here together. This is our fifth multi-religious dialogue or meeting—a record. Such a thing did not happen in the past. We heard the story of the dear mother, and it told us very clearly that even between Catholics and Evangelicals, who are of the same religion, there was once great misunderstanding. At that time, I do not think multi-religious dialogues would have been possible. So, we have chosen a good time. I also have a little story about my mother, or my father. When I was about seven or eight years old, I used to meditate, even from that early age as far as I remember. One day, I was fasting in the name of God Hanumānjī and praying to him. I was seven years old, and I asked my mother, "Will God Rāma be angry with me that now I am praying to Hanumānjī?" She said, "Why do you make differences? If you make differences, then you do not understand what God is. You are not praying to some form, but to God." The great master Śaṅkarācārya, known as one of the greatest thinkers, said: there are different ornaments—earrings, bracelets, finger-rings—but all are made out of gold. The reality in those ornaments is the gold, not the parts. So, whichever religion we take, the final truth is God. Muslims believe in one God. Hindus believe in one God. A Christian believes in one God, and a Buddhist believes in one God. So, which is the second God? Every child says, "My mother is the best mother." So, which mother is not good? From today’s discussion, we came to know that, actually, we are all praying to the same God, with different names. In the Bhagavad Gītā, Kṛṣṇa said very clearly to Arjuna: it does not matter through which way a human will go; finally, they will come to me. Finally, we will enter into Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is called universal consciousness. Now you may call it Jesus consciousness, or you may call it Buddha consciousness, or the consciousness of Rāma, or your consciousness. There is no difference. Vimala said it very nicely. When religious and spiritual preachings go to ordinary people—I mean non-spiritual people—then religion is suffering. Because spirituality can only be taught and inspired by a spiritual person. Then religion becomes institutional, and spirituality suffers. And when religion becomes a missionary endeavor, then conflict rises in the world. Gandhijī used to say, not just conflict, but violence. So the real form of the conflict is violence. In the last centuries, there was a lot of violence in the name of God, in the name of religion. Now is the high time to solve this. Why does conflict and violence rise? Definitely, every religion’s roots and fruits are the same, but the teaching is different. And when such teaching does not come from self-realized persons, then the followers suffer. Therefore, it is said: why does it happen? Because of ignorance. Ignorance is the cause of all suffering. We need education. If we have education, then we will not suffer, and we will have no conflicts, no violence. Because we are in ignorance, we do not know about other religions. We do not know enough about other cultures and traditions. We know only what is happening now. So, when we are ignorant about others, then we are afraid. We do not know what will happen. And when there is ignorance, then fear comes. And out of that fear, aggressivity appears. The ego becomes dominating. Then you begin to collect support, prohibiting others from looking there. Such kinds of feelings have created many, many problems in the world—all this violence, terrorist acts. Recently, I was at the Council of Europe for a conference on multi-religion and culture. One Muslim from Algeria said, "Terrorists do not have a religion." They do not know the boundaries, and they do not know Ahiṃsā (non-violence). That is why Mahatma Gandhi said: "Are they humans who know or feel the suffering of others?" The suffering of other animals, not only humans. In the last centuries, we made a big mistake, always saying "human, human heart, human life," and we have neglected other creatures. Christmas is coming. You will see many postcards and paintings about Jesus’s life. You will see Jesus in the cradle, with cows and donkeys, goats and sheep—they are all there, looking and happy. In some pictures, you can see Jesus also carrying some animals, a goat baby. How he loved. All this happens because we have forgotten and neglected our brother animals. We neglect them. Imagine cutting the throat of a goat. Imagine when the throat of a goat is cut, that little goat suffers. Our whole body would have spasms, shaking. Only she cannot say, "Please do not do it." And this is happening throughout the world. Unfortunately, in India also, these things are happening these days—a country called holy. Everything is holy. Our cows are holy, our snakes are holy, rivers are holy, mountains are holy. All are His holiness and Her holiness. But people are now adopting this Western culture, this American modern Western life. In this culture, the family is broken—the joint family. And that is why humans again fight against you. We need to have education. For example, there is one lady, a school teacher who is Muslim, teaching in the middle of Europe. According to her belief, she wears a cloth on her head. Now they make a law: she cannot come into the school with a cloth on her head. That is discrimination. But consider the very famous Czechoslovakian rabbis, from the old culture. They also have cloth on their heads. When they come to school, nobody says anything against it. There is a gap in communication. So why are they against the Muslim lady? Because we are ignorant. We have ignorance about that. We do not know completely what Islam says, what the Holy Quran says. The same thing: we do not know what the Vedas say, or what the Upaniṣads say. Now it is very important, and in Europe they are preparing that in school education, students must be informed completely about all religions properly. The time has come. We shall remain Czech. We shall keep Czech culture. We shall protect ourselves and our culture. But it does not mean that we discriminate against other people—that should not be. And if some Czech would like to have a cloth on the head, why not? If a Czech girl comes here with a sari, why not? If some Czech comes with a Rajasthani turban, why not? So the aim of our dialogue is this. And today’s meeting is to create inspiration to respect other cultures and religions and to develop this spirituality, this spiritual consciousness. Without this, there will again be many, many wars. And to tell the truth, unfortunately, most wars are caused because of religions. So here we must give Karl Marx his due: such a religion, or such fanatic people who fight for religion—that religion is opium for the followers. So do not be abducted. Education. Our children must have education. There are human rights, animal rights, and children’s rights. So unless children do not understand completely what religion means and which religion is good, children should not be baptized. They have to choose freedom. I was born in Hinduism, in the Vedas. The Vedas do not speak about any [specific] God, because at that time these incarnations were not there—neither Rāma nor Kṛṣṇa, no. They speak only of one God, the Holy Father, the Ultimate One. It is called Sanātana Dharma, eternal religion. As it was said by Brother Stambach, we shall respect our religion, but it is not necessary that we change. We shall get information, and if it is necessary, you may change. It is your choice, your human right. So Sanātana Dharma says: let them believe how they believe. Protect their belief and guide them; be supportive. A husband believes in Buddha, a wife believes in Jesus, a daughter believes in Kṛṣṇa, and a son believes in Islam. In the evening, they are all sitting together, very happy. Where is the problem? No problem at all. How beautiful. And that is what we have to do. Now they have found, again in United Nations conferences I heard, that "tolerance" is too little. It is too weak. Tolerance can create arrogance, where you say, "Okay, I tolerate." So instead of tolerance, we shall now use the word "respect." So, you see: respect towards religion, respect towards cultures, and understanding towards nations. I think our very wise speakers here spoke so nicely. They gave us a lot of inspiration that even in the family there can be conflict because of religion. It is very hard to cause a little pain to the heart of a mother, but thanks to God, I hope the mother understood that he did not become a priest of the Catholics, but he became a priest of the Evangelists. Catholics believe in Jesus, and they also believe in Jesus. I think whether you are Catholic or Protestant, it should not make a difference. Whether you are Hindu or Muslim, it should not make a difference. No one is Hindu, no one is Muslim, no one is Buddhist, no one is Christian; we are humans. If they become real Christians and real Buddhists, there is no fighting. So, I thank you very, very much, organizers—especially those who are not organizers of Yoga in Daily Life—for making this conference here. And also, especially the organizers and the authority of the Evangelical Church, for we have truly had a historical conference today. I would say it is the first time in the history of Prague that in a church, at the altar, five different monks from different religions are sitting. Is this not a beautiful time? It is. And very soon we will have again a world conference in Prague or somewhere in the Czech Republic. Next year marks thirty years of Yoga in Daily Life. Recently, maybe there was a big flood in your country. Many people lost their lives. Many buildings were damaged. I pray to Almighty God, if there was any karmic thing in this, He may forgive us and help all, that they may again find their home. I pray to the Almighty for your good health, long life, and spiritual development, for divine protection and liberation. Spirituality is without borders. You are free to develop spirituality. Open your heart and welcome all forms of God. Let your heart be that heaven of the gods. Because as humans, we also have a heaven to go to somewhere, and there is also first class and second class. God has first class. So let your heart be that heaven where all different incarnations dwell. Thank you. God bless you.