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Merciful Lord, lead us from unreal reality to reality. Lead us from darkness to light. And lead us from mortality to immortality. Bless our vegetation with good health. Bless all creatures with a happy life. And bless humans with mutual understanding. In your holy name, peace, peace, peace. Respected, my 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, which is a record; such a thing did not happen in the past. We heard the story of a dear mother, and it told us very clearly that even between Catholics and Evangelists, who share the same religion, there was once great misunderstanding. I do not think multi-religious dialogues would have been possible at that time. So, I choose the 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 before that age, as far as I remember—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. So the reality is the gold in those ornaments, not the parts. Any 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 discussions, we came to know that we are all praying to the same God, just with different names. In the Bhagavad Gītā, Kṛṣṇa said very clearly to Arjuna, "It does not matter through which way humans will go, finally they will come to me." Finally, we will enter into Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is called universal consciousness. You may call it Jesus consciousness, or Buddha consciousness, or the consciousness of Rāma, or your consciousness. There is no difference. Vimala said it very nicely: "When the religious and spiritual preachings go to those ordinary people, I mean non-spiritual people, then the religion is suffering." Because spirituality can only be taught and inspired by a spiritual person. Then the religion becomes institutional, and then spirituality is suffering. And when religion becomes a missionary, then conflict rises in the world. Gandhījī used to say, not 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, to understand why the conflict, the violence rises. Definitely, every religion's roots and fruits are the same, but the teaching is different. And when such a teaching does not come from self-realized persons, then the followers are suffering. 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 and no violence. Because we are in ignorance; we don't know about other religions. We don't know enough about other cultures. And we don't know enough about other traditions. We know only what's happening now. When we are ignorant about others, then we are afraid. We don't 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 supports, prohibiting others not to look there. Such kinds of feelings have created in the world many, many problems—all this violence, terrorist acts. Recently, I was in the Council of Europe at a conference on multi-religion and culture. One Muslim from Algeria said, "Terrorists do not have a religion." They don't know the boundaries, and they don't know Ahiṃsā. That's why Mahātmā Gāndhī said, "Vaiṣṇavas are they, humans, are they 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, human heart, human life, and we've neglected other creatures. Christmas is coming. You will see many postcards and paintings about Jesus's life. You'll see Jesus in the cradle, and the cows and donkeys, goats, sheep, they are all there looking and happy. In some of the pictures, you can see Jesus carrying also some animals, a goat baby; how he loved. All this happens because we foreboded and we neglected our brother animals. We have forgotten our brothers, the animals; we neglect them. Imagine cutting the throat of a goat, and now imagine when the throat of a goat is cut, and that little goat suffers. Our whole body is having spasms, and now the whole body is shaking in a cramp. Only she can't say, "Please don't do it," only that she is not capable of saying, "Please don't do this to me." And it's throughout the world. Unfortunately, in India also, these things are happening, which is called the holy country. 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. Now in this culture, the family broke, the joint family, and that's why humans again fight against you. We need to have education. For example, there is one lady, a school teacher who has her belief as Islam, and she is teaching in the middle of Europe. According to her belief, she is wearing a cloth on her head. And now they make the law: she cannot come into the school with a cloth on her head. That is discrimination. But let's say, a very famous Czechoslovakian rabbi, old culture, they also have a cloth on their head; 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 don't know completely what Islam says, what the Holy Qur'ān says. The same thing, we don't know what the Veda says or what the Upaniṣad says. Now it is very important, and in Europe they are preparing that in the school's education, the student must be completely informed about all religions properly. The time has come: we shall remain Czech. We shall keep Czech culture, and we shall protect ourselves and our culture, but it does not mean this—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. 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. To tell the truth, unfortunately, most of the wars are caused because of religions. So here we must give Karl Marx right, that such a religion, or such fanatic people who fight for the religion, that religion is opium for the followers, so don't be abducted. Education—so our children must have education. There are human rights, there are animal rights, and there are children's rights. So unless children do not understand completely what religion means and which religion is good, the children should not be baptized. They have to choose the freedom. I was born in Hinduism and in the Vedas; the Vedas do not speak about any God, because at that time these incarnations were not there—neither Rāma nor Kṛṣṇa, no—with their speech, only one God, the Holy Father, the Ultimate One. It is called Sanātana Dharma, eternal religion, as it was said by Brother Stambach, that 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, human rights. So Sanātana Dharma says, let them believe how they believe. Protect their belief and guide them; be supportive. The husband believes in Buddha, the wife believes in Jesus, the daughter believes in Kṛṣṇa, and the 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 we have to do. So now they have found again the expertise in the United Nations conferences, I heard. Tolerance is too little; it is too weak. Tolerance can create arrogance, that you say, "Okay, I tolerate." So instead of tolerance, we shall use now the word "respect." So, you see, tolerance towards religion, respect towards cultures, and understanding towards the 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 a conflict because of religion, and it is very hard to cause a little pain to the heart of the mother, but thanks to God, then I hope the mother understood that he did not become the priest of the Catholic, but he became the priest of the Evangelist. Catholics believe in Jesus, and they also believe in Jesus; I think whether you are Catholic or Protestant, it shouldn't make a difference, or you are Hindu or Muslim, it shouldn't make a difference. No one is Hindu, no one is Muslim, no one is Buddhist, no one is Christian—we are humans. If we then 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, that they made this conference here. And also especially the organizers and the authority of the Evangelical Church, that we have really a historical conference today. I would say it is the first time in the history of Prague that in the church at the altar, five different monks are sitting from different religions; 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, 30 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, spiritual development, 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 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 the different incarnations dwell. Thank you. God bless you. --- Recording location: Czech Republic, Prague, Multireligious dialog