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Mr. Kothani is dedicated to ethical journalism and education; he is, I would say, the first person in Australia who could claim that distinction. We have work for him all over the city. He is a prolific writer and a great researcher on the Vedas and the fundamentals of Hinduism, but he has also authored numerous books on a wide range of subjects—not merely journalism, but topics such as the mind, ethics, and human consciousness. Would you please join me in welcoming Gulab Gopal? Mr. Chairman, Swāmījī, distinguished speakers, friends. We are talking all day about world peace, the world as a global village, and thinking globally while acting locally. I am definitely not an authority on peace, but as a journalist, I would like to share some observations from social and interpersonal life, and the factors which I believe are becoming dangerous to our peace movements. Every human being likes peace; all societies and nations strive for it, at both micro and macro levels. What is the problem? Why do we not reach our goals even after so many seminars, conferences, and intellectual exercises? This is a question we must ask ourselves, and not anybody outside. From my observations, there are three or four factors responsible for the direction in which the world is moving. The most important, I think, is today's education system. I am happy that none of the speakers today has pointed to media as another powerful factor affecting peace, but I believe media is a factor taking the whole world against all our efforts. We want to unite the world, to make it a global village, whereas information technology and media are breaking society apart and making each individual an isolated unit. These two factors change our whole perception of ourselves. Today, as the Lama also pointed out, we have forgotten two levels of our individual life. We are more aware of our body and our intellect. Our education also places all emphasis on these two aspects. But the major aspects of our personality, our individuality, or our universal connectedness lie mainly in our hearts and mainly in our souls. No education today teaches this; no environment gives us information about it. Our senses, minds, and hearts keep diverting from place to place, but we have no time to think about ourselves. Each of us has all these four levels, and they need to be balanced in all respects. If these four levels are not balanced, human beings or human societies will never be called balanced societies. So first, our major question concerns the role of education, which does not create a balanced individual who is concerned about society, the nation, or even the neighborhood or family members. Adding fuel to this fire is our media. If you trace the whole history, from the printed word to radio, to television, again to the internet and mobile phones, observe how we are behaving and moving, and in which direction. We are definitely proud of our information technology and our science, but there are two dangers involved. First, all new technology is first taken over by all the devils inside us; they are first attracted to new technologies. Second, when television was introduced—at least I can talk about India—the whole family used to sit in a common room and watch. When the internet was introduced, the family was broken up, and the individual became only worried about himself or herself. This is even more pronounced with mobile phones. The reality of visual media is that it thrives only on action; otherwise, it cannot attract an audience. And action lies only in crime, sex, war, and things like that. So this is another area. The third area from media is that if you sit before a television set, we forget ourselves and our present. We become non-existent for a given period of time. When we lose our present, we lose our future as well. When we are not conscious of our hearts and our souls, then where is love? Love does not exist in our intellect. Our intellect can only talk about hatred; it can talk arrogance. It can try its best to demoralize somebody, to knock somebody down, but it will never show love, affection, or respect—whatever you call it—because it doesn't belong to this level of life. Love comes from the heart; it is felt by the heart, and everybody definitely looks for it. We miss it because we are not, you could say, habituated to talk about this love or the heart level, because we don't talk to ourselves about ourselves, and so we miss it. The same is the case in our homes. When a child grows, he doesn't see love; he is free to sit before the TV. When he doesn't see it in his growing-up stages, when he doesn't know how to rationalize or analyze the heart or wisdom level or the visionary areas of life, he doesn't have it. The world does not have peace; there is no possibility, and he doesn't even have homes today. The older generation is not present before him—those who have the time, the experience, and who know how to teach a young child. So the whole society is missing out on that level. And above all, our Sādhvījī, Śāntījī, emphasized that the next conference should be on the role of women in peacemaking. But the career side of education has taken this woman out of society. What we have are female bodies; they are mentally male. The area of love is getting dried up day by day. There is competition between these two sexes; they are supposed to be complementary. If there is a woman, there is love; she can control any man, she has all the powers. As Swāmījī said this morning, in India and in any other Islamic country and all, a woman is highly regarded only because of these powers—that the whole family is around her; she governs the whole family and all the relatives and society. So, in conclusion, I say we must look back on the role of our wisdom, the role of our hearts, the role of a practice to look inside and feel what we are and where we are heading. Then things will be much easier than the intellectual exercises. Thank you. Recording location: Australia, Sydney, World Peace Forum 2003