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Oṃ sarve bhavantu sukhinaḥ, sarve santu nirāmayāḥ, sarve bhadrāṇi paśyanto mā kacchid duḥkha bhāgbhavet. Oṃ śāntiḥ, śāntiḥ, śāntiḥ. Salutation to the cosmic light, Lord of our hearts, omniscient and omnipresent in His divine glory. Dear brothers and sisters, His Highness Mahārāja of Jodhpur, His Excellencies, my dear brother Sotendal, thank you for your kind words. Reverend Fisof, dear Imam, dear Chairperson. These are very important moments in our lives, moments to consider how much we can contribute to world peace for our beautiful Mother Earth. To understand why conflict happens, we must always look for the reasons. There is a difference between humans and animals, yet animals are part of our life; they are our brothers and sisters too. God created humans to think. There is a beautiful example. You are sitting in your room with your small cat, and someone throws a ball, a tennis ball, through the door into your house. The cat will run after the ball. As a human, what will we do? We will look toward the door to see who was there to throw the ball into my house. The difference is that we should think: why has this war happened now? And this is not the first one; there have been many wars. I think humans have created a disbalance in nature. We know about Ahiṃsā—"thou shalt not kill"—but it did not say "thou shalt not kill only humans." Every day, billions of innocent, poor creatures are killed by humans in such a cruel way. That is the theory of karma: where there is action, there will be a reaction. We have destroyed our nature. I always say that every culture is the best culture, or every culture is a good culture. But we should concentrate on one culture. Without that culture, we cannot exist, and that is agriculture. As one Native American said: when the last tree is cut down and the last fish dies, O human, you will realize that you cannot eat your dollars. If we want to have peace in the world, then we must sacrifice something and protect nature, and protect and love the animals. The Vedas, among the most ancient holy scriptures, advise us to lead life in harmony with nature. Do not go against nature, otherwise nature will take revenge. So why do these kinds of thoughts appear in the human mind—that I should fight against someone? That is selfishness and ego, a lack of tolerance, respect, and understanding. Recently, something happened. I designed a yoga program for schools, for the health of the children. It did not mention any name of religion or spirituality—anything. It was just for the good health of the children, like the exercises we had here. The Catholic Church, the Bishop Conference, came to know that yoga would be taught in these schools, and that yoga comes from India and is connected to Hinduism. They wrote a letter to every house telling them not to send their children to a school where yoga would be practiced. They probably even sent a threatening letter not to work for yoga there. Our dear sisters who believe in the Islamic religion come with a cloth on their head. They are not allowed to work in offices. They are not allowed to teach in schools as teachers. In many events, they are not welcomed. Why is this duality there? What is happening now with the gypsies in European countries? What is happening now with the Native Indians in Canada and America? If we see all this, it is no wonder that these wars are coming. Every religion is the best religion. Every child says, "My mother is the best mother." Which mother is not a good mother? Let them believe as they believe. What I say is that people begin with missionary work. They pay them, they give them money to change their beliefs. With this, they create a conflict in their subconsciousness towards their ancestors. The rabbi spoke about seven generations, which was explained by Native American Indians. We can also say we have this; it is 27 generations which are linked with us. We have to pray for them. What will our ancestors say to us? And what will our grandchildren expect from us? We shall create love and understanding towards every culture, and tolerance towards every religion. I should help, but not with expectations or conditions. Welcome them as they are. If I said everybody should come into this hall wearing an orange dress, I could not ask that of you. A great saint in Sufism, in Turkey, in Konya—I think it was Mevlānā—said, "Come as you are." It does not matter who you are: Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, believer or non-believer. Because you are the light of God, and the other creatures are also the light of God. So we should think about what we are doing with our other brothers and sisters of this planet. Protect them and protect nature, and remove the duality of color, caste, greed, and the cultural way of their life. Then we can bring perfect balance and peace into our hearts. Meditation and yoga are not part of one religion. Yoga is older than Hinduism. The Vedas are available in written form for more than 7,000 years, and in them, yoga is described as an ancient path. So yoga is more ancient than any religion or spiritual path in this world. And what yoga says is: love, understand, believe, forgive. Ahiṃsā paramodharma—the highest principle is non-violence. Therefore, we cannot blame anyone for what they are doing. We are all together the cause of that fighting. As Mahātmā Gandhījī said, "We do not hate the person; we hate the actions." So we shall try to avoid those actions. Dear brothers and sisters, please take something from here as a saṅkalpa, a resolution: that you will try to create peace by embracing all different cultures and nations and their feelings, and by fostering tolerance among religions—let them believe as they believe. Thank you. I want to say many, many thanks to the organizers of Yoga in Daily Life, and especially to Bhakti, for she did truly great work in bringing us all here together. I am sure this conference will contribute something for world peace. God bless all of us. Recording location: Australia, Sydney, World Peace Forum 2003