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Swamiji's opening speach at the Youth Conference 2006

A keynote address on youth education and sustainable peace.

"The future world is in the hands of the youth. But today, this future is in the hands of parents and teachers."

"War never brings peace. Every war causes a deep wound in the hearts of people. That wound, that injury, is preserved for generations and generations."

Swami Maheshwarananda delivers a speech at a youth conference, beginning with traditional Sanskrit prayers for peace. He critiques modern education for lacking ethics and spirituality, which he links to conflict and environmental crises. He calls on elders to impart wisdom, love, and respect to the younger generation, emphasizing tree planting and water protection as practical actions for a sustainable future. He thanks European political dignitaries for their support.

Recording location: Czech Republic, Zlin, Youth Conference

Lead us from the unreal to the real, _asato mā sadgamaya._ Lead us from darkness to light, _tamaso mā jyotirgamaya._ Lead us from mortality to immortality, _mṛtyor mā amṛtam gamaya._ May all be healthy. _Sarve bhavantu sukhinaḥ._ May there be peace everywhere. _Sarve bhavantu śāntiḥ._ May all be happy. _Sarve bhavantu maṅgalam._ May all achieve completeness. _Sarve bhavantu pūrṇam._ May the whole world be happy. _Lokaḥ samastaḥ sukhino bhavantu._ Salutation to the cosmic light. Dear brothers and sisters, Your Excellency Mr. Thomas, Sultan Khal, member of the European Parliament, Dr. Alena Godovska, the Senator, and the representative of the Deputy District Commissioner of the Zlín Region, all my dear brothers and sisters, and very dear youth—the culture of tomorrow—I am very happy to be here today on this very auspicious day, and especially to support the youth for a better world. Around the world, there are many peace conferences. Many NGOs and governmental organizations are organizing conferences. But very few are organizing conferences for the youth. The future world is in the hands of the youth. But today, this future is in the hands of parents and teachers. How parents educate their children, and how the teachers or the education system educates the children—that is how the future will be. What you have, you have to hand over to the children. You cannot expect from the children something different than what you give them. Today, upbringing and education are lacking. Perhaps there is education in technology or in how to earn money, but ethical education is missing. Moral education is missing. Awareness towards the environment and love towards different creatures is missing. The result of this is wars. And war never brings peace. Every war causes a deep wound in the hearts of people. That wound, that injury, is preserved for generations and generations. Their blood boils in the fire of vengeance. And so the upbringing and education that exist today are not correct. It has separated humans from humans. It has made humans enemies of each other. Children have lost their love and respect for parents. Students have lost their respect and love towards their teachers. We are running towards darkness. And we do not want the future to be in darkness. We know that we, the grown people, made a mistake. But we do not want our children to repeat such a mistake in the future. Therefore, it is necessary to have education for the elderly people, for the grown people. Parents should take the responsibility upon themselves to teach their children love, forgiveness, respect, tolerance, and understanding towards all religions, cultures, and nations. And also, in the educational system, ethical and moral education should come back. Spiritual education is missing. And without spiritual education, there cannot be world peace. We all know very well that the world is in trouble. The world is threatened by many different powers. You may call it drugs, you may call it criminal activities, or you may call it terrorism, or what nowadays scientists used to say: the biggest threat to the world is climate change. And we humans are responsible for this. Can we hope for a better future? Yes, we can. And for that purpose, we are here today. I ask you to support the children, understand them, and organize for them some programs in every city, in every street, or every district—some educational program towards world peace, tolerance, respect, love, ethics, environment, water protection, and so on. This is the aim of this conference. Yoga in Daily Life, as you have heard, is working around the world and has many, many different activities, especially for education—to give them again the ancient education. We are planting forests. Wherever I come for the first time in any town, we plant a peace tree. In this beautiful city of Zlín, we planted a peace tree already two years ago. Because trees are our life. Some American Indian wise man said: when the last tree is cut down and the last fish dies, then only, oh man, will you realize that you cannot eat your dollars. And we hope that it will not go that far. I would very much like to thank the Senator for the Zlín Region, Her Excellency, who has been supporting this conference from the very beginning. She welcomed us here with her heart. And when we spoke about the children, the youth, then she was saying yes without thinking: "Yes, we need to do something for children; they need our love and our wisdom." So I thank her very much for her kind support. And also today, we are here representing the entire Europe, and so it is right to have with us His Excellency, the member of the European Parliament. So you see that many nations are here today, and mostly the youth. They have a message for us also. They ask us: "Please pass over to us the flame of wisdom before you go away from this world. Do not let us stand with empty hands in the darkness. Just give us one flame." Confucius said: "When the day is dark and dreary, and it is hard to find the way, just light one candle, then stand in the dark." So just standing in the darkness is not good. May you have a tiny candle in your hand—that has more value. It will be a pity if we die without giving the wisdom, the knowledge, to the youth. The knowledge will disappear with you if you cannot give it to others. You gain the knowledge for giving to others. So if we cannot do more, then at least we shall give the world into the hands of the children as pure, as clean as we got it. If we cannot offer them more, then we shall offer them at least one glass of clean water. You know, water is a big problem now around the world. Seventy-five percent of the world's population suffers from the fact that they do not have access to water at all or only to polluted water. All this we shall awaken in the consciousness of the children. I thank you for the invitation that you extended to me. And I thank you all the delegates who are here, that you are coming to support our future. And we have to think what a sustainable future means. What is created will be destroyed—that is not sustainable. What do we understand by "sustainable"? If we create atom bombs, is that sustainable? If we create a lot of technology and create pollution, is that sustainable? We earn a lot of money—is that sustainable? We create wars to stop the people in one compact place—is that sustainable? So it is a question mark. What is sustainable? And that will be discussed today. I wish you all the best. God bless you. God bless this conference. And I wish you a very nice day. Thank you once more. _Adiós._ Recording location: Czech Republic, Zlin, Youth Conference

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt, what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

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