TV Channel

Indeed, the Earth Charter is one of the most important pillars of this Earth, and we are all the finest particles, like gravel or sand, to hold and give strength to that pillar. I had the opportunity to attend many conferences with Earth Charter members, commissioners, and presidents, as well as with the Garbhachop. After all this reading and listening to the aims and objects of the Earth Charter, I looked into the Upaniṣads, the very ancient scriptures from India, and you will be surprised. All these 16 or 18 points you will find in the Upaniṣads. That made a very clear point and a clear picture to me of what we are to do and why. For thousands of years, the wise men have been thinking, and they knew because they were great seers. What is going to happen to our beautiful planet? Man should learn to love and live in harmony with nature. That is why Mahātmā Gandhījī said, "Mother Earth has enough for everyone's needs, but not for their greed." In yoga, this is the first principle: that you should give up your selfishness. A wise American Indian said, "When the last tree will be chopped off and the last fish will die, oh man, then you will realize that you cannot eat your dollars." And that is what we see happening in this world because of people's greed. It is also said the most dangerous pollution on this globe is mental pollution. The pollution of the human mind—if this pollution can be purified, meaning selfishness and greediness can be renounced—our planet will again be that beautiful planet, heaven on Earth. With this view, and after studying many scriptures, attending many conferences, and listening to many wise lectures, I also began, already a few decades ago, to hold World Peace Conferences. Now, I want to tell you, respected President, that every year we have this kind of conference around the world. You remember yourself, you were attending one conference in Sydney, and there you will see the main object is sustainability—sustainability according to the Earth Charter's declaration. Every conference, we always have very excellent speakers like yourself, sir. With this, the great ṛṣis made humans aware of what they are doing. God Kṛṣṇa said in the Bhagavad Gītā, "Arjuna, just know the form of your actions." You should know what you are doing; then you will see the fruits, what kind of fruits you will have from your actions. Karma Yoga and the Earth Charter's aims and objects match together very, very well because these are the words of the great seers, the holy persons who were thinking in unity. That is why it is said, "Vasudhaiva Kuṭumbakam." This is the first mantra. "Vasudhaiva Kuṭumbakam" means the entire world is one family. I was very happy that you addressed all the citizens of the globe. That is it. We have to realize that we are all citizens of this Earth. There should be no boundaries, and there should be no differences. And not only that humans are the citizens of this globe, but every creature. You saw beautiful pictures showing everything. All together makes the beauty of this planet, and that is why this planet is known as a living planet. It is not that we only think, "I am getting everything, I do not care about the future; this is their problem in the future." No, Hindu philosophy brought these thoughts and made it very clear: "O man, not only you, all creatures, they have to be reborn again. You are preparing this planet for your next life." In your next life, when you will come, you have no right to go to the same house, the same building. You have no access to your bank accounts. You have no rights to your insurance. You have no rights to anything. You have to begin with all that you created in the world, the atmosphere on this planet. It is called reincarnation, and now many people do not believe there is reincarnation. You know, belief does not change the reality. If you believe or not, the reality is reality. If you believe, it is okay. If you do not believe, it is okay. But you will then see that, yes, you are reborn again. So reincarnation, and I am very happy that these principles were adopted by the Earth Charter, the name reincarnation in the form of recycling. Do you believe in recycling or not? And if you believe in recycling, then where is the problem to believe in reincarnation? That is also a kind of cosmic recycling that influences the entire atmosphere as well as our planet. Therefore, Kṛṣṇa—Kṛṣṇa is known as a Karma Yogī, Kṛṣṇa is known as a Yogeśvara—and Kṛṣṇa tells in the Bhagavad Gītā very clearly to Arjuna: "Arjuna, there is nothing in the entire universe which is not possible for me to have, but still I am working, I am acting, because how I will do, others will also follow me." And therefore, all these great persons in the world, they should know that people will do as you will do also. Action. "Karma kie ja phal dega bhagavān, yehī hai Gītā kā gyān." Go ahead, do your duty, the fruits will be given to you by God. That is the preaching of the Bhagavad Gītā. Karma. "Yoga karmasu kauśalam." Therefore Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa said, "Yoga karmasu kauśalam." Your yoga practices will be successful through your karma. Karma means action. Anything that happens through your body, your mind, your memory, your thoughts, your social power, your words, that will be counted as karma. Arjuna, every step will be counted. Every movement will be counted. And therefore, you should know what you are doing, O human. Human is created on this planet as a protector, not a destructor. And therefore, every action of the human should be towards protection. Indeed, it is true that all rivers are polluted, all lakes are polluted, and the ocean is polluted. You know how many ocean lives die through the plastic bags which we throw away. So one wise person said, "We live in the society called 'throw away,' but where?" We throw away, but where should we throw away? That will come back to us again. You take the dust and throw it in the sky, what will happen? The dust will come back to you. Similarly, every action has a reaction. It is the reaction to the cause. Every action has a reaction, and every reaction has again an action. Now, we are between action, reaction, action, reaction. We don't know if this life is an action or a reaction. Therefore, humans have a great responsibility for this planet and for the future. Don't think it is your children's future. It is your future. You will be the victim of all that is happening. Every thought which you think selfishly, negatively, it will come back to you. Karma. There are two kinds of karma in karma philosophy: Niṣkāma karma or sakāma karma. Niṣkāma karma and sakāma karma. Niṣkāma karma means selfless service, not having self-interest but for the well-being of all. And this karma will liberate you from the cycle of birth and death. And sakāma karma is selfish action, which comes out of greed, which comes out of ego, which comes out of the computations, which comes out of your anger, which comes out of your jealousy. And these are the qualities called the negative qualities. It will have a reflection on you. I am in Australia and I can give you one example. They have a game; they use one called the boomerang. And when you throw the boomerang, that will come back to you. So every thought which you send out of your mind, which is created in your brain, that will come back to you. Sooner or later it will come back to you. You cannot hide because God sees everywhere. And God is everywhere. Karma, do the good karma. Someone said, if you can't dry the tears of others, then try at least not to be the cause of the tears. Did something in your life happen, or happen through you, that someone had to cry because of you? Crying means now not only the liquid comes out of your eyes, but also the pain and disappointment in your heart. Love, love is God. When you have loving thoughts, then your mother or father or anyone else, they will know what love means. Let's say one example. I was very surprised to hear that per year you are killing these innocent kangaroos. How many? Six million. Up to six million a year. And what is the population of Australia? Twenty million. So nearly three kangaroos per person killed per year. And that is too much. What rights do you have to kill the kangaroos? Did you ever think about the kangaroos' rights? Like we create human rights, but there are animal rights too, and there are vegetation rights too. Therefore, oh man, protect the rights of others, that is your duty. You take a fish out of the water and now you see how this creature is suffering. It is very much suffering. It is not easy to die. You take a rabbit, you hold the rabbit, and the rabbit has beautiful pink eyes and is looking at you, the rabbit. And now you take a knife and you kill that rabbit. Is this a human heart? Is this a human conscience? Is this a human act? That a living creature who is looking at you and can't tell you, please don't do this to me, please. Humans have no ears to listen to the suffering of the animals. And that's why if the reflection comes back and humans are suffering already, humans are not happy. The most unhappy creature, the most unhealthy creature, the most troublesome, we humans are there on this planet and we disturb the entire planet. Yes, there is a way to sustainability. Always I say, try to recycle the things at your home. A very simple example I am giving you. Very simple. And this is what I have been talking about for the last five years when I am coming to Australia. When you go to the market and buy something and the seller gives you something in a plastic bag, say no to the plastic. Say thank you, no plastic bag please. If I have no bag, I will take my cloth and say please put apples here. That is the example. I will take apples home like this, and at home I can clean them. That's it. Try to utilize the things again. Make your own bags. Go for shopping with your own bags. There are all these big highways, what we hear as examples. You know how many people had a business on the way, small, small, when there was no highway? There were beautiful farmer's fruits, organic fruits to buy. Next one kilometer, there was some nice honey. After a few kilometers, there was a farmer offering you good cheese. Then you were going somewhere far, and there was one nice shop or something where they gave you very fresh pineapple juice. You would drive further, and someone had very nice fresh corn everywhere; in every few kilometers, people had some work, they had a business, and people were happy. There was a human connection, a human relation. Now you enter the highway, and after 400 kilometers, you come out somewhere. Between all these shops, people are neglected, they are all unemployed, and the economy is going down. If you have more money, it does not mean a good economy. Therefore, say, "sarve bhavantu sukhinaḥ." The Upaniṣads are telling, "sarve bhavantu sukhinaḥ"—all should be happy. But a greedy human thinks, when he hears, "Aha, he has 50 million in his account." Now my target is this: how, as quickly as possible, can these 50 million come into my account? It's called business, and it doesn't come. Then he said, "What can we do? You don't get what you deserve." Is your wish that these 50 million come to your account? Then he said, "You don't get what you deserve; you get what you negotiate." And in the negotiation, how many lies are there? You can't imagine the recycling process at home. Now is the fashion of what you call trousers, pants, or pajamas. You have two legs, yes? So now you have pants with two legs. After using them for one year or half a year, the fashion is changing. What are you going to do with these trousers? Either give them to the Red Cross or some other organization for poor people, or you will throw them away. Where will you throw them? In some garbage bin? Don't do this; wash them. Iron your trousers nicely, measure 30 centimeters. Make a line at 30 centimeters, then take the scissors and cut them into pieces. So at least you will get about six or eight pieces out of these trousers. A very well-made bag—just one side you have to knit, that's all. A very beautiful bag, a very strong bag, you can use it for many things. You have a beautiful shirt; you have two arms, yes? You don't have four arms like God, Viṣṇu or Brahmā. So thanks to God that our trousers are easy to sew, our knits, our what you call shirts. Both arms—cut your used shirt arms into two pieces. You have four bags: four bags for your shoes, or for your mineral water bottle, or for your tea bottle, or for many, many things. You go to the market and buy some nice fruits or some nuts, and you have a nice ready-made bag, very good as it is. And we did, our parents did like this; also, you can make many, many things out of your shirt, undershirt, and many things. This is wonderful, what you can do; utilize it, and this bag will remain with you for many years. Don't give someone presents wrapped in paper. Just give it as it is, or give it in some textiles. Likewise, this was only one example. And don't wash your dishes with chemicals; wash your dishes with lemon. You take the lemon juice, you drink the lemon juice, and what remains, clean your plate; it will be cleaner, have a very good smell, and everything will look very nice and shiny if you clean with the lemon remains. Now the laundry—the population of Brisbane is just over a million; if you are utilizing per day 10 grams of chemical in different forms, per day you are utilizing 10 million grams. How many is 10 million grams? How many tons? Is someone here a mathematician? Now, how many tons? 1,000 tons. 1,000 grams is 1 kilo. So how many thousands of chemicals? Where is it going? It must go somewhere; it goes into our earth. It goes into our rivers; it goes into our ocean. This was only one day. Now, 365 days a year, how many millions of tons of chemicals is the Brisbane city putting into the earth, into Mother Earth? Now the earth has nearly got cancer, a cancer disease. If we continue, very soon it will not be treatable. Therefore, try your best, become alert and aware, do good karma for Mother Earth, for yourself, and for others. If you buy the newspaper, how many kilos do you have? There are some newspapers that have hundreds of pages, very heavy. Try to learn how to recycle these newspapers; it is very easy, and very quickly you can make a nice bag from the newspaper. Go and buy your cherries, go and buy your apples, go and buy your plums—anything you want to buy—from one page of the newspaper you can make a bag, and you can carry three kilos of apples or four kilos of apples inside. How nice. And when it is really destroyed, then you can make some pots out of it. Beautiful pots; they look very beautiful, and that makes you happy. You know, you will develop new chakras in your body, new talents in your body, how to make a bag. You will be so surprised how beautiful that bag looks, which is made out of newspapers. And you will be surprised how to make a beautiful pot out of used newspapers. You put it in water for one week. After that, you have to press it nicely and add some kind of flour, what we call chapati flour, a little bit inside. And then you can form a nice basket, a nice ball. Beautiful things, very light and very beautiful, and then you can design something on it, help the earth, for sustainable development, and make nice paintings; you can sell it, you can utilize it, you can give your friends presents, and when that is broken, it will be recycled again. So there are many, many things which you can put for recycling, natural things; this was only some examples. We have water shortage; many people are mourning, especially—sorry, gentlemen—but mostly men, when they are shaving, water is running, the tap is open, they make a little soap and shave, and then do like this only for one or two seconds, then again shave, and the water is running and flowing and flowing and flowing. Learn to use less water. Not only that you have enough water in Brisbane, but think for the future. And you know, before 10 years, it was not so usual or not so traditional, or something what we call a water bottle to put on the table or to give people in the restaurant or anywhere. Now anywhere you go, you are carrying your water bottle with you. Now the experts are saying, if we continue to do this bad karma, meaning polluting this planet, then very soon you will not need a water bottle, but you will also need an oxygen bottle. And I hope we will not come to that point, that we have to go out of our door with an oxygen bottle. So karma, Arjuna, "yoga karmasu kauśalam"—through good karmas, your yogasādhanā will be successful. Now I am sure, 100,000% I am sure, you brothers and sisters who are sitting here and listening in different countries, 99% of you are aware about the environment, you are aware about sustainable development, but you know how many people don't care about this? Now I would give you one suggestion: make a target. Make a target that per year, I will inspire 100 people; that's a very big target, or 10 people—that's not difficult. Twelve would be the best, because that's one person per month. Also, your family members, your children, and parents have to teach the children. But now we need education for the parents. I will give you a very nice example. In Slovakia, Yoga in Daily Life is also practiced. Thousands of people, or you can say millions. And my disciples, they are all very aware about the global situation around the world. This year I was there for three weeks, and one of my disciples came with their small child, who was just one and a half years old, Śaṅkar Purī. I was standing in a garden, in a beautiful building, on the front side of the garden. There was a road between, not a public road, but just a road to approach this building and go. I gave him one candy, or the lollipop, what you call it. I opened it and gave him the lollipop, and he took the paper or the plastic that was wrapped over the lollipop, and he walked 15 meters. There was a dustbin, and he went and threw it in. And then he came and put the lollipop in his mouth. How beautiful. I was so sorry that I didn't have a camera with me at that time; otherwise, I would have an example. This small boy, one and a half years old, couldn't even speak, and walking was also a little bit—he was trying to have balance. And it was so beautiful; the bin was too high, so he was trying to stand on his toes to throw it in. The next day he repeated again, and it fell out, so he bent down again, collected it, and put it in. Now, of course, I admire this child, but before admiring the child, I admire the parents. Parents make children aware of what to do and what not to do. Therefore, make a target—let's say 12 people—and if 1,000 people are making others aware about sustainable development, then there will be 12,000 people. Give those 12,000 people the duty that when one month you give someone education, tell them now their duties are to help people further and awaken this global consciousness.