NT
Panaji, Feb 4: The internationally acclaimed spiritual leader and founder of the Art of Living Foundation, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar today said that the world needs to move from religion to spirituality.
“Though at least six religions are followed in the East, including countries like China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia, amongst others,” the revered spiritual leader said, “no war is fought in these Oriental countries on the basis of religion.” “On the other hand, so many religious wars have taken place in countries extending from Iraq to Pakistan, and it’s unbelievable,” he lamented.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who was delivering the spiritual discourse in the city, organised by the Dempo Charities Trust, also maintained that during past 1,000 years, India has no religious wars, although people from foreign countries came and suppressed Indians. “There may be few exceptions like inquisition witnessed in Goa during the colonial rule,” he added.
Earlier, the chairman of the Dempo Group of Companies as well as a trustee of the Dempo Charities Trust, Mr Shrinivas Dempo welcomed the spiritual leader along with another trustee of the DCT, Mr Vishwasrao Dempo.
Expressing faith in goodness existing in the world, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said that the majority of people around us are good, while there exists a small percentage of people who do bad things. “These few people are not bad people but people doing bad things,” he reiterated, stating “therefore, there should be no concern about increase in the number of members of this minority group.”
The revered spiritual leader observed that there is always a tendency on the part of the people to join the majority group as it has a ‘market value’, and the same would result in increase in the number of good people around the world.
This situation allows us to remain honest and maintain goodness in ourselves, in spite of the adverse environment existing today, he opined.
Speaking further, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said that one should decide whether he or she wants to lead life like an incense stick by spreading fragrance of the work in the society, or illuminate the world by burning like a lamp so that darkness in the life of others is dispelled. “If we ourselves don’t experience satisfaction, then how are we going to satisfy others,” he questioned.
Stating that it is more important to learn life than language, the spiritual leader said that spiritualism in nothing but delving inside oneself to learn the unknown. “We should learn the art of soothing our mind,” he advised, appealing to the audience to be at ease before and after doing any work so as to calm oneself from all tensions.
“Then and only then we will be able to solve the mystery of the unknown,” the spiritual leader maintained.
Interacting with the audience, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said that when the body falls off, we carry the impressions of the mind. “Like in television technology wherein the event is transported through wave medium, our mind too is a wave energy and captures day-to-day activities, further relaying them to the universe,” he noted.
The acclaimed spiritual leader also observed that as explained in the Bhagwad Geeta, anger erupts from righteousness, while being accommodative brings enormous expansion in one’s state of mind.
Mr Shrinivas Dempo, in his welcome speech said that there has been great divide between ‘have’ and ‘have nots’, though the country has witnessed economic revolution, and hence there is a need of spiritual leaders like Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to guide the society towards the path of excellence and bridge this divide.
A dhyana session was also conducted on the occasion. The event began with a convocation song presented by Ms Sankalpa Lotlikar and tiny tots.
Among those who attended the programme included the IT secretary, Mr R P Pal, the chairman of the Mormugao Port Trust, Mr P Agarwal, the former state advocate general, Mr Atmaram Nadkarni, the former MP, Mr Ramakant Angle, Ms Neeladevi Dempo, and the DCT trustee, Ms Pallavi Dempo, amongst others.