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SERVING SOCIETY BY STRENGTHENING THE INDIVIDUAL

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Address at the United Nations
50th Anniversary Celebration

Beloved souls. I am glad we are gathered here to ponder the ways and

means to bring back

human values to society. Today, I see the crisis in

the world as one of identification: A man

identifies himself with his

profession, religion, race, culture, nationality, language,region, or

sex.

Only after that does he identify with being a human being. Limited

identification leads to war. Through education we need to bring about a change in our basic
identity. We are all first part of the Divine, and secondly, we are human beings. This can
happen only through right spiritual knowledge.

Here I would like to make a clear distinction between ‘religion’ and spirituality’. Religion is the
banana skin and spirituality is the banana. All religions have three aspects: values, symbols
and customs. While values are the same in all the religions, symbols and customs differ.
Today we have forgotten the values and simply hold on to the symbols and customs. Only
spirituality can nourish human values. It can eliminate frustrations and bring contentment and
happiness in life.

Right education is that which creates in each person a sense of belongingness with the whole
world. A person learns to embrace all the religions of the world as his own, and can choose to
practice one without decrying the other. Members of a family can practice more than one
religion. This should be the strategy for the 21st century.

In this age, when technology has advanced, we have cared very little for the emotional and
spiritual needs of people. Neither at home nor in school have we been taught how to release
negative emotions. Neither at home nor at school does one learn to handle one’s own mind.
Breathing techniques, pranayama, meditation, and yoga, can release the tension and
negative emotions and help one to live in the present. Man either worries about the past, or
the future, or gets stuck in negativity. Only spirituality can help him to get rid of the negativity
and live in the present. Prayer, when combined with silence, can connect us to the infinite
source of power deep within our hearts.

A stress-free mind and a disease-free body are the birthrights of every human being. This
august assembly can draw a syllabus and implement a plan to introduce spiritual knowledge
at various levels in the society, such as in schools, colleges, and rehabilitation centers. Only
then can we reduce the crises and the diseases in our own environment.

Due to lack of proper spiritual education and lack of a total and comprehensive
understanding of all religions of eh world, religious fanaticism has taken root in many regions.
Spirituality, without dogma, and with understanding which is all-encompassing, is the need of
the 21st century.

Now is the time for us to attend to this. Human evolution has two steps: the first is from being
a “somebody” to being a “nobody,” and the second is from being a “nobody” to being
“everybody”. This knowledge can bring sharing and caring throughout the world.

More Talks by Sri Sri