Q: Guruji, how is spirituality relevant in today’s world?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: In an affluent society, we see kids engaging themselves in violence. A kid just took the gun and shot so many people. This is because the difference between the virtual world and the real world was absent for him. Kids have been playing violent games on the computer; games where even when they shoot people and they come back again to life. They do not realize that in real life when you shoot somebody, they don’t stand up and walk again. We need to attend to these issues of growing violence, discontent, mistrust, and depression. Spirituality has the answer for all these. Spirituality can eliminate the root cause of violence. It can bring inner peace to people. We talk about world peace; but if you don’t have peace in yourself, if you can't have peace with your family, with your community and in your environment, how do you want to have world peace? It is almost impossible! So we need to see that the individual finds peace, his communication improves and his compassion finds an expression. Everyone has the element of compassion in themselves, but they don’t find an expression in society. Through service activity, one’s compassion can find an expression; and you can put an end to violence. The corporate sector has an important role to play, to quell the violence in the society.