Q: Guruji, Though India has all this spiritual knowledge, why are there so many problems here? Why are we lagging behind? Why are crimes increasing?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: If you turn back and see, 20 years ago, we didn’t have so many hospitals. Today, we have so many more hospitals, super specialty hospitals; still people are sick. Are the hospitals responsible for sick people? No, certainly not. In spite of hospitals, people are still getting sick; that means we have to upgrade, give more medical aid, and lifestyles need to change. We have to give our people good values and culture; like offering namaskars (greetings) to seniors, lighting lamps in the house, sitting and chanting a few shlokas. It would be good if families do this. You should sit with the whole family and have at least one meal together at home. Then the bonding in the family increases. Family values should be held high. In the old times, business families had a lot of values. Any charitable activity in India was done by the business community or kings. Business people were called shresthas, meaning, great, or elite. The whole community was called great. If you go anywhere in India, any pilgrimage center in India, all the shelters were built by them. The lakes, wells, schools, they were all built by the business community. So, the community itself got the name, ‘the most benevolent; the great community’. Somewhere these values are eroding, family values are eroding. At home, people should cherish these values. We have to bring them back.