Knowledge Sheet of H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Thursday, May 28, 2015
   
Diverse World (Part 2)

Continuation from Diverse World (Part 1)......


 Somehow, I don’t like this word ‘tolerance’. Do you know why? It has a negative connotation to it. Usually we have world-over interfaith programs where we say, ‘We should have tolerance’. I think it is a word of bygone error. You tolerate something which you do not like. Now the time has come to appreciate and celebrate diversity, not tolerate it. This is something that we need to really look into. Our universe has so many varieties and we must appreciate it, enjoy it and celebrate it.


 I usually tell people: 'We accept food from every part of the world, we accept music from every part of the world, we accept technology from every part of the world. We do not ask, 'Where was this technology discovered?’ But when it comes to wisdom, there seems to be some sort of resistance. We put up a wall and say, 'This is Jewish, or this is Hindu, or this is Buddhist.’ We bring in prejudice and we stay away from it'. As long as this strain continues, the world cannot be a peaceful place. Even if a small part of the world thinks that only they have the key to heaven and everybody else is going to hell, they are bound to create hell for everyone else.


 So here comes our collective responsibility to educate our people with a multi-cultural and multi-religious education. Thanks to the technology today of the internet, this has been made possible; but still there is a big number of people that remain ignorant, thinking that only they have the key to heaven.


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