Transcript Episode 2 – Peace starts from the heart
Interview with Dr Harbhajan Singh, Unity of Man-Conference in Kirpal Sagar, India, February 1994

Question: The situation in the world is very bad, many wars are going on, people do not understand each other, there is so much hatred and ill will. What can be done in this respect?

We should start from ourselves, because first we have to settle our home and home affairs. And if we are true to ourselves, we are true to others. This problem starts from man to man and then from country to country, from religion to religion. And if we discriminate all those things that I told you from the very core of our heart, there will be no problem.

Now I would give you just one example – what to say of the whole world, even a lot of people are not settled in in their own homes. At this Conference on Human Rights in Vienna (1993), there were also many, many women crying that they were not meeting justice from their husbands. And I told there, “Why are only women crying and not men?” So, the problem is with the men, and not with the women. When the woman cries, she only cries for love and favour (of her husband). If that is not given, her life becomes fake and void, and this whole family is disturbed and the condition of the children, who are very tender-hearted, becomes somewhat diverted, very strange. Right from their childhood they become strangers. They are not fit for society, because they are not loved by their parents, they are not looked after by their parents – they want that thing and they are not given.

If we really start it from our own selves, we can bring this radiation to our neighbour, to our city and from city to our country and from country to country. There can be a big revolution in the world. The awakening of man is needed. Suppose if there is one person with this right understanding, he can mould the whole city and everybody will appreciate his ideas. So, it is a time to create this awareness in man.

If you only cut the tree from the leaves, then it is too difficult to overcome it. If you cut the evil right from the root, it can easily be done. The root cause of all these problems starts from ourselves, from our own home and home affairs.

And now you see the example yourself that in Unity of Man in Austria and Germany they are all very loveable. They understand the teaching of Christ and they live up to the commandments of Christ, and these commandments of Christ are to be true to ourselves and true to others – in a nutshell. We should become human beings, not only look like human beings, but our purpose is to appear as human beings.

There I have seen that wife and husband live very peacefully, loveably, because according to the Holy Scriptures they are trying, each one of them, to develop each other and (they live) harmoniously and the children are also developing. So, there is a big change. And I see there has been hardly any divorce during all this time of maybe 15 – 16 years. If such a teaching is revealed in the house, the house really becomes an example, a true church and a true temple.

I would say, this strife, bloodshed and hatred that exist in the world are not coming from above, from heaven – that goes out from the heart of man. We should control it right from the beginning. It may take some time more, but there is a permanent solution to solve such riddles of life. If there is awakening, such an awakening that starts to exist everywhere, it will also go like a wildfire, and then there is a permanent solution to the problems. When one knows that we are all one, we love each other.

When Masters come into the world, they love all human beings, because they see their Master in all human beings. This is why they love all, irrespective of caste, colour, religion or country. So that is our case. If I hate but I say “I love God” – no, this is impossible. God is love, love is God and the way back to God is love.

We have only to start with these things in the way we are taught and we have to create it. To live with it and to do it is the only solution for all of us. And for how long? Up to our last breath. Once we determine our life, we should live and do with it. One person can create harmony and a loveable atmosphere in 100,000 people. Once one understands the higher values of life, he would like to live with it. If he is not told, how would he live accordingly? So, ignorance is the root cause of all the diseases of the world. Whatever is going on, this is only going on due to ignorance.

The intention of Alexander the Great was to create murder and bloodshed, hatred and strife in the world, because he wanted to gain his own wish, and he did so, but afterwards he saw that it was an illusion, it was his ignorance that he did so. And that was the reason why he said that when he dies, his hands should be kept out of the coffin to show that the wish which Alexander had created was all fake and void, so he is going alone, he is not taking anything with him.

We have lots of lessons from the lives of such people who disturbed the world and gained nothing. He got the awakening at the time of death. Why should man not get it before that? He should do that!

And also St. Paul said that husbands should love their wives as Christ loved the church. He wanted to bring this unity directly from the home, and it should affect the children, and children should do it from one institution to other institutions, and then from the institutions to the country, and from country to other countries. And that is how even our politicians demand it from heart, but the only problem is there that they are living for their self-existence, most of them, sorry, are living for self-existence. 

And those who are religious people, they should live for others, but they are also living for their self-existence. There is the same problem with all these (so-called) “competent masters”, they call themselves competent masters, but a competent Master will live for others. But all other masters are also living for their self-existence. So, how can the problem be solved?

There is really no solution for it unless they live for it. We should not stress them, we should not hate them, but we should replace them by good persons with good ideas, so that they take possession of this nobility and highness, a way of our soul, a way of our life and should try to develop everywhere. This can only be the solution for it.

Time passes, years are passing and then centuries are passing, but the condition of man remains the same, because he does not want to start. He should start it from his own life.

Unity of Man actually means that all should get together on the level of man and digest the teaching in the true sense, develop themselves and work for God – just as Christ told to preach the gospel of truth in many ways, and many people should do it. The same thing Guru Nanak told. So, this is a high time when the discrimination in man has gone up to the highest level. If that is broken, it will take maybe thousands of years that man will get this discriminating power again. So, I would certainly say that it was the wish of Sant Kirpal Singh, and the wish of Sant Kirpal Singh is a wish of God.

So we should do it, live with it and do with it. Thank you.