See, there are few issues that we all have to take responsibility for.
1.Environment: We put so many chemicals into our fields, that the food we grow has really become unfit for our consumption. How many of you have aches and pains in your body? Do you know why? The food we eat has too many pesticides and chemicals.
Just to make vegetables grow bigger, we put so many chemical fertilizers which are not good for our body. I would like the planet to go organic.
You know, there are some very, which now I am promoting very vigorously in India. It has brought so much change. It has increased the productivity almost three-and-a-half times, with zero budget. We call it zero-budget farming. The farmer does not have to borrow money, put fertilizer, and chemicals. Just out of certain natural things, certain natural plants and natural manure, he can grow vegetables and grains at a much cheaper price, at a higher quality, and a higher quantity.
The Art of Living would love to share this knowledge with anybody here in Croatia who would like to do farming. We would love to share with them and show them how we can make a model farm; one with low cost and higher productivity.
You know, we have a record of farmers who were getting Rs.40000 before, and have now started getting Rs.400000 within one year. They could generate a 10 times higher income with organic farming, that too at a lower cost.
2.Corruption: It is a very big issue. There is corruption all over the world. I don’t know how it is here in Croatia, but in India, it is a big issue. Also in the Asian continent.
Do you know, corruption begins where the sense of belonging ends? Nobody is corrupt with people whom they feel connected to. They ask for bribe only from those who they feel are not their own, isn’t it so? We need to change this. We need to create a higher sense of belongingness.
If everyone here in Croatia takes a vow, ‘Neither will I give bribe, nor take bribe’, at least for one year, you will see the whole face of the nation will change. Can we do this? Let us all present here, talk to everybody else in the country.
See, we have four million people here. It is not too big when compared to India. In the city which I come from, Bangalore, we have eight million people right now, i.e., double the population of Croatia. So I am very confident that you can make Croatia a very ideal state when people participate.
If someone has a great craving for taking bribe, wait for one year, you can do it later. If you all take this oath, that for one year, neither will you give bribe nor take bribe, it will make a big difference.
A law, or enforcement will not rule out corruption. It has to come from the heart. When the human values are blossoming in society, the evil elements in society will go away.
3.Addiction: People are addicted to so many things; addicted to pornography, addicted to alcohol, addicted to drugs. We should help them come out of these addictions.
The prisons here, and elsewhere in the world are filled with people because of these addictions. Of course we are already doing work in the prisons here, but we have to help people to not go into the prison.
So we can all dream about, and work towards a crime-free, violence-free society.
