When you engage other world leaders and talk about your agenda of peace, what do you talk about? I am just curious about what goes on in your negotiations and what do you ask of world leaders?
First of all, when I meet anybody, I meet them as human beings. Just remember, even though somebody is a world leader, they are human, so they have their own issues. So I meet them on a human level. If the leaders are stressed, you can imagine the consequences – whatever decisions they make will always be erroneous. The first thing is that they should be able to handle their energy and stress, and that is what they usually come to me for – their personal problems or how they can better handle their situations. They all require intuition.
Secondly, when we meet, there may be some issues. They may come from a land of conflicts, and we sit together and see how we can help to resolve those conflicts through our communication skills. I should mention here how our volunteers have really mastered the skill of how to reach out, how to communicate, and how to handle people and certain situations.
I'll give you an example: in Argentina, we were able to transform the biggest prison, which had so much crime that people literally had to separate each individual because they would pounce and punch each other at the drop of a hat. So if we could bring in a sense of non-violence there, I would think it is a big achievement. The authorities and the judges of the Supreme Court of Argentina said, 'We would like to come to the prison and see what has made these people change so much'. So such social activities have also helped.
We have also taken some troubled areas; for example, in Ivory Coast, we had taken up a project in two villages that had clashes based on religion. They had cleansed each from the other's religion – one was all Muslim and one was all Christian. One of our volunteers, a girl from Mumbai who could speak French, went to the groups, spoke to them, did some programs with both of them separately, and brought them together in peace. The Muslims built toilets in the Christian village and the Christians built a school in the Muslim village. Recognizing our efforts in bringing together these two villages, the Ivory Coast government gave an award to the Art of Living for achieving social harmony.
So, these are the projects I would take up; however, I usually don’t go with any agenda, as though wanting anything from any world leader. Believe me, I haven’t asked anything or any favor from anybody! I am only here to contribute. If at all I go to them, it is only to see what we can do to resolve the conflict in their societies. And when they come to me, they come with problems and issues, and I feel that they go back happy and much lighter.
Do you know what is the sign of a good friend? There is a criteria to judge if someone is a real friend or not. Do you know it?
When you go to a friend with a problem and if you walk away from them feeling lighter, then they are a good friend. If you go back from them thinking that, Oh my God, I thought it was a small problem, but it is so big, and you feel heavier, then they are not good friends.
The same thing applies to you. When someone comes to you with a problem, do you magnify the problem and tell them it is insurmountable, you will be doomed, and make them feel more miserable? Or do you make them feel lighter and more confident so that they walk away with a smile? This is the criteria of a friend. Have any of you thought about this before? If not, today you've learned something new to think about. Just test it and do a trial run.
