ALBERTO SIMONE: Award winning film maker from Italy. Dear Guruji! What can we do when not just one individual, but the whole country is falling in depression and unhappiness? In Italy, we are experiencing one of the biggest crises ever and the shame of unemployment for millions of people. How can our youth grow faithful, and take more responsibility for themselves and their future?
GURUDEV SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR: Yes, I know, Europe is undergoing a big financial crisis; but one thing we must remember, that this is not the worst crisis, we have been through even worst crisis than this. During World War II, Europe was shattered. People in that age didn’t have access to such technology or communication or television or information through media; it was not as developed as today, but they pulled through those difficult times. People coming together, standing for each other, would help a lot. So, encourage people to be in a community, to not just sit with their own laptops the whole time and be in a virtual world but to come to the real world. Sometimes the virtual world can cause depression; the real world can bring back the enthusiasm in even those who feel down and depressed. I would say, we all have to work together, bring the youth, and create festivals. See, it’s nothing big when everything is going fine and we create a big celebration. When things are going wrong, when people are getting depressed that’s where celebration makes more sense, to me. That’s where celebration can become like a medicine for people to come out of depression. Of course, when people are happy, celebration is an expression of their inner joy. However, to induce confidence and joy again; we need to form groups, ask them to do service activities. There are always people who are in more need than us in society. If we look at those people and we go and start serving them, then our load or burden or depression or stress will come down. I think this is something you can do. Along with this, when you do service activity, it is very important that you don’t miss to meditate. I am coming to this point again and again, because if you don’t go deep inside and just keep working and working, we get a burnout. So, we need to retire for a few minutes every day, twice even, when we are engaging ourselves in service activity. Observe ourself, find the inner peace, then go out and share it with people around you.