Swamiji visited the United States Institute of Peace in Washington DC, September 27th 2011

Swamiji visited the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) in Washington D.C on the September 27th 2011. Swamiji spent about  2 hours at the institute and met  with Mr. David Smock Vice President, Center for Mediation and Conflict Resolution, Religion and Peacemaking Center of Innovation. Swamiji also met with Mr. Qamar Senior Program Officer, Religion and Peacemaking Center of Innovation and members of the staff. Swamiji invited them to visit his Ashram in India.  

Swamiji conveyed His divine blessings to Mr. Smock on his moving into new office and presented him with certificate of appreciation for his dedicated work to bring about peace through the USIP. Swamiji said that there should be no arguments over the religions or caste or creed and it is the responsibility of United States Institute of Peace (USIP) to bring about peace through oneness of religions.

It is the foremost duty of all the heads of religions and social leaders to protect the Mother Earth from natural calamities which are being caused by the imbalance between the five elements. Swamiji said that the duty of each and every person is to worship the Mother Earth and nature by not polluting the five elements and keeping them in pure state.

Swamiji said that the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) had a great responsibility in bringing peace in the country and the world. Problems will arise and they have to be solved with patience Swamiji said. For every disease there is a cure, we have to just find it. For every problem there is a solution, and when we find the solution there is no problem at all. The most important thing being we have to have patience and with cooperation and coordination find the solution.

It is wrong to wish for one religion to dominate over another religion. All the religions should coexist peacefully. Swamiji narrated the story of Adam and Eve from Bible in this context and said that eating the forbidden fruit will always create problems for us. Swamiji also narrated the story of many people travelling in a ship in the ocean, and these people were arguing that their own religion was superior to all other religions, and were fighting over this. Suddenly there is a big flash of light and when they look up they see all the Gods and yogis and Siddha purushas. The people are surprised and enquire the reason for their coming together.  The Gods said that their arguments had forced all of them to appear together and also told them that if they didn’t do anything about the water that was coming in the ship through the holes, none of them would be alive to argue about religions. All the people suddenly realized that they were in great danger and suddenly forgot their religions and arguments and worked together to prevent water from entering the ship. Thus working together they saved themselves. The state of today’s world is like that and Swamiji said that with unity any problem can be solved.