Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Launches 'I Stand For Peace’ Campaign In Europe, Urges World to 'Dispel Darkness'

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the founder of the Art of Living, launched the “I Stand with Peace” campaign from the United Nations office in Geneva on Wednesday. Through the campaign, he urged worldwide forces of peace and sanity to work together to promote harmony, human values, and interdependence, as well as to dispel the society’s darkness and mistrust.

“People come together when there is a crisis, when they feel threatened or when they are wise. I have a question – can people not come together for something that is positive, something that can create harmony within society?” Ravi Shankar said in his address at the UN.

He also discussed the importance of people developing mental resilience in the aftermath of a pandemic.

“If each person makes an intention to stand up for peace and attends to their mental health, we can make world peace a reality. Global peace is not possible without individual peace,” the spiritual leader said.

Ravi Shankar, addressing ‘the root cause of conflict’, said, “In past so many years, conflicts have happened when trust is broken or the communication breaks down among people. I believe inside every culprit there is a victim crying for help.”

Ravi Shankar has toured in Germany, Poland, and Switzerland, where he was greeted by tens of thousands of people. In the coming month, the campaign will expand to over 30 cities in the United States.

He met policymakers, diplomats, and thousands of Art of Living volunteers who helped during the Covid-19 pandemic and in rehabilitating Ukrainian refugees during his whirlwind European tour.

Ravi Shankar also met with Gilles Carbonnier, Vice-President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, to further his vision of a safer, violence-free, and stress-free society (ICRC). Carbonnier tweeted, “We discussed humanitarian and peace efforts in today’s conflicts, commonalities between humanitarian ideals and varied religious precepts, and the prospect for future exchanges.”

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