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In the wake of recent widespread debate fuelled by the movie - 'The Kashmir Files' by Vivek Agnihotri, Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar explains how acknowledging the problem and solving it in a way that removes hatred, is imperative to resolve the long-standing issue of Kashmiri Hindu Genocide and the pain borne by its survivors. The Art of Living Foundation has done some path-breaking work of healing the wounds of the tormented in Kashmir.
Q: Gurudev, the movie — Kashmir Files, about the Kashmiri Pandits’ exodus is trending in India. The events depicted are painful to watch. One side says these events are important for future generations to remember while others feel there is no point in fueling past hatred. Can you talk a little about the Kashmiri Pandits and how one should view their unfortunate exodus?
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yeah! I visited Kashmir in the late 90s and I saw the condition of the Pandits. It was heartbreaking. People who had very good professions, who had great business; they were all in ten by five rooms. Seven eight people in a small place. I think even the roadside workers when they live in those sort of tents, would have lived in a better condition than the Pandits who were living in the outskirts of Jammu, in Delhi, all these places and their kids - they were such wonderful, tiny, young, beautiful kids. So we offered to take them; we brought nearly 125 of those kids from Jammu and other places where they were and they came to Bengaluru Ashram (Art of Living Ashram). They were here for 15 - 16 years - From schooling, till they became graduates, then they got jobs. Now they are all settled. They all went back. So late 90s to early 2010 or so, they were all here. Only 15 years - 20 years, something like that and such a big transformation in their lives and we did bring these to attention.
See unless you know where the problem is, you can never resolve it or never cure it. You should know where the disease is. Knowing the disease is necessary but you should not scratch the wound too much. You should know there is a wound and then you can put medicine on it, you can put band-aid, but if you keep denying whether there is any wound then that is a problem. It's easy for people to go either of the extremes — one is you deny there is any wound, this is what people have been doing for a long time. They denied that any such thing happened. On the other side, it's a very delicate thing. How you plaster the wound, how you put the bandage around that, instead of creating hatred. Hatred should not be created at any cost. It's not good for the present generation. With any community, hatred is to be done away with absolutely, because it not only destroys the other community but it also destroys oneself. Hatred is like cancer which will eat you up. So we must see that awareness is created, so past mistakes don't repeat. At the same time, we don't hate anybody or any community.
You know we need to heal the wounds, bridge the gaps and be aware of these big blunders that our politicians have been doing. I used to talk to different groups and the lawyers would come and tell me Gurudev, you know what has happened here? There is a delimitation. The delimitation was bought and in the Kashmir valley just for 15,000 people there will be one representative, one MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly — India) but whereas in Jammu you need to have 1,50,000 per one representative. I mean there are a number of injustices done in Kashmir. With Article 370 and all that. Thank god, Article 370 is gone. Now women have rights. Women were suffering. Kashmiri women were the hard-hit and the Dalits there in Kashmir had really no human rights. Though they lived there for so long, they never could become a subject of that state. I mean they were deprived of basic human rights. I am glad that that state has removed all these discriminatory laws. People didn't know that they were given such a false opinion, saying this is the law otherwise India will eat you up or the rest of India will do this and that. You know, they were not even aware of what they were into. That is the worst thing politicians do. They try to keep people divided in the name of caste, community, religion, gender, or all this stuff. They keep them divided so that they can easily get votes and they can rule over them. I am glad that Article 370 is gone. Women have their rights. Can you imagine a woman who is married to someone outside the state would lose everything of her property in Jammu and Kashmir? I have known many women who are married to somebody in Bihar and this lady's husband passed away and on the other hand, the lady's father passed away but the father's inherited property she could not get because she was married to somebody outside the state.
We had so many programs in Kashmir. Even those days one of the army officer's wife, with little children, on one of these evenings she was walking with her husband and children and he was shot dead by one of the political leaders there and he was scot-free. He was moving around and then when he was in jail; look at this incident — this lady became an Art of Living Teacher. She did Art of Living and got such solace that she became an Art of Living Teacher and then she went to the prison and taught the course to the same people who killed her husband and she told him, look what you did now I forgive you. I mean that was the moment, it was a very very touching moment for that man and also for her and the person she could forgive him in the prison and taught him the course and he became a changed person. He realized his mistake and you know every life has its own story in its own colours and that's why I say you know, to see life beyond all this. Beyond the appearance, there is something much deeper, much more beautiful, much elevating and we should have our attention there and that is the divine consciousness. Usually, when you say divine, you feel so far away and God is somewhere and we are here. It is not so. You can see the simplest and subtlest aspect of existence. 'Bhole Bhaav Mile Raghurai' - We have that innocence, that sensitivity within us. When we are free from stress and negativity, then it starts becoming apparent.
