Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam

They wouldn't even call themselves Indian.

You know? They say, "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam", the world is my home.

You know? So even I'm talking about those Indians who himself didn't consider themselves Indian.

They consider that this Earth is my home.

But their bovine population is not even one-fifth of Indian population.

How is it that we are able to feed? I said this is the concept of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.

Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam doesn't mean world as one family, Earth as one family.

Everybody has a right to live in it.

And everybody's, re- boarding and lodging is the Earth.

In Greek, zoon politikon, we are political animals.

In Hindu, Indian culture, and from the Upanishads, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, the individual is not separate from the whole.

The world is one family.

In Buddhism, Pratityasamutpada, and under the Maori system, Whanaungatanga.

Last week, Mohan Bhagwat, the sixth Sarsang Chalak chief of the Indian Rashtriya Swamsevak Sangh organization, visited New York City and addressed an audience of over 5,000 people in Madison Square Gardens, drawing in supporters from across the country for the Universal Oneness Celebration.

It was billed as a landmark cultural and interfaith gathering centered on the message of being different and still belonging to one another, reflecting the Hindu philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, the world is one big family.

The message and event was advertised in a full page in the Wall Street Journal.

Activist Vijay Palur attended the event and he will be with us today to describe what happened there at 4.20 p.m. Actually, he's already in the studio.

And like the thread that holds all the flowers of a garland together, similarly that one divine principle sustains the entire creation.

Vasudeva Kutumbakam.

We have to become aware of the principle of fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man.

And slowly I began to understand why we do shanti, shanti, shanti three times.