Talk by Claus Nobel at the Royal Albert Hall -3rd July 1997

Well, indeed, life is full of surprises, after all we are meeting here, inspired by the message and work of holy Mother Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi and she is not here in body but she’s here in spirit.

Also the wonderful letter that we recently heard from Ayatollah Rohani, which speaks very highly of the work and the mission of the holy Mother, where he indicates the importance of women in the world, is neither here. And frankly speaking only 36 hours ago I did not know that I would be here at the Royal Albert Hall, addressing this audience.

Still I say, dear Holy Mother, and I also recognise her husband, Sir C P Srivastava, in the audience and I say most importantly, dear friends, fellow seekers of truth, are you out there? Because with all this light I can only see about twenty people in front of me. So, say yes if your here then I know, (lots of clapping). Now I can see you and I can hear you as well as you can see and hear me.

With that said I want to say, that I have a vision, I have a vision of the world that is better, saver and saner than the one we are presently are experiencing. It is a world where people live in harmony and peace with themselves and in harmony and peace with nature. Now those words are vast, its a bold vision do I have a practical way from going to vision to reality, yes I will share that with you and I will share it and indicate the tone of the meeting by ten small words, and they indicate how this global world transformation shall be undertaken, and they are right thoughts, right words, right deeds, right here and right now. (lots of clapping)

The key word, is of course, right. This world is fighting about what is right, what is right to you might be wrong to me, and visa versa., it is a grey area. So we need a reference point, so we can distinguish between right and wrong and between truth and lie, tonight Shri Mataji will show us what is right, tonight Shri Mataji will empower us to become masters of our own destiny, and tonight we will be guided by the knowledge of Self-realisation in the light of truth and we shall all know absolute truth and absolute peace.

Now 100 years ago, Alfred Nobel established a Nobel Peace prizes, these prizes represent excellence, we have prizes in chemistry, physics, medicine, literature and peace. Of those prizes I hold the peace prize to be the finest. And I want to tell you that Alfred Nobel listened to a women, he listened to his secretary, Burta from Suttonry, in Paris, 100 years ago, when she said, “Dr Nobel, your should use your vast fortune for betterment of the world.”

Tonight you are listening to another women, we are listening to the message of Shri Mataji. However, I’m very much inspired, first by my uncle and later on you here by Shri Mataji. Alfred Nobel talked much about peace, he was frightened that his awesome, explosive, dynamite which cleared up land for harbours and tunnels, could also be used for warfare. Today in the arsenal of military systems, it’s like a small firecracker. But at that time it, dynamite was a most awesome destructive material. Now Alfred Nobel thought basically about peace as an absence of war. But I assure you that peace is much more than absence of war.

And I see that peace exists is four specific areas. The first area is the peace that the individual has in him or herself. How do we treat our mind, our emotions and our feelings? how do we treat our body? Are we slaves to other masters or are we our own master? Until we have the inner peace in ourselves, we can never have an outer peace in the world. And the safest and best way of finding world peace is to have mass movements that includes all religions and philosophies, all enterprises, whether they are political or scientific nature, to realise what inner peace is and that’s what we are talking about tonight.

Self-realisation. What does Self-realisation mean? Well, it means that we are realising something, but what is the Self? Ladies and Gentleman, the Self in us is the divine, cosmic powers that exist in each and every individual but which is dormant in most people around the world. The spiritual leaders from ancient laws, they knew about this, and they spoke about this. But this secret of secrets has been suppressed, deliberately, until Shri Mataji, with great courage and great wisdom, being an old soul, who decided by herself, to come back to the Earth at this critical time in our history, in order to share her knowledge and wisdom, which is the Sahaja Yoga, which is instant Self-realisation which is to activate the dormant principle that we all have, which is the Kundalini. And to help the Kundalini to rise up and thus become, what it says in the Bible, “You are created in my image” (lots of clapping).

That was the first category, first sphere, of peace, the one we have within ourselves. The next one is the peace that we have among each other, in the family, in our community, in our nation, that we have peace with other ethnic groups and with other religions that we really become true, what I call active listeners, and as active listeners are able to put ourselves in the place, in the shoes, of the other party. Only then when we have the outlook from their perspective, shall we understand what they are trying to say. We’re always talking, talking, talking. My dear wife, who is not here tonight, she said, “Claus, you talk too much, you don’t listen”.

I have started to practice, what she calls, active listening. The third sphere is the sphere that pulled me in originally, after all I am a European Swedish business man, why am I up here speaking the language of spirituality, and saying that is where the hope of the future exists. I’m doing so because I have a deep and profound reverence for nature. As a Nobel peace laureate, Dr Albert Schvitzer said, after he had worked and worked trying to distil a phrase that contained everything that he knew, everything that he wanted to say through his philosophy, Dr Albert coined the phrase, ‘reverence for life’.

Nature is nothing but a plethora of examples of life in this multifaceted version. And I tell you dear fellow seekers of truth, we, humanity today, in our ignorance, in our greed and in our lust for power, we are in the process of destroying the very thing that makes this planet unique and that is life on Earth. (lots of clapping)

And so far we do not know of another planet in the universe that harbours this miracle, Earth is like a blue jewel in space and there is only one Earth and this Earth is fragile and we must take care of her and we respect her, Earth is also called nature, we cannot break the laws of nature, we must live by the laws of nature, if we break them, Mother Earth will break us. And we are only one species, of, we do not know how many species we have, five, ten, fifteen millions, but this we know and this has been proven by the worlds most foremost scientists in Harvard University, United States, Dr Edward O Wilson, we are today bringing to extinction 250 species per day, that is as if we are deliberately and willfully pulling out thread after thread after of what consists of fabric of life. And Mother nature will not let us continue doing that without correcting us as naughty children.

The fourth sphere, of peace, is the peace that we should know between ourselves and God. Any religion or any group who raises their arms and destroys his and enemy in the name of God is not following what God has asked us to do. The world should not know of violence (lots of clapping).

And the world should not know a war. I call, as we already heard, these four spheres of peace, Earth ethics. And tonight we will hear more from the holy Mother how we shall have a reference point, how we can distinguish if we have a charlatan and a fraud in front of us or if it’s a genuine honest person. And you, dear audience, you have come here tonight from many different walks of life and like you, I have also been seeking for the truth, I am beginning to discern truth rather clearly and let me tell you this, that I look upon life on Earth as a kind of a school, a school where we are learning perfection and purification. Now on Earth everything is interdependent, interactive and inter-related. And on Earth, and well as in heaven I guess, every action has an reaction, every effect has a cause and every cause has an effect.

And the Holy Mother, as I said, She is a highly evolved soul, she has learned from many, many lives, what it is all about and this what is all about laws, the unseen laws, the spiritual laws, they are always here and they work as infallible as the law of gravity works,(drops his pen onto the floor) it always works all those unseen laws, it is for us to learn and perceive that law. I am very comfortable with the teachings of Shri Mataji and I am very comfortable with the Holy Mother herself. I say so because, in the Bible there is one saying, among several good ones, you shall know the tree by its fruit. And lately I have met the young men and women, in different parts of the world and certainly from many different parts of the world and they are all shining, beautiful human individuals that radiate inner peace and balance. They are unique, you have follow and you that are in the process of following, will be I think, those individuals who should call themselves, ambassadors for the Earth.

And after tonight’s session is over, I’m sure, that you shall see clearly how you shall distinguish between truth and lie and you shall realise that blind faith is of no value and that fanatasists and to take up violence as a last argument is of no value. Eventually those things will bring you unhappiness, they will bring you conflict and potentially war.

Ladies and gentleman, I know that we hold the future in our hands, I know that the future is in your hands, I know it’s in my hands and I also know that the future of the planet exists in the heart of the individuals. Now I will close my remarks, tonight, by a fable from India. I heard it when I attended the Rio conference ‘92, that was the twentieth anniversary of the Stockton conference, that for the first time, put on, the environment on the world agenda. In Stockton in ‘72 we had only two heads of state, the prime minister from India and the King of Sweden.

In Rio twenty years later, we had 110 heads of states. A marvellous declaration, was drafted, agenda 21, just last week in New York, just 70 heads of states that continued with Rio plus five but as I told Sir C P, when he asked me about how is the outcome of this conference, I said, Well, we are talking about sustainable future but it seems to me that in UN there is much of a sustainable dialogue ongoing. Tonight we shall take the action. Well, I asked the Holy man from India, the white robbed achhriya, and I said is there hope for the future, and He said Mr Nobel I will answer you question as follows:
When the dear Lord had created the Earth, he was very very happy, very very pleased, it was His finest creation in the universe and he decided to celebrate, to have a party and God invited in all the angels and all the devils, when they were there he toasted them, and wished them welcome as a good host, and said there’s only one rule that you must strictly obey, while you are here, having a good time, and by the way the best food and the best wine was served, ambrosia nectar, and he said there is one rule and that is that while your here celebrating my creation, you may never bend your elbows.

The devils cried out and said we don’t want any part of such a party. How can we enjoy it? Not bending our elbows. So they left. Then the party started, the angels were having a jolly good time and the dear god was very very happy. Now how could they eat and drink without bending their elbows? Well, I sense that you can see what the moral of the fable is. The Angles were feeding each other, they were sharing and they were caring and that is what we shall do in the future together. Thank you very much.

Addressed by the Ayatollah Rouhani, delivered at the Royal Albert Hall, London, on Thursday 3rd July 1997 (text translated on sight and read by Derek Lee).
If we consider the most ancient evidence left by homo sapiens, we can see that man has always been aware of the existence of a Supreme Being, who is Lord of all things and of all living creatures.
Using every conceivable means, human beings of every era have always tried to show their feelings of deep respect (and reverence) towards God and to perform what is due to their Creator.
This is why Islam has always stressed the possibility of direct communication with God. Even those who have fallen into idolatry have never denied the existence of the Creator, but have simply put their idols and their images in His place. And this is still happening today. This being the case, how can we recognise a true prophet and what is his or her mission?
The mission of the prophets is to reveal the Will of God, that is, to provide a logical and tangible explanation of religion as it is experienced in our daily lives.
Genuine monotheism – the belief in a Supreme Being – means (or implies) the unshakeable oneness of the whole creation, that is, the indissoluble union between man and God. Monotheism proves, then, the pointlessness of idols and of images that come between man and God. The mission of the prophets is thus to set human beings upon the right track, and in order to do this, the prophets have used two parallel and complementary paths:
– the way of learning, based on theology and philosophy
– and the way of Self-knowledge or Self Realisation.
That is why we find in our Holy Book, the Koran, both scholastic discourse and phrases which hint at the ‘way in’ to knowledge of the Highest Self. The concrete means of putting this message into practice is what is offered to us in this age by Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi.
To back up this Truth, if you will allow me, I will quote these words of the Prophet Mahomet, who tells us: ‘ God is closer to man than his own veins.’
And the Prophet says: ‘With the knowledge of the Spirit, man will begin to know himself, so as to finally achieve knowledge of God.’
‘With the purification of his inner being, man becomes conscious that he is the Spirit.’
It is thus that the experience of spontaneous Self Realisation – which is revealed by Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi – and Sahaja Yoga – which is the practice which she teaches – both spontaneous Self Realisation and Sahaja Yoga are in perfect harmony with the teachings of Islam. It is because of this revelation by Shri Mataji that I have wanted to speak to you tonight.
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In similar vein, I should like to end my talk by referring to the condition of women in Islamic countries today. As you know, the position of woman as mother is glorified in the Islamic tradition. The Prophet Mohamet went as far as to say: ‘We experienced Paradise at our mother’s feet’.
As a wife, Islam not only acknowledges her complete right to choose her own husband, but pays hommage to her in the famous words of the Prophet, who says: ‘The best amongst you is the one who behaves best towards his wife’. Or again: ‘ Women are sent to us by God and men are responsible for keeping them safe.’ women are thus considered to be equal to men in both their responsibilities and in their legal and civic rights.
Today, unfortunately,we have seen that this great insight of the Koran is not always understood and therefore not respected in the various Muslim countries.
You, Shri Mataji, by virtue of your courage, your sincerity and your purity, by virtue of your untiring travels through the five continents, you are today justly considered to be the Messenger of Peace in the world.
Your exemplary life makes you the perfect symbol and model for Muslim women. May their quest for Justice, their desire to be able to enjoy a true spiritual life in their own dignity, may their quest find an echo in the spiritual approach of the real Islam. This will make it possible to put a stop finally to all kinds of injustices which are still being committed against women in the name of religion.
It is with this vision and with the aim of defending the rights of women in Muslim countries throughout the world and in particular in Afganistan, in Iran and Turkey, that I address this brief talk to you Shri Mataji and to all the people assembled here tonight.
signed
Medhi Rouhani