NEW YORK: India offers thought leadership to the world, Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakashi Lekhi has said, asserting that the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that the humanity needs faith in goodness and unification of consciousness the most.
Speaking at an event held at the Consulate General of India here on Thursday, Lekhi said that faith and spirituality unite people, but could also divide and change their characters if taken in a different direction.
"India offers to the world thought and thought leadership. COVID-19 has shown us what is it that humanity needs the most. Humanity needs the most is faith, faith in goodness and unification of consciousness," she said.
Faith and spirituality unite people "but the same faith taken in a different direction could divide and change the characters of people," Lekhi said, adding that some people are constantly creating difficulties for others in the world.
She was speaking at the event on the recent publication of the book 'Hollywood to the Himalayas: A Journey of Healing and Transformation' by Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati.
In the book, Saraswati talks about the "unexpected way her life was transformed when, twenty-five years ago, she traveled to India with a backpack, and had an experience of the Divine on the sacred Ganga river".
Saraswati shared how the power of faith had transformed her life. "Having grown up in Hollywood with all the opportunity and all the privilege, what I didn't have was faith or a connection to God. Through the powerful, totally unexpected experience of oneness with the divine that I had on the banks of the Ganga river, I realised that I am part of the sacred perfection of the universe, that I am one with all," she said.
"That awareness and connection to faith transformed my life and healed me from all the ways I'd suffered. Now, I've been so blessed to be able to share the power of faith with so many others and to use it for so much good, ranging from women's empowerment and equality to environmental protection to water Preservation," Saraswati said.
Speaking on the occasion, spiritual leader Swami Chidanand Saraswati said, "I've seen how faith can become a powerful weapon to heal and to harm us. And how faith can become a powerful tool to unite and divide us."
"The choice is ours - how we use it! Today, there is a virus in the air but let there not be virus in our minds and in our hearts. Our faith teaches us that 'we are one family, our world is one family. This is the beautiful culture of India. This is the spirit of India - Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam - the whole world is one family," he said.