(Transcription of the English parts of the recorded speech, which was alternately given in Punjabi and English)

I want to say 'Bonjour' to all our French delegates, I want to say 'Guten Tag' to all my German friends here, and I want to say 'Asalam aleikum' to all my Muslim friends here.

The God of love, the God of truth, the God of compassion and the God of justice - whatever name you want to attribute, it is up to you, but God is one, that is what Sant Kirpal Singh Ji started His mission with to celebrate the oneness of God.

Those who do not believe in Godhood, believe in compassion, (but) believe in non-violence - that is good enough. Because God is all truth, love, compassion and justice. And therefore let’s unite, all humanity should come under this banner to celebrate the oneness of humankind.

The entire humanity is not just one, but one family. We are one family, and what is the beauty of a family? Today, in this age of globalization, they are talking about 'global village', they are also talking about internet and e-mail and all of that kind. But it is fully loaded with common share interest, with profit motives, with market forces. We do not fully agree with this consumership approach to the oneness of humanity, no. There is another dimension to it. When the former president of the World Bank, Mr. James Wolfensohn, invited me to the World Bank headquarters in Washington D.C. and wanted me to critique the policies of the World Bank, I told him: 'Look, your globalization is the globalization of the market forces and we do not agree with that. We belong to a spiritual movement where we think that we are all one family.'

What is the difference between a market and a family? Here is the more powerful one who can buy and purchase things and everything is commodified, whereas in a family other criteria are followed: The weakest in the family takes his or her share first and the brave in the family takes his or her share last. That is the beauty of a family.

So let us celebrate the unity of humankind as one family. That family should be the guiding principle where the weak, the lowest, the lowliest of the low will get attention first. That should be the criteria. Mahatma Gandhi gave this criterion to the whole of humanity. Therefore we are celebrating today the power, the dignity of that person who has been left far behind, marginalised, voiceless.

Inter-religious, international marriages: that is the way to bring about unity of humankind. Let hearts unite in love. That is the true love, true bond.

The heart is the biggest temple, the most beautiful temple. Unity of humankind is a movement - the new movement which has been launched today here. Let us celebrate the launching of this great new movement, the humanity coming under one roof, coming under one family. And therefore, the first thing we need to shed is the caste-system. Caste-ism has to go. All hierarchies, all discriminations by birth have to go. We will not put up with this abominable, most abominable system of castes, we have to get rid of it. Secondly and most importantly: Racialism has to go. One may be born black, another one may be born white, but we cannot discriminate in the name of the colour of the skin.

There is perfect equity, equality and justice in the creation. God does not discriminate, the sun does not discriminate, the air and the water do not discriminate between black and white, between the male child and the girl child, between the high caste and the low caste, therefore we don’t have the right to discriminate between man and man and woman and woman. Therefore let us celebrate the unity of whole of humankind; it is not just we come together and talk 'goody goody' about each other and then we depart, no. The world needs a massive big change. Religion should become a revolution.

Children are the least prejudiced on earth, and therefore they are the future of our humankind.

I want to say that we have to get rid of alcoholism, we have to get rid of tobacco, we have to get rid of drugs. Our next programme of action should be to get rid of alcohol and liquor, fight against this liquor mafia, alcohol mafia; as long as these people continue, they are merchants of death. They want to destroy humanity in the peace, in the tranquillity of the family; the husband gets drunk and the first thing he does is beating up his wife. We have to get rid of it, and we have to fight against this menace.

One more thing: Global warming is a big threat to our peace and prosperity. We have to oppose that paradigm of development, that development which is highly materialistic, which is devoid of spiritual values, and we have to set up a new paradigm, a spiritual paradigm of development.

And if you want to befriend nature, if you really want to have friendship, relationship with nature, then we should have friendship with all those birds and animals and beasts - please, listen to this.We have to increasingly give up non-vegetarian food, and we have to increasingly adopt vegetarian ways of food. We don’t have to kill animals and birds and beasts.

One last thing I would like to say: Coincidentally today, 10 December, is also the International Human Rights Day. On 10 of December we are all assembled here. Today is also the great martyrdom day of Guru Teg Bahadur. (He sacrificed his life to save the Hindus from being converted by force at the time of the Moghuls.)

So this is a revolution, a social revolution, a spiritual revolution. We have to bring about a revolution against the menace of dowry, where girls and women are being burned alive; 25000 women in India are being burned to death in the prime of their youth. We will not put up with this.

(Continuation in Punjabi)

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