I call the light and high aspects of my being spirit and the dark and heavy aspects soul.

Altruism is the best source of happiness. There is no doubt about that.

The female biologically [has] more potential to show affection and compassion.

If we choose an external marker as the measure of our inner worth, whether it is the amount of money we make, or others' opinion of us, or the success of some project we're involved in, sooner or later we're bound to be battered by life's inevitable changes. After all, money comes and goes, and thus is an unstable source of self-esteem, an unreliable foundation upon which to build our identity.

The very purpose of religion is to control yourself, not to criticise others.

It is the enemy who can truly teach us to practice the virtues of compassion and tolerance.

We need to employ a secular approach to ethics, secular in the Indian sense of respecting all religious traditions and even the views of non-believers in an unbiased way. Secular ethics rooted in scientific findings, common experience and common sense can easily be introduced into the secular education system. If we can do that there is a real prospect of making this 21st century an era of peace and compassion.