My mission is to reduce as much as possible the negative influences on human society by positive suggestions and a positive way of life. We have been preaching for a long, long time about peace, but it is very seldom that we do anything about it. We ourselves do not have the inner peace to create an environment in which we can have external peace. It was from this that the peace flights originated, and were carried out under the auspices of the TWO (TRUE WORLD ORDER). I decided to use my small plane to go to the trouble spots of the world carrying the message, “Drop flowers, not bombs. Cross borders with love and flowers, not guns and bombs.”
Years before a voice had come to me telling me to fly. I had no idea why, but the voice was persistent. For many years when I flew the plane, I went through so much criticism, about a swami having the luxury of a private plane. I did not really understand why I had to fly. I thought perhaps for freedom, perhaps against war. But now I see that all my years of flying really had only one purpose: to break the boundaries of passport and visa. When you are on the ground the authorities can stop you at the border, but when you are up in the air, no-one can stop you. Either they have to shoot you down or they have to let you land. There is no other choice for a government. And so the boundary-breaking mission began. It demonstrated symbolically to the world that the planet is small. Either we are going to live together, or we are going to die together. The time has come for the idea of nationalism, of patriotism to disappear and for only unity to exist.
The mission to cross the Berlin Wall in 1983, when the Cold War was at its height, took two years of preparation. The last four days before the flight were very difficult because the authorities on both sides were actively trying to prevent us from going. I wasn’t afraid of the fact of being arrested, but if they arrested me before the flight then I would lose the opportunity to spread the word of peace. After the flight I would not mind what they did to me. Once I had landed in East Germany they could arrest me or do anything they wanted. I didn’t care. But I had to avoid being caught before the flight. The American Embassy had called our Sivananda Yoga Munich Centre and warned us not to make the flight. So also the West German police wrote to us forbidding us to do so. I had to hide from the East Berlin police, West Berlin police, Germans, Italians, British— everyone was telling us that it was illegal to make a flight across the Wall.
But still I went. The day of the flight was foggy. I was not worried. I just wanted to take off. Once up in the air I didn’t know where I was going to land. I couldn’t see the ground. I wasn’t worried that I might crash-land, that was not important. I had no compass, no instruments, only a chair and a seat belt. That’s all a micro-light plane consists of. And once you are up, you are like a bird. You don’t know where you are going, up or down. But anyhow, God opened up a small area and I landed in a field in East Berlin. After landing a farmer came running to help me hide me from the police. I showed him the flowers. Peace. He understood I had come for East/West peace. Twenty, thirty farmers came and shook hands. One lady continued shaking my hand. They were so nice. We sent two people to get the police. It was important the police came to arrest me otherwise there would be no publicity. After twenty minutes the police came, about ten or fifteen of them. I told them I had come in peace. They started interrogating me—but now I was quite relaxed because I had achieved my mission.
I flew over the Berlin Wall from West to East Berlin, with flowers in my hand. Everyone thought I would be shot down, that I would not survive. When you come with flowers, how can anyone shoot? East Germans, West Germans, what is the difference? There is only one Germany. The moment you attach a label, then you dehumanise a person. Then you can shoot him. This is what Catholics and Protestants, Hindus and Muslims, blacks and whites, Arabs and Jews are doing all the time. They attach labels. The moment the label is there, then you are no longer a human being. As long as this label exists, which is only a mental barrier, then we will continue to kill each other. When I went, I went with no label.
The East Berlin police treated me extremely well, with respect and kindness. Even the questions they asked, they asked gently; they did not want to offend me. Why? Because I had only flowers in my pocket. That’s all I brought. I had nothing else. They treated me well—they even gave me a cheese sandwich! We went to show the world that there is no East Germany or West Germany; they exist only in the mind. Once the mental barrier is removed then we are no longer afraid. This is what I am trying to convey to you all. The Berlin Wall is just in the imagination.
See how love can conquer the world! No more bombs or guns. Nowadays no one country can defend themselves completely, however many missiles and bombs they have. Only when we realise that we are all human beings on this planet and that we live together or we die together then will there be peace.