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Sisters and Brothers

sail for America and after a long sea voyage, reached
Chicago. There, with the help of an American he
chanced to meet, he managed to receive an invitation
from the conference organizers.
At the conference, he saw that everyone addressed
the audience very formally as ‘Ladies and gentlemen’.
But when he was invited to speak, he came on to the
stage and addressed them as ‘Sisters and Brothers of
America’, then delivered his lecture. This kind of address
was the first introduction to Indian spirituality that the
American people had experienced. The resounding
applause he received by calling his audience ‘sisters and
brothers’ rather than ‘ladies and gentlemen’ – which is
a very formal way of addressing people – showed that he
had touched their hearts and instantly won them over.

Everyone is born the same in nature. Since all human
beings have the same common ancestor, there can be
no difference between an American and an Indian. It
is a fact of nature that all men and women are blood
brothers and sisters. So, sisterhood and brotherhood is
interwoven into the very nature of every man and every
woman. When you call people ‘sisters and brothers’,
you make a profound psychological impact.
In terms of nature, or in terms of the creation plan
of God, the ‘we and they’ concept is unrealistic; it is the
obverse of the factual position. So when you address
people by saying: ‘ladies and gentlemen’ you fail to
touch people’s hearts, but when you address people
as ‘sisters and brothers’, you remove the psychological
wall between yourself and them. Alienation suddenly

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