Address During the Presentation of the Kabir Puraskar and the National Communal Harmony Awards for the Year 2005

Evolution of a Peaceful, Enlightened Society: A possibility

I am delighted to participate in the presentation of Kabir Puraskar and the National Communal Harmony Award for the year 2005. I would like to congratulate Janab Md. Aynal Hoque and Shri Rajarathnam Isaac for promoting peace and tranquility in their regions. I would also like to congratulate Ms. Hema Bharali and Ramakrishna Mission represented by Swami Smarnanand for receiving National Communal Harmony Award. The awards are indeed enriched.

Violence Free Society: A great mission

Friends, when I am with you on this very important occasion of Kabir Puraskar and the National Communal Harmony Awards ceremony, I would like to share with you the cruel incident which took place yesterday. The cruel incident in Afganisthan has resulted in loss of a precious engineer Mr. Suryanarayana?s life, resulting in the loss of smile in the faces of his family including his three small children. Nation is with them in this time of grief. While condemning this inhuman act, many nations have the collective responsibility to device a mechanism to see that such situations do not occur in future for any citizen of India and also any person belonging to any part of the world.

The world over, many countries including ours are facing such situations. There are certain people in certain societies who are violent and they don?t follow any rule of law, they don?t abide by any code of conduct. The light of conscience is extinguished in them. Even where we have taken actions against the terrorists through political, military and police methods we have not been able find the solution in full and the solutions are evading. In all our actions, I believe, we have to consider injection of certain higher elements. I would like to give my thoughts on this issue to the audience of political leadership, bureaucracy, social reformers and other intellectuals. This I would illustrate through two events which influenced me, one during my childhood, another recently which I have come across.

Leader Creates Leaders : Leader will be where there is pain

I would like to narrate to you one incident of 1947, which inspired me when I was a young boy. On 15th August 1947, my high school teacher Rev. Iyyadorai Solomon took all the students including me, to hear the mid-night freedom speech of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. We were all thrilled when Panditji spoke and the mission was achieved. Subsequent to that, we had a great learning from my teacher Rev. Iyyadorai Solomon.

My teacher brought two newspaper clippings and narrated two incidents, which touched my heart. The first news item and the most important one which has been embedded in my memory is about Mahatma Gandhiji, walking barefoot in Naukhali in Bengal in Nov 1946, removing the pain of riot affected people. Our teacher said, dear Children you see the great leaders are not afraid of the problem. He is at the place of pain at risk to life to remove the pain and to give relief. The other incident was India achieving freedom and Panditji?s speech. Normally as Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi has to be the first to unfurl the national flag on August 15,1947 in Red Fort. But he was not there at the Red Fort, instead he was somewhere comforting many people who were suffering. Mahatma Gandhi had created and nurtured the leadership who could take charge of the nation during the freedom celebration, when he was busy removing the pain of the people. Mahatma Gandhi was an embodiment of nobility, elevated thinking and a leader with great concern for the sufferings of the human beings. My teacher, after showing these two clippings, told the students, how the father of the nation was the role model for providing leadership to the nation. We need such leaders who can influence the people across the world to shun violence and terrorism, who are not governed by any rule of law.

Now I would like to narrate a second incident, how a mother?s teaching to a son has been a source of inspiration for the son and in turn establishes that the truth triumphs in reforming hardcore militant robbers.

Mother gives principle of truth

This story surrounds the life of the great saint Sheikh Abdul Qadir Al-Gelani, which happened about one thousand years ago. One day, child Abdul Qadir while he took the cows for grazing one cow looked at Abdul Qadir and gave a message ?what are you doing here in the grazing fields, it is not for this you have been created?. He ran back to his house feeling utterly terrified and climbed on to the roof of his house. From there he saw a large group of people returning from Arafat Mountain, thousands of miles away from his place in the neighbourhood of Mecca after performing Haj. Bewildered Abdul Qadir went to his mother and asked her permission to make a journey to Baghdad in order to pursue a career in knowledge. The mother understood the divine call and promptly gave the permission for him to go. She gave him 40 gold coins which was his share he inherited from his father. She stitched these 40 gold coins inside the lining of his coat and gave him permission to leave. When she stepped out of the door to bid him a farewell, she said, ?Oh, my son! You are going! I have detached myself from you for the sake of Allah knowing that I shall not see your face again until the day of last judgement. But take one advice from me. My son, you always feel the truth, speak the truth and propagate the truth even when your life is at stake?.

Abdul Qadir travelled with a small caravan heading for Baghdad. During the journey, when the caravan was passing through the tough terrains, a group of robbers on horses suddenly attacked the caravan and started looting. None of them however took the slightest notice of Abdul Qadir, until one of the looters turned to him and said. ?You are here poor boy! Do you have anything with you? Abdul Qadir replied, ?I have got 40 gold coins which are stitched by my mother in the lining of my coat underneath my armpit.? The looter smiled and thought that Abdul Qadir was just joking. He left him alone and moved elsewhere. When their leader came and the looters took this boy to their leader and said to him, ?A poor boy claims that he is in possession of 40 gold coins. We looted everybody but we have not touched him because we hardly believed that he has got gold coins with him?. Then the leader put the same question but Abdul Qadir replied the same. Then the leader ripped through his coat and discovered that he indeed got 40 gold coins inside the lining of his coat.

The astonished leader asked Abdul Qadir, what prompted him to make this confession? Abdul Qadir replied. ?My mother made me promise to always be truthful even at the cost of my life. Here, it was a matter of only 40 Gold coins. I promised her and never betrayed her trust, so I told the truth?. The looters started weeping and said, you have adhered to the advice of your great mother but we have been betraying the trust of our parents and the covenant of our Creator for many years. From now onwards, you would become our leader in our repentance and they all decided to give up robbery and from that day, became righteous persons. How Sheikh Abdul Qadir Al-Gilani could make a difference in life of group of looters at his tender age!

These two incidents gives me a thought that apart from finding military, diplomatic and social solutions for containing the problem of terrorism and violence, we should encourage good human beings and enlightened citizens across the world to intervene in such problems to bring universal peace and harmony at the appropriate time for finding a lasting solution. So far we have discussed two events, one which occurred a few decades back and the other a few centuries back. But in the modern times how do we bring this type of transformation. We need to reassure our youth that the governance system is with those who are truthful and dutiful.

Conclusion

At this juncture, let me recall the Peace prayer which I recited in 2003 while dedicating the memorial of Shri Rajiv Gandhi to the nation at Sriperumbudur.

Peace Prayer

"O Almighty, create thoughts and actions

in the minds of the people of the world

So that they live united.

O Almighty, bless the people

To take a path of life with righteousness

as righteousness gives the strength of character.

Help all religious leaders of the countries to

give strength to the people to combat the divisive forces.

Guide the people to develop an attitude to appreciate different

ideologies and transform enmity among individuals,

organizations and nations, into friendliness and

harmony. O Almighty bless the people of the planet

with peace, prosperity and safety".

I once again congratulate all the award winners and my best wishes to the organizers for promoting societal peace and prosperity. May God bless you.