Address at the Furec Programme at Sri Adichunchanagiri, Kshethra, Karnataka

Evolution of Enlightened Citizens

"I have created the human being   
with a brain and thinking faculties.   
I command all my creations that   
they use their faculties with reasoning   
to reach my image"

I am delighted to be in this divine environment and interact with the members belonging to many institutions and the people of Adichunchanagiri region. Just before coming here, we had a FUREC (Foundation for Unity of Religions and Enlightened Citizenship) meeting; FUREC is a unique spiritual movement for promoting unity of minds among people coming from various parts of the country. You can see in front of you, the gracious presence of many spiritual leaders belonging to different faiths. Their presence itself makes me feel about the power of our civilizational heritage which has resulted in the unity of minds in an multi-religious, multi-lingual and multi-cultural environment. The presence of FUREC members in this audience spreads a message that India as a nation stands for integrated thinking, integrated action and above all integrated solution for many of our challenges. In this beautiful environment, where you have all assembled, I have selected a few thoughts to share with you. The topic of my discussion is "Evolution of Enlightened Citizens". I will be talking to you about Human Evolution Challenges in modern society and how to evolve enlightened citizens.

Human Evolution

Traditionally there have been two distinct and different approaches in understanding human evolution. First is archeological evidence. The lessons that we learnt in India from Mohanjedaro and Harappa, and many similar excavations world over had been seminal and many a civilizations way of living, their culture and their origin have become evident. The second and more recent approach is propelled by the advances in our understanding of the human genome. While the major part of the human genome sequence is common between human beings, even with mice, the small portions that differ, control and contribute to the diversity that we find in the evolution of humans. This makes research in genetic engineering and using human genome sequences to understand evolution of the human mind very interesting.

Origin of Life

Ancient human history has been revealed beautifully by Paleo-anthro-pology. Life originated in this globe 600 million years ago and the continental drift occurred 200 million years ago making our one land into five continents. Mammals evolved 140 million years ago, Homi-nid (the human type) evolved 26 million years ago but modern man only some 200,000 years ago. That too he emigrated and colonized the rest of the world only since 50,000 years. Spoken language is some 10,000 years old, while written is only a few thousand years old. All the phenomenal progress of Man has thus only taken place within this short span of 400 -200 generations (i.e., 10,000 -5,000 years).

Such a complex web of evolution of humans has always been fascinating for researchers. Newer DNA technologies have given us better insight in retracing the history of man. "DNA of a Man is His history book ever written". Nowadays intelligence, cognizance, drug response, behavioral problems every thing is related to genes: disease gene mapping is taking place at a faster pace with the new age DNA technology. It is probably over 50,000-30,000 years of co-existence that societies have evolved adopting newer innovations and cultures.

Thus the "Nature - Nurture" philosophy holds good even in this Genomic Era: "Genes" what we inherit from our parent is the basis; a beautiful "building" is built over it. It is just the opportunity that makes Man. All children when they are born are equally poised to become a good human being. It is the parent and teacher who would shape them further. Great human beings are born out of children.

Challenges of modern society

Advances in genetics demonstrating great similarity in the genome of man and animals shows that the limbic brain perhaps is the cause for all conflicts within and outside.

So far human society, from origin until now has always been at war within and between groups and has generated two World Wars, due to conflict of interests and scarcity of available resources for the growing population. Presently, terrorism and low intensity warfare is affecting many parts of the world. In this environment how do we promote harmony in a turbulent world?

Evolution of Enlightened Citizens

I would like to put forth to this gathering, an action oriented solution for evolving a happy, prosperous and peaceful society on our planet, which I call as "Enlightened Society". How do we create such an enlightened society, which has three components (a) Education with a value system (b) Religion transforming into spirituality and (c) Economic development for societal transformation. Let us discuss this issue.

(a) Education with a value system: The best part for a person is his or her childhood and the learning period in school. The prime learning environment is five to seventeen years of age. Of course, at home, love and affection are imparted. But again most of the time is spent in preparing school homework and study, eat, play and sleep. Hence school hours for children are the best time for learning and they need the best of environment and mission oriented learning with a value system. During this stage, they need value based education in school and at home for them to become good citizens. This reminds me of the words of a great teacher's saying, "give me a child for seven years. Afterwards, let the God or devil take the child. They cannot change the child." This indicates the power of great teachers. For parents and teachers, the school campus and home have to have an integrated mission that is education with a value system. They must inculcate moral leadership amongst children, which involves two aspects. First it requires the ability to have compelling and powerful dreams or visions of human betterment, a state of things in which human beings could be better off in the future than they are now. Secondly, moral leadership requires a disposition to do the right thing and influence others also to do the right thing. If the child misses this value based education in school, no government or society can establish a transparent society or a society with integrity. During this period, it is essential to elevate young minds through moral science classes at least for one hour each week, delivered by great teachers. That will elevate young minds to love their country, to love other human beings and elevate the young to higher planes. Throughout the world, in every school, till the age of 17, it is essential that moral science is taught. Such enlightened individuals will definitely promote peace and harmony on the planet. Now, I would like to share an experience that I have had regarding religion transforming itself into a dynamic spiritual force. Many believe the mission is impossible. I believe it is possible.

(b) Religion Transforming into Spirituality: Universal Mind

I would like to recall an incident that happened four decades ago. Prof. Vikram Sarabhai is the visionary of the space programme in India. He is well known for his cosmic ray research area that led to evolving the space research programme for the nation. Prof. Sarabhai was looking for a site to establish a space research station in the equatorial region of India. He visited a number of places. Thumba in Kerala was selected by the scientific community for space research, as it is near the equatorial region and is ideally suited for ionospheric research in the upper atmosphere apart from the study of the atmospheric structure. When Prof. Sarabhai visited Thumba, the locality had a series of villages and thousands of fishermen folk were living in that area. It also had a beautiful ancient church, the St. Mary Magdalene Church, Pallithura and a Bishop's House. Prof. Sarabhai met many politicians and bureaucrats to get the place for the work of space science research. It did not move further because of the nature of the place. He was asked to see the Bishop of Trivandrum, at that time in 1962, Rev. Father Dr. Peter Bernard Pereira. It was a Saturday when Prof. Sarabhai met the Bishop. The Bishop smiled and asked him to meet him the next day, that is Sunday. In the morning after Church Service, the Bishop told the congregation, "my children, I have a famous scientist with me who wants our church and the place I live, for the work of space science research. Dear children, science seeks truth by reasoning. In one way, science and spiritualism seek the same divine blessings for doing good to the people. My children, can we give God's abode for a scientific mission?" There was a chorus of 'Amen' from the congregation and the whole church reverberated. Subsequently, the big event took place in 1962. Rev. Dr. Peter Bernard Pereira, the Bishop of Trivandrum, took the noble decision to dedicate the church in recognition of India's national goal of establishing the Indian Space Research Organisation at Pallithura, Thumba. That was the church where we had our design centre, started rocket assembly, design of filament winding machine for FRP product and the Bishop's house was our scientists' place. Later, the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) led to the establishment of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) and multiple space centres throughout the country.

When I think of this event, I can see how enlightened spiritual and scientific leaders, all converge towards giving reverence to human life. A new church and new schools were established in record time. Of course the birth of TERLS and then VSSC gave India the capability to design, develop and produce world class huge rocket systems and subsequently, India developed the capability of launching geo-synchronous, sun-synchronous and meteorology spacecraft, communication satellites and remote sensing satellites, thereby providing fast communication, weather forecasting and also locating water resources for the country. Today, among us, Prof. Vikram Sarabhai is no longer there, Rev. Dr. Peter Bernard Pereira is also no longer there, but those who are responsible for the creation and making of the flower blossom will themselves be a different kind of flower as described in the Bhagwat Gita: "See the flower, how generously it distributes perfume and honey. It gives to all, gives freely of its love. When its work is done, it falls away quietly. Try to be like the flower, unassuming despite all its qualities". What a beautiful message for all generations, on integration of minds and a universal mind. Nowhere in the world has a church been given for scientific research. It has happened only in India. It is a great message to be spread. The message is, the best component of religion can be transformed into a spiritual force that will shape society. Let me now discuss with you the third component of an enlightened society for transforming a developing nation into a developed nation through achieving economic prosperity, so that large societal imbalances can be removed. In this connection, let me give you an example.

(c) Transforming our Nations into Economically Developed Nations

India has a population of over one billion people of which 220 million are still living below the poverty line. They need education, they need habitat, they need health care, and creation of employment potential. To meet their needs, we have a second vision of transforming our country into a developed nation by 2020. We have identified five areas where we have core competence for integrated action: (1) Agriculture and food processing (2) Education and Healthcare (3) Information and Communication Technology (4) Infrastructure development such as power, transportation, communication, including Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) and (5) Self reliance in critical technologies. These five areas are closely inter-related and if implemented in a coordinated way, will lead to food, and economic security, and national security. A strong partnership among the R&D, academy, industry and the community as a whole with Government departments will be essential to accomplish the vision for a developed India. The Indian GDP is growing at an average rate of 8 percent per annum whereas the economists suggest that to uplift the 220 million people who are living below poverty line, we have to grow at the rate of 10 percent per annum consistently for over a decade. One of the components through which the rural-urban divide will be bridged and prosperity will be brought to seven hundred million people living in six hundred thousand villages is Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) in seven thousand clusters. Through a national vision, using the core-competence of individual nations and partnership of friendly countries, it will definitely be possible, to transform a developing country into a developed country as planned.

Conclusion: God's creation

In this beautiful environment, I would like to recall a poetic thought "How the man has to graduate into angelic quality".

"Angel is free because of his knowledge,

The beast because of his ignorance,

Between the two remains the son of man to

struggle?"

Let me also recall a divine command for the human being. God said that Oh! Humanity, I am giving you a mission and He gave the following message. "I have created the human being with brain and thinking faculty. I command all my creations that use your faculty with reasoning to reach my image." Let us now see how to transform God's command into action.

When the child is empowered by its parents, at various phases of growth, the child transforms into a responsible citizen. When the teacher is empowered with knowledge and experience, good young human beings with value systems take shape. When individuals or a team is empowered with technology, transformation to higher potential for achievement is assured. When the leader of any institution empowers his or her people, leaders are born who can change the nation in multiple areas. When women are empowered, society with stability gets assured. When political leaders of the nation empower people through visionary policies, the prosperity of the nation is certain. The medium for transformation to developed India is empowerment at various levels with power of knowledge.

My best wishes to all the participants assembled here in their mission of promoting a prosperous and harmonious society. My Diwali greetings to all of you. May God bless you.

Question and Answer Session

1. Do the radio active materials also move in the food chains as the bio-magnetism?

- Manjunath J.K, 9th standard, SriBhakthanathaswamy High School

Ans: There are radio nuclides which have long half life. If it is taken by ingestion it can be transmitted to from plant kingdom to animal kingdom or within the animal kingdom from one animal to another. This is how the movement of radio active materials can happen in the food chain. However, there is no analogy of its movement as bio-magnetism.

2. Are we not living under the threat of a disaster with Narora in a sysmic area, very close to our place Bulandshahr?

- Pulak Mittal, 10th class, Delhi Public School, UP.

Ans: Natural disaster is a part of human systems. Some place it comes as tsunami, some place it come as earthquake and in some places it come as heavy rain or storm. We have to prepare ourselves for promoting our safety by creating the systems which can stand the shocks and tremors. I have been suggesting our scientists to work on forecasting of our earthquakes so that the people can be moved to places of safety in case of an emergency.

3. During your tenure as the President of India which action do you laud yourself for taking and which one do you regret?

- Ashima Keshava, 12th class, Delhi Public School Rohini, New Delhi.

Ans: There is nothing to laud about or regret. Every action which I take, I try to do the best so that it is beneficial to the society as a whole. Time alone can say about the results of such action.

4. How can we as the future citizens of INDIA and the harbingers of our nation participate in the media circle so as to be a help to our nation?

- Nupur Khetan, 11th class, DELHI PUBLIC SCHOOL, PATNA

Ans: Celebrate the success of our rural areas. Media should become the media of one billion people. This can be the most effective participation of the media circle in the transformation of our nation.

5. What initiative should the Government introduce to increase the efficiency in energy sector?

- Saavi Sharma, 10th class, Delhi Public School, Bulandshahr

Ans: For increasing the power plant efficiency, the electricity board have already taken up certain competitive measures. They are awarding the best performers. Our National Thermal Power Corporation and Nuclear Power Corporation are going for mega power plant which are more efficient and cost effective. Now, we have to go for solar energy system. Researchers have to work for developing CNT based photovoltaic cell which have efficiency exceeding 45%. Also, we have to concentrate on bio-diesel and bio-fuel. NPC is also working towards creation of thorium based nuclear power plants.