Address at the Inauguration of the International Conclave on Buddhism and Spiritual Tourism Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi

Universal Unity and Understanding

I am indeed delighted to participate in the inauguration of the International Conclave on Buddhism and Spiritual Tourism. Spiritual tourism is quite different from visiting the places and seeing various physical dimensions. The spiritual tourism means visiting the hearts and minds of the intellectuals in different places and places of enrich civilizational environment. After his enlightenment, Buddha visited 45 places in and around Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Every place is a place of enlightenment and provides the beautiful message. The message flows from ?The University of Universal Unity and Understanding.

Four noble truths

University of Universal Unity and Understanding should experience four noble truths. What are the four noble truths, you are all philosophers, theologists, thinkers, and may be tourism marketers also, you know what are those truths. However, I felt that I should narrate these noble truths, which are ringing in my mind in divine form, where Buddha got enlightenment.

The first truth is Dukkha, which states that the world is transient and it is in Dukkha. The second truth is the root cause of Dukkha, desire (Samudaya). If we eliminate desire dukkha will cease, is the third truth (Nirodha). Fourth is to follow the Eight-Fold path(Magga).

Nalanda The university of Enlightenment

Dear revered monks, scholars and thinkers assembled here, I would like to narrate the incident which took place in Nalanda, when I was there in May 2003. I have spent hours and hours in Nalanda. I saw the place, where the hundreds of scholars assembled and discoursed. I saw, how a university was vibrant in the Nalanda area in 7th and 8th century with theology-teaching classrooms, discourse rooms and monks hostels. What attracted the scholars from 90 countries to Nalanda long ago? This is the place where the thoughts were transmitted, discussed and integrated towards a good way of life, which people were looking for from many countries. Friends, at this critical juncture of universal turbulence and instability, arising out of mutual distrust and hatred leading to violence, world needs a university of peace, enlightenment and great thoughts.

As I said earlier, after enlightenment Buddha walked and walked in 45 different places in and around Nalanda, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Every place is very important for Spiritual enlightenment. To commemorate this great event, it is essential to reestablish a university in Nalanda, dedicated to the philosophy of Buddha to cherish and find new meaning ? a University of Universal Unity and Understanding. I would suggest this conclave can give a recommendation and the Ministry of HRD, Ministry of Tourism and Culture can spearhead the establishment of this University of Universal Unity and Understanding. Now I would like to share with you some of my personal experiences in search of unity of minds.

Experience at Bodh Gaya

What a great experience? When I visited Bodh Gaya and sat under the great Bodhi Tree with monks assembled all around. I said ?Buddham Saranam Gachami?. It was echoing every where, this I did after visiting the great Buddhist temple where Buddha was radiating peace and enlightenment. Under the holy tree a discussion started. One young monk asked me? Mr. President, President of India you are sitting in the place of great enlightenment. How do you feel? I told them, that I felt, as though I am a student, looking for a message for the troubled world - the message of peace. Another young monk asked me, ?Do you think Mr. President, Is Buddhism a religion or spiritual force or a code of conduct?? I said, let me share with you my experiences after my extensive travel in our country and abroad.

Religion transforming into spirituality

A message, I have received is that most Indians experienced and old, energetic and middle-aged, young and innocent, they all look to religion for solace and safety. I have also visited great many religious places and houses of worship throughout the length and breadth of this great country and I have met many of our religious leaders. The religions are like exquisite gardens, places full of surpassing beauty and tranquility, like sacred groves filled with beautiful birds and their melodious songs. I truly think that religions are beautiful gardens. They are enchanting islands, veritable oasis for the soul and the spirit. But they are islands nevertheless. How can we connect them so that the fragrance engulfs the whole universe? If we can connect all the islands with love and compassion, in a 'garland', we will have a prosperous India and prosperous world. With this background, I have come to Bodh Gaya. I realize in Buddhism spiritual content is very high.

Strength and peace

The third question - a very important question was asked by the youngest monk. Mr. President you have made a weapon, which can carry a nuclear warhead and you are in search for peace now? How they are compatible? I was taken aback. I went back to 2500 years in history. I saw in front of me the Emperor Asoka conquering all parts of India and walking with great pride. When he came to Kalinga region, the great Kalinga war took place, which is now in the present state of Orissa. With the mighty army of Emperor Asoka fought and fought and the Kalinga kings were defeated. Emperor Asoka happily proclaimed and annexed the Kalinga country. In that great full moon night, with the success behind him, Emperor Asoka walked in the war ravaged battlefield. He stopped suddenly and saw the blood flowing over hundred thousand people who were killed, and many souls crying and moaning. That crying was engulfed with gloom. Suddenly Emperor Asoka stopped and asked himself, ?O! Almighty, what have I done?? This spark of thought entered into the mind and soul of Emperor Asoka and the great principle of Ahimsa Dharma was born.

He has preached ahimsa, since then. This has been firmly engraved in the mountains. In the last century Mahatma Gandhi further gave a new dimension to ahimsa, dharma in the freedom movement of India. I have given this answer to that young monk. In our case, it was self-defence for which nuclear weapons were developed and nation had to become a nuclear weapon country. At no time, we will use them, unless someone uses against us. If every nation possessing nuclear weapons decides to dismantle completely, India will be the first to do so. India has always been advocating a total disarmament in the world.

The fourth question was asked by another monk, Mr. President, what made you to come to Bodh Gaya? I said, ?I am like Anand in a small way I am in the mission of search, where is the universal peace and unity of minds?.

Experience at RILA Monastery

During my recent visit abroad, I visited a Christian Monastery in RILA located in the hills of Bulgaria. It is the biggest Bulgarian revival, spiritual and cultural centre with a 16,000 volume library including 134 manuscripts from 15th to 19th century. This holy site played an important role in the spiritual and social life of medieval Bulgaria. Destroyed by fire due to invasion at the beginning of the 19th century, the complex was rebuilt later and is now surrounded by a big fort. While being in that divine environment amidst the Reverent Fathers aged between 80 and 90, I felt like praying. I went to the altar and asked permission of the Reverent Bishop John to recite the part of the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi. All the people present in the Monastery repeated the prayer.

The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace;

Where there is hatred let me sow love;

And where there is injury, pardon;

And where there is doubt, faith;

And where there is despair, hope;

And where there is darkness, light;

and where there is sadness, joy.

The silent message in this prayer was felt by the Reverent Bishop, who blessed me by saying ?You work for world peace?. My friends, may this beautiful divine message of love, enlighten our life to work for universal peace.

Celebrating the beauty of other religion

On one occasion, as I was leaving for Bangalore, I spoke to a friend of mine and told him that I would be talking to young people and whether he had any suggestions. He did not offer any suggestions as such but offered me these nuggets of wisdom.

when you speak, speak the truth; perform when you promise; discharge your trust ? withhold your hands from striking and from taking that which is unlawful and bad?.

What actions are most excellent? To gladden the heart of a human being, to feed the hungry to help the affected, to lighten the sorrow of the sorrowful and to remove the wrongs of the injured. ?..

All God?s creatures are his family; and he is the most beloved of God who tries to do most good to god?s creatures.

These are the sayings of Prophet Mohammad. My friend who told me this is a great grandson of a Deekshidar of Tamil Nadu and grandson of a Ganapadigal (Vedic Scholar). He is none other than Shri Y S Rajan.

Righteousness

Recently, I heard a hymn in the divine campus of Shri Satya Saibaba at Puttaparthi, which I would like to share with you. The name of the hymn is 'Righteous and Peace in the World':

Where there is righteousness in the heart

there is a beauty in the character.

When there is beauty in the character,

there is harmony in the home.

When there is harmony in the home.

there is a order in the nation.

When there is order in the nation,

there is peace in the world.

Friends, we can see a beautiful connectivity between heart, character, nation and the world. How to inject righteousness in the human heart? This is indeed the purpose of human creation - that is divinity. We are going through a complex situation as many of us are completely at war with ourselves, with society and with nation. At every instant there is a war in our mind, whether we should go in one direction or another. Whenever there is a dilemma, we must seek the wisdom from the Almighty to lead us to the path of righteousness through education with value system.

All these four events give personally to all of us a beautiful life with creativity. Above all it gave me a message to look for the best spiritual component in every religion.

My search

Friends, at this point of time, I would like to recall that we had witnessed the First World War, the Second World War; the UN was created to prevent war and bring peace. But what is happening now? We all very well know that ignoring United Nations many wars are being launched in this planet. Take our case, in our nation nearly 50 years we have been experiencing cross border terrorism. It has been causing death and suffering more than a war. This pain is in my mind. Hu Shih, (1891-1962), Chinese philosopher in Republican China has said, "India conquered and dominated China culturally for two thousand years without ever having to send a single soldier across her border." This is what Buddhist culture can do- bring people together, bring nations together, and bring peace at no cost. This is religion that had grown in stature to be the messiah of God and the advocate of the spiritual role of the religion. When the spiritual role of the religion is compromised, the religion becomes a weapon of destruction and a divider of people.

Friends with this experience, what I have gone through I am completely convinced that the religions can come out of dogmas. There is a possibility of religions graduating into a spiritual force with the use of compassion and love as a bridge. For sustainable societal peace and happiness, two more things are essential, one is Education with value system and the other is bringing economic prosperity. Education with value system definitely a big mission, it needs a world body, all the youth in the world, up to the age of 20, has to be taught the education with value system.

Education with Value System

The best part of a young person is his or her childhood in school and the best time spent is 0800 Hrs to 1600 Hrs in the school. The prime learning environment is 5th to 16th years of age. The student spends approximately 25,000 hours in the school campus. Of course, at home, love and affection are imparted but again most of the time of the day is spent in preparing school?s homework and study, eat, play and sleep. Hence the school hours for children are the best time for learning and need best of environment, mission oriented learning with value system. I still hear the echo from Bestolozzy, 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.? That is the great confidence of the teacher. What a golden mission a school can have. All the more, the teachers are in the center of the mission. We need hundreds and thousands and lakhs of committed teachers, who can shape the minds of our youth. Technology can also play a part to propagate good teaching through tele-education. The best of dynamic triangle is child, teacher and parents. For parents and teachers, school campus and home have to have an integrated mission: education with value system. If the child misses the value-based education in the school, no government or society can establish a transparent society or a society with integrity.

The Nations will target development milestones in a spirited environment instead of spending tremendous energy and time in problems initiated by small aims. This is the essential environment need for transforming India into a developed nation.

Developed India: 2020

The most vital component for peace is the poverty eradication by attaining economic prosperity resulting in high employment potential. This model will vary from nation-to-nation depending on the core competence of the particular nation. This will be through the second vision for the nation. How we can prepare ourselves to this challenge?

To become a developed India, the essential needs are (a) India has to be economically and commercially powerful, at least to be one of the four top nations in terms of size of the economy. Our target should be a sustained GDP growth of 10% annually for a decade and that the people below poverty line to be reduced to near zero from 260 millions. Technology Vision 2020 is the roadmap to realize this cherished mission.

The vision identifies five core areas for an integrated action. They are (1) Agriculture and food processing - The target of 360 million tons of food from the present 200 million tons and creation of food processing industries with enhanced productivity. Other areas of agriculture and agro food processing would bring prosperity to rural people and speed up the economic growth. (2) Reliable and quality electric power for all parts of the country. (3) Education and Healthcare - we have seen, based on one experience, education and healthcare are inter related. (4) Information Communication Technology - This is one of our core competencies. We believe, this area can be used to promote education in remote areas and also to create national wealth. (5) Strategic sectors - This area, fortunately, witnessed the growth in nuclear technology, space technology and defence technology and we have further programmes in critical technologies.

The integrated action on these five mission areas will lead to economic prosperity for the nation. For ensuring peace in the world every nation has to have economic prosperity. The value based education and religion transforming into spirituality are the other vital ingredients for generating enlightened citizen in a nation. Can we achieve this blend through this conclave?

Conclusion

The message to the world through this conclave has to be to create enlightened citizens through the University of Universal Unity and Understanding. In short the mission of the university based on the Nalanda experience is to attract many scholars, religious leaders and scientists from various parts of the world to discourse, discuss and spread the message of love and compassion through the three principles of Education with value system, religion transforming into spiritual force and economic development for freedom from hunger through a three dimensional approach. India with one billion people representing one sixth of the world population has the responsibility to initiate this movement of creating enlightened citizens of the world for ensuring world peace. Friends, it is the great mission for the International Conclave of Buddhism and Spiritual tourism.

I wish the conclave a great success.