Inauguration Of The International Parliamentary Conference To Mark The Golden Jubilee Of The Parliament Of India

EVOLUTION OF ENLIGHTENED HUMAN BEINGS FOR UNIVERSAL HARMONY

I am indeed delighted to participate in the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of Indian Parliament and to inaugurate the International Parliamentary Conference. It is a great occasion in the history of Indian Democracy that many parliamentarians from India and other countries have assembled in this historic place to express their care and voice their concern in providing better standard of living to their people. India is a fairly young and the largest democracy. We have accomplished a significant degree of national development, while facing many trials and tribulations; some due to the fury of nature, some due to wars, and many due to proxy-wars and cross-border terrorism. In spite of these happenings we have been able to achieve self sufficiency in meeting the food requirement of more than a billion people through the green revolution and to considerably increase the average life span, through better primary healthcare centers in rural India. Our Industrial base has been broadened. Science and Technology have been given a new thrust with considerable success in the fields of Information and Communication, Space, Atomic Energy and Defence Research. Today, India is emerging as a knowledge based society. Even while doing so, we have maintained our cultural diversity and living in beautiful traditions, which are a few millennia old. I have personally witnessed and enjoyed many of them in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, six states in the North Eastern region and other states and in one Union Territory. Even when being proud of our heritage and self-reliant actions, we realize that no nation can exist alone. Global connectivity is vital. While there are many accomplishments, India is equally concerned about bringing global peace and development of the whole humankind - the present 6 billion which will rise to about 8 billion by 2020. The major challenges facing humanity are removal of poverty, ensuring energy and drinking water availability, personal safety and health-care and environmental protection. Many nations are facing problems manifesting themselves in different forms like insurgency and cross border terrorism. It is not restricted to one country or a region but has emerged as a global threat to peace and harmony of humankind. What are the possible solutions?

Dynamics of Warfare

For a decade I was studying the dynamics of warfare on planet earth. It is evident that man lives on wars. We distinctly see that warfare has three parts: upto 1920, 1920-1990 and after 1990. The first part was the human warfare period. Motivation for human warfare was either territorial greed or ambitions to amass wealth or religious domination which in combination later led to the First World War. The second period - 1920 to1990, was a mechanised warfare period. During this period the world graduated to the use of new mechanized weapons and platforms - battle tanks, fighter aircraft, ships and submarines. Lot of scientific and technological knowledge and skills were diverted towards war preparation and war operations. In turn they also generated new technologies and science. The main motivation was ideological conflicts between two forms of societies. The Second World War also witnessed the disaster on account of the deployment of nuclear bombs on two cities of Japan. During the third period from 1990 we see market warfare and globalisation. The tool used is the supremacy of technology which led to technology denials and control regimes separating the nations as "Developed", "Developing" and "Under Developed". In 2003, the world is facing a new kind of warfare, owing to a combination of religious conflicts, ideological differences and market warfare. We have seen that always war adds to wars, though there will be a time gap. How do we combat these complex, integrated phenomenon of conventional warfare threat, cross border terrorism, insurgency and threat of nuclear attacks? Apart from threats to nations, governments and economics of societies, what is most painful is the suffering of many million ordinary innocent human beings who suffer due to violence and threats of violence. In the next few minutes I would like to share my thoughts and some possible solutions.

Reasons for Terrorism

Terrorism results from various factors like difference in ideologies, religious fanaticism, painful historical memories, discrimination, and enmity between organizations and nations. Constant deprivation leads to frustration - frustration on provocation leads to alienation. Alienation can manifest itself in two forms - passivism and activism. Activism can manifest itself in constructive or destructive modes. Constructive mode leads to development; destructive mode leads to terrorism, violence and aggression. We need to collectively address these sources of disturbance for global peace.

Message from Tawang

I would like to recall an incident that happened when I visited Tawang, in Arunachal Pradesh, a North Eastern State of India, at 4,000 meters altitude. It is a land of extreme scenic beauty, spreading the message of peace within, peace all around and peace in the whole universe. There is a 400 year old monastery in which I met 300 monks reciting Buddhist hymns.

A unique message was echoing in the Monastery. What is that message? I was asking myself. Who can enlighten and explain the message? I sought the help of the chief of the monks at the Tawang Monastery. I asked, 'Your Holiness, can you explain the message with your vast experience of this Monastery, the most important part of learning - particularly in the present environment of our country'. The respected Buddhist Monk told me, "India is a nation of peace. India lives as a spiritual and peaceful nation. The peace should engulf our nation." Then he said: "this monastery spreads the message of love and peace. When you remove 'I' and 'ME' from your mind, you will eliminate ego; if you eliminate ego, hatred towards fellow human beings will vanish; if hatred goes out of our mind, violence will not spring from us and then peace and peace will blossom. I bless my nation". This divine message was born in the Tawang Monastery. I was thinking whom I could share such a beautiful message with. It is apt for this occasion, for the reason that we all need peace on our planet earth.

The reverberating message of Tawang is that peace has to prevail if humanity has to survive. But what do we see today? Man has gone astray and veered away from God's message. He has taken violence in his hand. Can we remove violence with military might? Can we remove terrorism by war? Nations have been destroyed by wars. Have we eliminated enmity? Have we eliminated violence? Has the world eliminated terrorism? No. Not at all. Is there any solution? The message from Tawang to remove ego is one among the possible solutions. There may be other possible solutions which need to be deliberated upon by the Honorable Members. I visualize many of our problems could be solved if planet earth has Enlightened Human Beings. An Enlightened Human Being will be a synthesized personality with a value system and spirituality.

Enlightened Human Being

The evolution of human society has followed the path from agricultural to industrial, to information and to the present day knowledge society. No doubt earlier societies are not eliminated, they all co-exist. The later ones dominate the methods of working. In the information and knowledge society, intellectual capacity dominates. Intellectual domination is represented by ideologies, principles and faiths. Whenever they cross paths between individuals, societies and nations, human rights are violated. Today we have greater responsibilities in eliminating suffocation and loss of human rights by the present generation of people due to the backwardness induced by economic status or caste and class differentiation or frustration by denial of timely justice.

When a child is empowered by the parents at various phases of growth, the child gets transformed into a responsible citizen. When a teacher is empowered with knowledge and experience, good young human beings with value systems emerge. When an individual or a team is empowered with technology, transformation to higher potential for achievement is assured. When a 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 the political leaders of a nation empower people through visionary policies, the prosperity of a nation is certain. When religions are empowered and become a spiritual force, peace and happiness will blossom in people's hearts. Such an empowered stage will lead to creation of enlightened citizens with a value system. The road map for graduating into an enlightened human being will have to include education with a value system (for example, the Tawang experience), religions graduating into spiritual forces and visionary policies for global prosperity. I believe an enlightened human being can be evolved when all these three elements are properly combined as a long term dedicated solution for nations. It has to be an international movement. It is essential to integrate the learning process with a value system in the educational system particularly up to the higher secondary school level.

Religion transforming into spiritual force: Universal Mind

I would like to recall an incident which happened four decades ago. Prof. Vikram Sarabhai, the visionary of the Indian space programme and a well known cosmic ray scientist was looking for a site to establish a space research station in the equatorial region. Thumba, a village in Southern India located on the magnetic equator was selected by the scientific community for establishing the space research station as it was ideally suited for ionospheric research in the upper atmosphere. The village had a beautiful ancient St. Mary Magdalene Church and a Bishop's House. Prof. Vikram Sarabhai requested Rev. Dr. Peter Bernard Pereira to provide that space, with a church and a house, for setting up the space research station. The Bishop smiled and asked him to meet him the next day, that is Sunday.

Next day, in the Morning Service, the Bishop told the congregation, "my children, I have a famous scientist with me who wants our church and the place I live in for the work of space science research. Dear children, science seeks truth that enriches human life and brings material prosperity. The higher level of religion is spiritualism. Religious leaders seek the help of the Almighty to bring peace to humanity. In short what Vikram is doing and what I am doing are the same - both science and spirituality seek the Almighty's blessings for human prosperity and peace. My children, can we give the 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 appreciating the significance of the nation's need for the establishment of the Space Research Center at Thumba. When I think of this event, I can see how enlightened spiritual and scientific leaders, all converge towards giving due reverence to human life. That event laid the foundation for a new era in space research in our nation, yielding benefits to society. For example, reaching villages with communication and for assessing natural resources for better management.

What a beautiful message for all generations of this globe, on integration of minds. Above all we see a great scientist and a religious leader transforming the society into a spiritual force and spreading the message to the young: Good human beings are there everywhere. We need to look for them and nurture them. I would like the Parliamentarians to reflect on the significance of this event in the present day religious and ideological conflicts

Visionary Policies for Global Prosperity

The world over, poverty, illiteracy and unemployment are driving forward the forces of anger, frustration and violence. These forces link themselves to historical enmity, tyranny and injustice, ethnic issues and religious fundamentalism and transform themselves into an outburst of terrorism worldwide. Those who claim to love the Creator but hate His creation are indeed living in self deception. But, society which includes you and me has to address itself to the root causes of such phenomena like poverty, illiteracy and unemployment.

Stability of any society is a vital factor that decides peace. Stability of a society revolves around providing the basic needs of society such us food, clothing and shelter and safety and security of the people. People, who are economically or socially in the lower strata, are vulnerable to human rights exploitation by those who are in the higher strata. One way to reduce this exploitation is to narrow this divide. Policies with vision should emerge at the global level to eradicate poverty and to ensure that the basic needs of every human being are met thereby reducing the gap between the haves and have-nots. How are we going to achieve this? Global sharing of resources under a consortium approach will be one way to address these issues for peaceful co-existence and co- development.

Globally there will be a crisis in the coming decades for energy, drinking water, and environmental protection. Many nations have to come together to evolve visions to solve these global issues so that future generations can live peacefully. When there is a vision for a nation with focused missions, problems like terrorism and violence will get eliminated.

Global Outlook for Universal Harmony

Every human being in this planet has a right to live with dignity, has a right to aspire for distinction. Availability of a large number of opportunities to resort to just and fair means in order to attain that dignity and distinction is what democracy is all about. That is what our Constitution is all about. And that is what makes life wholesome and worth living in a true and vibrant democracy. At this point, I would like to remind all of us that at social levels it is necessary to work for Unity of Minds. The increasing intolerance for views of others and increasing contempt about ways of lives of others or their religions or the expressions of these differences through lawless violence against people cannot be justified in any context. All of us have to work hard and do everything possible to make our behaviour civilised to protect the rights of every individual. That is the very foundation of democratic values. The right type of global judiciary and safeguarding of human rights are the guardians of civilised life. Empowered mechanism of human right protection through creation of Enlightened Human Beings would ensure survival of a prosperous democracy globally.

Conclusion

I would like to recall the words of a great scientist of the last millennium - Albert Einstein. I quote "The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."

The mission for parliamentarians should be the evolution of a vision for their nation. Every country has its own dreams arising from its history and also from the type of global environment of that country. Every Parliament has to give a prosperous, peaceful and secure future for its people. Unfortunately some nations are being bombarded with poverty and terrorism. How do we find solution? Here I have attempted to suggest one solution by evolution of Enlightened Human Beings with a combination of education with a value system, religion graduating into spiritualism and visionary policies for prosperity. May I request Members of Parliament to graduate their Parliaments to discuss higher goals of evolving visions for their national prosperity that will finally bring peace to planet earth. I am sure that this conference will address the above issues in order to bring about universal harmony.

My best wishes and greetings to you.