Address at the Thakur Prasad Memorial Lecture

EVOLUTION OF AN ENLIGHTENED CITIZEN

I am indeed very happy to be here in this land of enlightenment to deliver the Thakur Memorial Lecture. The evolution of good human beings is indeed a big challenge for the world community. I was asking myself, what will be the components of such a mission? Will it consist of education system to generate enlightened citizens? That means, a combination of learning with value systems. This process can take place for twelve years during a child's education. This covers one third of the population at any point of time in our country. The second important component will be the religions graduating into spiritual movement. Third and most vital component is the poverty eradication by attaining economic prosperity resulting in high employment potential. Now the question we have in front of us is, will it eliminate the international terrorism? Will it eliminate the cross border terrorism? Will it remove the communal clashes? Above all, will it remove the violence in mind and body? I would like to recall a spiritual hymn.

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. What is the type of planet we live in? We are going through a complex situation as the many and many human being are completely at war with themselves, with society and with nation. I would like to discuss about the study on the dynamics of war on the planet earth which I have done a decade ago.

India's Heritage

India has a rich cultural heritage - a heritage that has always upheld the universal language of love and compassion. A culture that always sang the universal song of truth that transcended all limitations and divisions. Our philosophers have taught us that although man may be a bundle of contradictions, hostility is not the natural attitude of human beings and that tolerance would give rise to mutual respect. Our sages and seers have taught us that human life is the continuous stream of experiences, experiences of self and self-realisation. We have to realise our real self, our real inwardness, our freedom in its true sense. When that happens, we will see how human personality can solve and dissolve all contradictions.

Human life demands dignity. Mahatma Gandhi had enumerated 7 social sins that cut at the root of the dignity of human life.

Politics without principles,

Wealth without work,

Commerce without morality,

Knowledge without character,

Pleasure without conscience,

Science without humanity,

and Worship without sacrifice.

Aren't these transgressions there even now in evidence that destroy the fabric of healthy and noble human life? The society needs to engender respect for life, reverence for living, regard to dignity as the essence of humanity. A civilized society, therefore, has to create conditions and environment in which such eternal values are born and can flourish. The society has to build in institutions that would act as a bulwark against depredations of those who have no time, respect or regard for human values. When that young girl in Tripura asked me how she could exercise her right to go to school in the face of militancy, in pursuit of her dream to become one to live in a prosperous and modern India. A great Indian philosopher once said: "When we look at our culture, we have the twin emotions of pride and shame. Pride because it teaches us great lessons of timeless character which are not suppressed by the events that happened; shame because we have not been following that culture in any serious way. The culture is a standing protection against any kind of intolerance."

Dynamics of Warfare

It is evident that man lives on wars. We distinctly see that pattern of warfare has three parts: upto 1920, 1920-1990, after 1990. The first part was human warfare period. Motivation for human warfare was either territorial greediness or wealth ambitions or religious domination which in combination later led to the First World War in 1914. The second period- 1920-1990 - was a mechanized warfare period. During this period the world graduated to the use of new mechanized weapons and platforms - battle tanks, fighter aircraft and submarines. The motivation was ideological conflicts between two societies, one side former Soviet Union and other side USA and related countries. Second World War also witnessed the disaster by the deployment of nuclear bombs on two cities of Japan. Also, it resulted in accumulation of 10,000 nuclear warheads each side. During the third period from 1990, I expected economic warfare leading to globalisation. Supremacy of the technology 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, integrated situation of religious conflicts, ideological differences and economic-market warfare. We have witnessed always that war adds to wars, of course there will be a time gap. How do we combat these complex integrated phenomena of conventional warfare threat, cross border terrorism, insurgency and threat of nuclear attacks? 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, 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. Certain nations have been indulging in cross border terrorism mercilessly. We need to collectively address these sources of disturbance by formulating visionary policies for national development and by executing those mission projects with hard work and sweat.

At this point I would like to recall a poem written in a full moonlit night. There was a divine echo in the full moon night from my creator. Shaken, bewildered and wondered, the echo engulfed me and my race:

"You, the human race is the best of my creation

You will live and live

You give and give till you are united,

in human happiness and pain.

My bliss will be born in you.

Love is continuum,

That is the mission of the humanity"

Are we the practitioners of love and reverence for human life? I was in search for the truth. When I visited various religious centres and education centres and also some spiritual centres, they are all indeed islands. Islands of beautiful work. What force can bridge? At this point of time I thought of sharing three of my experiences with you.

Message from Mt. Abu

I have visited a number of times Brahma Kumaris Spiritual Academy at Mount Abu and Abu Road to participate with the research programme of integrated treatment of body and mind particularly for the cardiac patients in the Global Hospital and Research Centre. The programme aims in alleviating the pain of cardiac patients by combination of vegetarian fibrous diet, meditation and aerobic exercises. Definitely Mt. Abu gave a good solution for integrating Mind and Body. Also I used to meet more than 5000 high school students in their campus from all parts of Rajasthan. The beautiful environment of prayers and meditation is indeed a unique experience. Above all on 3rd February 2002, when I visited the Brahma Kumari Academy the divine echo reverberated with a message. It was a great spiritual breeze with affirmation, 'Bharat will become the most beautiful land on earth'. How to make it.

Message from Tawang

I would like to share with you another important message which I experienced very recently, when I was visiting Arunachal Pradesh. I happened to spend a day in a Tawang Budhist Monastery, which has 400 year old history, located at an altitude of 3000 meters - a beautiful spiritual environment. There, I met a gathering of monks, students, teachers and political leaders. I saw bright young faces with an urge to learn with creativity. A unique peace was engulfing in the monastery and surroundings. It looked to me that the message was part and parcel of students and teachers community. 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 in this Monastery, the most important part of learning - particularly in the present environment of our country and the other planet". The respected Buddhist Monk told me, "India is a nation of peace. India will live as a spiritual and peaceful nation. Peace should engulf our nation. This monastery spreads: when you remove "I" and "ME" from your mind, you will eliminate ego; if you eliminate ego, hatred towards fellow human beings vanish; If the hatred go out of our mind, violence will not spring from human mind and the society, then peace and peace and peace will blossom. I bless my nation". This divine message -how to remove violence from society, was born in Tawang Monastery. How to inject the great experience on young minds.

Message from Thumba

I recall yet another incident which happened four decades ago. As you all know, Prof Vikram Sarabhai is the visionary of space programme in the country. He is well known for his cosmic ray research area that led to evolving the space research programme for the nation. Both Dr Homi Bhabha and Prof Vikram Sarabhai were looking for a site to establish space research station in the equatorial region. These two great scientists visited a number of places. Thumba in Kerala was selected by the scientific community for space research as it was near the equatorial region and was ideally suited for ionospheric research in upper atmosphere apart from study of atmospheric structure. When Prof Vikram Sarabhai visited Thumba, the locality had series of villages and thousands of fishermen folk were living in that area. It also had a beautiful ancient church, St Mary Magdalene Church, Pallithura and a Bishop's House. Prof Vikram Sarabhai met many politicians and bureaucrats to get the place for the work of space science research. It did not move further because the nature of the place. He was asked to see the Bishop of Trivandrum, at that time in 1962, His Excellency Rct Rev Dr Peter Bernard Pereira. It was a Saturday when Prof Vikram Sarabhai met the Bishop. The Bishop smiled and asked him to meet him the next day, ie Sunday. 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 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 for the people. 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. His Excellency Rct Rev Dr Peter Bernard Pereira, the Bishop of Trivandrum, took the noble decision to dedicate the church in recognition of the national goal for the establishment of 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 Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) and multiple space centres throughout the country.

(b) near self-reliance in defence needs of weapon, equipment with no umbilical attached to any outside world.

When I think of this event, I can see how enlightened spiritual and scientific leaders, all converge towards giving reverence to the human life. Religions have transformed the spiritual system to benefit humanity. New church and new schools were established in record time. Of course the birth of TERLS and then VSSC gave the country the capability of design, development and produce world class huge rocket system and subsequently, India has the capability of launching geo-synchronous, sun-synchronous and meteorology spacecraft, communication satellite, remote sensing satellite thereby provided fast communication, weather forecasting and also locate water resources for the country. Today, among us, Prof Vikram Sarabhai is not there, Rev Dr Peter Bernard Pereira is not there, but those who are responsible for creation and make the flower and blossom will themselves be a different kind of a 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 generation of this nation and world how religions could be transformed into spiritual dynamic force.

Noble thoughts comes from every where

On one occasion, as I was leaving for Bangalore for a lecture, I spoke to my friend 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 the following words 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 excellence? To gladden the heart of a human being, to feed the hungry, to help the afflicted to lighten the sorrow of the sorrowful and to remove the wrongs of 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."

He said, these are the sayings of Prophet Mohammed. My friend who told me this is a great-grandson of Deekshidar of Tamil Nadu and Gnanapathigal ( Vedic scholar ). Such an outlook is possible only in our country where many of our enlightened citizens go beyond their own religion and appreciate other religions also. This is a state of spiritualism a nation has to cherish.

Prosperity and peaceful life have two components. How to make enlightened citizens with prosperity and knowledge of human beings we studied. Now for evolution of a good human being hunger has to be eliminated.

The poverty elimination

After 50 years of progress, the aspirations are mounting that India should become a developed country. This is 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 GDP growth of 9% annually and that the people below poverty line to be reduced to near zero. (b) near self-reliance in defence needs of weapon, equipment with no umbilical attached to any outside world. (c) India should have a right place in world forums. Technology Vision 2020 is a pathway to realise this cherished mission.

We have identified five areas where India has a core competence for an integrated action. (1) Agriculture and food processing - we have to put a target of 360 million tons of food and agricultural production. 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 the experience, education and healthcare are inter related. (4) Information Communication Technology - This is one of our core competence. 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. Other areas like Advanced Sensors and Materials would need a push. The nation has a plan towards 70% near self-reliance in a decade in defence equipment.

These five areas are closely inter-related and would lead to national, food, and economic security. A strong partnership among the R&D, academy, Industry and the community as a whole with the Government departments will be essential to accomplish the vision.

Conclusion

One does not have to make others lose so that one can gain. I cannot forget Mahatma Gandhi's words when he said and I quote "It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings". If only we could always remember the eternal truth behind these words expressed by the Mahatma, the world would have been a much better place for all of us to live in. The enlightened human being is part of the divine scheme of things. Anything other than that is a travesty of that Grand Design and we can afford such travesty only at our peril. On the other hand, it is our bounden duty to realise the truth behind that Design and that is possible only if we try to evolve ourselves as enlightened citizens. Utopias may be impossible, but they are worth striving for.

Reverence for life is indeed possible in real sense if a philosophical thought of reverence can be transformed into actions by empowering various components of the society. 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 the nation empower the people through visionary policies, the prosperity of the nation is certain. When religions are empowered and become spiritual force, peace and happiness will blossom in people's heart. Such an empowered stage will lead to creation of enlightened citizens with value system. Here I suggested a solution by evolution of enlightened human being with combination of education with value system, religion graduating into spiritualism and visionary policies for prosperity. Based on the core competence India has experience with the great qualities of leadership to manage the nation of billion people with various dimensions in every aspect of life. Now we should not allow any religion or any individual fanaticism to endanger our nation. Because, nation is very important compared to any individual or party or religion.

My best wishes and greetings to you.