Address While Presentation Of Gandhi Peace Prize 2002 To Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan

ADDRESS

I am indeed delighted to present the Gandhi Peace Prize for the year 2002 to Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan for its significant contribution towards spread of education, integration of the best of ancient and modern values and promotion of peace and harmony among all faiths and communities. I congratulate the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan for its excellent service to the humanity. I consider, awarding Gandhi Peace Prize every year is an important mission with reverence because it celebrates the great leader who walked in this planet in the 20th century as a millennium leader. India is indeed fortunate and proud to have Mahatma Gandhiji as 'Father of the nation', who was responsible for getting freedom by his writings and actions, and above all his nobility. When I talk about this great leader with nobility, I would like to go back to my school days at Rameswaram. I would like to narrate one incident to you which fascinated and shaped me when I was a young boy.

On 15th August 1947, my high school teacher Rev. Iyyadorai Solomon took me to hear the mid-night freedom speech of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. We were all thrilled when Panditji spoke that the mission was achieved. On the next day, that is on 16th August 1947, I had a great experience. An experience of best of education I can think of. In a Tamil newspaper, on the front page, two news items appeared. One item was India achieving freedom and Panditji's speech. The other news item and the most important one which has been embedded in my memory is about Mahatma Gandhiji walking barefoot in a town in Bengal, removing the pain of riot affected families. 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 at Naokali. Mahatma Gandhi was an embodiment of nobility, elevated thinking and concern for human beings and he was there where there was pain. What an everlasting positive impact of the ideal leadership qualities in the mind of a school boy?

When I remember Mahatma Gandhiji, a leader with nobility, it is our fortune to have Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan established in the year 1938 by Dr KM Munshi. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan has grown from strength to strength with its centres spread not only within India but also abroad. It has stood steadfast to its ideal of integration of Indian culture by harmonizing the best of the past with the best in the present to bestow to the present and coming generations the best for the future. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's great service in propagating the message of Gandhiji on ahimsa, compassion and tolerance and peaceful living with multi-cultures is commendable. Its significant contribution in the spread of education and promotion of cultural values, peace and harmony among all religions and communities on the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi is well known. The contribution made by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan towards spread of education and promotion of cultural values in today's strife-torn world is summed up in the invocation made by Sardar Patel: "May the Bhavan become the nursery of torch-bearers of a composite civilization, taking pride in all that is best in the past, imbibing all that is noble in the present, shedding light and glory wherever they go and moulding the life and destiny of a great nation."

Yesterday, I was reading about Sufi poetess Rabia.

She says,

"Almighty, if I worship thee in fear of hell,

burn me in hell and

if I worship thee in hope of paradise,

exclude me from paradise.

But if I worship thee for thine own sake,

withhold not, thine everlasting beauty."

I was searching what is the significance of 'everlasting beauty'? What is the everlasting beauty in a human life? Particularly in the life of nation like ours? I get an answer. Everlasting beauty is nothing but integration of multi cultures and multi philosophies with tolerance leading to great civilisational heritage. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan is one such institution spreading the message and spreading that everlasting beauty. My greetings to Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan for their intellectual, cultural and educational missions leading to civilisational heritage.

Thank you.