Dr. Mahavir Raj Gelra
Dr Kalam's Speech
Inaugurating the Seminar, President A.P.J.Abdul Kalam said, "The creation of good people, better society and world peace is possible only with coordination between spiritual and scientific thinking."
Referring to the detailed discussions held with Acharya Mahapragya, Dr Kalam said, "From Acharayaji I received directions as to how we can build an alert, moral and cultured man. Acharyashree suggested that the building of a good human being is possible with coordination between intellectual and emotional development."
Alluding to the smiles on the faces of the newly-initiated ascetics, the President said, "Out of the hundred crore population of India, one-third are children and adolescents. By building beautiful citizens with beautiful minds, we shall be able to remove hatred from our lives."
Quoting several times from the statements of Acharya Mahapragya, the President said, "In order to develop a mind that is peaceful, violence less and without hatred, it is necessary to create a new environment. We should create an environment in which both the tendencies - of'I' and 'mine' - are annihilated. The two elements of T and 'mine' have created all our problems; have generated the environment of war and disturbance of peace."
Describing Acharya Mahapragya's directions as useful for the whole world, the President said, "Religion and science acting together will be able to give a new direction to mankind. Science needs the helping hand of spirituality."
Referring to the incident involving his teacher Dr Vikram Sarabhai and Bishop Parel, the President said, "Without the helping hand of the spiritual teacher, science could not have moved forward. The scientist asks questions, looks for reason. He can create wealth and property with the help of revolution in communications and agricultural production, provided that he continues to receive help from spirituality. Not only science, the whole nation needs spirituality. The work that Acharya Mahapragyaji is doing in this direction is very valuable.
Acharya Mahapragya's Address
Addressing the Seminar Acharya Mahapragya said, "Yesterday 1 had a discussions with the President on three issues: How to develop moral and character-related values? How to achieve emotional development? How to get rid of the 'I' and 'mine' mindset? If moral values are not developing in spite of so much education, discussions and movements, then the only explanation is that the malady is somewhere else and the treatment is being administered somewhere else. To bring about change, one must reach the unconscious mind. All our effort is focused on changing the conscious mind. Emotion, behaviour, habit and memory - all these fall in the realm of the unconscious mind. For moral and character-related development, we shall have to adopt such effective experiments and procedures which can influence the unconscious mind, and solve the problems existing there. Life science is such an experimental procedure and it can influence the unconscious mind."
Discussing the applications of life science, Acharya Mahapragya said, "The child whose sympathetic nervous system is active will turn out to be rude, cheeky and undisciplined. The child whose parasympathetic system is active will turn out to be cowardly, timid and meek. Till such time as we are able to find a method to strike a balance between the two, children cannot have a proper development. The experiment of life science is an experiment aimed at achieving a balance between the two."
Referring to coordination between spirituality and science, Acharya Mahapragya said, "We have been talking about coordination between spirituality and science, but the credit for presenting these two in an applied form goes to Acharya Tulsi. With his intellect and understanding, he pushed it forward. He conceived the idea of building of a spiritual-scientific personality and did significant work towards this end. Mere spirituality is not very useful for this world. A mere scientist can also be dangerous. A person in whom both spirituality and science develop becomes beneficial to the world."
"Socrates said that a ruler must be a philosopher. 1 want to say that a ruler must be a scientist. A scientist will not only think about a problem, he will also look for a solution. Today a confluence between spirituality and science is being achieved. Both are engaged in the pursuit of truth. I have discussed several issues with the President^We have decided that this consultation will be carried on in the future too. That together we may do our bit to find a solution to the problems of the country is what is expected of us today.
