Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
New Delhi, Jun 14, 2010
Nonviolence movement blossomed
"Nonviolence my religion"
---------"Acharya Mahapragya"
I am happy to participate in the National Colloquium on Vision of a Noble Family and Ideal Nation. My greetings to all of you. This important gathering reminds me of Acharya Mahapragya ji and the noble ideas and cherished moments which we shared. When all of us assembled here on the birth anniversary of the noble soul, I would like to share few thoughts on the topic "Nonviolence movement blossomed".
Meeting with Acharya Mahapragyaji
First, I would like to recall my first meeting with Acharya Mahapragyaji who has carried out penance for over 90 years and walked over 100,000 kilometers in his mission of promoting Ahimsa Dharma. My meeting took place at the Adhyatma Sadhna Kendra, Mehrauli in October 1999.It was around midnight, and Acharyaji had prayed three times with his distinguished Jain monks for the welfare of the nation and the people.After the prayers, he turned to me and said words that still reverberate in my mind. He said, "Kalam, God bless you for what you have done with your teams. But God has a bigger mission for you and that is why you are here with me today. I know our country is a nuclear nation now. But your mission is greater than what you and your team have done;it is indeed greater than what any human being has ever done. Nuclear weapons are proliferating in tens and thousands in the world. I command you and you only with all the divine blessings at my disposal to devise a system of peace wherein these very nuclear weapons will be ineffective, insignificant and politically inconsequential."
When Acharyaji finished his message, a hush fell over the room. It appeared to me as though there was a divine concurrence with the message. For the first time in my life I felt shaken. Since then, Acharyaji’s message has become my guiding light, and making it a reality a challenge that has given a new meaning to my life.
Evolution of family values
In one of our meetings, Acharya Mahapragyaji and myself, when we were writing chapter-II "Evolution Process and Pain"of the book “The Family and the Nation”, we had a deep discussion on the focus points of the chapter. Our starting point for the discussion was, Mahatma Gandhiji’s beautiful statement on eight sins:
"Wealth without work, pleasure without conscience,commerce without morality, worship without sacrifice, politics without principle, rights without responsibility, knowledge without character, and science without humanity". A society and culture free of these sins would be a society without violence".
While Acharya ji’s admiration for the Gandhiji’s views on sins, Acharya ji also said,
As humans, we have evolved from nature and we ultimately depend upon nature for our survival. Until we understand what we are as humans and how we are connected to the universe, it is impossible for humanity to be wise, and to evolve the knowledge to live in harmony with nature.
I felt that, how Acharya’s statement is very important today for the reasons, we take away from earth continuously and little give back to maintain the nature’s quality and quantity. This situation of taking away and not giving led to the world climate change phenomena.
Both of us discussed (Acharyaji and myself) if we have to create in an organization, to teach cultural adaptation, I asked Acharya ji, can you visualize the type of organization is needed? Acharyaji said, it seems logical that such an organization must:
- Factor anthropological history in industrialized society,
- Identify the emotional and physical problems of people,
- Seek out the available educational tools,
- Point out the values of solving the problems, and
- Disseminate this knowledge to the public.
Evolution of FUREC (Foundation for Unity of Religion and Enlightened Citizenship)
I had suggested to Acharya Mahapragya ji that only he can bring together all religious leaders in India to create a unity forum. The great soul took the task in a divine way and he said, he could arrange such a meeting at Surat where he will be on the course of his mission of Padyatra. He requested me to come there as he cannot come on flight or train to Delhi. So I as a President of India went there and I was given a gift of the declaration “Surat Spiritual Declaration” signed by all the spiritual leaders. It was indeed a wonderful document to follow as a doctrine of national unity. Later, we created an organization FUREC with both of us being patrons and spiritual leaders apex body members. Acharyaji nurtured this organization very well to create consciousness in the action on national unity.
National ethics
Friends, we need to have National ethics for sustained growth and peace. Where from it starts?
- Nation has to have ethics in all its tasks, for sustained economic prosperity and peace.
- If nation is to have ethics; society has to promote ethics and value system.
- If society is to have ethics and value system, families should adhere to ethics and value system;
- If families have to get evolved with ethics and value system, parenthood should have inbuilt ethics.
- Parental ethics come from great learning, value based education and creation of clean environment that leads to righteousness in the heart.
Both Acharya ji and myself led to believe importance of divine science, we have progressed in the chapter-III “The Idea of Unity”.
Divine Science
Scientists, philosophers and theologists and Spiritual leaders have to eventually converge towards an understanding, what may be called divine science. The world is looking for, and is finding, a new science; this must be Divine Science. The divine world is looking to give that science. These are spiritual, mystical, religious and theological truths of the contemporary world. The Divine Science would be a result of breakthroughs in understanding the fundamental basis of reality such as quantum theory, relativity theory, chaos theory, general systems theory, string theory, and others. The magnitude of infinite possibilities within the human body and external cosmos is amazing. The Divine Science has to transcend the certainty of strictly Newtonian clockwork notion to a new vision of a holistic and unified cosmos rooted in a non-local quantum reality that is fundamentally spiritual as opposed to material. It may also be described as intrinsically evolutionary and harmonious. The FUREC and the Institutions like Future Nalanda University can promote this doctrine.
Our book “the Family and the Nation, as a postscript, we have given a form to Acharya Mahapragya’s philosophy:
Soul is my God,
Renunciations is my prayer,
Amity is my Devotion,
Self-restraints is my strength,
Non-violence is my religion
And the vision for the nation as I put-forth.
People living in a clean green environment,
Having prosperity without poverty,
Living in peace without fear of war,
and a happy place to the live
For all citizens of the nation.
Conclusion
On 2nd August 2005, I met Acharya Mahapragyaji during the presentation of National Communal Harmony Award to him. While sitting together in this function, Acharayaji said, “Kalam, the time has come to translate our thoughts into action for developing a peaceful, happy and prosperous society, through the development of the family and nation in the form of a book.” We thought over the question as to how a noble nation can be formed and came to the conclusion that its seeds can be sown in a family. Only a good individual who has been brought up in an environment of a good family will be able to realize his or her responsibility towards the nation. Such a citizen will adopt the principle “work with integrity and succeed with integrity”. This led to the birth of the book “Family and the Nation”. The poem Noble Nation reflects our dream for Family and the nation.
Noble Nation
A beautiful and yet distinct,
Reddish light engulfed the galaxy,
The Milky Way, our galaxy.
All the stars surprised with the alarm,
Where from this lovely powerful light,
Who emanates, who emanates,
That was the cry of the galaxy.
I will answer, my friends,
“Oh my galaxy friends, I am the sun,
I have eight planets in orbit,
One of them is earth,
Carries six billion human lives.
They live in hundreds of nations.
One of the nations with great civilization,
India 2020, celebrates the birth of the noble nation.
Light of celebration from India reaching our galaxy,
Nation with clean environment without pollution,
Having prosperity without poverty,
Peace without fear of war,
A happiest place to live”.
My best wishes to all of you.
May God Bless you.