World Peace Conference

Second Session 4 February 1974, morning

World Peace Conference was held under the aegis of Jain Muni Acharya Tulsi, founder of the Anuvrat mission for moral regeneration of man and the Chairmanship of Venerable Nichidastu Fuji, head of Buddhist order in Japan. The conference was inaugurated by Baba Jagjiwan Ram, Union Minister for Defence.

Dr Madan Mohan Chopra, one of the general secretaries of the World Unity Conference called upon Babu Jagjuwan Ram to inaugurate the conference. In his short introductory speech he sought to answer the question as to why Babu Jagjiwan Ram, who mainly concerned with the preparation of war in his capacity. The reason was that Babu Jagjiwan Ram was not only a defender of the physical boundaries and sovereignty of India, but also of its cultural heritage, its great traditions of Truth, non-violence and Universal Brotherhood which was amply demonstrated by the way he conducted the war of liberation of Bangladesh and the high sense of humanitarianism and character displayed by the Indian army forms a glorious chapter of our history.

Giving his views on the World Conference on Unity of Man, Dr Chopra said:

It is the very long desired goal of Unity of Mankind that has been and magnetic influence of the Divine Personality of Sant Kirpal Singh Ji Maharaj a Sacred Platform has been raised to fulfil this goal.

A reflection on the recent shift in world affairs makes us optimistic that the near future is going to better the lot of man. To quote from a speech of Leonid Brazhnev:

On the whole, it may be said, perhaps, that our planet is now nearer to stable lasting peace than it was at any before.

 (In USA 1973)

So the meeting ground for all Nations is getting ready for a new dawn over Human Unity. Unless moral and Spiritual Links are re-established between the various countries of the world there cannot be effective peace and amity.

The spirit of Dharma, with high standards of ethics, clear-cut codes of behaviour and wider acceptance of non-material values is more essential now than ever before.

Inaugurating that session devoted to World Peace, Sri Jagjiwan Ram Defense Minister of India, stressed that in essence the major religions of the world, such as Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, etc., were the same and each one of them preached the essential Unity of Man. He said that scientifically speaking, man was the most powerful in God’s creation and had within him the main attributes of God himself: he also had some of the attributes of Satan. The preponderance of Satanic influence within him was responsible for the ills of our times. The moment we realise this basic fact, do away as much as we can of the Satan within us, we shall have tipped the balance in favour of the Godly attributes and led the world towards peace and prosperity.

He drew an analogy from an realm of biology saying that in Nature just as union and multiplication was possible only between the same law, thus proving beyond found that mankind was One. Notwithstanding this Unity, he asked, why man sought the destruction of man in any part of the world, if it weren’t out of the greed and lost for power? It was a pity, he said, that whilst a few people were living in too much luxury and affluence which had dehumanised them completely, the multitude could not even afford the bare necessities of life. This imbalance, in his opinion, was responsible for the present bitterness and conflicts besetting the world. Some sections of society worked day and night to produce the wealth of the country and the world, but were deprived of the fruit of their labour and denied the barest minimum of the necessities for their existence whilst the chosen few enjoyed unearned comforts and riches. This state of affairs could not be rectified by politicians alone who always produced socio economic solutions.

What we needed today was:

A revolution can be created and successfully created by those people who have nothing to lose, nothing to gain – I will say, except to lose the misery of mankind and to gain the bliss of mankind. It is therefore heartening that under the auspices of the call of these wise men who have been trying to arouse the consciousness of man, so that he can see the good and realise that conflict anywhere in the world.

Continuing, the speaker emphasized that disparities between various sections of society shall have to be eliminated, not, wholly by government actions but the reformation of man and that reform can be affected only by the Wise and Holy Men, Who alone could prevent man from behaving like a mad man.

As an illustration Mr Jagjiwan Ram cited an example of the effect of war and said that the present conflict between Israel and Arab countries, though one between two small countries in some corner of the world, had affected all the citizens in all the countries of the world and our interdependence was amply reflected by the debacle of petroleum products which had effected the citizens of India in every city, also in Washington and New York, in Moscow and in Beijing – in all the countries of Europe. He asked if it weren’t enough justification for all the sensible people of the world to put their heads together for devising ways and means of eliminating war and uprooting the seeds of conflict from human society? The solution that he proposed was that all there was no greater crime than war.

Only then can we:

Dream of a better world, a happier world when man will regard another man as his own image and treat him as a member of his own family.

He felt that man had not developed fully and had therefore not attained his full stature, consequently he suffered from inequality, disparities and other imbalances. He stated that today oppressors suffered more than the oppressed, exploiters suffer more than the exploited: the sooner man realised this, he would begin to become a whole man, appreciating that his neighbours had the same feelings as himself and therefore deserved to be treated with Love and compassion and not hate and oppression. This transformation can be achieved by the teachings of evolved souls who could bring happiness into the world.

Sant Kirpal Singh Ji Maharaj, Sponsor President of World Conference on Unity of Man said,

This is a gathering for peace and we have here heads of many religious formations and our worthy Defence Minister there is not much left to say on the subject. I have only this to say that God made man the roof and crown of all creation. Next to God is man, the scriptures proclaim:

Sarb joon teri panhari, sarb miein teri sikdari.

Oh man, thou art the highest in all creation, the whole world is created for thy service.

 Gurbani

But first he has to become man in the true sense of the word. We are all born the same way, endowed with the same privileges from God and have the same inner and outer construction. Man is, however a composite being, as entity, having a body.

What is the meaning of man? One who is overflowing with Love and compassion; who knows himself and knows God. He loves God and since God resides in all hearts he loves all creation. God is Love, and man, who is of the same essence as God is an embodiment of Love. One who gives out the God-radiation of Love may truly be called a man. The outer labels of the various formations that we are carrying are all right. The real purpose of all formations or social bodies is to the indweller of the body, the Glory of God. He should realise his True Self of being God plus man i.e., Godman and as such be an embodiment of Love. And Love knows service and sacrifice, so he should think of the good of others and not of his own self interest.

So the ideal of manhood is that should he a brother into all creation. He should earn his livelihood by honest toil and share it with others. If we have such pak, pure, people in large numbers the world will become Pakistan – i.e., the land of the pure – and if we have a preponderance of khalis, pure, people the world would Kingdom of God on earth. That country is good which has a large number of such people. So man should live for others. He who will not let his brother man go hungry naked thereby ensures his own fulfilment for God Who resides in all hearts will surely provide for Him.

The teaching of the Masters is given out both directly and indirectly, i.e., through parables. There is a beautiful parable in the puranas that God invited both the devatas or angels and the danvas or demons to dinner. When the food was served God said,

You are welcome to enjoy the food subject to the condition that while eating you may not bend your hands.

Now the danvas who were slow witted and prone to act without reflection said,

God has insulted us, for how can one take food without bending hands?

and they walked out in protest. But the devtas pondered over it for the suggestion had come from the God and there must be some reason for it. After some time they understood the purpose behind the seemingly strange condition and started to feed each other and in this way all were fed without bending their hands.

Kabir stresses the same point. He says,

So long as you live in the man-body give, give, give. When you leave the body who will come to you to ask for anything?

It is a blessing to be born in a social formation but the real purpose of joining a social formation was to rose above it into universality. If you do not achieve this purpose it is no use merely carrying the label of one or the other formation. The celebrated poet Iqbal (Sir Muhammad Iqbal) says in a couplet that Moses went to mount Sinai in search of God. Did he not know that God was Himself searching for man – i.e., a perfect man?

All mankind is One. They should all be good and be One. Live and let live should be their motto.

Jain Muni Acharya Sri Tulsi, founder of the Anurvat mission for moral regeneration said:

I am really glad to be here on this platform where we talk of peace. On the political platform, generally talks on peace are being talked out, discussed, and decisions taken, but here this time it is on a Spiritual Platform that we talk of peace. Now we must take note that we are discussing the problem of peace on a platform of religions. We must find out whether religion has got the Power to establish peace in the world.

If religion is devoid of two important principles I am sure religion will not be able to deliver goods that will establish peace in this world. One is sacrifice and the other is self control. These two powers must be there in religion.

I feel the mass mind is sick nowadays. it is on account of this sickness of man’s mind that the whole thing is going in the reverse direction. Where the man must become individual he must become social, and where a man must become social he must become individual. That is the difficulty now, therefore the necessity today is that the religious gurus must come forward and correct the mind; remove the sickness in man mind nowadays. This sickness cannot be remedied by ordinary doctors and hospitals. It can only be remedied by gurus assembled here.

Lord Mahavira has declared land ago that if you want to be a religious Guru, the head of a religious order, you must leave two things. One is aham that is I, the ego, and the other is mamta – that is everything is mine, the feeling of selfishness. If we want to remove the aham and the manicure, the ego and the mind self in the man, then we must try to become the accomplished shield, gasuna, we must try to compress ourself in our zeal. It is only such kind of religious heads who can try to bring world peace nowadays and I would like to tell you what exactly peace means. Man has got two aspects in him; one is called shakti, that is power, and the other is shanty, that is peace. If the power goes externally, then we call it shakti; if the same thing tries to move inside, internally, then we call it shanty, that is peace.

We must have two things: one is Love – affection –, and the other is unattachment – non-attachment. If we develop these two aspects, then the different oceans between man and man would disappear.

The religions and the heads of religions, if they try to establish peace among themselves and try to work whole heartedly and remove the hurdles which are now in the peace, I am sure that world peace will automatically come.

Anuvrat in brief, means if you do not attack others, no other person will come and attack you. Anuvrat, mission, says don’t consider any man to be interior. If you try to feel the other man is inferior and you are superior then naturally the other man will feel that you are inferior to him. Anuvrat transcends colour, creed, race, religion, land, countries. It wants you to work for all human kind. If you want to be really a man, if you want really to transform mankind into good people, your habits of eating and drinking, your habits of behaviour must be good. That is what Anuvrat emphasises at the outset.

Then I appeal to you; if you really feel that we must try to establish world peace you must not do anything that will disturb world peace, at least peace. That’s the central path of determination that you must take now. Through your mind, through your action, through your speech, you must not do anything which will affect world peace. That is the determination, which you must take, one and all. If a small mistake is committed somewhere, in some corner, that will have the greatest result, a terrible … results elsewhere. Therefore we must be able to keep ourselves under control.

Venerable Nichidatsu Fuji, head of the Buddhis order in Japan said:

Seven hundred years ago, a Buddhist monk of Japan had said that without ahimsa, non violence, religion was meaningless; one must not steal, one must give alms, and for satisfying one’s hunger one must earn but inculcate the spirit of non attachment – renunciation. Today socialism is spreading and we are told that those who do not work have no right to eat and more people are dying of hunger and starvation than due to war. We must, therefore, strive towards providing food for all. Disregard of well being of another person is responsible for the growth and spreading of poverty which destroys one’s consciousness of all the higher values. A poor and hungry man will do anything to gain bread, he can even commit murder. Whenever we turn our gaze, we see the differences between the rich and the poor, but, when this differences goes beyond limits then it borders on injustice. We must therefore work for an even distribution of the available wealth.

The cult of selfishness is spreading wide. But in the Buddhist philosophy the banishment of greed is achieved by inculcating in man the consciousness and need for the welfare of the other man. After independence India, too has tried to develop on the basis of principles of socialism. The Buddhist religion advises that food, clothing medical facilities etc., should be provided to every human being only this way can peace be established. For removing the ills of man, aggression and oppression will be of no avail: Love and non-violence alone can achieve the desired peace, happiness and Unity.

Unless the greatest consideration be given and respect for the other man be inculcated, True Peace cannot be established. He advocated non-violence and tolerance towards others, respect for the other man, sharing one’s wealth – at least that which can be spared – and eschewing greed for the achievement of peace and Unity.

Yogi Bhajan said:

People stand today for Oneness of the man to bring peace to the world. It is a very small start. Blessed is Sant Kirpal Singh Who has taken this initiative to bring us together. When the mind is filled with spirit, it flows. So in this old age He went around the world with one message: Come, let us get united. Let us bring peace to our hearts and let us be peaceful. Shanti and shakti is merged and this merging is the start we get today. It is a message to us that we will from today onward work for it. This world needs it; we need it, and someone has given us a start. This is the most beautiful, most unique day for all of us. Today as children of God we are learning to love God in the loving way in which God is.

Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, head of the Sufi Order said:

We have not come here simply to demonstrate a wish for peace but also come in order to find a way of overcoming all the obstacle to peace. There are people even today who are living in terror, in a condition of oppression, terrified by those who have power over them. There are people who are ruling the lives of people and there is tremendous conflict in the lives of the people, even in families between husbands and wives or father and children, in all the realms of life. Wherever you look there are conflicts. There are conflicts within the mind of a person, too.

What are the obstacles? How can we remove them? We must understand that every one is pressing forward. There are conflicts between the interests of human beings. Just like in a crowd – everyone tries to push the other to get forward.

And it takes a higher consciousness to accept another person as good as oneself. It is a matter of respect for the dignity of the human person. We have to find a way of composing the different forces that are conflicts in the world. War is not the only scourge that is to be found deeply rooted in the hearts of men. This can only be done by accepting this law which may be expressed in that Hindi word Vairagya – detachment. I think that we have to learn how to be in the world and yet not of the world. We have to learn how to apply the rules of the Sanyasin, but in life.

A conference like this wouldn’t have been possible a few years ago. It is the expression of the desires of those people of humanity as a whole, that want to compose their differences, come together – want to find a way of harmony, want to find way of understanding. This can only be done by extending tolerance to the intolerant. It is easy to tolerate the tolerant but the great challenge is to be able to tolerate the intolerant, and even with those that oppose you, find a way – a way of dignity – which you can assert your right and at the same time respect their right.

The following resolution proposed by Dr M.M. Chopra and seconded by Sri Bhani Ram was road out and passed by the house by a show of hands:

This World Conference of Unity of Man proposes to organise local forums of well meaning and enlightened persons, all over the world, to bring about frequent small gathering in order to afford an opportunity to the representative of various religious groups to meet more often and more intimately. This forum would not only discuss the pragmatically purpose of world alliance and peace but would establish a personal sympathy and understanding as well, without which genuine co-operation would not be possible.

The conference accepts reverently and unanimously the ideal for man expounded by revered Sant Kirpal Singh Ji as:

Man is incarnate soul, a conscious entity and is of the same essence as God, and as such we are members of one family and related to each other as brothers and sisters in God. Human body is the temple of God. To be born in the body temple is a blessing, but not to rise above body consciousness – i.e., to know self and God – is sinful. While remaining in our respective faiths, we must rise above them and should become followers of True Faith to love God and love all His creation.

A True Lover God will love all His messengers Who came in the past, all the scriptures records of Their self-communion and communion with God. He will love all mankind the rest of God’s creation in many forms. He will love all holy places sanctified by the presence of Godman at one time or another and now revered as places of pilgrimage. He will never injure nor molest anyone in thought, word or deed.

The World Conference on Unity of Man records its sincerest gratitude to Ruhani Satsang, Delhi, Manav Kendra, Dehradun, and their benign originator, Godman Sant Kirpal Singh Ji Maharaj for giving a new motivation in the sphere of religious Unity, world peace and solution for perplexing problems confronting human progress and prosperity; and an opportunity to meet at one platform leaders and thinkers of various religions and faiths having Spiritual Consciousness and conviction determining the actual lives of significant groups of people.

The conference proposes that ‘unity homes’ should be established, wherever possible, all over the world, where people of different colour, clan, caste, creed and nationalities can meet and live with perfect amity, Unity and understanding like in their own homes. The home should also be used for celebrating national days of all the national day of all the nations, religious and social festival and cultural nights and exhibitions.

Shri B.M. Shamsukha of the Anurvat Mission and a general secretary of the World Conference on Unity of Man who conducted the proceeding thanked the leaders and the audience after which the meeting dispersed.