Last Session
6 February 1974, Evening

Carry the idea of Unity practically in your life.

Kirpal Singh

The evening session, which was the concluding session of the conference was remarkable for the high order and variety of speeches. The foreign delegates were given full opportunity to express their views and their short, precise, thought-provoking speeches, in French, Spanish, Latin, German, Greek and many other languages including African, ably translated into English by their compatriots, delivered in a spectacular milieu – a conglomeration of race, cultures, costumes – lent a colourful touch to the proceedings. More remarkable was the fact that the vast Indian audience listened to all these speeches with rapt attention as if they were following each and every word, even as the foreign delegates listened patiently and attentively to Hindustani speeches in the preceding sessions – a living proof that there are levels of communications and contact away and above the reach of words.

The report of the proceedings including the four resolutions drafted by the steering committee were presented to the house and passed.

The two guest speakers of the evening, foreign Minister Sardar Swaran Singh, who made a dash straight from the airport – where he had landed on return from Bhutan – and Sri Gulzarilal Nanda surveyed their respective fields – international relations with particular references to Unity of Man and moral values with special emphasis on fighting corruption in every sphere of national life.

The foreign delegates who spoke – Stan Kozitsky (USA), Dexler (Germany), Ernest Stephens (Canada), Dr Dukey, acupuncture specialist (Cali Colombia, South America), Eva Cardja (Greece), Joseph Betta (France), Piero Mercenaro (Italy), Frederic Aye (Ghana), and many other dwelt at length on the universality and validity of the teachings of Satguru Kirpal Singh in the context of the complex problems of today. The five minute speeches, condensed and chiselled with loving care, sought to express in words the vibration of grateful hearts. They told their story, directly and simply, without literary flourish and embellishments of the greatest blessing that a man can have – the company of a Living Master and myriads of benefits flowing therefrom.

Mr Reno Sirrine, leader of the US delegation thanked beloved Master Kirpal Singh of the unique honours of invitation at Rastrapati Bhawan to 15 leaders of foreign delegation by the President of India, Dr V.V. Giri and the opportunity Bhavan and its ravishing Moghul Gardens. Dr Giri told them that he was not a Moslem, a Sikh, a Christian, a Buddhist or a Jain: he was a humanist and he believed in humanism. They presented the President a copy of the conference souvenir, copies of resolutions drafted by the steering committee of the conference and the New Year Calendar brought out by the Manav Kendra, which the President graciously accepted.

Mr Sirrine concluded,

Once again I thank all my Indian brothers and sisters who worked hard to make this conference possible. It is the greatest experience of my life and I hope, also of all my brothers from the West. I also thank all those who made our visit here enjoyable, looking to our comfort, serving us delicious meals, providing transport, taking care of the sick and attending to all our needs, and more especially, I thank our gracious Master Kirpal Singh Ji and all His staff. Thank you.

Mr Russel Perkins, editor, Sat Sandesh (English) published in USA quoted the parable of two gardeners, one of whom worked hard tending the garden and kept it in full bloom and when the Master came to see the garden, presented Him a bouquet from His own garden. The other gardener just slept and did no work but when He came he danced attendance on Him, singing His praises and making much noise.

Now we who love somebody and who are deeply interested in this conference and its work, it is not sufficient for us just to praise our Master or somebody else but to live up to the ideals placed before us every minute, every second, every hour, all our life. Unity means that we love our neighbours as we love our own self and we are that neighbour so we should feel that the way we treat others is the way we treat ourself. If this be our viewpoint how can we do anything mean or selfish?

I think that this conference has a great significance and from the day it started I have felt a great upsurge of Spiritual Radiation enlivening and uplifting everyone. I feel it even now. A great deal is happening at this time at different levels of which we have no awareness. But one thing is definite, that this conference will be fruitful only when we go back and reflect it in our loving treatment to our wives and children, to the people we meet in the street, to our friends and companions, to those under whom we work and those who work under us.

Pandit Sunderlal, the veteran freedom fighter and one of the foremost thinkers and philosophers said that Unity of Man was possible, even needed, on political and economical level but that would not stay. Real Unity that would abide for all time, can only be cemented on a Spiritual Level and the greatest and most fundamental work in this direction is that which is being done by Satguru Kirpal Singh Ji and His collaborators and followers and Unity will be cemented on the lines suggested by the Satguru. Pandit Sunderlal quoted extensively from the scriptures of both Hindus and Moslems to prove that religion had nothing to do with rites, ceremonies, modes of living and worship. It did not even concern itself with belief or disbelief in God. The basic tenet of religion, any religion, is Unity of Man. According to Mahabharata, the Rishi lay down Unity as a criterion of religion – that which unites all is Dharma, that which divides is not. And the more ancient Manusmriti lays down ten commandments a the basis of Dharma – patience, forgiveness, self-discipline, honesty, cleanliness, control over sense-organs, quest for knowledge, non-violence, non-anger etc. There is no mention there of any beard, sacred thread, keeping a tuft of hair on the head or anything of that sort. Can a Moslem or a Christian or Jew for that matter anybody deny such a religion?

God is Love and God is Light,

says the Qur’an. In the end he quoted a couplet from a Sufi Saint saying that all places of worship and all Holy Books were worthy of respect but for him there was only One God which was Love.

Sri Shankar Dev M.P. secretary, One World Movement, said that this conference with delegates from all over the world presented to him the picture of a world parliament.

The world is going to be One and Unity will be cemented by a Godman like Satguru Kirpal Singh and those who work under His guidance. It is a pity that four thousand million of rupees are spent daily on the maintenance of armed forces and preparations of war by different nations. The hard-earned money of innocent men and women who do not want war is being squandered on preparations of war. This money would go a long war to remove poverty in the world. The crying need of the hour is to change our values of life that make us cringe before wealth and influence. We run after ministers and M.P’s. We should bow our head to Saints and Sadhus Who unite man with man, propagate Love and Unity and not to politicians and party bosses who divide and sow the seeds of discord. With these words I present my book ‘One World, One Government,’ with all Love and reverence to Sant Kirpal Singh Ji Maharaj.

Sri Gulzarilal Nanda said:

First of all I bow to Satguru Kirpal Singh Ji Maharaj in all reverence and Love and offer my felicitations to you all who have come here from India and abroad to participate in this function. One find here a unique atmosphere of peace and quiet, of ineffable bliss, which is not to be found elsewhere. The Living Master, Satguru Kirpal Singh has given you the rare treasures of Inner Peace and Stillness, that is why there is so much peace and quiet here. I feel the uplifting radiation of atmosphere myself. What the Satguru has gained at the end of a long and arduous search and Sadhana, Spiritual Practices, He is giving freely to both in the East and in the West and therefore I feel that it is most essential that on this auspicious occasion of the 81^st birthday anniversary of Satguru Kirpal Singh Ji we should all lift our hands in prayer to the Almighty that this Powerful Pole of Light should remain with us for long long years to light up our path and to illuminate our hearts and minds and the world should continue to benefit from His largesse.

Continuing Sri Nanda said:

There was no dearth of preaching but the question was, had it brought any change in the life of the people? The great importance of Satguru Kirpal Singh’s work was that He changed the lives of all who came to Him by giving them first-hand of contact with Reality. It is a great work but that is not enough. We need many more Saints of His calibre and competence. There are millions of sadhus in India – most of them are mendicants and not Sadhus. The pseudo sadhus should not be allowed to flourish and Real Sadhus should be honoured and their advice sought and followed by those who are responsible for the welfare of the people. The root cause of all our problems is the sad decline in the national character in all spheres of life. We have built new dams, new factories, new buildings and roads but we have not done anything in the direction of man-making. That is the task of the True Sadhus like Sant Kirpal Singh Ji Maharaj.

Yogi Bhajan said:

I have to give you only this message from the Guru: Have faith in humanity and love all mankind. Where there is faith there is Love; where there is Love there is peace; where there is peace there is God. Today I would appeal to you to leave at least one evil – I am myself full of evils, so I say to myself as well as to you all – be truthful. Truth is the cementing force that unites. Hazur Sant Kirpal Singh Ji and all Who came before Him, Their mission was Unity. For that is most essential to forgive and forget, forgive all those who have done any wrong to you.

Raja Mahendra Pratap referred to the talk of ending poverty which was the slogan of the day and said that before we talk of ending poverty in India we should start from our own city of Delhi. Let us all the Sadhus and Saints here jointly make efforts to raise the morals standard of the citizens of the metropolis, to see that there are no bad men here. The rich men should all see to it that in this city of Delhi, none should remain without food or clothes. Raja Mahendra Pratap warned the rich that after the princes and big landlord it was now their turn to go if they did not wake up in time.

Sardar Swaran Singh, foreign minister, who had made a dash from the airport on arrival from Bhutan to participate in the conference on the last day – since it was the birthday of Satguru Kirpal Singh Ji – speaking on Unity said:

Unity of Man is a theme about which there cannot be any difference of opinion. But in spite of that, the very fact that a conference of this nature had to be organised does point out to the harsh reality that the type of Unity which is the objective before this gathering does not prevail today. Whereas at the religious plane, one could say that the tension between man and man which somehow or the other gripped humanity during the centuries prior to the twentieth century have by and large subsided, there may be occasional outburst but on the whole, religion does not appear today to be the divisive force between man and man. Still there are other forces which are the sources of tension between man and man, and unless these are conquered and overcome, the objectives which are before this gathering under the presidency of His Holiness Sant Kirpal Singh cannot be realised.

Now what are those matters? The basic thing is that as long as exploitation by any individual or group or countries exist, there cannot be Real Unity between man and man. This exploitation can take many forms but basically, anything to which an individual is entitled, whether it is wage for which he actually performs, or whether it is the right to the utilisation of the advantages of sciences and technology or of natural resources – and these are exploited to the detriment of those to whom they belong and to which those people are entitled –, this exploitation will continue to be a source of tension. There is one other very serious source of tension between man and man and this is the continuance unfortunately in certain parts of what could be described as domination of certain racial groups over the other racial groups.

We have therefore to conquer these aspects and to recapture the spirit which would unite the people. These differences have taken up not on the basis of any ideology, not even is there any pretension that this is meant in the long range to improve the lot of those people, but it is sheer use of brute force and authority in order to subjugate the people and in order to suppress their natural aspirations and their natural desire to be the owners of their countries or the owners of their civilisation and their resources. Those aspects which instead of highlighting the essential Unity of all religions, contribute to the perpetuation of divisive force. It is, however a hopeful sign that the overwhelming majority of people in the world, belonging to all races, belonging to all continents, have raised their voice to end the remnant of these divisive forces, whether they are based on colonialism, racism or apartheid.

Similarly, the exploitation of the natural resources of any part of the world by the communities which, from the point of view of industrial development and growth are in a position to exploit those resources to the detriment of the people in those countries, is another source of tension and that has to be got over. In a sense, today, science and technology is so developed that we can produce enough food, we can produce enough clothing, and we can produce enough goods to go around and to serve entire universe. The continuance of classes which are affluent and which have goods and service far more than their legitimate requirements and, on the other hand, there are millions and millions of people who are still suffering under grinding poverty has created differences for removal of this distinction and to this difference between affluent society and the poor sections of the community in different parts of the world, which is another divisive force, the spiritual leaders, most of whom are present here, should give their earnest thought. I should like to by saying that to achieve Unity of Man, it is necessary that these big differences be removed.

If there is any part of the world which remain under subjugation, there cannot be Unity of Man. And I would plea that apart from the Spiritual Fields, where it is also necessary – that in these fields the exploitation should end. The continuance of racism, the continuance of the division between the affluent and the poor, the continuance of the exploitation by pretending that any group or people can be superior to others these are the factors which should receive earnest attention, and I hope that this gathering will carry the message that this exploitative state of affairs should end so that the Real Spirit of Unity – for which the Torch Bearer is the Great General, Sant Kirpal Singh, Who in spite of His years is trying to kindle the flame and spread it all the world over should, with His prayer and His persuasion, bear fruit.

Sri A.J. Srivastava, chairman of the steering committee read out a brief report on the conference and also put before the house the resolutions drafted by the steering committee for approval. The main points of his speech are given below.

Attendance, over 400 delegates from all parts of the world, covering all six continents, and 2000 from all over India have participated in the deliberation. Attendance at the public sessions averaged 50,000.

Essay contest. With a view to arousing consciousness among the youth of the world, essays on Unity of Man were invited in English, French, Hindi, and Urdu, either in prose or poetry. About 300 essays were received. The standard attained was high, and many papers were thought-provoking. The results of the contest are:

First Prize – Sri J.J. Karam, New Delhi, for his essay written in English prose. The writer has attempted to analyse the various problems from different angles.

Second Prize – Dr John Haywood Lovelace, San Jose, USA, for an excellent poem in English which is very moving.

Third Prize – Kumari Saroj Kumari, Delhi, for her very comprehensive and thought-provoking essay in Hindi prose.

Two consolation prizes have also been awarded. One for the best essay in Urdu prose and the other for another good essay in English prose.