Address At The National Conference On 'religion, Spirituality And Education In The Challenging Globalized World' Mysore

Evolution of Enlightened Citizens;

"Past meets the present;  
and creates the future"

I am delighted to participate in the National Conference on "Religion, Spirituality and Education in the Challenging Globalized World" being organized on the occasion of Diamond Jubilee Celebrations of St. Philomena's College. I am very happy that this Conference is bringing together thinkers from different fields to discuss the spiritual and educational challenges relevant to the present ambience in our planet. My greetings to all the participants of this symposium. I would like to discuss with you on the topic "Evolution of Enlightened Citizens".

Unity of Minds

I would like to share with you friends, an experience when I visited in the year 2003 one of the Indian states, Arunachal Pradesh, I visited a Buddhist monastry at Tawang 3500 m. altitude. I stayed and spent some time nearly for a day. I observed a unique situation in all the villages nearby where young and experienced were all radiating happiness in spite of severe winter environment. Then I visited the 400 years old Twang monastery itself and there also I saw monks of all age groups in a state of serenity. I was asking myself what is the unique feature of Twang and surrounding villages which makes people and monks to be at peace with themselves. When the time came, I asked the Chief Monk, how in Tawang villages and monastry I am experiencing peace and happiness being radiated by everyone. There was a pause, the chief monk smiled. He said, "You are the President of India. You will be knowing all about us and the whole nation. Again I said, "it is very important for me, you please give me your thoughtful analysis".

There was a beautiful golden image of Lord Buddha radiating smile and peace. The Chief Monk assembled nearby all his nearly 100 young and experienced monks. The Chief Monk and myself were sitting amidst them. The Chief Monk gave a short discourse, which I would like to share with you. Chief Monk said, "In the present world, we have a problem of distrust, unhappiness transforming into violence. This monastery spreads: when you "Remove I and Me from your mind, you will eliminate ego; if you get rid of ego, hatred towards fellow human beings will vanish; if the hatred goes out of our mind, the violence in thinking and action will disappear; if violence in our mind is taken away, peace springs in human minds. Then peace and peace and peace alone will blossom in the society".

In my search for evolving a peaceful and prosperous society, I got part answer. My search for real truth continues. I saw an ancient Christian monastery in Bulgaria where I had a discussion with highly experienced monks on the message of Tawang. The Monk added that forgiveness is also the foundation of good life. Similarly in the birth place of Swami Vivekanand I explained the Tawang experience to the disciples and they too felt the Tawang experience indeed is beautiful and they added "giving trait" will add to peace and happiness. Then I visited Ajmeer Sharif where I participated in the Friday Namaz. Here, the Sufi expert told me that Almighty's creation the man has been challenged with another powerful creation of Shaitan. Only good deeds lead to good thinking, good thinking results into actions radiating love as commanded by Almighty. The above as well as my interaction with various other spiritual personalities convinces me that unity of mind is achievable. Now, I would like to discuss about Human evolution.

Human evolution

Life originated in this globe about 600 million years ago and continental drift occurred 200 million years ago making our one land into five continents. Mammals evolved 140 million years ago, Hominid (human type) evolved 26 million years ago but the modern man only some 200,000 years ago. That too he emigrated and colonized the rest of the world only since 50,000 years. Spoken language was some 10,000 years old while written only a few thousand years old. All the phenomenal progress of Man was thus only within this short span of 400 -200 generations (i.e., 10,000 -5,000 years). With the evolution of human being, many advances in science and technology have been made by him for progressively improving the quality of life. At the same time, from the origin until now, society has always been at war within and between groups and has generated two world wars. Recently, two more wars had also been triggered. Presently, terrorism and low intensity warfare are affecting many parts of the world. Distrust among nations and above all instability in human action is increasing.

Evolution of enlightened citizenship

I would like to put forth to this intellectual gathering, a model for evolving a happy, prosperous and peaceful society in our planet, which I call as "Evolution of Enlightened Citizen". How do we create such an enlightened society, which has three components (a) Education with value system (b) Religion transforming into spirituality and (c) Economic development for societal transformation? Let us discuss.

(a) Education with value system:

There is a visualization for three dimensional approach for evolution of enlightened citizens. The education with value system has to be so designed that the righteousness in the heart is developed in the young minds. That should be the mission of education. The prime learning environment is five to seventeen years' of age. This reminds me the echo from a great teacher's saying, "give me a child for seven years. Afterwards, let the God or devil take the child. They cannot change the child." This indicates the power of great teachers. Parents and teachers must inculcate moral leadership amongst children which involves two aspects. First it requires the ability to have compelling and powerful dreams or visions of human betterment. Secondly, moral leadership requires a disposition to do the right thing and influence others also to do the right thing. During this period, it is essential to elevate the young minds through a moral science class at least one hour per week which will inspire them to love humanity which will be a big step towards the evolution of a conflict free society. Such enlightened righteous individuals will definitely promote peace and harmony in the planet.

I would like to refer a hymn I heard in a spiritual place on the importance of righteousness.

Righteousness

Where there is righteousness in the heart 
There is beauty in the character. 
When there is beauty in the character, 
There is harmony in the home. 
When there is harmony in the home. 
There is an order in the nation. 
When there is order in the nation, 
There is peace in the world.

Thus, we can see that the seeds of peace in the world have their origin in the righteousness in the heart of every individual.

Historically throughout the world, need has been discussed to establish a bridge among religions. I am of the view spiritual components of all religions can be the unifying factor. Now, I would like to share an experience that I have witnessed regarding religion transforming into a dynamic spiritual force.

(b) Religion Transforming into Spirituality: Universal Mind

I would like to recall an incident which happened four decades ago. Prof Vikram Sarabhai is the visionary of space programme in India. Prof Vikram Sarabhai was looking for a site to establish space research station in the equatorial region. Thumba in South India was selected from many sites by the scientific community for space research. When Prof Vikram Sarabhai visited Thumba, the locality had series of villages and thousands of fishermen folk were living in that area. It also had a beautiful ancient church, St Mary Magdalene Church, Pallithura and a Bishop's House. Prof Vikram Sarabhai met many politicians and bureaucrats to get the place for the work of space science research. It did not move further because the nature of the place. He was asked to see the Bishop of Trivandrum, at that time in 1962, Rev Father Dr Peter Bernard Pereira. It was a Saturday when Prof Vikram Sarabhai met the Bishop. The Bishop smiled and asked him to meet him the next day, i.e. Sunday. In the morning after the Church Service, the Bishop told the congregation, "My children, I have a famous scientist with me who wants our church and the place I live for the work of space science research. Dear children, science seeks truth by reasoning. In one way, science and spiritualism seek the same divine blessings for doing good for the people. My children, can we give the God's abode for a scientific mission?" There was a chorus of 'Amen' from the congregation and the whole church reverberated. Subsequently, the big event took place in 1962. Rev Dr Peter Bernard Pereira, the Bishop of Trivandrum, took the noble decision to dedicate the church in recognition of the national goal for the establishment of the Indian Space Research Organisation at Pallithura, Thumba. That was the church where we had our design centre, started rocket assembly and the Bishop's house was our scientists' place. Later, the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) led to the establishment of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) and multiple space centres throughout the country.

When I think of this event, I can see how enlightened spiritual and scientific leaders, all converge towards giving reverence to the human life. New church and new schools were established in record time. Of course the birth of TERLS and then VSSC gave the country the capability for launch vehicles, spacecrafts and applications. Today, among us, Prof Vikram Sarabhai is not there, Rev Dr Peter Bernard Pereira is not there, but those who are responsible for creation and make the flower blossom will themselves be a different kind of a flower as described in the Bhagwat Gita: "See the flower, how generously it distributes perfume and honey. It gives to all, gives freely of its love. When its work is done, it falls away quietly. Try to be like the flower, unassuming despite all its qualities". What a beautiful message for all generation of this nation, on integration of minds and universal mind.

Let me now discuss with you the third component of the enlightened society for transforming developing nations into developed nations through achieving economic prosperity, so that large societal imbalances can be removed.

(c) Transforming our nation into an economically developed nation

In our country, we have a population of over one billion people of which 220 million are still living below the poverty line. They need education, they need habitat, they need health care, and creation of employment potential. To meet their needs we have the second vision of transforming India into a developed nation by the year 2020. We have identified five areas where India has a core competence for integrated action:

(1) Agriculture and food processing 
(2) Education and Healthcare 
(3) Information and Communication Technology

(4) Infrastructure development such as power, transportation, communication and including Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) network and

(5) Self reliance in critical technologies. These five areas are closely inter-related and if implemented in a coordinated way, will lead to food, and economic security, and national security. Through a national vision, using the core-competence of individual states and partnership of knowledge institutions, it will definitely be possible, to transform a developing state into a developed state as planned.

Since over 70% of our population live in villages, there is an urgency for all of us to improve the conditions of rural life through better physical connectivity, electronic connectivity, knowledge connectivity, which together will lead to comprehensive economic connectivity. For this, employment generation, particularly in the rural areas is very essential. This necessitates spreading the development process to the rural sector.

India has nucleated programme called PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) involving a geographically co-located clusters of multiple villages with four connectivities namely physical, electronic and knowledge leading to economic connectivity. India with its six hundred thousand villages needs to have 7,000 PURAs. The specific needs of the PURA for Mysore region can be worked out by the students and faculty members of St. Philomena's College based on terrain and socio-economic conditions prevailing in this District. Each PURA cluster, apart from concentrating on reinforcing agriculture, will emphasize on agro processing, development of rural craftsmanship, dairy, silk production and fishing in those nations having coast lines, so that the non-farm revenue for the rural sector is enhanced, based on the competitive advantage of the region.

It is also essential that the rural economy should be driven by renewable energies such as solar, wind, bio-fuel and conversion of municipal waste into power. With this approach, the core competencies in the rural sector would be harnessed for sustainable development of the economy as a whole.

PURA envisages an integrated development plan with employment generation as the focus, driven by provision of the habitat, healthcare, education, skill development, physical and electronic connectivity and marketing in an integrated way for a cluster of villages with critical mass. We have five operational PURAs in the country such as Periyar PURA, Byrraju PURA, Loni PURA, Chitrakoot PURA and Sakthi PURA. Let me discuss the one operational PURA complex as an illustration.

Periyar PURA (Tamil Nadu): Periyar PURA complex pioneered by Periyar Maniammai College of Technology for Women, Vallam, Tanjore is functioning near Vallam having a cluster of over 65 villages in Tamilnadu which involves a population of 1 lakh. This PURA complex has all the three connectivities - physical, electronic and knowledge - leading to economic connectivity. The center of activity emanates from the women engineering college that provides the electronic and knowledge connectivity. Periyar PURA has health care centers, primary to post graduate level education and vocational training centers. This has resulted in large-scale employment generation and creation of number of entrepreneurs with the active support of 850 self-help groups. Two hundreds acres of waste land has been developed into a cultivable land with innovative water management schemes such as contour ponds and water sheds for storing and irrigating the fields. All the villagers are busy in cultivation, planting Jatropha, herbal and medicinal plants, power generation using bio-mass, food processing and above all running marketing centre. This model has emanated independent of any government initiative. The committed leadership has been provided by the engineering institution. Recently, 5 of Periyar PURA villages are connected through Wi-MAX Wireless and having minimum 4 mbps connectivity with the Periyar PURA nodal centre. It provides a sustainable economic development in that region.

Export Products from PURA Clusters: The members of Periyar PURA in Vallam have selected 40 products out of 123 which will be produced by Periyar PURA with the support of an Export Promotion Organization. They displayed these products in an exhibition at New Delhi during February 2007 with remarkable success; the PURA members now propose to exhibit their products once again in Japan during June 2007. The feedback from each exhibition will be used to improve the quality and attributes of the product so that the customer satisfaction is enhanced. Technical Consultancy support for improving the product is being provided by academic institutions like Periyar Maniammai College of Engineering for Women. This type of localized support centre ensures creation and faster delivery of PURA products to acceptable national and international standards, by our craftsman and innovators in rural areas.

I would recommend the under graduate and post-graduate students of St. Philomena's College to take up a study for the implementation of PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) as a business proposition in the cluster villages located around Mysore. The college can assign a three month project work for groups of students to come up with a detailed project report and implementation plan for the PURA and all the PURA components in consultation with the State Government and District Authorities. This will be an important societal mission for St. Philomena's College during their Diamond Jubilee Year.

The three dimensional approach of providing value based education, religion transforming into spiritual force and economic development reaching all the people will have to be enabled to lead to evolution of a prosperous, happy and peaceful society by all nations. Unity of minds is a pre-requisite for such a society.

Conclusion

India is conscious that GDP alone does not fully reflect in the quality of life of a large number of people, particularly in rural areas and even in urban areas. For a comprehensive and inclusive approach to a measure of true socio-economic development, we have evolved what is called a "National Prosperity Index (NPI)" which is a summation of

(a) annual growth rate of GDP; plus 
(b) improvement in quality of life of the people, particularly those living below the poverty line plus 
(c) the adoption of a value system derived from our civilizational heritage in every walk of life.

It may be noted that the concept of National Prosperity Index includes the factor of the International Human Development Index. That is NPI=a+b+c. Particularly, 'b' is a function of availability of housing, good water, nutrition, proper sanitation, quality education, quality healthcare and employment potential. 'c' is a function of promoting the joint family system, creation of a spirit of working together, leading a righteous way of life, removing social inequities, and above all promoting a conflict free, harmonious society. This will be indicated by peace in families and communities, reduction in corruption index, reduction in court cases, elimination of violence against children and women and communal tensions. There should also be progressive reduction in the number of people living below the poverty line leading to its becoming near zero by 2020. All our efforts in improving the national economic performance should be guided by the measured National Prosperity Index of the nation at any point of time.

With these words I inaugurate the National Conference on "Religion, Spirituality and Education in the Challenging Globalized World". My greetings to all the members of St. Philomena's College community on the occasion of their Diamond Jubilee Celebrations and my best wishes for success in their mission of promoting value based education in Mysore.

May God bless you.

Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam