                       The Remodeling of our Destiny
    Presidential Address delivered at the Inaguaral Session of the World
        Conference on Unity of Man held February 1974 in Delhi India
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A mystic bond of brotherhood makes all men one. - THOMAS CARLYLE
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DEAR BROTHERS AND SISTERS: I am happy to greet you all, who have gathered
here from all over the world. In this momentous session we have to explore
and find out ways and means to cement and strengthen the solidarity of
mankind. Nations, like individuals, are swayed by passions, prides and
prejudices which create chasms in the real social order which are very
often difficult to span. We are living in an age of decadence, when moral
and spiritual values are at their lowest ebb. With all these drawbacks and
the numerous divisive tendencies, there is still a ray of hope of
regeneration and reorientation. This very hope has brought us together. I
thank you all for the loving response to the call for remodeling of our
destiny to secure a lasting peace.

It is said that "East is East and West is West and never the twain shall
meet." That may have been true at one time or another, or for the author of
the dictum, Rudyard Kipling; but certainly it carries no weight with men of
God in the present scientific age, when distance and space are fast losing
their significance, and efforts are being made to establish interplanetary
contacts. The various countries of the world are just like chambers in the
House of God, housing different nations. Distinguished from one another by
geographic, climatic and historical conditions, facial contours and
complexions, languages and dialects, diet and apparel and modes of worship,
all people conditioned by these divergent factors form the great organic
whole called humanity.

With all these seeming differences and distinctions of color, creed, and
caste, and these diversities in his modes of living and thinking, man
essentially and basically remains man in outer appearance and inner
make-up. Unity already exists in the human form, since each one is born the
same way with the same outer and inner construction, and each one has a
soul which is of the same essence as that of God. We are drops of the Ocean
of All Consciousness, Whom we worship as the same God, calling Him by
different names. Holy men say that the human body is the true temple of
God, and that He resides in the temple made by Him in the womb of the
mother, and not in temples made by human hands, and that the human form
provides us with a golden opportunity to realize Him.

Man has three aspects: physical body, intellect, and a conscious entity. He
has progressed physically, intellectually and mechanically; but despite
this, he is unhappy and has not developed spiritually. He has developed his
head and not his heart, and his scientific knowledge is misdirected to
fiendish malevolence. It has created a spiritual vacuum.

We stand in the middle of a two-fold crisis: a state cult of militarism,
euphemistically called "patriotism" on one hand, and an apathy to spiritual
development through knowledge of the True Self on the other. In the absence
of any positive thinking on both these levels we are morally regressing,
and in this sad predicament we cannot have lasting peace. Guru Nanak
therefore prayed, "O God, the world is aflame and has passed beyond our
care. Save it by the means You consider best."

The problem before us is how to bring about a change in man's heart and
effect his inner conversion so that he can see truly and clearly and learn
to discriminate between truth and untruth. Since this lies beyond the scope
of body and intellect, it can only come about through an inward
illumination of divine wisdom in the sanctuary of the soul. This is the
individual aspect of the matter. We also have to forge abiding bonds of
kinship among the nations of the world so they will treat each other with
genuine courtesy based on inward love and friendliness, and seek the
welfare of all members of the human family, transcending their political
ideologies which create rivalries and international tensions.

During my last foreign tour I was asked on television in the United States,
"How can peace be cemented?" I told them, "Peace can be cemented only when
men rise above 'isms' and Presidents and Kings rise above countries."

To remain in any "ism" is a blessing, if we keep in mind the ideal for
which we have joined it and rise into universalism; but if we stick
obdurately to the "ism," the result is again narrow-mindedness and
selfishness. Similarly, if Kings nourish their gardens well and keep them
blooming in all respects, they should let all other countries bloom the
same way and further the cause of human happiness; otherwise there will be
conflicts and wars. It has been our endeavor of late to find a common forum
and meeting ground where such momentous issues could be discussed
dispassionatelyby separating the non-essentials from essentials and
eliminating differences, in order to find unity in diverse thinking and
bring abiding peace on earth; complete concord and amity in all spheres of
our life.

In order to understand this worldwide movement in which we are
participating today, it is necessary to review its background. Religious
contacts between East and West were established as far back as 1893, when
the patriot-saint Vivekananda went out with the message of the Upanishads
and Gita and represented India at the Chicago Parliament of Religions. His
life and living showed a practical way to demonstrate the essential unity
of all religions, to proclaim the message of which he founded a chain of
missions in the name of his Master, Paramhansa Ramakrishna. Ten years
later, in 1903, another young savant, Swami Ram Tirath, presented the
philosophy of Vedanta to the West in such a lucid manner that he was hailed
as a "Living Christ."

Thus the way was paved for the next great step, the spread of spirituality
or mysticismthe bedrock of every religion. In its pure essence, this
implies the awakening of man to a consciousness at once supra-sensible and
supra-mentalan immediate revelation. All mystics, Eastern and Western,
have believed in the possibility of direct communion with the Spirit and
Power of God through love and contemplation, without the aid of reason and
logic. It puts man on the road to inwardness (not to be confused with
escapism), with an active living morality as the essential prerequisite.
This is the religion of spirit, or the science of the soul, and through it
an individual finds his proper relation to the universe by establishing
contact with God through His expression, the power called Naam, Shabd,
Kalma or Word, which is the Maker, permeating and controlling all creation.
The relationship with this power is achieved by developing reverence for
life at all levels of existence without distinguishing between high and
humble  including man, bird, beast, and the lower species. The non-human
forms are the younger members of the family of God.

This idea of the sanctity of life is a living religion of love in the
innermost part of our being. True theism cannot be reasoned out
intellectually or felt on the level of emotions; it proceeds from true
knowledge, which is an action of the soul in perfect harmony beyond the
senses. This is what is called "spirituality"the contact of the soul with
the Oversouland it is achieved by rising above body consciousness through
practical self-analysis, a demonstration of which can be given by an adept
in the process. We call it Para Vidya (the Knowledge of the Beyond) because
it lies beyond our sensory perceptions.

This science of the soul is not something new; it is the most ancient
teaching of all. The way back to God is of God's own make and stands on its
own, without the necessity of scriptural support to uphold its
authenticity. But unmistakable references in the scriptures of all
religions from the earliest times to the present day bear witness to the
Unmanifest Reality in its primordial form of Light and Sound.

In the present age, saints like Kabir and Guru Nanak revived the ancient
teachings of the sages of the past. In more recent times the torch was kept
alive by their successors until the spiritual mantle came to hallow the
personality of Baba Sawan Singh Ji, who during his long ministry of 45
years (1903-1948) gave it the widest distribution possible. In 1911 he
began the work of revealing the Gospel of Love, Light and Life to the
Western world as well.

Ruhani Satsang was founded in 1948 and dedicated to the task of imparting
purely spiritual instruction, shorn of all ritual and ceremony and free
from embellishment and symbol, to all classes of humanity. Followers of
different faiths, beliefs, and creeds meet at Sawan Ashramwhich became its
permanent center in 1951and address large masses of people coming from
different walks of life, who are eager to learn and understand the
elemental truths which form the quintessence of all sacred scriptures. The
discourses converge on the common theme of establishing direct touch with
Reality, and attempts are made to reproduce and correlate, in simple
understandable language, the sayings of sages and seers of all times.
Presently this is being spread in 209 centers all over the world which have
helped considerably to remove to some extent artificial barriers of race,
language, and religion, and brought many kinds of human beings to worship
the Nameless Being with so many names.

By the grace of God, a new field unexpectedly opened up in 1957 when Muni
Sushil Kumar Ji sponsored a Conference of World Religions with the idea of
forming a World Fellowship of Religions. As a result of further
deliberations there did come into being a Fellowship including most of the
faiths of the world, and I was elected its President. Three World tours
were undertaken and four World Religions Conferences were organized in
India, besides regional conferences in other countries. The purpose was to
disseminate the idea of universal fellowship among people professing
different faiths and beliefs, and it brought about broader and better
understanding and a sense of mutual trust and confidence at the top level
among the representatives of the various religions.

But while the religious leaders were coming closer, a danger was developing
among the followers. Instead of making religion a cementing force, they
made it an instrument to serve their vested interests and began to form
communal groupings bearing the labels associated with their
"isms"fortifying them with artificial walls of hatred and distrust. One
wonders how a person professing religion, which is a link between man and
God, can run thc risk of forgetting that he is a man born with the same
privileges from God as those he hates, and that he is a conscious entity
which is a drop of the Ocean of All Consciousness.

To combat this danger of religious chauvinism, it was thought necessary to
start the work of regeneration from the roots. Man-making must take
precedence. This can only be done by inculcating in people generally the
humanistic ideals of unselfish love and selfless service, with special
emphasis on man service, land service and animal service (animals being our
younger brothers and sisters in the family of God). This idea took concrete
shape in 1969 with the decision to set up Man-Making Centers or Manav
Kendras here in India and abroad.

In India a Man Center has been started at Dehra Dun at the foot of the
Shivalik Range of the Himalayas. It has set up a hospital, a home for
indigent elderly people, and a school for the children of poor families in
the area. A provision for farming and cattle-raising on modern scientific
lines is a part of the project. Eventually we hope to see a university,
fully equipped with the original scriptural texts of the religions of the
world, so that comparative studies of the truths contained therein may be
undertaken; and a language school to overcome linguistic difficulties.

This convention aims to unite all mankind on the common ground of service
to fellow human beings and faith in Divine Power, and to accomplish that,
it urges the religious and ethical leadership of the world to shed apathy
and aloofness and assume a more prominent role in human affairs. Such
conferences in the past have been organized at the level of religions, and
consequently have not been able to achieve integration in the required
measure. A significant feature of this conference is that it is being
organized at the level of man, as envisioned by saints and prophets like
Socrates, Buddha, Mohammed, Christ, Kabir, and Nanak, so that it may lead
to true integration. The challenging task before the religious and
spiritual leaders is to bring about a radical change in the ethical,
educational and economic status of humanity. Economic uplift is essential
because "a hungry man is an angry man" and to talk of God to him is a
mockery.

I am confident that each one of us fully realizes the significance of this
cosmopolitan meeting and will extend his whole-hearted support toward the
fulfillment of its objectives: developing human understanding and heralding
the unity of mankind. Let us pledge ourselves to this task, transcending
all narrow allegiances and commitments, and stand united and resolute until
its ultimate fulfillment.

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