A Special Lecture

I. K. Gujral

AS I was sitting here this morning, I was thinking about this great
event we are presenting to the world today. The world is passing
through very difficult times. Country after country is falling into thepath of terrorist bullets, and we are witnessing a wave of destabilization,
particularly in Asia, that is extending from the Caspian Sea out to thePacific, all the time expanding. Pick up a newspaper any morning andyou can see what I mean. If you picked up a paper this morning you
would have read about what has just happened in Najf (Iraq). How cananyone kill innocent people at prayer in a mosque? I believe one canrecall without difficulty several places and several incidents, until one
gets sick of the display of violence and blood. I think the sponsors fromJapan and India have done the right thing at this moment, to draw theattention of the world to this memorable place that adores the legacy ofNehru, which ultimately is that nonviolence and peace must prevail. I dohope that the voice you raised this morning will attract the world’s attention. World wide there are two competing movements going on. One ofcourse is that of the people promoting violence. While there are the sane
peace-loving people everywhere who are raising their voices of sanity. I
am leaving tomorrow for Greece to attend a meeting of one such groupof people.
This morning is memorable to me for several more reasons. One ofcourse is his Excellency, Mr. Kawada, has brought me a personal letterfrom Mr. Ikeda, for whom we all have very high regard. It was my privilege to receive him when he came here in 1997. In his letter, he recallsthat event and the time when Soka University honored my wife and me,
conferring degrees on us both here and in Tokyo. His words are memorable. He writes with a great deal of sincerity and depth on the needs forpeace and nonviolence. I am requesting our friend Mr. Kawada to takeback to Mr. Ikeda our message that will echo his feelings. We all arewith him in spirit. He is one of the leaders of the world who is revered,
whose voice is listened to with respect. Therefore, I do hope that he willcontinue and persist from now on more than ever before.
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A SPECIAL LECTURE

Mr. Kawada, I have realized from your remarks today how Mr. Ikeda
himself concluded from that auspicious land of the Buddha that peace
institutes must be established. I am glad that one has been set one up in
Japan. In addition, I am glad that you are trying to marry two peace
institutes of great importance. Our very worthy friend, Mr. Nanda, has
just told us in his remarks what Gandhi stood for, and you coming fromthe land where everyday, you hear what Mr. Ikeda stands for. With theGandhi Peace Institutes around the world and the university that you
have in Tokyo, I think we can put our heads and minds together to takefurther this belief and advance this message. I am also delighted Mr.
Kawada that you have given me a book that I would like to show everyone here. This is the Poet’s Star as they call it. The photographs andpoems by none else than Mr. Ikeda himself. I think, the beauty of thisbook lies in three ways. First, I admire the eye of Ikeda, which picks up
the beauty of nature. Second, I want to show my respect and say a wordof appreciation for his sensitive mind that captures his feelings in poetry.
I do not know who translated these poems from Japanese into English,
whether Mr. Ikeda did it himself or somebody else. Nevertheless, whoever did it; they did full justice to it. I was just reading one poem whichis short, and I would like to share it with you. It says:
life is a battle,

struggle,unavoidable.
The only choice we can make iswhether to fight as noble warriors or
as world peace, bereft of moral scruples.
This is the moral and the message of our gathering here this morning.
Mr. Kawada has also brought for me and for all of you, a manuscript ofthe Lotus Sutra. A while ago, he gave me a photocopy rendered in a
beautiful fashion: It intrigued me because it was written in Pali. Thus,
until this translation was given to me, I was wondering what the message in the text would be. There is an exhibition on this Sutra being held
here in Delhi and I hope you will have the opportunity to visit it. The
also the translation (of the text) is given here, it says, “The Sutra depicts
the events in a cosmic world, that transcends ordinary perceptions oftime and space. The Lotus Sutra presents abstract religious pictorial representations of the Sutra, done several centuries ago. This I think should
inspire us.” Therefore, all these things put together, whether it is themessage from the great thinker and leader Mr. Ikeda, or the reproductionof the Sutra, or the contemporary thinking on Gandhi and the Buddha,

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all these put together, I think will receive the attention of all you scholars and thinkers. I hope in the next two days, you will deliberate onthem and issue a message to the world, one that would offer hope, thatwould re-kindle the feelings that we, the inhabitants of planet Earth canlive together only in nonviolence and peace.