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His Holiness Dalai Lama, Hon'ble Mr. Claes Nobel, Chairman of the World Philosophers Meet. His Holiness Swami Vishveshathirta of Pejawar Muth,
Udipi, Hon'able Shri. Manohar Joshi, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Hon'able Gopinathrao Munde, Hon'able Shri. Sharadraoji Pawar, Former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Hon'able Shri. Pramod Nawalkar, Hon'able
Maulana Dr. Wahidudin Khan, Hon'able Shri. Shashikant Sutar, Hon'able Shri. Sureshbhai Kalmadi, Hon'able Vice-Chancellor of Pune University, Dr. Vasantrao Gowarika, Hon'able Dr. R. A. Mashelkar, Hon'able Mayor of
Pune City Kamaltai Vyavahare, Hon. Co-Chairman Mr. M. A. Parthasarati, most respected Prof. Surendra Barlingay, other dignitaries on the dias, Religious Heads, Scientists, Philosophers, and my Dear Brothers and
Sisters, who have gathered here today from all over the world for this historic "World Philosophers Meet" - "A Parliament of Science, Religion and Philosophy" Organised to commemorate 700th
Anniversary of Sanjeevan Samadhi of the great Philosopher Saint Shri Jnaneshwara of India.
On behalf of the organisers, - Indian Council of Philosophic Research, Indian Philosophical Congress, Maharashtra Tatwajnana Parishad, Akhil
Bharatia Darshan Parishad, Afro-Asian Philosophical Conference, International Federation of Societies of Philosphers and MAEER's Maharashtra Institute of Technology Pune, I welcome you all in this land of great king
Chhatrapati Shivaji and Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
It fills our heart with pleasure and pride to Welcome one and all present here on this pleasant morning of Sunday, 24th November, 1996. We
consider it as our good fortune that MAEER' s M.I.T., Pune has been given this opportunity to organise such an important historic epoch making event of the century on this beautiful campus of our institute.
Most probably, for the first time, the scientific community with a passion for religion, men of religion with scientific vision and wellknown
philosophers of the world along with educationists, thinkers, academicians and scholars from various fields have and for a noble cause i. e. the welfare and happiness of the entire humanity on this beautiful planet
of Earth.
This "Parliament of Science, religion and Philosophy reminds us about the "Parliament of Religions" held in Chicago in 1893 where
the great noble son of India, Swami Vivekananda delivered his most "Historic Speech" wherein, he spoke about "How all religions are true and equal and all of them lead to "Thee", the
ULTIMATE REALITY / ULTIMATE STATE OF MATTER, the consciousness, the Brahma, the cosmos divine, the creator, the lord or the God. Then also he spoke about the Hindu or the Indian Vedic Religion as a way of living a
happy and contented life and letting others also live happily.
Friends, you will be surprised to know that this great philosopher Saint Jnaneshwara, was one of the great visionaries and a supreme human being
with a scientific outlook towards every thing, with an innate passion for human welfare. He starts his first stanza of "Jnaneshwari" with
wherein he says that we should first know and try to understand the ultimate state of
matter, the Ultimate Reality, and further he says that we should understand firs the self consciousness or the true nature of soul.
Here Saint Jnaneshwara says that the most divine and pious thing in the world is the "Pure
Intelligence", - "Absolute True Knowledge".
Here, it is very fascinating to note that Saint Jnaneshwara speaks about the town planning, ecology and environmental science.
Further very emphatically and assertively he says in the following shloka that one must have
understanding of science if one is to achieve the real knowledge with wisdom.
In this verse Saint Jnaneshwara gives the definition of science and true knowledge. He says
that the understanding or knowledge about all the things external to the soul or a body of soul is science and the correct understanding of the "SELF", the "SOUL" or "SELF
CONSCIOUSNESS" is true knowledge. He further states that those people who think that the knowledge or information or understanding of everything external to the soul itself is the true
knowledge, then it is their ignorance.
He very positively says that Sun is steady and movement of Sun from the east to the west in the sky is an illusion. He said this 700 years back.
He propounded the law of nature when he says that creation and destruction are part of a cycle.
The most important thing about Saint Jnaneshwara's philosophy is that he always thinks and
prays for the welfare and happiness of the whole humanity and all the creature on this planet earth. He thinks beyond caste, creed and religion and boundaries of the nation in his prayer,
called "PASAYADAN", made at the end of "Jnaneshwari".
Every nation has a national anthem, likewise then possibly PASAYADAN written by Saint
Jnaneshwara could be the Universal Anthem because it is really beyond any caste, creed or religion and boundaries of any nation.
Friends, you are all aware of the fact of life today that there is much more chaos,
confusion, terrorism, bloodshed and massacre taking place all over the world in the name of the caste, creed, religion or boundary of a nation or for some trifle matters or for some
selfish materialistic gains than witnessed ever before.
On the one side we have the most mind boggling scientific and technological / industrial
developments like artificial intelligence, Internet robotics and what not due to the rapid development in electronics and computers. This has really made the world look like one global
village however minds and hearts have drifted far off.
Even though, we claim ourselves to be highly educated and cultured because of the modern
education system specially devised by great scientists, educationists and thinkers and academicians of the world however, it has not really contributed to minimise the ego, lust,
greed, jealousy, hatred and anger, instead it has resulted in making the people more self-centred, egoistic, greedy for power and wealth. The younger generation is loosing faith
and belief in their past ideals, their own ethos, culture and traditions, which have withstood the scrutiny of time and are outcome of the experiences of several generations.
Friends, it is true that we are living in a world that Dickens called "Hard Times".
"Pressures and tensions which are concomitant to economic growth are eroding the value system that was integral to our ethos. We find ourselves drawn towards the old
values which are contained in our epics and scriptures. Some of us relatively unfettered by the present day materialism, try to discover our panacea in their time
honoured aphorisms, but without falling victim to the backward-looking pull of revivalism" .
The value system is eroding very fast. The family system is disintegrating and causing the
ruin of millions of people all over the world. Words like true love, morality, faith, belief, reverence, respect for teachers and elders, mutual trust are loosing their meaning and
significance. Certainly, we all do feel concerned and would like to think and analyse where we have gone wrong and what we are heading for!
We have been ruthlessly destroying the nature thereby creating a horrifying ecological
imbalance. It is true that the nature does try always to establish a balance again, however if it exceeds a certain limit then it will be an irreversible process and may jeopardise the human race.
We have not to forget that the rule of law of any nation must run close to the rule of
life of the people, the rule of life of the people must run close to the rule of the mother nature, because the rule if the mother nature is the rule of cosmos, i. e. Creator, the
Brahman, Supreme power or the life force called as Consciousness which keeps the life on this universe in balance.
We believe that Union of Science and Religion, in the true sense of the word, alone will bring peace and harmony to the mankind.
Further we believe that the saints, sages, seers and the scientists of the world have always
a common aim and a common goal, that is the welfare and happiness of the whole humanity. These intellectuals with a great vision always try to think, work and invent or discover the
very basic principles and laws of nature and life. A scientist discovers the atomic structure, a law like E = mc2 or law of gravitation and gives it in the form of formulae of physics or a
mathematical equation which reveal nothing but laws of nature and the life, while the saints who are also equally intelligent and capable visionaries, by their extraordinary power or sense
of perception and intuition narrate the laws and principles of nature and life, may be not in the form of equations and formulae of mathematics or physics, but in the form of poetic lucid language.
If one thinks and applies one's mind fully we find that the great saints or scientists have
always helped to guide the destiny of human race and worked for its welfare.
- (Thomas Hardy)
The main object of science is not to take the men into the sky and provide them materialistic
comforts only but rather it is to make them live happy and contented life.
Unfortunately, at present there is little interaction between the scientific community and the
men of religion and philosophers due to one reason or the other, even though they still continue to have the same common goal of human welfare.
We feel that now it is high time that all the like minded people from science, religion,
philosophy, education, social and political areas who have passion for human welfare must come together and deliberate over the ills affecting the society and take some remedial measures including evolving some
UNIVERSAL EDUCATION SYSTEM which will help to build the holistic society, based on Earth Ethics, Earth Care, Earth Unity, and the philosophy of "World as one family".
I would like to quote the words of Herbert Spencer. "No one can be perfectly free till
all are free, no one can be perfectly moral till all are moral; no one can be perfectly happy till all are happy".
To all my brothers and sisters who have gathered here I bow down in the name of humanity,
in the name of all the religions of the world, in the name of the Creator and Pray to this galaxy of scientists, thinkers, men of religion, scholars and philosophers to interact, think,
analyse, suggest some steps and evolve some new system of education and training which will ultimately help in understanding that "Humanity is the only true religion".
Once again, I humbly state that this World Philosophers Meet or A Parliament of
Science, Religion and Philosophy is organised in the Quest of Human Spirit, in the Quest of Universal Harmony and Universal Peace.
We hope and feel confident that the deliberations and discussions here will certainly help to
march on reach towards the noble cause of peace within and peace on this planet of ours "THE MOTHER EARTH" !
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