Value Creation for Global Change
Talk by Gowri Ramnarayan
27 November 2014
This has been a wonderful opportunity to learn about Soka Gakkai, read about
the founders of the society, its goals and achievements.
Also, thinking about the subject made me reflect, revisit and re-live some experiences. I remembered
our prayers at school, where every morning we chanted:
Buddham saranam gacchami
Dhammam saranam gacchami
Sangam saranam gacchami
My
teacher explained, “When we chant these words, we are not thinking of Gautama
Buddha alone. We invoke buddham –
the light of knowledge, latent within each one of us. We hope that this light
will help us recognize dhammam – the
power of discrimination, to separate right from wrong; do right,
shun wrong. Sangam is crucial to
this process of self-awakening,
because we must seek and bond with the community of wise people. They inspire us, and charge us with life-long resilience to continue the quest.
I guess
my teacher was talking about a quest for
values – on the terrestrial as
well as the spiritual plane – for world peace, as also peace within the self.
It was
with avid interest therefore that I learnt about how, in their pursuit of peace, the founders of Soka
Gakkai created, reclaimed, sustained
and rejuvenated values -- in times
of world war and nuclear holocaust.
To these threats our times have added a greater evil: global terrorism. Our age of
excess has also fostered monstrous
greed, and unprecedented ravaging of
natural resources.
Once destroyed, these resources are gone forever. They cannot be recovered.
Any
endeavour to promote peace and prosperity today has to reckon with two sets of questions.
First,
n
How to overcome
fear?
n
How to foster
physical courage?
n
How to
promote moral strength?
n
How to find
inner tranquillity?
Second, *How to control
consumerism?
* How to prevent
climate change?
*How to
save the environment?
*How not to poison the air, the rivers and
oceans?
*How to stop war? Bomb blasts?
One thing is crystal clear.
Both greed and terrorism are not merely physical threats. They are threats to the spiritual life as well.
Reading
President Daisaku Ikeda dialoguing with farsighted achievers in diverse fields
-- is to join his stimulating, thought-provoking sangam with world leaders
and public intellectuals. In these
talks Mr Ikeda’s own comments, questions
and reactions are marked by a deep understanding of the human condition
today, and the possibility of transformation, before tomorrow. It is easy to see that he is motivated by compassion (karuna),
for all the people of the world. A quality we associate with true vidya (knowledge) and genuine gnana (wisdom). “ I am particularly
struck by how easily he encapsulates the highest
truths in the simplest language.
To create a new civilization
based on the dignity of life he
suggests that: I Quote:
“Instead of being absorbed in
the minor self of the ego, each individual must recognize his or her connection
with all life in the cosmos. By doing so, we can escape our obsession with
greed, advance along a more compassionate path, and bring about mutual
happiness for ourselves,
and others.” End Quote.
We all
know that any hope of change is from the young, and they must be convinced before this
change can happen. Young people are not impressed by bombast. They like it
crisp and brief, but also honest. Look at the clarity with which Mr Ikeda talks
about education – not as a college degree, but as a means of extending the frontiers
of the human mind. I QUOTE:
“Education at its best is a process of liberation from prejudice, freeing the
human heart from violent passions. Those who have learned to trust in
themselves, are naturally able to believe in the latent
capacity of others.” End quote.
Can you make a better case for education as empowerment, education as the means
of dispelling mistrust -- which is a major obstacle to development? It seems to
me that with this kind of approach, education becomes a healing process.
Nor does
he confine himself to socio-economic
welfare. He sums up a basic Soka Gakkai principle: I QUOTE: Only when its people are actively engaged in spiritual and
intellectual struggle can the economic power of a country be utilized to the
broad advantage of humankind.” End QUOTE
Today, as
an artiste, I ask myself. In this process
of creating humanistic values for international
peace, global welfare and people’s
empowerment, what is the role of the
artiste? Does the artiste have a role at all? Any function at all?
Ask
anyone, anywhere, to
explain just why a doctor, an engineer, a scientist, an architect, an
industrialist, a psychiatrist, a teacher -- is vital for the smooth functioning
of a society. Or to tell you -- just why a plumber, an electrician, farmer,
mason, weaver, potter, fisherman, metalsmith, is indispensable to civilization.
Everyone will have an answer. But ask people, “How does an artiste contribute to
the sustenance of society?” I doubt if you will get a convincing
response.
So I ask
myself, I had a role in society as a journalist, which I was for 25 years. But
what is my role as an artiste? Am I an empty rattle? Timepass for idlers? Am I
a provider of some temporary amusement? Do I fulfil any task in society?
Civilisation? World? Do I have any duty, any responsibility towards others?
Then I
recall that in the ancient world, poets had a
defined role. They were not
entertainers though they could mesmerize
hearts and minds. The Greeks saw Homer
and Sophocles as vates, prophets. Valmiki and Vyasa are revered as seer and sage. Closer to our times, Mirabai and Tulsidas were viewed as saints. Their work showcased the eternal values of humankind. The Ramayana and the Mahabharata
were believed to be essential for building robust,
resilient, sustainable
civil society, and a spiritually-oriented community. Which is the goal of this symposium! These
master works of literature provided light
(buddham), explained dhammam (right
living) and provided the sangam of
wise thoughts.
It is
often said that art has transformative
powers, art transmits values, art
generates ideals… A recent
experience made me understand just how art creates this insight.
For
thousands of years the lotus image has been represented in Asian art to imply
the otherworldly, the ethereal, the celestial. Its beauty and fragrance do not intoxicate, but instil contemplation,
meditation.
It was in
the Sanchi monument that I saw this
familiar flower with completely new eyes. It was a quiet day at the stupa. Very
few visitors. I almost had the entire space to myself. Looking at the intricate
carvings detailing the crucial incidents in the life of the Buddha, I realized
that one important person from his life was missing. Where was Siddhartha’s
wife? Yashodhara? Why was she absent?
As I
stood by the western entrance pillar wondering, my eyes idly followed the sun’s
rays hitting the lower half of the pillar. It spotlit a carved lotus, its stem
caught in the jaws of an underwater monster, but twisting itself up through the
pool, gasping for breath in the open air, longing for the sun’s life-giving
touch.
Then I
understood that rooted in earth, rising through water, breathing in the air and
blooming in the sun, the lotus partakes of the four elements, only to transcend
them, to go beyond, into the realm of light, joy and freedom. The mantra gate, gate paragate, parasangate bodhi
swaha… Gone, gone beyond, gone far
beyond, what an awakening! acquired a new and practical meaning.
In an
obscure segment of a stone pillar,
the artiste had embedded an entire life journey, its troubles and traumas,
setbacks and suffering, but also the invincible spirit of survival through
unceasing, upwardly mobile, effort. The sculptor had
made a great value eternally visible.
As I
looked at the lotus carved by an unknown artiste of long ago, I thought of
Yashodhara. One fine morning she awoke
and found her husband gone, leaving her and their child behind. No reasons,
explanations, no promise to return.
Through
the long years Yashodhara must have struggled through darkness and despair.
Experienced human feelings: anger, jealousy, frustration, fear, misery, doubt
and loneliness. But finally when her husband, now a world teacher, returns to
Kapilavastu, she has no reproaches. Inspired by the Buddha’s sacrifice,
enlightenment and compassion, she too renounces the material world, follows buddham, dhammam, and sangham. She chooses to serve humanity.
In so doing -- she finds herself, her mission, her liberation.
It was a
wonderful experience for me to trace Yashodhara’s
journey in my dance theatre work. And wherever we performed it, in Indian
cities or cities of north America, the reaction was the same. People did not
talk about how well we performed. They talked about the values the work evoked.
They were moved by Yashodhara’s human struggle because they saw it as their
own. They rejoiced in her final resolution, because they saw their ideal in it, a
movement-of-the-spirit
towards ultimate wisdom.
President
Ikeda asks, I QUOTE: For what
purpose should one cultivate wisdom? The answer must be, for the peace and
happiness of humanity.” End QUOTE
To be an
artiste is to accept responsibility and
duty towards society, to offer
solace for pain, to promote positive energies, invoke joy, and hold up the highest
ideals for the terrestrial life and the spiritual life. To do this an artiste
must choose -- not the tricks of cleverness, but the path of wisdom.
We know
that such wisdom is not some static or passive state of mind. It is an active intellectual and emotive engagement with the positive, the dynamic.
We start
with awareness, not only of the good, but also of the evil that we must combat. This is what
contemporary poet Arun Kolatkar does, when he retells a story from the
Mahabharata in his long poem Sarpa Satra or Snake Sacrifice. As I
turned this revenge cycle of an old myth, spanning several generations, into a
play, I realized how it mirrors the horrors of the contemporary world – with
its savagery, genocides, ethnic cleansing and terrorism. The description of the burning down of a primeval forest
becomes a modern photograph of carnage.
I QUOTE KOLATKAR:
Nothing was left, no trace of
the great sanctuary…
Not just the trees, birds,
insects, animals
Herds upon herds of
elephants, gazelles, antelopes
But people, people as well.
Simple folk, children of the
forest who had lived there for generations
Since time began.
They’ve gone, gone without a trace.
With their language that
sounded like the burbling of brooks
Their songs that sounded like
the twitterings of birds
And the secret of their
shamans who could cure any sickness
By casting spells with their
special flute
Made from the hollow
wingbones of red crested cranes
Why did they do it? Just for
kicks maybe
Maybe just the fact they had
all these fantastic weapons went to their heads
And they just couldn’t wait
to test their awesome powers
Maybe they just wanted a
clear title to the land
Unchallenged by so much as a
tiger moth.
The most ironic shaft in the poem is that this genocide is performed by
persons hailed as heroes, and
gods, and
role models. Don’t we know
this disturbing delusion persists
even today?
Finally
the killings end. Much is saved, but what is lost is lost forever. People
return to so- called “normalcy”, go about their daily business. But the poet
warns us that evil is merely suppressed,
it is not extinguished for all
times. “Do not be deceived” he says.
The fire rages, they say,
in the great forest beyond
the Himalayas,
where the great sages tried
to dispose of it.
And there, to this day,
They say,
it continues to consume,
rakshasas, rocks, and trees.
The
eternal challenge for humankind is : how to prevent that smouldering fire from once again turning into a conflagration? In every age the artiste
faces this challenge, along with thinkers and mahatmas.
Mr Ikeda
declares: I QUOTE: “The surest way
to peace is by fostering people of character, self-motivated, empowered
individuals who will confront forces that lead nations to war.” End Quote.
And just
what is this peace? Not the absence of war, but a rich state of existence where
everyone respects and embraces others. When diversity is not rejected, but respected
and rejoiced over.
Love and wisdom prevail over intolerance
and greed.
I end
with the final song in our Yashodhara
theatre production, where the princess sees the Buddha as the personification
of light and wisdom, a beneficent
power which heals her wounds, quells restless fears, fills her with love and peace.
Drishti idhar jo tumne
pheree Huee shaant
jignaasa meri
Bhay sanshay ki miti
andheree Is aabhaa ke aan! –
Padhaaro, bhav bhav ke bhagwan
Mein thee sandhyaa kaa path
here Aa pahunche tum sahaj savere
Dayaa kapaat khule yeh
mere Doon ab kyaa navdaan
(2)– bhav bhav ke bhagwan
