Address – P.P. Sarsanghachalak Ma. Sri K.S. Sudarshan

Chief Guest of the day’s function respected Samdongji Rimpoche, respected Sanghachalaks and elders and mothers present here!

Our local organizers have decided to hold the Shastrapujan function on Durgastami day this year. Mother Goddess Durga is the presiding deity of strength. All the gods and goddesses had offered a portion of their powers to her and entreated her to fight the evil forces. In the material sense gods represent the virtuous in the society and Durga is their united force. Without the substatum of strength the virtuous can not help from being swallowed up by the wicked. But this strength must have spirituality as its basis.

Says Samarth Ramadas:

meaning, agitations are important and those who lead them too, but divine sanction is also equally important without which the strength may become demonic. That is why in our Sangh prayer we always say:

meaning, we have girded up our loins to carry on Thy work. Please give us Thy holy blessings.

It is our great fortune to have Sri Samdong Rimpoche, the Prime Minister of the Tibetan Government in Exile, as our Chief Guest in this Shastrapujan function. Holy Dalai Lama initiated the democratization process of Tibetan politics in 1960. In a major step forward in that direction, last year he invited the Tibetans living in India to elect their chief executive. As a result, for the first time in the history of Tibet, Tibetans in exile living in India have elected Sri Rimpoche as ‘Kalon-Tripa’ – Prime Minister of the cabinet with a thumping 84% majority.

In his brief, yet profound address as the Chief Guest he has very correctly said that Brahman and Shraman are like two streams like Ganga and Yamuna, sometimes running parallel to each other and sometimes in confluence, and they have been instrumental in preserving and protecting the Bharatiya ethos.  He has also exhorted us that the ultimate truth is inconceivable, peerless and indefinable. But when we try to give verbal expression to this truth it is natural and inevitable that differences would crop up. Our great sages had acknowledged this fact when they said - Truth is one. The learned describe it in different ways. Our great ancestors had also said that there are several paths leading to that eternal truth and all are equally valid. Swamy Vivekananda had presented this message of intrinsic unity through the following sloka during his address to the World Parliament of Religions held in Chicago 1893:

(Just as different rivers treading straight or curved paths ultimately mingle into the same sea, so also the different paths chosen by persons according to their disposition ultimately lead to Thy alone.)

It is because of this attitude that in our country there has never been any history of conflict among religions. All dialogues and debates used to take place at the intellectual and philosophical level. This land has produced intense materialist sages like Charvak whose philosophy was:

(Live happily as long as you can, borrow money and consume ghee. Once your body is consigned to the flames it is not going to come back). He was also accorded the status of a philosopher here although our spirituality – anchored psyche did not accept his theories. Buddha has been accepted in this country as an incarnation of Almighty.