My journey commenced,

In my ancestral home.

Loving families with multiple cradles,

Of the civilization of my nation.

My mother embraced me with love,

I felt the soft touch of my mother?s hand.

I cried and cried,

She kissed me.

I saw the dawn of

Civilizational abode Akshardham.

APJ Abdul Kalam

6 November 2005

(Poem composed to mark the dedication assembly of Akshardham to the nation.)

Power of Ignited minds

I am indeed delighted to participate in the dedication assembly of Swaminarayan Akshardham Cultural Complex at New Delhi in the presence of His Divine Holiness Pramukh Swamiji Maharaj. I greet the spiritual leaders, intellectuals, architects, sculptors, thinkers, social reformers and other distinguished guests participating in this dedication ceremony. I particularly greet the designers and contributors from India and abroad for creating such an architectural complex, which every Indian will be proud of.

Two inspirational events

I am in the 75th orbit around the Sun. I would like to recall two of my experiences, which occurred during the last fifty years. The first event took place sometimes 45 years back which influenced my whole life. The second incident in my life is what I am seeing in front of me today in the Swaminarayan Akshardham Cultural Complex.

Church Experience: In 1962, Dr Homi Bhabha and Prof Vikram Sarabhai were looking for a site to establish space research station in the equatorial region. These two great scientists visited number of places. The scientific community for space research selected Thumba in Kerala as it was near the magnetic equator within the flow of electrojet and was ideally suited for ionospheric research in upper atmosphere, apart from study of atmospheric structure. When Prof Vikram Sarabhai visited Thumba, the locality had many villages and thousands of fishing communities were living in that area. It also had an ancient St Mary Magdalene Church at Pallithura and a Bishop's House. Prof Vikram Sarabhai met many politicians and bureaucrats to get the place to set up an establishment for space science research work. He could not succeed because of the nature of the place. He was asked to see the Bishop of Thiruvananthapuram. At that time, Rev Father Peter Bernard Pereira was the Bishop. It was a Saturday when Prof Vikram Sarabhai met the Bishop. The Bishop smiled and asked him to meet him the next day. In the Sunday morning Service, the Bishop told the congregation, "My children, I have a famous scientist with me who wants our church and the place I live for the work of space science research. Dear children, science seeks the truth that enriches human life. The higher level of religion is spirituality. The spiritual preachers like me, seek the help of the Almighty to bring peace to human minds. In short, what Vikram is doing and what I am doing are the same - both science and spirituality seek the Almighty?s blessings for human prosperity in mind and body. Vikram Sarabhai promises within six months, our abode and church will be newly built and given to us. Children, can we give them God?s abode, my abode and your abode for a scientific mission?? There was a pin-drop silence for a while followed by a hearty ?Amen? from the congregation, which made the whole church reverberate.

Subsequently, the big event took place in 1962. Rev Father Peter Bernard Pereira, the Bishop of Thiruvananthapuram, took the noble decision to dedicate the church in recognition of the national goal for the establishment of the Indian Space Research Organisation at Pallithura, Thumba. We made that church as our design centre, started rocket assembly; design of filament winding machine for FRP product and the Bishop's house was our design centre. Later, the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) led to the establishment of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) and multiple space centres throughout the country.

When I think of that event, I can see how enlightened spiritual and scientific leaders; all converge towards giving reverence to the meaning of human life. New church and new schools were established in record time. Of course the birth of TERLS and then VSSC gave the country the capability to design, develop and produce huge world class rocket system and subsequently, India built the capability of launching geo-synchronous, sun-synchronous and meteorology spacecraft, communication satellite, remote sensing satellite thereby provided fast communication, weather forecasting and also the ability to locate water resources for the country. Today, neither Prof Vikram Sarabhai nor Rev Father Peter Bernard Pereira are with us but the fragrance of their nobility with unity of minds is still with us and will continue for generations.

Akshardham Experience: Today, when I entered into the Akshardham Cultural Complex, I get an answer for the question, how can you mix the spirituality and social service? How can you separate the two? Those who wish to sincerely serve society must be spiritually pure and only those who are spiritually pure can sincerely serve society. That is your motto. Now, I would like to recall an event that took place in Rashtrapati Bhavan at 22.00 Hrs. yesterday.

I met three families who are working in Atlanta. They were three couples and one great banker. All seven of them respect the values of Akshardham. They came a week before and visited Akshardham. I asked each one of them two questions. 1).?What you felt when you entered Akshardham?? 2). ?After your journey through Akshardham, when you were leaving what thoughts came to your mind??

All four male members told me that at the time of entry they felt like, they were entering into a gigantic monument. When they finished their journey of Akshardham, they uniformly said that it is India?s civilizational heritage in dynamic form. Their hearts cried, O Almighty! Who is the creator of this great phenomenon?

All the three women members said, when they entered they felt they were entering into their own ancient joint family home. When they finished their journey, they cried because they were leaving their great mother India. They felt like that the mother was embracing the child, touching the child, feeling the child and felt the warmth of the mother in every one of them.

But who is the creator? But who is the creator? The creator we saw in the I-MAX Theater. A child wading through rivers, climbing over the snow tipped Himalayas, slips and slips and then climbs and climbs, walking across the nation and discovering cradles of India?s civilization. Who is the child? Can you remember the child? Oh! That is the divine child, the child Swaminarayan. The spirit of the divine child entered into Pramukh Swamiji Maharaj. And we see the birth of the Akshardham, the civilizational heritage of India in dynamic form in front of us.

My first meeting with Swamiji

At this stage, I am reminded of my first meeting with Pramukh Swami Maharaj on 13 June 2001. My discussion with Swamiji on the fusion of science and spirituality and the role it could play in national development went on for an hour. I presented the Developed India Vision 2020 in front of Swamiji; he said that God?s blessings are always there to realize this vision. That was the time; Pramukh Swami Maharaj showed me the architectural design of the Delhi Swaminarayan Akshardham Cultural Complex and expressed his vision. Today that complex is now in front of us. His Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj and his team of dedicated disciples have recreated the ancient civilizational heritage that we have seen only in theory so far, into a reality with technology. It brings a new dimension of the entire ancient Indian cultural heritage under one roof.

Inspirational Leadership

Pramukh Swamiji Maharaj has inspired thousands of people across the country and abroad and brought together the best of the minds for creating a beautiful cultural complex. It has become a place of education, experience and enlightenment. It creatively blends the traditional stone art and architecture, Indian culture and civilization, ancient values and wisdom and the best of modern media and technology. Multiple layers of this complex expresses the strength of the mind, willpower of the human being, indomitable spirit, flowering kindness, fusion of scientific and medical talent, myriad colors of varied cultures and ultimately the power of knowledge. In essence, it is a dynamic complex with lively images.

The story of a beautiful small church at Thumba happened in the last century; India became a noteworthy power in space science and technology subsequently. Now, Akshardham has happened at the dawn of 21st century with the commitment and dedication of one million volunteers. What has happened today at Akshardham inspires me and gives me the confidence that ?We can do it?. The realization of developed India is certainly possible before 2020 with the millions of ignited minds like you.

Conclusion

Now I would like to administer the oath, which I have designed for this occasion with the blessings of His Holiness Pramukh Swamiji Maharaj. Friends, are you ready to repeat with me?

Oath for our nations- prosperity

1. When I see Akshardham, an integrated complex of ancient Indian civilizational heritage, I am inspired and feel proud to be an Indian. I will preserve and nurture it.

2. Journey through Akshardham gives me the confidence that "I can do it, I can do it". I will apply this in all my actions towards national development.

3. I realize that nation building is an integrated mission of two components that is spiritual awakening and economic development. I will pursue both simultaneously.

4. With the foundation of spiritual awakening gained from Akshardham, now my mission will be to enrich the nation through commissioning of 1000 Akshardham PURAs (Providing Urban Facilities in Rural Areas) in different parts of the country within the next 5 years under the inspirational leadership of His Divine Holiness Pramukh Swamiji Maharaj.

5. I will direct all my efforts and knowledge to make India a knowledge society with our ancient civilizational heritage, value system and make India economically strong, prosperous, safe and a peaceful nation within the next 10 years.

My best wishes to all the members of Swaminarayan Akshardham for success in their missions of promoting spirituality and social service. My respects and reverence to Pramukh Swamiji Maharaj and his team.

May God bless you.

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