Gobind Sadan
Concluding session
18 February, 2003—3:30 p.m.
Moderator for the concluding session was Dr. S. S. Joshi. The session began with a prayer by Reverend Donna Young. Dr. Joshi summarized the work of the seminar, saying, “Almost all aspects of the main themes have been covered. The topic is very vast. Each of the concepts needs to be defined and redefined.” He asked the raporteur, Mrs. S. Mehta, to read her summary of the seminar proceedings, (which has been incorporated into this seminar report, along with excerpts from taped transcripts of the sessions).
After Mrs. Mehta’s report, various participants spoke of their commitment to implementing the themes explored in the seminar. Malissa Bergner said, “I look forward to taking this home to our youth group, and perhaps we can help.”
Mark Lichtenstein proposed that there should be a conference to foster respect for diversity, to censor those religious leaders who promote violence, to offer multi-skilled action training, to train clergy in tasks of peacemaking, to promote diplomacy, and to form alliances of leaders and policy-makers at the local level. Referring to his own daughter’s attempt to take her life, he said, “We need to show our youth that spirituality is practical and relevant.”
Galina Ermolina proposed, ” I thank Babaji as the greatest magnet, the greatest focus of Light on this planet. He has attracted us all here. The atmosphere here is the best I have ever experienced in any conference—the atmosphere of love, fraternity, and sisterhood. I believe that Gobind Sadan in these three days is the model, uniting people of different faiths and countries. Our global aim is to make the whole world Gobind Sadan. I strongly believe in cooperation. We can make joint programmes together. I ask for your help in bringing old and young together.”
Ranjit Kalha observed, “It is a great pleasure and honour for all of us to participate in such a seminar. We thank Gobind Sadan for bringing together people from so many places. Each of us has an individual experience. This seminar is in the nature of a beginning of a process. It is now up to us to take this process forward. We could do it individually or collectively. We have the presence of Babaji. Whenever we have difficulties on how to take this process forward, he is always there to help and guide us. As human beings blessed by God with a thought process, we are capable of taking it forward. Now with Internet, we can share with each other and with Gobind Sadan. Philosophy is one thing, implementation is another. We should look at whether some of the ideas we have thrown up are practical or can be implemented. There is no better guide in this than Babaji. We should take full advantage of this very great person who is among us.”
Ralph Singh concluded, “Without all of you, this would be only an idea. Are we ready for peace? The work of Gobind Sadan is to prepare us to be ready for peace. The time of peace has been promised. Are we committing ourselves truly to faith in service to humanity? Education does not occur only in words. Our words will have no impact if we do not first petition the One who has power over all. We must cultivate the sense of service to the One who is all-powerful. Then whenever we go, the doors will open, and peace will come. It is a process of sowing seeds and waiting for the crop. What we saw here is that land that never produced any crop produced enough to feed the whole world. The seeds of spiritual practice [Nam and Jaap Sahib] will bear fruit, but it is our job to keep seeding, fertilizing, and waiting for the harvest.”
Swaranjit Singh, President, thanked the participants and thanked Baba Virsa Singh “for giving us this opportunity to come from all corners of the world, sit under this beautiful roof, and talk as friends.”