Address at the World Summit of Peace
Seoul, Korea, January 16, 2009
I believe in the sun, whether it is shining or not. I believe in love, whether I feel it or not. I believe in God, whether or not He is silent.
I think our faith in God is something very special, which helps us to understand the importance of what is good and what is not good, what is right to do and what is not right to do.
We have been seeking solutions in different ideologies throughout the centuries. For example, communism recognizes the romantic, though false, notion that man is motivated by non-materialistic idealism. The basic premise of capitalism is that man is motivated by selfish greed. How sordid, but how true! Forget about these ideologies. Were they able to give us solutions? Now we are in search of a new humanism. What is new humanism? It is one family under God and true love! That is the only solution if we want to have perfect, and lasting, sustainable peace for this world.
Is there anyone in this world who would not like to live a happy and peaceful life? Everyone wants to live a happy and peaceful life. So, therefore, everyone today is a peaceful lover. Father Moon is committed to peace through true love. I think only through true love can real peace be possible.
Under the roof of the Universal Peace Federation (UPF), I can see men and women with three qualities: honesty, wisdom, and commitment to the cause of peace. Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success! So if we work together for the common goal and common dream, then the world will naturally embrace peace.
I think the only solution for achieving world peace is love — not only physical love but spiritual love. That is the true love that Father Moon has always been teaching us.
Today the world has centered upon physical unity, but the need is to go beyond physical unity. If we bind together in spiritual unity, that will remove every kind of problem from the globe, whether it be poverty, HIV/AIDS, illiteracy, or communicable diseases. I think every kind of problem can be solved through true love. We have been listening to our Founder, Father Moon, speak about true love. Until we honestly practice true love, no real peace will exist in the world.
Being Hindu, we have always focused on satyam, shivam, and sundaram – truth, goodness, and beauty.
Let me share with you an interesting incident that happened a few months ago. The former president of India, H.E. Abdul Karim, was in Katmandu and was delivering a speech. He was talking about righteousness and goodness. The audience was surprised. Even I was amazed to hear him delivering such a speech. Then I realized that in our lives, all the good things come hard, and that wisdom is the hardest of all to come by. It does not come at first, but at last.
When I met him in person I said, “May I share one comment?” And he said, “Yes.”
Then I said, "Today I felt something similar to what I experienced when I read the poem, 'The Wasteland,' by T.S. Eliot. Eliot says at the very end of his poem, 'Shanti, shanti, shanti.' The ultimate solution lies in peace, and peace exists when you give to others. When you live for the sake of others, then there is real peace. Today when I was listening to you, I had a similar realization that the ultimate solution lies in recognizing others and living for the sake of others."
He said, “Yes, you are absolutely right!”
You are the source of inspiration for me. When I see you, I am tempted to speak, but I know that I don’t have much time to share all my feelings with you. However, there is one stanza in Sanskrit that I want to recite for you, the English translation of which follows:
Let us pray, may all live happily.
May all enjoy good health.
May all see auspiciousness.
May none experience distress.
May peace prevail everywhere.
So, to experience peace, we have to work together. We have to work together without indulging our self-interest. We have to work for public interests. I have seen many people in politics who when it comes to choosing between people or profit, they go for the profit. That is where the problem starts.
If we cannot share true love, there will be conflict in society; there will be violence that will destroy the society and finally destroy the globe. What will we do then — just watch the society die? Just watch the world perish? No, not at all. At that time, let us be guided by the principle of one family under God. Let us share true love with the whole world, so that there will be true peace throughout the world.
I would like to thank you for listening to me so attentively. I ask all of you to join me in praying for the good health and long life for our Founder, Father Moon, because we need him more than ever right now.
“O God, Almighty God, O Father, be with us, and give our Father Moon good health and long life to save this world, and to bring about a world perfected in Your love. And we are together in this effort and endeavor of Father Moon that is One Family under God.”
Thank you very much!