Dr APJ Abdul Kalam - Where there is righteousness in the heart, There is a beauty in the character

Dr Kalam`s Address and interaction at Silver Jubilee Celebration of Sree  Ayyappa Educational Trust - B lore

 

Where there is righteousness in the heart, There is a beauty in the character.

                   

I will fly and fly

 

I am delighted to participate in the Silver Jubilee Celebrations of Sree Ayyappa Educational Trust here in Bangalore. My greetings to all the students, parents, teachers and members present here. I appreciate the visionaries of the Jalahalli Shree Ayyappan Temple who were the founders of Sree Ayyappa Educational Trust of providing quality education especially to the underprivileged sections of the society. I am glad to know that Sree Ayyappa Educational Trust, which was started as a nursery school 25 years ago, has now grown to four different institutions including schools, medical center and community hall.

 

My special congratulations to all of you for completing 25 years of service to the people and I admire the pioneers, both from past and present, of Sree Ayyappa Educational Trust who have laid a robust foundation for societal change.

 

Now let me share with you some thoughts on Where there is righteousness in the heart, There is a beauty in the character.

 

                                       

Criteria for achievement for youth

                   

How does achievement come? There are four proven steps; having an aim in life before 20 years of age, acquiring knowledge continuously, hard work towards the aim and perseverance to defeat the problem and succeed. In this connection let me recall famous verses of 13th century Persian Sufi poet Jalaluddin Rumi:

Wings to Fly

"I am born with potential.

I am born with goodness and trust.

I am born with ideas and dreams.

I am born with greatness.

I am born with confidence.

I am born with courage,

I will defeat the problem and succeed.

I am born with wings,

So, I am not meant for crawling,

I have wings, I will fly

I will fly and fly"

My message to you, young friends, is that education gives you wings to fly. Achievement comes out of fire in our sub-conscious mind that "I will win". So, each one of you assembled here and elsewhere, will have "Wings of Fire". The Wing of Fire will indeed lead to knowledge which will make you to fly as a Doctor, or an Engineer, or a scientist, or a teacher, or a political leader, or a bureaucrat or a diplomat or anything you want to be. You all can do it.

 

                                       

Knowledge and its dimensions

                   

Dear children, when you leave your schools, a great friend is accompanying you. Who is that friend? That friend is - knowledge. Now, I am going to give the knowledge equation.

 

Knowledge = Creativity + Righteousness + Courage

Creativity

"Learning gives creativity

Creativity leads to thinking

Thinking provides knowledge

Knowledge makes you great"

The next component of knowledge is righteousness. Righteousness is described in a divine hymn.

Righteousness in the heart

Where there is righteousness in the heart

There is beauty in the character.

When there is beauty in the character,

there is harmony in the home.

When there is harmony in the home.

There is an order in the nation.

When there is order in the nation,

There is peace in the world.

Now the question is: How do we inculcate the righteousness in the heart. In my opinion, there are three sources which can build a youth with righteousness in the heart. One is mother, second is father in a spiritual environment and the third and the most important is the teacher, particularly primary school teacher.

 

                   

The third component is courage, which is defined as follows:

 

Courage

Courage to think different,

Courage to invent,

Courage to travel into an unexplored path,

Courage to discover the impossible,

Courage to combat the problems and succeed,

are the unique qualities of the youth.

As a youth of my nation, I will work and work with courage to achieve success in all the missions.

 

Wherefrom you will acquire knowledge? Home, good books, teachers and teaching environment, coming into contact with good human beings, teaching websites in internet. When the schools teach the students to use the knowledge with creativity, righteousness and courage, nation will have large number of empowered and enlightened citizens, which is vital for the growth of the individual, growth of the family, growth of nation and promotion of peace in the world.

 

                   

Dear young friends, when you are completing your education from the institutions managed by the Sree Ayyappa Educational Trust, you would have been blessed with knowledge, particularly righteousness in the heart, and its three components and capacities to have great aim in life, that will make you to flying in life.

 

Let us now learn about inventors and discoverers and understand their unique qualities.

 

                                       

Inventors – inventions and discoverers - discoveries

                   

Let us study important inventors and their inventions.

** The Wright brothers and the plane.

** George Eastman and film

** Thomas Edison and the light bulb

** Alexandra Graham bell and the telephone.

 

Let us study a few Discoverers and their discoveries.

** Albert Einstein and the energy equation E=MC2

** Srinivas Ramanujan and number theory

** Chandrasekhar Subramaniyam and Chandrasekhar Limit

** Sir CV Raman and Raman Effect

 

Inventions and discoveries have emanated from creative minds that have been constantly working and imaging the outcome in the mind. With imaging and constant effort, all the forces of the universe work for that inspired mind, thereby leading to inventions or discoveries. Higher the number of creative minds in the country, the best results of innovation in all the three sectors of the economy will emerge.

 

Now I am going to give few great examples who made a change in the world, one with the determination to succeed in difficult circumstances, another with great heart for a beautiful green environment.

 

                                       

Dream transformed into thoughts and thoughts result into action

                   

Let me now share a unique experience which happened when I went to Madurai for inaugurating the Pediatric Oncology Cancer unit at Meenakshi Mission Hospital on 7th January 2011. When I completed the task, suddenly one person was approaching me and his face looked familiar. When he came closer, I found out that he was my driver when I was the Director of Defence Research and Development Lab (DRDL) at Hyderabad during 1982-1992. His name is V. Kathiresan, who worked with me day and night for these ten years. During that time, I noticed, he always read some books, newspapers and journals of substance during his waiting time in the car. That dedication attracted me. I asked him a question. What made you to read during your leisure time? He replied his children used to ask him lot of questions. That has made him to study and he tries to answer to his level best. The spirit of learning in him, attracted me, I told him to study formally through the distance education mode and gave him some free time to attend the course and complete his 10+2 and then to apply for higher education. He took that as a challenge and kept on studying and acquiring his skills and upgraded his educational qualification. He did B.A. (History), then he did M.A (History) and then he did M.A (Political Science) and completed his B.Ed and then M.Ed and he worked with me upto 1992. Then he registered for his doctoral studies and got his PhD in 2001. He joined the Education Department of Tamilnadu Government and served for number of years. Now in 2010, he has become an Assistant Professor in the Government Arts College at Mellur near Madurai. Recently, a few days ago, I again met Prof Kathiresan sitting in the dais when I went to address the students of at UPMS School, Kovilpatti, Tamilnadu. There I introduced Prof Kathiresan and brought out, how Prof Kathiresan the native of Kovilpatti has transformed himself into a PhD graduate and teaching in a college after two decades of hard work. This incident cheered the entire youth audience. Friends, I would now discuss about a great scientist who triumphed against all and rose to become a nobel laureate.

 

 

                                       

Birth of Creativity in a difficult situation

                   

Mario Capecchi had a difficult and challenging childhood. For nearly four years, Capecchi lived with his mother in a chalet in the Italian Alps. When World War II broke out, his mother, along with other Bohemians, was sent to Dachau as a political prisoner. Anticipating her arrest by the Gestapo, she had sold all her possessions and given the money to friends to help raise her son on their farm. In the farm, he had to grow wheat, harvest; take it to miller to be ground. The money which his mother left for him ran out. At the age of four and half years, he started living in the streets, sometimes joining gangs of other homeless children, sometimes living in orphanages and most of the time hungry. He spent the last year in the city of Reggio Emelia, hospitalized for malnutrition where his mother found him on his ninth birthday after a year of searching. Within weeks, the Capecchi and his mother sailed to United States of America to join his uncle and aunt.

 

He started his 3rd grade schooling afresh and started his education, interested in sports, studied political science. But he didn't find interesting and changed into science, became a mathematics graduate in 1961 with a double major in Physics and Chemistry. Although he liked Physics, its elegance and simplicity, he switched to molecular biology in graduate school, on the advice of James D Watson, who advised him that he should not be bothered about small things, since such pursuits are likely to produce only small answers.

 

 

                   

His objective was to do gene targeting. The experiments started in 1980 and by 1984, Capecchi had clear success. Three years later, he applied the technology to mice. In 1989, he developed the first mice with targeted mutations. The technology created by Doctor Capecchi allows researchers to create specific gene mutations anywhere they choose in the genetic code of a mouse. By manipulating gene sequences in this way, researchers are able to mimic human disease conditions on animal subjects. What the research of Mario Capecchi means for human health is nothing short of amazing, his work with mice could lead to cures for Alzheimer?s disease or even Cancer. The innovations in genetics that Mario Capecchi achieved won him the Nobel Prize in 2007.

 

Nobel laureate Capecchi life indeed is an example for the youth to succeed by overcoming difficult problems. Capecchi's life reminds of a song from Pinocchio:-

"When you wish upon a star,

Makes no difference who you are

Anything your heart desires

Will come to you"

 

                                       

Planting of trees is the planting of ideas

                   

Now I would like to talk about Prof Wangari Maathai, who has a passion for environment and bio-diversity and is contributing to the sustainable development and growth of planet Earth. Wangari Maathai Wangari Muta Maathai was born in Nyeri, Kenya (Africa) in 1940. She was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree and to become chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy and an Associate Professor. Wangari Maathai was active in the National Council of Women of Kenya and was its Chairman in 1981-87, where she introduced the idea of planting trees with the people and continued to develop it into a broad-based, grassroots organization whose main focus is the planting of trees with women groups in order to conserve the environment and improve their quality of life. Through the Green Belt Movement that Nobel Laureate Prof Maathai has evolved innovatively a movement with 600 community networks across Kenya and branches in 20 countries resulting in the plantation of 31 million trees. She and the Green Belt Movement have received numerous awards, most notably The 2004 Nobel Peace Prize.

 

 

                   

Prof Maathai gives a new meaning to the important act of planting a tree by extending it to the whole life, when she says, "the planting of trees is the planting of idea." She highlights the qualities of patience, persistence and commitment in planning and realizing a future, which is what we learn when we plant trees and wait for them to yield fruits for the next generation. She believes that no matter how dark the cloud, there is always a thin, silver lining, and that is what we must look for. The silver lining will come, if not to us then to the next generation or the generation after that. And may be with that generation, the lining will no longer be thin. India values Prof Maathai?s involvement and contribution in furthering the relationship between India and Kenya and had the privilege of honouring her with the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding for the year 2005. She concludes her Nobel Lecture on December 10, 2004 like this: quote, "As I conclude I reflect on my childhood experience when I would visit a stream next to our home to fetch water for my mother. I would drink water straight from the stream? I saw thousands of tadpoles: black, energetic and wriggling through the clear water against the background of the brown earth. This is the world I inherited from my parents". Prof. Mathaai, who passed away in 2011, would like all of us to preserve this inheritance.

 

                                       

Clean environment

                   

Dear friends, as you may know the world will be celebrating the next year, 2015 as International Year of Soils which is an important component in our daily lives ? giving us the plants and crops needed for food and other requirements. You may like to review the process of photo-synthesis in the plant and tree family. "When the sun shines, the green plants breakdown water to get electrons and protons, use these particles to turn carbon-di-oxide into glucose and vent out oxygen as a waste product." Each mature tree in a year absorbs 20 Kgs of carbon-di-oxide and transforms into wood and reinforces the branches of the tree, and releases 14 kg of Oxygen. To facilitate this, I would suggest all the students of Sree Ayyappa Educational Trust to plant at-least 5 trees and nurture them in this campus. They may live and keep giving Oxygen to all of us for centuries.

 

 

                                       

Let not thy winged days, be spent in vain

                   

As you all know, the earth rotates on its own axis once in a day having 24 hours or 1440 minutes or 86400 seconds. Earth itself orbits around the sun. It takes nearly one year for an orbit. With the completion of one rotation of earth around the sun, your age is added by one year as you are living on planet earth. Seconds fly, minutes fly, hours fly, days fly and years fly. We have no control over it. The only thing that we can do is, while the time flies, we can navigate the time. "Let not thy winged days, be spent in vain".

 

                                       

Conclusion:

                   

Dear friends, I have seen day by day how the India Vision 2020 definitely inspires particularly the youth of the nation. Now I recall a situation in 1990 beginning when I was interacting with the youth of Ahmedabad, one girl asked me "When I can sing a song of India?". The same spirit echoed everywhere during that time. But for the last 3 years, while interacted with the youth I could see the different voice. "What can I give it to the nation?". But today, for the last few months, I have seen the transformation from the ignited minds of the youth that the spirit of "I can do it". What a great transformation which I have seen in the ignited minds of the youth and also from the experienced people of India. So the boundary conditions for development are in place. I am sure, students of this School with the quality education system delivered by its teachers can become partners in the national development with the message that "I can do it", "We can do it" and "India can do it".

 

I once again congratulate all of you for the completing 25 years of service to humanity through education and healthcare. My greetings and best wishes to all of you success in your educational mission.

 

May God Bless you.

 

 

                                       

Oath for the Students

                   

1]. I will have a goal and work hard to achieve that goal. I realize that small aim is a crime.

2]. I will work with integrity and succeed with integrity.

3]. I will be a good member of my family, a good member of the society, a good member of the nation and a good member of the world.

4]. I will always try to save or better someone's life, without any discrimination of caste, creed, language religion or state. Wherever I am, a thought will always come to my mind. That is "What can I give?"

5]. I will always work for clean home, clean planet Earth and clean energy.

6]. As a youth of my nation, I will work and work with courage to achieve success in all my tasks and enjoy the success of others.

7]. I am as young as my faith and as old as my doubt. Hence, I will light up then, the lamp of faith in my heart.

8]. My National Flag flies in my heart and I will bring glory to my nation.

 

Dr Abdul Kalam