Towards a Culture of Harmony and Peace - Proceedings

Today, humanity is at crossroads. We all feel tremendous anxiety, fear and unrest from terrorism and wars of various kinds. Thus every thinking person intensely yearns for harmony and peace in every corner of the globe. What are the ways and means for creating harmony and peace in this world where we have people with different cultures, religions, colors, nationalities, ideals, etc.? Could various religious traditions of the world guide humanity towards harmony and peace instead of being the cause of conflicts as seen in the past? Could interfaith dialogue provide some help at this critical juncture of humanity? Could the two most dominant forces of humanity in the quest of ultimate reality - science and spirituality be integrated to lead us to a peaceful world? Reflecting on some of these issues, the Delhi Peace Summit brings together in this volume the wisdom from some of the most prominent thinkers of the world including Dr.
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, the President of India; Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India; six Nobel Laureates in Peace and three Nobel Laureates in Science. We sincerely hope that the volume will provide useful insights and practical actions towards a culture of harmony and peace to all the readers.- The Publishers Contributors in this volume include: Desmond M. Tutu, The Dalai Lama, Ahmed Zewail, A.
P. J. Abdul Kalam, Oscar Arias, Shirin Ebadi, Mairead Maguire, Jerome Karle, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Freeman Dyson, Manmohan Singh, John Polanyi among others Quotes from the Book:There will be no future without forgiveness. Any process of peace is bound to collapse if this is missing. There is no way peace and stability can come through the gun of vengeance.- Archbishop Desmond M. TutuNobel Laureate in Peace Without changing one's self, without peace in one's self, world peace is not possible.- His Holiness the Dalai LamaNobel Laureate in Peace A spiritual experience is the goal of a deeply religious person whereas a major discovery or an invention is the goal of a scientific mind.
If both the aspects are unified, amalgamated in our own patterns, we can transcend to that level of thinking in which unity is a cohesive aspect. For this environment the two major components - Science and Spirituality have to interact.- Dr. A. P. J. Abdul KalamPresident of India I became conscious of the indwelling presence of God in my heart, in every human heart and in Creation. I knew then that God's purpose for each of us is to love and be loved, thatevery human life is sacred, and that I could not hurt or kill another person in whom God dwells.- Ms.
Mairead MaguireNobel Laureate in Peace Peace is not a dream; it is hard work, and there is nothing naive, glamorous or simplistic about it.- Dr. Oscar AriasNobel Laureate in Peace . inspite of various differences among all of us, we are all brothers and sisters of one species, living together on this planet Earth, sharing a common abode.- Ms. Shirin EbadiNobel Laureate in Peace ... the future is in dialogue, not in conflicts or clashes.- Prof.
Ahmed ZewailNobel Laureate in Chemistry . all religions are complementary, giving us views of the same reality seen from different angles.- Prof. Freeman DysonPhysicist, Princeton University ... there is no contradiction between science and spirituality; indeed it can be argued that the two are complementary.- Dr. Manmohan SinghPrime Minister of India