"Lotus Sutra, A Message of Peace and Harmonious Coexistence," an exhibition featuring facsimile versions of rare Buddhist birch bark scrolls and photo panels of wall paintings and murals discovered from towns along the Silk Road, was on display at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) in New Delhi from April 16-23. Officially opening the exhibition were Delhi's Social Welfare and Health Minister Dr. Yoganand Shastri, eminent Lotus Sutra scholar and director of the International Academy of Indian Culture Dr. Lokesh Chandra, IGNCA Member Secretary Dr. K. K. Chakravarty and Bharat Soka Gakkai Director General Naveena Reddi.
Introducing the Lotus Sutra, which seeks to provide answers to the fundamental sufferings of illness, aging, birth and death, Dr. Lokesh Chandra noted, "The sutra has played a central role in India's freedom movement." He went on to share an anecdote of when his father, the Sanskrit scholar Professor Raghu Vira, presented a copy of the Lotus Sutra to Mahatma Gandhi.
After reading it, Gandhi lamented that humanity had lost track of a sutra of monumental importance. The message of the Lotus Sutra is one of individual empowerment, mutual coexistence and the need to respect the sanctity of all life, and it reveals how an individual can transform the environment through inner resolve and positive action. Gandhi introduced the Nichiren Buddhist practice of chanting the sutra's title in the daily interfaith religious practices of his ashram.
Many visitors were impressed by the beauty of the 12 rare manuscripts and 63 photographic panels of the relics, documents, parables, manuscripts and different editions of the Lotus Sutra, some in ancient languages that have disappeared from usage.
Professor Ravni Thakur of Delhi University remarked, "The Lotus Sutra has a huge reputation in East Asia. It reveals the message of peace and happiness which is most relevant in today's context."
In a message for the opening, SGI President Ikeda said, "India is the birthplace of Buddhist philosophy, and hence a source of great spiritual significance. It is in fact the spiritual homeland for people like myself, a land to which we are deeply indebted, the land of our teachers."
The exhibition was sponsored by the Institute of Oriental Philosophy, the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts and Bharat Soka Gakkai, and supported by the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the International Academy of Indian Culture.
(Source: SGI Quarterly, July 2008)
More: http://thelotussutra.org/exhibition/message/people1.sutra?lang=en http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-17935041