Most Distinguished Vassula Ryden,

Most Reverend Cardinals, Bishops, Chief Priests, Clergies, Religious, Theologians, Scholars, Excellencies,

Ladies & Gentlemen;

At the very outset, I convey my deep regards and sincere greetings to you all. It is indeed a pleasure and great honour for me to be present in this grand congregation of the enlightened personalities from many parts of the world. I convey my heartfelt thanks and gratitude to Most Distinguished Vassula Ryden and the dedicated organisers of TLIG Association who are the untiring promoters of Peace and Unity for inviting me to this historic gathering and giving me an opportunity of speaking a few words on the auspicious occasion. I am super impressed to see this gathering of highly magnanimous personalities from every corner of the whole world.

Respecting each others’ belief and faith is very important step for any conflict resolution. To do this, it is necessary to promote better interfaith understanding among all religions. This can be achieved when all concerned respect each others’ beliefs. Moreover, they must share the common ideas so that one could understand better the believer of the opposite part.

Every religion emphasises the importance of taming and understanding the mind, the mind that harbours selfishness and other roots of conflicts. All religions trace a path leading to a spiritual state of mind that is peaceful, disciplined, ethical and wise.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The theme « Divine Love for one another binds us in Unity together in God »  is quite timely and appropriate during the present day context.

Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest interpersonal affection and to the simplest pleasure. Love is an indefinite thing to most of us; we don’t know what we mean when we talk about love. Love is the loftiest preference of one person for another. Love is also considered to be a virtue representing human kindness, compassion, and affection, as « the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another ». It may also describe compassionate and affectionate actions towards other humans, one’s self or animals.

Divine Love is the greatest gift in all the universe. It transcends all else that can assist humankind to fulfil their dreams of happiness and have them resolved within themselves. One scholarly personality remarked that « The Divine  Mind blessed the union of wisdom and love and pronounced on them the increase of Spirit. When wisdom and love are unified in the individual consciousness, man is a master of ideas and brings them forth under the original creative law”

Vassula Ryden is my most dear one in the world with whom I have been maintaining excellent relations for the last more than twenty years. Before us, Vassula Ryden made speaking appearances in a Buddhist Temple in Hiroshima, Japan, in 1999.  In 1998 Vassula Ryden’s True Life in God Association started a landmark initiative of setting up Beth Myriam projects in order to feed the helpless children around the world. The orphan and destitute children of our Dharmarajika Orphanage are the core beneficiaries of the Beth Myriam project. Without the divine love of humankind, such an initiative could never be thought of and moved forward.

From 2002, I had the opportunity of participating in the pilgrimages to Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, Italy where I could avail myself of the opportunity of coming in touch with the prestigious sons and daughters of the world; peace and unity lovers in particular. All the TLIG pilgrimages enormously augmented my dignity and honor and greatly contributed to the bond of friendship, fraternity and unity. Most Respected Vassula Ryden is the symbol of unity, fraternity and reconciliation. All the followers of True Life in God deserve countless thanks and gratitude from the peace lovers of the world, in addition to the helpless destitute children in various regions around the globe.

I feel glad to reiterate that Vassula Ryden along with her associates of TLIG were so kind to visit Bangladesh many times while our organisation Bangladesh Bouddha Kristi Prachar Sangha had the rare opportunities of welcoming in our compound and decorating  her with Gold Peace Awards in different years. Guests in the award giving ceremonies including our Honorable Prime Minister were impressed by her invaluable deliberations in which emphasis on unity was mostly given.

In conclusion, my ardent call to you all is to contribute in creating the conducive atmosphere so that all of us could live together in peace since I think we are all one big family.

Thank you all.

Sanghanayaka Suddhananda Mahathero
Chief Patriarch Of The Mahanikaya Buddhists Of Bangladesh, President Of Bangladesh Bouddha Kristi Prachar Sangha, Dhaka, Bangladesh