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Poet Rabindranath Tagore and his friends visit the Kamakura Buddha in Japan, 1917.On 22 December 1996 Sri Chinmoy accepted the most gracious invitation of the head priest of Kotoku-In, the Buddhist Temple in Kamakura, Japan to offer a Peace Concert at the foot of the most sacred statue of the Lord Buddha.
This concert was the eighth in a special series which Sri Chinmoy has dedicated to the 50th Anniversary of India’s independence.
Sri Chinmoy invokes the blessings of the Lord Buddha before fulfilling his long-cherished dream of offering a Peace Concert before this holiest of statues. He is accompanied by the head priest, who is standing to his left. Built in the 13th Century, the statue is 42 feet high and weighs 210,000 pounds. The spacious temple that once enclosed it was washed away by a tidal wave in 1495. Since then the Buddha has been exposed to sunshine, storms and snow under the natural canopy of the sky. Sublime meditative poise and tangible peace emanate from this statue, which embodies the living consciousness of the Lord Buddha and has been worshipped by Truth-seekers and God-lovers from the four corners of the world.
He prefaced the message by saying. “As you know, many politicians, many patriots and many revolutionaries, Mother India’s children offered their lives to bring about India’s independence. Among those there was a patriot, revolutionary, dreamer of India’s independence and lover of Mother India whose very name became synonymous with sacrifice. He is India’s Subhas Chandra, who is known throughout the length and breadth of the world as Netaji, the Leader Supreme. I wish to read out a very significant message from his daughter, who wanted to bring to the fore her father’s spiritual aspect.
“This is the most auspicious place, according to me, and here I am most prayerfully invoking the presence of the Lord Buddha to shower his choicest Blessings upon the soul of our beloved Netaji”
During the concert, Sri Chinmoy read out the extremely moving and significant message that he had just received from Mrs Anita B. Pfaff, Netaji’s daughter.
Sri Chinmoy performed on a variety of instruments of Eastern and Western origin: the Indian esraj, cello, Indian bamboo side flute, Chinese cello, dove ocarina and Japanese synthesizer.
Peace-loving hearts together bathe in the Compassion-Flow of the Lord Buddha.
Professor Anita B. Pfaff at her home in Augsburg, Germany, on New Year’s Day, 1997.
Sri Chinmoy with his student, Aruna Pohland, who became the golden link between Netaji’s daughter, Anita, and Sri Chinmoy.
