ADDRESS BY CHIEF GUEST AT ROYAL ALBERT HALL

Author:  HRH THE PRINCE OF WALES

Today, I greet all of you who have come here from far and wide round this country for this special event. If I may say so, it is always a particular joy to be with you and I think you are extremely courageous to have me back again, five years after that memorable event that Dr Indarjit Singh was just referring to. In inviting me to join you for this afternoon’s celebration, Dr Indarjit Singh was kind enough to let me have a copy of notes on the holy Granth Sahib. And reading through these notes I was particularly struck by the fact that much of what was being said, for example on tolerance and respect for others, seems to be in harmony with the views that I too have been trying to express for last 20 or more years. Views I have to say, which have sometimes landed me in hot unholy water. Most especially I noticed that in speaking what we might call divine reality, the teachings of holy Granth Sahib seems to echo the eternal wisdom of the great sages and prophets of all times.

I noticed for example that like so many other wise men, Guru Nanak declared that the path to God is through the love we have for one another, saying that it is only through love of our fellow being that we can understand the love of God. How like is this to the teachings of Jesus, whose first commandment was:

Thou shall love the lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and mind

And his second commandment was

Thou shall love thy neighbour as thy self

However, for each one of us in our own tradition, these teachings of love and compassion are perhaps so familiar that we may fail to understand their real profundity. For it seems to be that the teachings is not simply that love is a virtue, which of course it is, or an emotion which of course it is, but it is of the essence, for surely we must have seen that when we find God we will find love. This is of course when you think about it is a most radical proposition, for if love is of the essence, if love is the pathway to truth and reality, then we would be most unwise to live our lives other than, of course, with its principles. But as we all know that it is a tall order.

I also noted that like the great sages of all times your tradition places much emphasis on tolerance and respect of others. Indeed, I understand that Guru Nanak had two travelling companions, one a Hindu and other a Muslim and your own Guru Arjan asked a Muslim saint Mia Mir to lay the foundation stone of the golden Temple.

Again and again from many different sources we find that we are taught the lesson of respect for others and indeed for all things. And when you think about it, is a simple exercise of good manners and consideration for others. Things, which seem, like the importance of punctuation in a sentence, to being brutally excluded from the modern lexicon of life. And living as we do in times that are sadly scarred by conflict and disharmony, often one has to say religious conflicts and the disharmony. It is to me something of a wonder and indeed a comfort and an encouragement to find that despite obvious differences the great sages, prophets and holy men and women of all traditions have ceaselessly spoken of this eternal wisdom, urging us to care for one another and especially to care of those who are strangers in our midst.

Indeed, I have increasingly come to understand that for all our differences we share within each one of us, a wisdom of the heart that gives expressions to a divine love and compassion, and I have come to see that far from dividing us, this wisdom, if we would but listen to it, draws us together in a spirit of tolerance, understanding and forgiveness. Indeed, the Gurus remind us that it is the very role of religion to transcend differences and bind us one with another.

Now I feel compelled to say that for the greater part of my life, I felt, despite the evident achievements, for example in the areas of medicine and technology, much of our contemporary world has become fundamentally flawed and unbalanced. Somehow it would seem, that we, at least in the West have lost even expelled those qualities of the divine that our forefathers revered and knew to be true. In modern times we have allowed the egocentric aspect of humanity to grow unchecked and immoderate, and like the fledgling cuckoo in the nest, to overwhelm those more ancient or rather timeless qualities of balance and harmony that have been the guiding principles of the wise.

In the notes that he sent me, Dr Singh referred to the difference in the Sikh tradition between ‘manmukh’ or self centred behaviour, and ‘gurmukh’, or responsible living. And indeed how jarring it is to hear the insistent clammer of the world obsessed with the individual rights, but silent it seems on individual responsibilities. Are there no great dangers in this? For in the world in which we are increasibly and irresistibly connected, this irresponsibility takes on global proportions. Sometimes the consequences are small and personal, perhaps no more than an irritation, but sometimes, again and again, in one place or another the consequences are large and dreadful. But ironically perhaps, there is something that can draw us together, for surely there is much in the modern world, that to people of faith whatever the tradition, that is, discordant with the great teachings of selflessness, reverence and compassion. And although each tradition may offer its particular critique and direction, it seems to me, that for each one, there is something of a common path, for each share a common concern about our present secular and materialistic world and often violent world that places the individual ego about all else, and, it would appear, leads us further and further away from the essence of what is sacred and reverent for community.

Thus it is your own Guru Nanak said, that ‘without realising it, we have become captivated by materialism and lost our direction of life’. Surely then, if we are to heed the ageless teaching and divine wisdom, we must urgently rediscover the pathways of the divine and surely we must do all that we can to support the efforts of those such as the Interfaith Network who work to foster and nurture understanding and fellowship across all peoples and all faiths.

For, to paraphrase, Guru Nanak:

Those who love God must love all his creations and all within it.

Thank You