Dr. Balu’s Anthar Shanthi Kala (Justice) M.N. Venkatachaliah From his Foreword to the book Shanti Chintana - Nov 11, 2006 Justice Venkatachaliah was the Former Chief Justice of India and is the winner of India’s Padma Vibhushan Award
The Chariot of the Sun God
Paper Collage by Dr. V.Balu ©
I am deeply sensible of the honour of this invitation from Dr. V.Balu to contribute a Foreword to his “Thoughts on Peace : Shanti Chinthana.” It is a journey through the processes of inner peace, ‘Anthar Shanti’ and unfolds a saga of Dr. Balu’s mission in life which has been aptly described ‘One man global peace mission through Art’.
him said “ The Bangalore University is proud to join the ranks of Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu in congratulating Sri. Balu for his quarter century of work for peace. Thus it is our privilege to confer the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters of the Bangalore University on Shri V.Balu for whom the peace mission has been a life-time project.”
To Dr. Balu peace is not a mere absence or antithesis of violence. Pacifism in not mere non-violence. It is a positive and a psycho- spiritual process that pickles and permeates through the mind-body complex. It is not comparative or relative but absolute. The yoking of inner peace with the activities of body and mind truly elevates it to Anthar Shanti Kala which is the state of unconditional inner peace as the sole solution for all human foibles. It confers the highest boon of fearlessness on mankind and dissolves and destroys fear in any form or of any kind.
I have known Dr. Balu for nearly two decades. In personal life he is simple and artless. His charming personality is the true outcome of the great inner peace. I have seen the manifestation of the inner peace in him during a stage in his life in which others would be greatly disturbed and agitated. But I saw that he is truly a man of great inner peace and a master of the ‘Anthar Shanti Kala’ in life.
This book takes us through Dr. Balu’s meetings with eminent personalities such as the Sri Sathya Sai Baba, President Dr. Abdul Kalam, The Dalai Lama, Rev. Dr. Desmond Tutu, Boutros Boutros Ghali, Perez de Cuellar and many others. This personal account is presented not in any autobiographical projection but as a reluctant inevitable incident of the evolution of the idea of the achievement of inner peace as a necessary individual experience and the concept of world peace being a collective manifestation of this individually essential attainment.
At tumultuous times of turmoil and change as we see today, the only anchor for mankind is Dr. Balu’s Anthar Shanthi Kala. Dr. Balu’s beautiful message of Peace shall be enduring.
Dr. Balu has received recognition and encomia for his enduring work of projection of the theme of peace through his beautiful art from many institutions and organizations the world over. His work has attained mystic and universal significance and of civilisational value. His interactions with the younger generation have a deep impact on it. Indeed the Bangalore University while conferring its Honorary Degree of D.Litt on
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