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Commemorating
Gandhi and King
"No matter how successful they may appear, those who go against the tide of humanity's advancement toward human rights will eventually fade like the setting sun. On the other hand, those who have persevered in the face of hardship and suffering, and have struggled against oppression, will forever be showered in the triumphant and joyous light of the sunrise."
With these words, SGI President Ikeda conveyed in a message his respect for and solidarity with the participants of Millennium Sunday, A Gathering of Spiritual Awareness. The meeting, held on April 2 at the Martin Luther King, Jr., International Chapel at Morehouse College in Atlanta, marked the founding of the Gandhi Institute for Reconciliation. The Institute, headed by Dr. Lawrence Carter, dean of the M.L.K. International Chapel, is being established to serve as a conduit for Gandhian thought and to preserve for the future the spiritual heritage of Dr. King and Mahatma Gandhi.
Dr. Carter explained that Martin Luther King, Jr., had first learned about Mahatma Gandhi when he was a student at Morehouse College and that he had continued his study of Gandhi and nonviolence at Boston University.
SGI-USA is among 55 organizations cosponsoring the opening of the Institute; others include the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence in Memphis, UNESCO, the Peace Corps, the India Council of Cultural Relations in New Delhi and the Association for Global New Thought. The opening ceremony was attended by Mrs. Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King III, Dr. King's wife and son, as well as by Dr. Arun Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi.
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