Russian Academy of Arts in Moscow
About two
kilometres from the Kremlin, along Prechistenka, a street of
old stately Moscow residences, sits the Russian Academy of
Arts. Inside, in a second-floor room at the end of a series of
galleries full of modern Russian paintings, is the newly
inaugurated Peace Table, a sister to the ones already in place
in Auroville and New York. Master woodworker George Nakashima
had intended it for Russia since 1984, but finding a home for
it had been nearly as epic a journey as the transformation of
Russia itself.
Joining hands on 26th June 2001
Finally last
Tuesday, June 26th '01, about 150 people - Aurovilians,
friends of Auroville, Russian artists and intellectuals, the
US and Indian ambassadors, and representatives of four
religious traditions - came together to join hands around the
table and celebrate its consecration and the further breaking
down of both literal and figurative walls.
A permanent monument to peace and
human unity
Like its sisters,
the table is huge, about four meters by four meters, and fills
the centre of a corner room with no competing distractions. On
long, narrow scrolls that hang from the walls are words of
peace from the scriptures or holy men of various traditions -
Lao Tzu, the Seraphim of Sarov, Swami Akhilananda, the
Dhammapada, Guru Arjan, St.Matthew, Martin Luther King -
together with a Navaho chant and a Celtic prayer, among
others. A few photographs on the wall document the creation of
the table at the Nakashima studios. The room, along a
well-traveled route through the exhibition rooms of this
respected academy and art gallery, will remain the way we saw
it, a permanent monument to peace and human unity, tied
through lines of force with Auroville and New York.
Speakers
 The
ceremony was simple, with a few words from several guests. The
Academy's director, instrumental in finding a home for the
Peace Table, expressed his gratitude and pleasure at hosting
the table, which he said looked like a Bird of Peace
(remarkably reminiscent of Mother's comment that her signature
represented a Bird of Peace). George Nakashima's daughter,
Mira, who runs the studio today, offered an intimate insight
into her father's dream. Irene Goldman, an American dedicated
to building relations with Russia in the fields of the arts
and humanities, and who was instrumental in getting the table
into Russia, offered a sigh of relief that her 10-year efforts
had been realised. The US ambassador, a veteran diplomat,
offered his hope "that our leaders and our people will
take inspiration from these tables, and that we will live in a
more peaceful world in the future."
Acquire the spirit of peace,
and thousands around you will be healed
The first Peace
Table was installed at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in
New York City during a gala concert for peace on New Year's
Eve 1986/87. The force behind that was Nakashima's good friend
and Dean of the Cathedral, James Parks Morton, a man of
famously eclectic spiritual inclinations who wears a bear's
tooth given him by a Native American medicine man over his
pastoral collar, and today serves as president of the dynamic
Interfaith Centre of New York. "Here we are in the hall
of peace, surrounding us are the words of peace, and in the
centre is the table of peace," he told everyone before
reading from those words hanging on the walls. His favourite:
"Acquire the spirit of peace, and thousands around you
will be healed."
Auroville's flame
Finally, two
speakers from our Auroville family: Julian Lines,
representing both the Nakashima Foundation for Peace Board and
the AVI Board, spoke about linking the three host countries in
future programmes.
Then Bindu, ably translated into Russian by Sergei, spoke on
behalf of Auroville. She was great: a solid presence and an
excellent representative of Auroville's flame. She spoke of
our dream of creating in Auroville a real human unity, related
some of Auroville's international experience through Peace
Trees, and invited all present to help build the International
Zone of Auroville.
A concrete presence of conscious
matter
Somehow, it was a
perfect ending, a tangible act that touched people beyond
those in our intimate Auroville family, who had already spent
a week building and bonding together during the annual Auroville
International meeting in St. Petersburg.
Most of all, the
table seemed to represent a concrete presence of conscious
matter in a land that had turned away from its real soul
purpose, but now seems abundantly fertile, hungry for the
transformational seeds of a new world.
Adapted from as
message sent to an international, AV-related cyberforum by rtoll@mindspring.com
|
