"It was the grace from Buddha and God for me to be able to be here in this surrounding warmth." —Mother Okasang Nakanishi
Mother Okasang Nakanishi is a 95-year-old spiritual leader from Japan who took part in the Amritavarsham50 Celebrations. She read a prayer on the stage during the second night of the Celebrations.
“The earth is very small. When you look at the earth it is small in the universe, but within it, people say, ‘I’m Japanese, I’m Indian, I’m American.’ But we’re all equal people.
“In this small world, we fight and we have terrorists and we have wars. I can’t understand why that happens. If we put our hands in each other’s hands and felt like we were brothers and sisters, we wouldn’t have these kinds of problems. So what are we lacking? I like to meet young people, older people, to feel that we are all the same. That’s why I am here.
“This is my first time to meet Amma. I feel very honored and happy to have met Her. It was the grace from Buddha and God for me to be able to be here in this surrounding warmth. Within this energy of the higher realm, there is no suffering. A boy may smile. A flower may bloom. In the other realm, there is bloodshed. This we need to stop—this is how I strongly feel and this is my wish.
“I just want to wish Amma a ‘happy birthday‘ and say, ‘Thank you for having someone like me to attend.'”