Today, on Hiroshima Day, the 65th Anniversary of the world's worst nuclear attacks, one of Mumbai's 350-odd Japanese residents for 34 years, Bhikshu T Morita votes for the glue of peace
Today, on Hiroshima Day, the 65th Anniversary of the world's worst nuclear attacks, one of Mumbai's 350-odd Japanese residents for 34 years, Bhikshuu00a0T Morita votes for the glue of peace
"12 noon. Please be on time, Japanese come 45 minutes early," he gently insisted in his clipped, accented Hindi, while fixing our meeting. Bhikshu T Morita's peaceful, disarming self complements the air inside Worli's Nipponzan Myohoji Japanese Buddhist Temple.
The chaos of a rainy morning at this busy traffic junction, almost miraculously, fades once you step in. In 1976, Bhikshu Morita reached Orissa as a 28 year-old disciple accompanying renowned peace messenger Nichidatsu Fujii, popularly known as Fujii Guruji. Those days, few took the India route.
For most of us, Hiroshima and Nagasaki Day (August 9) means an annual flashback to History class. But to Bhikshu Morita, it remains the core of his existence.
"The lay man wants peace," his voice rises as he recounts his bold step in 1993, when he defied fundamentalist-fuelled hatred enveloping Mumbai during the Babri Masjid controversy.
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"Mumbai was tense; the military had taken over. I walked the deserted streets of Byculla chanting for peace. The locals found strength in that gesture. When peace is top of your mind, fearing for life doesn't quite figure."
Years before in 1987, he accompanied late MP and actor Sunil Dutt on his shanti padyatra from Mumbai to Amritsar.
"On January 25, a day before Duttsaab's departure, late Gandhian Usha Mehta requested me to join in. I thought as with most actors, this would be reduced to a publicity stunt.
What really happened was a slow discovery of the man's simplicity and optimism; his face was bright with no trace of exhaustion usme shanti ka josh tha," the Bhikshu recounts, flipping through an album packed with black and white frames, each with a story to tell.
Like the time when they were at Guna, Madhya Pradesh. "We received death threats; a bomb was to be hurled at the procession to stall our progress to Amritsar.
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Padyatras come naturally to him. In 1995, he walked from Kanyakumari to Delhi (2,742 kms), to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki attacks.
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In 2005, he enacted the Dandi March in New York. "The response from wealthy NRIs was humbling," says the 62 year-old. From Hutatma Chowk to Auschwitz, the Bhikshu has neatly archived his journeys in piles of plastic folders and files that lie in his office at the rear end of the temple.
A helper from the adjoining dharamshala arrives to seek his blessings that's home to 35 children from slums nearby. "The 350-odd Japanese residents of Mumbai have opened their hearts to these kids.
They believe this is their path to happiness." The Hokkaido-born monk says more Japanese will head to Mumbai with the opening of an economic corridor connecting India's metros.
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"Globalisation is taking over, but India must keep its sanskruti intact. I came here with plenty of faith in humanity. India was my last resort, and it didn't disappoint."
Nipponzan Myohoji Temple
Fujii Guruji's chance meeting with industrialist Raja Baldeo Das Birla ended with this temple being built in 1956. Funded by the Birla Trust, it's dedicated to the Japan Buddha Vihara Temple Trust. There are statues and wall paintings of chapters from the life of the Buddha, within and outside the sanctum sanctorum. The main marble statue was crafted in Kazakhstan.
AT: Dr Annie Besant Road, opposite Poddar Hospital, Worli Naka.
Timings: 6 am to 12 noon, 3.30 pm to 8 pm
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