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M.E.The
First Grand Principal of the Supreme Grand Chapter of
India M.E.Comp.Justice Devinder Gupta, M.E.Comp.Arun
Chintopanth, M.E.The Grand Superintendent of Regional
Grand Chapter of Western India M.E.Comp.Vasudeo Masurekar,
M.E.The Grand Superintendent of Regional Grand Chapter of
Northern India M.E.Comp.S.Krishnan, the Representative of
the District Grand Chapter of Madras E.Comp.Balaji Singh,
Past Grand Superintendents, M.E.Comps., E.Comps., Comps.,
I extend a very warm welcome
to all of you to this historic town of Rajahmundry. My
special welcome to M.E.The First Grand Principal, this
morning and I am sure that his visit will bring back to
him, the nostalgic memories of yester years, when he was a
Chief Justice of this State and also to his visits to
these parts of the State.
Rajahmundry
is a historic town of significance and people belonging to
diverse faiths and cultures converge and conglomerate and
peacefully co-exist in this riparian.
Great Missionaries like
Dr.Annie Besant, Sir Arthur Dalton, Sri Thandukuri Veeresa
Lingam Panthulu and others had their inspirations from
this town, which were later transformed into Reality.
Freemasonry has been in
existence for about 95 years in this Town and now the
Masonry has grown big enough to host and organise this
Masonic Meeting for the first time.
I once again welcome you all
to this Half-Yearly Meeting.
Companions, last year we have
introduced the concept of Senior Companions being incharge
of Chapters and I am happy to inform you that this System
is working well. The Officers incharge periodically visit
the Chapters and the able assistance of the Second and
Third Regional Grand Principals, they are able to guide
and motivate the Companions for a better performance of
the Chapters. By this system, a sense of bondage is
evolved between the Officers and the Chapters and this
augurs well for the progress of the Holy Royal Arch
Chapter in our Region.
Companions, on the Membership
front, there are almost Three Exaltations per Chapter last
year. But the cause for concern is substantial number of
Resignations and Cessations, which brings down the Net
growth to about 3%. One of the reasons for the loss of
Members is the lack of Masonic knowledge and information
about this Supreme Degree.
Some months ago, in an
interactive session, a brother asked me a very astonishing
question. He said, “Brother, we learn from the 3rd
Degree Ritual that we have lost the genuine secrets with
the death of Hiram Abif and we are only left with the
substituted secrets. Now several years have gone by and
we are in the 21st Century with modern gadgets,
appliances, mechanisms and we have many intellectuals in
our Fraternity. Don’t we think that atleast now, we
should make a sincere attempt to find out the secrets.
Something should be done by us immediately.
Interestingly, this brother,
who asked the question was also the Companion of the Holy
Royal Arch Chapter.
This question by the brother
is not a mere matter to be laughed away, but it calls for
a very serious thought and pondering over by us.
Secrets shall not be of any
value, unless they are revealed and explained. Otherwise,
they will give rise to misconceptions and
misinterpretations.
A disciple who was newly
admitted to the Monastery asked his Master, “Sir, I
am told that you are in possession of the ultimate secret,
secret of life. Now that I have joined the Monastery as a
disciple, can you disclose the secrets to me.” The Master
replied, “Young man, it is such a secret that you have to
wait for few years to know. Get prepared and wait for 3
years and come to me.”
The disciple went back and
after 3 years, the disciple asked the same question to his
Master again. This time, the Master said, “Can you give
me a Promise that you will not disclose the secret, if
given to you.” The disciple said “Yes, I give a promise
to keep it as a secret and assure you that I will keep the
promise.” The Master smiled at the disciple and said, “If
you can keep your promise of secrecy, I can also keep up
the promise, from whom I have received the secrets. Don’t
trouble me. Allow me to keep up my promise of secrecy.”
Companions, the secrets are
meant to be explained and the significance expounded to
the Companions at the right time and in the right way.
The genuine secrets, as
disclosed in this Holy Royal Arch Chapter are very well
explained as that of the sacred and mysterious name of the
True and Living God Most High. The Companions should be
made to understand and appreciate this holy word in its
true perspective, its antiquity from the age of Moses, who
founded the monotheistic religion, the traditions that
followed thereafter and the divine significance of this
Holy name. As you are aware, this Supreme Degree reveals
to us, the glory of God in its truest form and substance.
Companions, in my view, this
degree also teaches us few other lessons to the
Companions. This Degree emphasises the importance of
teamwork and group effort. It teaches us that uniting
together gives us our strength, our inborn faculty of
accomplishing things for the upliftment and advancement of
humanity. It emphasises that the Companionship is the
very fabric of humanity. We find that the joy of coming
together and working in unison is sprinkled throughout the
Exaltation Ceremony. In fact, even in the Ceremony of
Opening or Closing the Chapter, Three Principals have to
meet and agree to do certain things in love and unity.
Again, during the Exaltation
Ceremony, Three Master Masons from Babilone submit
themselves as Sojourners to assist in the great and
glorious undertaking. The Sojourners form together as a
team and prepare the ground for the Foundation of the 2nd
Temple. This dramatic Ceremony, so articulately described
by the Principal Sojourners tells us how as a team, they
worked, from the point of descending into t he vault and
finding and exploring the vault, the discovery and
retrieval of the scroll or vellum and the ultimate report
to the grand sanadreum. The entire discovery is done by
group of Three Sojourners as a Team.
Again the Scribe N and E form
a team to verify the subject of discovery and report to
the Principals, which again follows that the Three
Principals join together discuss concur with each other
before conferring the exalted rank to the Sojourners.
Therefore, at every stage,
Teamwork plays a pivotal role and is greatly emphasised in
the Holy Royal Arch Chapter.
The bed drop of this Team
effort is the Companionship of men among themselves. The
fabric of this Companionship is the goodwill towards all
men.
This Companionship can be
accomplished by goodwill towards one another as spoken by
Joshua in the Closing Ceremony, when he says, “Goodwill
towards men.”
In other words, the care,
concern and companionship with each other among the human
beings is greatly emphasised in this Degree.
As Companion Joshua in the
Exaltation Prayer says, “The object of our Institution is
the welfare of our fellow creatures.”
Companions, the episode of
the exploration of vault by the Sojourners so dramatically
set out in this Degree also bears philosophical content.
“To Sojourn” means “to
travel” and as Sojourners, we pass this transitory abode
for a limited time and for specific purpose and with faith
on divinity, explore the vaulted shrine within ourselves
and make the discovery of importance, the discovery which
will make us worthy of the exalted rank from True and
Living God Most High.
Companions, this Supreme
Degree of Holy Royal Arch is resplendent with many such
pearls of wisdom.
Daily advancement in Masonic
knowledge will enable us to explore this hidden mysteries.
THANK YOU. |
