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Türkmen
keep your morale high and keep good work, prosper and make others and
your country prosper. Those who will make the Türkmens attain the true
level and status of the Türkmen and work for Türkmenistan will be the
Türkmens themselves.
My
dear Türkmen nation, in order to urge your soul and mind to fullfill
these duties and to raise a strong faith in your heart for
self-confidence, and to be a support to you, I have written
this book, Ruhnama, for you. I dedicate and present the book I
have written to you today.
(16.)
The
never ending spiritual source for a true Türkmen, who continously
ponders on his spiritual world, who really worries about his well-being,
who is self-conscoius, alert and careful about enhancing his
intellectual, physical and spiritual capacites, should be the Ruhnama,
which never lets his exuburant, sensitive, poetic and sublime heart, and
longing-for spirit, deeply felt enthusiasm and inner feelings,
extinguish.
(19.)
My
main guideline is Ruhnama. As a systematic worldview, Ruhnama
is the core of all my political, economic and life targets, with civil
content and methods of use in different areas of society.
(20).
Ruhnama
should be a source of power and striving to reach the targets of Türkmen’s
Golden Age. The real Türkmen cannot treat himself badly and does not
forget who he is and his real duties towards his own people. The Türkmen’s
outlook cannot be separated from his inner life. Indeed, the Türkmen
should be able to keep the delicate balance between the material
judgement of his body and his spirit.
(22.)
Ruhnama
should be a source of power that will keep hearts alert, of intellect,
and suitable spirit, and the poetic soul of those real Türkmens who are
concerned with their own spiritual world and also their spiritual and
physical development.
(22.)
Ruhnama
is the book of unity and togetherness. It is the only source that will
connect turkmen's present and its past. Up until now, there were a
number of words, special words, but not a whole word. Ruhnama
should fill this gap. Ruhnama should place in the hands of Türkmens
their unique and whole history, and spiritual striving. My philosophy is
unity and togetherness.
(22.)
Ruhnama
is the veil of the Türkmen people’s face and soul. It is the Türkmen’s
first and basic reference book. It is the total of the Türkmen mind,
customs and traditions, intentions, doings and ideals. It will be our
legacy to the future after drawing lessons from the past! One part of Ruhnama
is our past that the existing knowledge at present could not enlighten
and the other part is our future! One part of Ruhnama is sky, the
other part is earth.
(24.)
My
Citizens! The Türkmen of today and tomorrow should know himself. He
should know his weakness and his strength, through and through! The
doctor who knows the problem can easily solve it. The people who can
judge their problems can avoid the problems! Ruhnama is the Türkmen’s
book about himself.
Ruhnama
is not only our book! Ruhnama is also the book of our brothers
and other nations that rejoice at our happiness and are proud of our
successes and with whom we are together creating our Golden Age
in these lands.
Ruhnama
is also the book of our near and far brothers and neighbours. You become
friends after you get to know someone. The foreigners who read Ruhnama
will know us better, became our friends faster, and the far and the
foreign becomes closer to us on our path to being accepted in the world.
(25.)
My
purpose in writing Ruhnama is to express explicitly how the
nation has contributed much to the sciences, literature, civilizations
and development of the world and in every area of life. I describe our
good fortune at the beginning of our history, which affected the world,
but in the last seven or eight centuries our nation has shrunk. She is
measurably smaller but still not an insignificant nation. Though her
name is often not recalled among the great, in fact, she is a very great
nation, in her mind, in her spirit, in her blood, in short, in all her
entity. I want to show that the great legacy of our ancestors remains.
The Türkmen nation has traced marks as magnificent as those of Great
Britain, of the Great Indian Nation and of The Great Chinese Nation.
(60.)
In
the period in which I was writing “Ruhnama”, the spring of my
mind and heart was philosophy. I also wrote in the “Ruhnama”
style so as to feel proud and get pleasure from the greatness of our
ancestors. But this goal is to be reached not only by giving information
related to historical events but also by explaining their underlying
moral meaning and philosophy. This refreshes the past and in particular
the historical memory.
(62.)
My
basic aim in writing “Ruhnama” is to open the dwindling
spring of national pride by clearing it of grass and stones and letting
it flow again. I hope to enliven the heart with the medication of
Philosophy. It is like replanting the arid land of the past, which has
become unproductive and useless, with the pine trees of the Türkmen
plateaus. In this way I wish to rid us of the disease, trouble and
anxiety of insensibility.
But
if the memory of the past awakens in someone’s mind, then, he, like
before, becomes the continuation of history. This person’s moral life
and capacity to live start to bubble again like a life-giving spring.
His mind and heart transform and become the area for the continuation of
the historical and moral. In this person, his ancestors are resurrected
with their spirit, their memory, even their capillary blood-vessels
again. This person is capable of living, feeling the love of the
mother-earth and the protection of the fatherland. This person begins to
view his own personality as a stronger link in the chain of the
generations, as if he has been released from moral loneliness and
alienation. If Allah wills it, the generations who drink deeply from the
clean water of the spring of philosophy of the “Ruhnama” may
grow into beautiful, moral people.
(63.)
Life
trains people and history trains the character.
The
“Ruhnama” is a book opening the spring of the mind and
meeting the thirst of the dry intellect.
(64)
On the other hand, the basic feature of the “Ruhnama”
is that I can analyse and present the past from the perspectives of the
future. In my view the past is the possibility of the future coming
into being. When I was wondering in the past I sought the future.
I,
by means of the “Ruhnama” string the past, present and future
on a single rope.
(64-65.)
In
“Ruhnama” the Türkmen people’s historical consciousness,
matured over thousands of years, and their moral power and strength are
drawn together.
“Ruhnama”
is a ship. This ship is chartered to bear the news of the past to the
future over the vast sea of Türkmen history.
Ruhnama
is a courier. This courier transmits the past’s secret and necessary
news to the future.
Therefore,
I say:
If
the spirit of Türkmen is the universe then “Ruhnama” cannot
replace or fully represent it. At least this is impossible in terms of
its breadth.
Nevertheless,
“Ruhnama” must be the centre of this universe. In this
universe, all the current and the future cosmic matters should go on
spinning, in Ruhnama’s attraction, centripetal force and
orbits.
(68-69.)
My
Dear People!
Now,
I want to mention my private and personal reasons for the writing of “Ruhnama”
and the other causes which led me to begin this work. What is the
meaning of the Head of State writing on philosophical matters? This has
to be explained in the light of the features of the era and the duties
borne on my shoulders. Of course, had we lived in another epoch, I would
only be occupied with state and political affairs and these would be
enough. As it is, our era falls at the turn of the new millennium. In
this period, five- or ten-year programmes are not sufficient for the
needs of our state. At this time, it is necessary not only to establish
a state but also to create a nation, for a nation needs far-reaching
moral values and criteria. We have to seek and find ways in which these
kinds of criteria can be provided through moral work and traditional and
moral philosophies.
Eras
in which great changes happen always demand that we take on
responsibilities and liabilities much heavier than an ordinary
president’s normal burdens. The whole foundation of society must be
built to the same blueprint because a nation needs a set of complete and
up-to-date criteria. “Ruhnama” offers a simple example of
this kind of scale.
(69.)
Every
human lives with hopes and desires.
I
want Türkmens to live the golden life, in the golden spirit, with pride
and unity.
I
want you to live with the qualities of unity, cooperation, charity, and
high moral values.
I
have prepared Ruhnama for the Türkmen nation to be a light and a guide
on its journey towards its goal.
(149.)
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