The New Year day and Sensei´s birthday celebration always comes with great joy and enthusiasm for all the members of SGI. We celebrated this auspicious occasion on January 3rd Saturday, 2009. Though it was a very cold morning, the warm welcome vibrant gongyo and the strong daimoku made everyone very joyful.

Though we had estimated only 175 members to participate, we had more than 270 members together in 3 meeting places in Kathmandu, Pokhara and Hetauda.

Art Division members filled the atmosphere with great pleasure by singing 'Crimson dawn of peace'. The song imparted feelings of courage and unity to everybody. Then, Youth Chief Navin Manandhar read out Sensei's message. Through, Sensei encouraged everybody, focusing on the importance of sincere dialogue only through which world peace and a victorious humanity can be attained. By sharing sincere dialogue with others giving them hope and courage, our life will also shine with eternal happiness, Byakuren Chief Divya Singh read out Madame Kaneko Ikeda's message. Her message also imparted great encouragement for all the members.

Then HQ Chief Anjali Basnet gave a speech on the significance of the theme of SGI for the year 2009 which is "Year of Youth and Victory". She focused us that those who have youthful spirit at every stage of life can be truly called a youth. She also added that only when youth move forward with deep conviction and determination, the dream of Kosen- rufu can be fulfilled. She encouraged everybody by saying that youth is a period of great struggle and they should always keep on challenging themselves

After such a great encouragement, N-SGI GD Sahana Shrestha shared her valuable guidance to all the precious members. The theme of N-SGI for 2009 is 'Lets every one of us be the victors'. For fulfilling the theme, she highlighted the guidance of Sensei on the four major essential points on faith. The first one is Prayer. Correct prayer in front of Gohonzon is the most crucial. The second one is Action. As Buddhism is daily life, spreading sincere dialogue and the circle of friendship is the essential part of SGI. Similarly the third important thing is Unity. The mission of Kosen-rufu can be achieved through Unity. And the fourth one is oneness of mentor and disciple, which is very essential in the advancement of our Kosen-rufu movement. With GD's valuable guidance, the first session came to an end.

The second session which comprised of the cultural program was performed. All the performances were dedicated to our dear Sensei. When the birthday tunes in violin and flute, all the members stood up singing the birthday song for Sensei wishing him long and happy life from the bottom of their heart. It was really a memorable experience.

In this way the celebration of New 2009 and Ikeda Sensei's 81st birthday came to an end inspiring everybody to lead such a wonderful life as Ikeda Sensei.