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UNITED NATIONS: Former Union Minister and Congress leader Dr. Karan Singh has appealed to religious leaders to engage in serious dialogues to prevent conflict and crime on humanity.
Addressing the religious and spiritual leaders at the Millennium World Peace Summit at the United Nations Aug. 29, Singh, an MP, said: "We meet today at a truly historic juncture in the long and tortuous history of the human race on Planet Earth. From the dawn of recorded history, the quest for the divine has been a major dimension in all the world’s great civilizations."
He observed that it’s incontrovertible that much that is great in human civilization - art and architecture, law and literature, dance and music, moral codes and religious texts - can be traced to one or the other of the great religions, without which human civilization would have been greatly impoverished.
On the other hand, he pointed out we must admit that, tragically enough, more people have been killed and tortured, persecuted and ill treated, in the name of religion than in any other name. He added that this is a negative legacy which we must now shed if humanity is to move onwards towards a sane and harmonious global society in the future. In its place, he holds that what we need is an ongoing multi-dimensional dialogue between the great religions of the world.
He continued: "Even as I speak to you today, fierce battles are raging around the world in the name of religion, and people are being massacred in the name of a divinity which each religion looks upon as being merciful and compassionate.
This meeting of religious and spiritual leaders, therefore, presents a unique opportunity for transcending the barriers of hatred and exclusivism, fanaticism and fundamentalism, and moving towards a new era in which we develop respect for all the great religious traditions of the world. It is certainly open to each of us to hold that our own path to the divine is the best, but it is not acceptable that we should perpetrate violence or discrimination against others who are following a different path."
The first major commitment of those of us gathered here, therefore, has to be to move towards a culture of peace and conflict resolution, and this must necessarily be based upon a creative and continuing dialogue between the great religions of the world, he said.
Closely allied to this is our second major endeavor, which must involve the alleviation and ultimate abolition of poverty and deprivation, of hunger and malnutrition, from the face of our planet, he observed.
A massive, multi-religious movement for the abolition of poverty must, therefore, be one of our major commitments, and this is in harmony with the teachings of all the world’s great religions.
Our educational systems today around the world seldom preach religious harmony. On the contrary, in many societies, there is indoctrination in favor of one and against other religious traditions, so that millions of young people are growing up convinced that their highest destiny is to destroy other young people belonging to different religions. This is no longer an acceptable situation, he added.
He went on: "We must reiterate our commitment to safeguarding the natural environment, which is a divine gift to the human race. Indeed it is a resource which belongs to the entire humanity and must be preserved and protected for generations yet unborn. The degradation and depredation of our natural environment has been one of the most tragic features of the 20th century.
The havoc caused by deforestation, decertification and intolerable pressure of population growth is causing widespread distress. Global warming is proceeding rapidly, the glaciers are melting, and within the next two decades several Island countries are in serious danger of disappearing from the map of the world. Against this background, it is essential that religious and spiritual leaders should commit themselves to the preservation and enhancement of the natural environment, and spread the environmental message among their followers."
A creative coalition between Conservation and Religion, therefore, is the need of our times. Here again, what is needed is a clarion call to dialogue.
Apart from these outer activities, religious and spiritual leaders must surely draw the attention of humanity to the inner core of light and luminosity that lies at the heart of all human beings, regardless of their race or religion, sex or nationality. The human psyche today is fractured and fragmented, and can be healed only by the inner processes of meditation, prayer and introspection which are to be found in all the great religious traditions of the world. Let us never lose sight of this fundamental truth enshrined deep within the recesses of our consciousness, for it is only to the degree that through a profound inner dialogue we can access the divine within ourselves, that we will be able to really propagate the ideals and principles to which this historic Millennium Summit is irrevocably com
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