Ever since Swami Vivekananda appeared on the international scene at the World Congress of Religions held at Chicago in 1893, there have been numerous inter-faith dialogues at various levels all over the globe. But there is an ever-growing demand for such meets. Hence as part of 150th Birth Anniversary celebrations of Swamiji, we decided to organize an inter-faith meet. But this would be a dialogue with a difference. Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Swami Harshanandaji spoke in the inaugural session and Smt. Sheila Dixit spoke in the valedictory session. Prominent religious leaders of all the major religions participated as speakers.
There were two important differences that marked this event. First, it would not be rambling discourses on religion. The discussion would be focused on the following five important questions.
- Concept of God or Ultimate Reality.
- Ultimate goal of life.
- Idea of life after death.
- The place of women in one’s religion.
- Attitude towards other faiths and their followers.
The second major difference in this dialogue would be that the audience would have a fair representation from different faiths, especially the youth. This was essential if the inter-faith meet was to fulfill its primary objective of a more harmonious relationship between the adherents of various faiths, especially the youth.
Special efforts were made to encourage followers of different faiths to attend the meet. This was done through the following methods:
Personal visits to the offices of the speakers to make a fervent request to them to persuade a large number of their followers, especially the youth, to attend the meet
Visits were made to universities and colleges with the same objective in view.
Special efforts were made to contact the students in the departments of philosophy or comparative religion.
As a result of all these efforts, the audience was truly representative in character. This led to a lively interaction after each presentation. The emphasis in the questions was on eliciting information, not on criticism. At the end of the Meet, most participants felt that they had a better appreciation of faiths other than their own, and many of their misunderstandings had been resolved.
The Meet came up with some good suggestions for action by spiritual leaders:
The Meet felt that the resolution of evil in society could not be left to politicians. Spiritual leaders had a positive role to perform in this and they should be proactive.
They should try to improve the understanding of their own faith by the respective adherents.
In particular, they could counter the propaganda made by the extremist and fundamentalist elements which try to project a wrong picture that their faiths exhorted them to run down or convert followers of other faiths persuasion or force.
For achieving this they could resort to creative reinterpretation of their scriptures in order to arrive at a highly tolerant attitude.
They could study other faiths in order to cull out their good points. Such teachings could be brought to the notice of their own followers so that they could also follow these. Resultantly, all faiths could develop an eclectic attitude.
Whenever there is a communal disturbance or apprehension of one, they could form themselves into committees at the grass roots level so as to restore sanity and peace.
It was felt that even otherwise, leaders of faiths should create Interfaith Harmony Committees at the grassroots level for an ongoing dialogue between the adherents of various faiths, so as to maintain peace all the time.
An extremely novel suggestion was mooted that all religions were in fact promoted by the single divinity that there was. As it was the same one God who had deputed all the incarnations, saints and messengers, there could not be any difference between their basic teachings. It should be possible for all the scriptures to be arranged in a manner that they can read like continuous chapters of a single Book of Life. Although this seems to be difficult, it might not be an impossible task.
