The DALAI LAMA gets together a host of spiritual leaders in one place, reports REENA SINGH
It was a coup of sorts and the Dalai Lama was obviously pleased.The room was full of at least a hundred delegates — swamis and swaminis rubbing shoulders with bearded mullahs and maulanas, Buddhist monks, rabbis, Catholic cardinals, fathers and bishops, Parsi and Muslim clerics, Jain and Buddhist monks and rinpoches, Sikh jathedars and other religious teachers. The occasion was a meeting of diverse spiritual traditions in India with a single- minded agenda: to promote human values and inter-religious harmony.
There were many ‘aha’ moments, and among the many speeches, a quiet and earnest talk by Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay and president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India highlighted what the conference was all about. The cardinal, who is on a panel of eight cardinals specially appointed by the Pope to revise the Apostolic Constitution on the Roman Curia asked if there was a place for religion in this world — a world now often marked by senseless violence, bombings and terrorist activities. What is the point of a war in the first place, he asked, for there seem to be no victors among the bruises and wounds that are left behind as trophies both for the ravagers and the ravaged. While the audience thought about this, he asked if anyone is really happy in today’s world? If poverty doesn’t bring happiness, neither do profits — especially those brought in by exploiting the riches of Mother Nature. He asked if we weren’t heading for disasters going by the number of natural calamities that seem to have hit us, of late. But we can combat all this, he suggested. The remedy is simple and it comes from within,if only we will stop to listen.“Think of religion as a set of rules, regulations and external rituals that connect us to our inner Self and to our Creator,” he said.
This is what fills us up with vision,hope and courage to understand that deep below the colour of our skin and our seemingly different customs of food and culture,“we are all brothers and sisters”.He suggested that “we come together to find answers, to learn from each other so that we once again become the light of the world.” He ended with this beautiful prayer: Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair,hope;where there is darkness,light; and where there is sadness, joy. …grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.Amen.
Another impassioned speech by the Dewan Dargah of Ajmer, Sheikhul Masheikh Dewan Syed Zainul Abedin Ali Khan also had an unusual response from among the delegates from nine different faiths. “Aren’t we one,” he asked, giving the analogy of a patient being rushed to hospital for blood transfusion. “Does anyone then ask if the blood I am getting belongs to a Hindu or a Muslim?”he asked.That was greeted by the audience with a fair degree of applause. He then denounced all forms of terrorism and said that it is our moral duty to pass a resolution against it and instead guide these misguided souls of terrorists onto the right track. “Let’s take all the common messages from our scriptures,” he said, citing the Prophet’s words — “If your neighbor is hungry, feed him first. If you can’t give, then don’t take either.” Surely, if we live our lives in this spirit of compassion and service, we won’t ever need spiritual forums to draft a common moral and ethical code for the world to follow.
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