THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS

INTRODUCTION

The Parliament of Religions is the brainchild of Swami Agnivesh, President of International Council of Arya Samaj, and his close friend Rev. Valson Thanpu. Swami ji has been active in the field of social service for the last forty years. His rich and varied experience, both in India as well as abroad, taught him an important lesson for tackling effectively and expeditiously the social evils in India – a concerted, united and focused religious initiative.

India is largely a poor and illiterate nation and made up of very religious societies. Therefore, involving the leaders of every faith stood out as the most effective strategy for eradicating the social evils. After the noble conception of the Parliament of Religions, its becoming a reality took months of brain-storming sessions with numerous religious leaders of all the major faiths and belief systems. India is really the most diverse nation in this department in the whole world. May be, because, India has a long and continuous history of welcoming and assimilating noble ideas from every direction. Jai Hind !

For the broadest possible consensus, all contentious issues were dropped, focusing more on agreements over a common minimum programme. As a metaphor it was like a coalition of religions for a common goal. Where political coalitions could work so well, why could not the religions coalition too succeed as well? All religions work for the betterment of humanity but each one holds its own tenets and rituals sacrosanct. So, building a consensus was a daunting task, but, the determination and perseverance of Swami Ji was rewarded with the formal inauguration of ‘the Parliament of Religions’ by Sri Sri Ravishankar, founder of ‘Art of Living Foundation’, on 5th October 2007 at the Indian Islamic Centre on Lodhi Road, in New Delhi. The inauguration, presided over by Dr. Ruth Manorama, had the active participation of many renowned religious dignitaries; Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, Rev Valsan Thampu, Chenna Basvanand Swami, Jain Muni Vivek, Fr. Dominic Emmanuel, Dr. Mahendra Singh, Goswami Sushilji Maharaj to name just a few. These gentlemen have an illustrious track record for their commitment to true godliness, religious harmony, social transformation, human dignity and empowerment.
Naturally, this august meeting of great minds, after sincere deliberations, agreed on the resolutions for the first convention of the Parliament of Religions to be held on 29th March 2008.)

Thereafter, the enthusiasts of the Parliament of religions, held a series of meetings at short intervals to make the proposed convention a historic event. A Core Committee was constituted for meeting the numerous difficulties and challenges that could arise including dedicated personnel, office space and expenses. Presently it operates from a one-roomed residence-cum-office at 7 Jantar Mantar Road with voluntary donations.

The first convention of the Parliament of Religions began on a sober note at 9 am in the Constitution Club on Rafi Marg on 29th March 2008. Many distinguished religious leaders graced the occasion and proposed seven resolutions in the first session. The resolutions were discussed threadbare in the second session amicably accepting amendments and addition of two more resolutions. In the final session, all the nine resolutions were passed unanimously. In spite of other important engagement in Delhi that day, the hall was full with enthusiastic audience. Swami Agnivesh conducted the convention with élan. The three sessions of two hours each had a half hour break for refreshments and a sumptuous lunch.

The mood of the convention was very open and optimistic. All discussions took place with a sense of urgency and sincerity, taking amendments and additions in its liberal stride. The follow up meeting of the Parliament of Religions took place on 12th April 2008 at 7, Jantar Mantar Road at 11 am to take stock of the implementation of the resolutions. Constant evaluation and correction is indispensable for a project of this magnitude that touches every male, female, child and other life forms in India.

--Anjum Rashid
rishi.anjum@gmail.com

SARVA DHARMA SANSAD

The seven revolutionary principles are unique and interconnected in such a way that it encompasses spirituality, social justice, compassion and ultimately one's religious duties. Following all the principles or even two or three of them satisfies the needs of the individuals who are looking for food for their souls.

Again it could be such a politically productive and proactive moment that it is bound to touch/reach larger percentage of population than any scheme introduced by the states. YET IT IS NON-POLITICAL!!
Governing/managing/reaching out to any group of people is a mammoth task involving every kind of managerial, spiritual, judicial and soul touching activities. Governments, parties, industries or any kind of organizations has to follow the essence of the seven principles of Sarva Dharma Sansad at one time or the other for being successful.

This in turn leads us to the topic of the way the Parliament of Country functions where issues are discussed, evolved, debated and resolutions are passed for the entire country. The motivation is having the power to dominate in running the country/state.
Parliament of Religions has discussed, evolved, debated on the issues related to common man and passed resolutions applicable for all faith for the entire country. It visualizes common good through common goal by common man.
YET IT IS NON-RELIGIOUS.

The Parliament brings together multi-background, multi-parties with multi agenda and multi ideologies- independent yet working together. It is a platform for planning and solving visible materialistic situational issues.

The Sarva Dharma Sansad is the one Parliament where multi-religious-could be explosive!!-social thinkers would like to work for the one agenda i.e. upliftment of the society which is the soul of the country. It believes in raising the standard and quality of the society.

When members of the Parliament are elected people know them only partially because after election the members become almost invisible and unapproachable and people are not sure of the issues being solved. That is to say people are working on permutation and combinations as to how many of the promises would be addressed in the Parliament. A few representatives of the people take up the discussions. This does not necessarily end-up benefiting larger sections of the people.

Whereas members of the Sarva Dharma Sansad have already proved their dedication for the common man in one field and are looking for people's participations in bringing about a revolutions in the social system. In essence it could become a parallel Parliament, which addresses issues that pose a real threat to a Real Healthy Society.

The Sarva Dharma Sansad members seems to go with the thinking that they live their religious affiliations at home and come forward and be a part of Big Social Change.



--Padmini Kumar
padkam@yahoo.com

A few words about Parliament of Religions

Sarva Dharma Sansad has been constituted with a noble idea of establishing peace and religious
harmony, mutual understanding and universal brotherhood among followers of different religions. Religions are great gifts given by the Creator through prophets and saints to uplift the individual as well as the society. Different religions are gifted by God in different parts of the world. Every religion has got an immense zeal to uplift the human society through religious and spiritual values. In the beginning when founded by different prophets, the religious ideologies seemed to be flawless and perfect; in course of time some of them may appear to be either outdated or less meaningful. Since gradually many blind traditions creep in, some such defective beliefs and customs need to be reformed or amended for the welfare of human beings. Sarva Dharma Samsath is focussing on eradication of seven such socio – religious evils.
Usually based on caste, class, colour, race and gender human beings are discriminated as superior and inferior even though God has created every body in the same manner. So, only he who treats everybody equally will become the son of God and of this world. Lord Basavanna, the founder of Lingayat religion preached Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Humanity through his saying :
Don’t say who is he
Who is he, Who is he ?
Do say he is ours
He is ours, He is ours, Oh Lord
Make me the son of Thy great abode
Building up of Welfare State on earth.
A society which is a confluence of material, moral and spiritual values will be a perfect and whole
society. Because of corruption and selfishness, our society and nation are going in retrogressive direction. So whatever may be their religion every citizen should strive hard to build up a clean society with values like honesty, patriotism, dedication and sincerity . Then only we will be able to build up a Welfare State or Kalyana Rajya. This world is a great gift given by God and living in it is an art . Different religions are like different paths to reach one and the only reality, God. The world should be like a garland of many flowers, the flowers symbolysing different religions. It shall be compared to a garden of many kinds of trees; different trees being different religions. On festival days we sit for eating with many recipes in our plate. Some are sweet, some are sour and some are hot. Though they differ in taste, they never quarrel in the plate. We use our same hand to eat and same teeth to masticate them; they do not quarrel. Food enters our digestive system. There also it will not quarrel. Later on food is digested and assimilated into blood and gets
converted into energy. During this lengthy process also different eatables do not quarrel; but all put together give strength and energy to body. Likewise, if all religious thoughts work together to establish peace and harmony and to build a Welfare State or in spiritual terms Kingdom of God on earth God will be pleased. That is why Lord Basavanna Says:
This mortal world is Creator’s workshop
Who succeeds here will succeed there
Those who do not succeed
here will not succeed there
O Lord Lingadeva.
Different tastes of food add to the richness of food. Different coloured flowers add to the beauty of garland. likewise we should see, tolerate and enjoy unity in diversity of different religions.
We shall all join our hands to establish Welfare State or Kalyana Rajya on this earth.

--Sharanu Sharanarthi
Delhi Branch: Pujya Sri Jagadguru Mata Mahdevi
MATA ASHRAM Basava Mantap, 2035, 2nd Block
Basava Mantap, H-3/82, 20th Main, Rajajinagar
Bengali Colony, Mahavir Enclave Bangalore- 560010
New Delhi-110045 Karnataka State
Ph: 011-64563860 / 9212627150 Ph: 080-23131476, 23325335

Seven sins revisited

Seven sins revisited
Dominic Emmanuel

A few weeks ago much was made, particularly by the media, of the new list of seven sins, allegedly issued by the Vatican. It is not quite clear whether the attention the issue drew was because an official of the Vatican was involved in it or because it was a new list of sins.

As coincidence would have it, a Delhi-based group which calls itself Sarvadharma Sansad (parliament of religions) under the leadership of Swami Agnivesh has come up with a proposal to start a mini social revolution of sorts, starting with seven issues. The Sardharm Sansad was inaugurated by Sri Sri Ravishankar on 5th October 2007, in the presence of various religious leaders who had been toying with the idea of forming such an inter-religious group for over an year. I happen to be one of the founding members of this Sarvadharma Sansad.

The Sansad members, borrowing the idea of coalition governments from politics, decided to form such a group of various religious leaders who would come together to start working for social transformation of society. So if political parties from completely different ideologies can come together to remain in power and supposedly to 'serve the nation', why can't religious leaders initially, and later common people of various religions, join hands to work towards removing some of the basic evils in society. The group believes that rather than trying to understand each other's religion by learning their dogmas or scriptures or even visiting their places of worship, the best form of inter-religious dialogue would be to start showing the effect of such dialogue through concrete action. The idea is certainly catching up with people and has been endorsed by Sri Sri Ravishankar and Baba Ramdev, two legendary luminaries shining brightly on the Indian religious horizon, among others.

On 29th March, a fortnight after the list of seven new sins given by a Vatican official during an interview, a convention of sarvdharma sansad was held at the Constitutional club in Delhi with the purpose of spreading the movement. It culminated in the evening by joining the Pranayama Dhyan Shivir Sri Sri Ravishankar organized by the Art of Living Foundation at Rohini, where after a brief introduction about the movement by swami Agnivesh, the people present there took a pledge to work towards betterment of society by observing the seven virtues or by abstaining from seven sins, first in their own lives, followed by influencing others to do the same.

The seven issues of the Common Minimum Programme agreed upon by the Sansad are quite simple really and can be practiced as well as propagated by most people. They are: a) Create a casteless society by promoting inter-caste marriages, b) Work towards gender equality by opposing vehemently female feticide and dowry system, c) Work towards communal harmony by granting equal opportunity and respect to people of all religions and by having common celebrations on major religious festivals, d) Work against the use of alcohol, tobacco and drugs by opposing government policies which encourage their consumption to earn revenues, e) Work towards encouraging scientific temper and oppose wide-spread superstitious beliefs, f) work towards eradicating corruption in public and private places and g) work towards freeing society which exploits the poor by opposing child labour and other forms of injustices.

During the convention, some eager and religious leaders but prone towards social activism, argued for adding some more issues such as the protection and conservation of environment and to oppose any kind of military spending which each country unscrupulously wastes each year on arms arguing that only the later can bring about real peace in society.

Readers are most welcome to add their own issues to the list and start practicing at least some of them.

-- Rev. Dr. Dominic Emmanuel SVDDirector and Spokesperson Delhi Catholic ArchdioceseCommunication/Information Bureau9-10 Bhai Veer Singh MargNew Delhi 110 001+91 11 23363214; 23369582cibdelhi@gmail.comwww.cibdelhi.com