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