Religious Harmony In India....
Whenever I visit Dena bank, near my house, My two year son Athar accompanies me.When we enter the bank ,As soon as my son's eyes falls on the logo of Lakshmi, the Goddess of wealth, according to Hindu mythology.He jumps with joy & shouts ....Maa...Maa
The Bank staff & particularly the Lady Manager will be happy to see him shouting & playing in the bank.I too feel very happy to see my kid calling Goddess lakshmi as Maa....But one big question always worrying me...whether my son will continue to call the Laxmi as Maa or will he stop calling ,when he learns that Lakshmi is not his Maa,its a hindu goddess...
I want my son to leave in religious harmony in a Secular India.Religious harmony in India is a subject of great importance for the reason that it is this country which had suffered the most due to religious riots, religious disparities and caste differences.
Interfaith harmony and consciousness of the essential unity of all religions is the very heart of national integration and identity. Most Indians were, and are, firmly attached to a particular religion. Relatively few Indians some years ago could have grasped the nature of a secular state or understood the need for such a thing.
INDIA, We live in one of the most sublime secular republics. This land is the birth place of five religions, Vedic religion, Hindu religion, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. This land has nurtured and cradled members of three religions of Semitic origin , Judaism, Christianity and Islam and a Persian religion, Zoroastrianism. May I say that members of these four religions are more secure in Indian soil than in the lands where the originated.
Different religions have sprung up in different ethnic or cultural or geographical or historical background and naturally there would be different shades between the religions. Then you ask any true philosopher whether there is any difference between any two religions. There can be only one answer to it, it is ' No'. We must now evolve measures to narrow down the difference between different religions.
The children in India are not trained on how to practice secularism. Each religion has tried to teach its children that their religion provides the correct way to God. What they further teach is that there is the only correct religion. Very often, they also teach that other religions are wrong. If our children are brought up in this way, they maintain the mental segregation that their religion is the only true religion whereas other religions are all fake.
All religions teach the same thing and it is only selfish and power hungry and mischievous people who create differences. Religious harmony has been badly impaired on account of the ambitions of those in India who created vote banks as shortcuts to reach power. People are basically happy and common without the barriers of religions, but the skill of the politicians unfortunately keep them segregated.
Religions are different roads converging to the same point. What does it matter that we take different roads, so long as we reach the same goal.
Let me share a very beautiful story of a professor who was very busy with his home work. His little child of five years went to him and tried to catch his attention for playing with him. The professor found out a short cut to keep the child engaged elsewhere for one hour so that the Professor could concentrate on his homework without being disturbed by the child.
He took out a world map and tore it into different pieces and gave them to his child and asked him to reunite them on the glass frame. Before the professor could spend any time on his homework, the child completed the map.
The professor found that the world map was very properly reconstructed He then asked the child 'my dear son' how did you make it?" The child answered, "Papa, look at the other side of the map, there was the big sketch of man. I only looked at that sketch and reunited the pieces".
A great philosophy flashed through the mind of the professor. He realised , if you succeed in re-uniting the human being you can reconstruct the world. Religious harmony is the cement by which such a reconstruction is possible. This is the relevance of religious harmony in a secular republic.
I do not wish to lengthen the subject which is more written & talked about than practiced.
Let us make a beginning.Opening our circle of friendship to people of all faiths can be a good starting point. Everyone, all Indians, need to embrace a rational approach to civil life and try to understand each other better.
