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Hindu Dharma is one, which has survived the
vicissitudes of time. It is not just another religious tradition but with
its Vedic Vision, can adopt as its own any and every inclusive religious
tradition. Swami Vivekananda had very beautifully described local
faiths-indigenous traditions – viewed from Vedic perspective is Hindu
Dharma or the Vedanta applied to the various ethnic customs and creeds of
India, is Hinduism. Vedic Dharma is for preservation of religious
diversity.
There
should be an attempt to preserve religious traditions – the high
cultures of the world.
Time
has come for humanity to promote the basic human nature – compassion.
Religious people have to speak responsibly in promoting human values not
by resorting to conversion but by contributing to love, compassion and
contentment. Every religious culture has a right to live and to contribute
to the promotion of human values to make the world a better place.
Rejection
of diversity violates natural law and goes against human nature. Such co
existing together of the diverse religious traditions is as good as a
garden with variety of beautiful flowers.
No
animal species have been so hostile and cruel towards itself as Homo
sapiens. Christianity and Islam have divided the humanity into the
faithful and the infidels, the saved and the damned. More people have been
either tortured or killed in the name of God than in any other cause.
It
has long been a fashion to advocate religious unity, to assume that all
religions speak of the same goal, teach same truths, and to stress
commonalities rather than differences. That is a costly error, which will
in no way help the survival of non-aggressive religions and cultures. The
latter have celebrated life and generally seen humanity as one, with an
equal divine potential.
Biodiversity
is the law of nature. Theo-diversity is needed. Mono-theism (talking of
One True God) is the schizophrenia of humanity. Riverine cultures seek
human values and not human rights. Human rights destroy biodiversity
whereas human duties increase human values.
The
real progress is to March towards Unity and not Uniformity. That
irreversible march towards Unity by preserving the diversity has started.
- Wisdom from the deliberations of
‘World Congress for the Preservation of Religious Diversity’.
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