I was given an opportunity and responsibility to draft the core beliefs of an initiative on Religious Harmony. The objective is to be more pragmatic than getting into hair-splitting philosophical or theological debates. At the same time, we want to establish ground rules for designing interfaith activities and discussions. Here is what I put together.
- We believe in fundamental harmony of all religions. All religions are acceptable as true and valid means to God and human welfare. The differences are natural and worthy of mutual respect. No single religion can propose an exclusive claim of truth or advantage over other religions.
- There is one God, who is worshipped by people of different religions by various names, through various forms or without form, through various practices, rituals and prayers. The goal of all religions is God and human welfare. Even religions that don’t believe in God, believe in a goal beyond and larger than this human life, which needs to be achieved through this human life.
- Human values are universal. All religions promote a common set of virtues like honesty, kindness, austerity, chastity, charity, industriousness, etc.
- All humanity is one family. All religions promote equality, fraternity and siblinghood across religions, tribes, clans, countries, castes, races, genders and cultures.
- Different religions have evolved different practices based on the culture, history and geography of the place and people where each evolved. They are all acceptable as long as they promote human dignity, equality, fraternity and values. Diversity of religions and cultures is a great asset of humanity that needs to be preserved, nurtured, promoted and celebrated.
- Religions have been exploited and abused by people pursuing non-religious goals like wealth, land, power, control, pleasures, etc., and wrongly put the blame on religion. Religion is not to be blamed for human evils. It is the abuse of religion that is to be blamed.
- Each of us needs to understand and practice our own religions diligently, and also try to gain a devout practitioner’s understanding of other religions. We need to gain a sympathetic insider’s view instead of a critical outsider’s view. This will lead to manifesting the inherent harmony among religions.
The aim is not to get all the people of different religions to accept these beliefs. We know that is impossible. The aim is to collect a handful of people in various religions who can sincerely agree upon these points and get them to talk about their religions in this light to people within and outside their religions. This core multi-religious group can work on reconciling and reinterpreting the statements in their own scriptures in this light, conduct interfaith dialogues, visit places of worship of various religions, celebrate festivals of different religions together, etc.