Ireland was beautiful to me last week as we drove through the country, with its lush green farms, long winding, narrow country roads, and folklore that still lived in the minds of locals we met in pubs, taverns, restaurants and churches. But even as we saw what God gave the Irish, we also heard about fights they had in the name of God.
It was only in the late nineties, after thousands had died through bullets and bombs that a brokered peace was established twixt the two warring religious sects, both believing in the same God, but each believing their method of worship was the best.
Against this bitter background did I attend an inter-faith gathering promoted by the Inter-Religious Solidarity Council and what I saw was a way we as a country, even though being cleverly seduced into communal destructiveness, could escape this evil and come together as one nation, with different religious ideologies.
I heard different religious heads from Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Bahai faith, Zoroastrianism, Jainism, and others with rationalist perspectives, share their approaches to the Divine.
What struck me was that all religions spoke of peace, oneness, acceptance and inclusion and no discrimination to be shown to someone of another faith. Swami Dayadhipanandaji of the Ramakrishna Mission for one, spoke about this aspect found in Swami Vivekananda throughout his life. Salim Khan spoke on forgiveness, and one speaker Dr Noumaan amazed me as she said that ‘according to the Holy Quran, the diversity of the human race in the forms of tribes, religions and nations was a deliberate act of Allah, so that human beings got to know each other’
Another aspect I saw as co-organiser Irfan Engineer so succinctly put everything together at the end, was that the idea of service, brotherhood and love stood out in each religion; a common thread.
As I walked out and nearly got into the Swamiji’s car, which was the same model and colour as mine, making me smile and realise we shared similar tastes about comfort despite any religious differences, I remembered Ireland, peaceful serene, and exceedingly beautiful, except for the bold brutal strokes of bloody red that tarnished it’s past. Why, I wondered, did we fight for our different ways to the divine, when these paths were made for those who walked in peace?
And as I drove back, my driver wondering, I'm sure, why I was so silent, I realised that what political leaders picked up and exploited from religions was religious customs and culture, and not any spiritual awakening. That those who promoted violence in the name of religion, had never felt or known spirituality ever, whereas what I had seen and heard from each speaker was deep spiritual emphasis, each faith offered.
Your acceptance, dear reader, of spirituality will take us to a united India, or be led by political leaders to the bloody evils that plagued lovely Ireland..!
