JAGATGURU SHANKARACHARYA Swami Onkar Anand Saraswati said that humanity was the crux of all religions, but the followers of different religions were getting distanced from each other due to their ignorance.
The Shankaracharya said this while presiding over the Rashtriya Sarva Dharma Sammelan organised to create social sensitivity and promote communal harmony among the people.
The Sammelan with the central theme “Manav dharma — hum kitne pass kitne door” was organised by Sri Chitragupta Puajan Samiti, Kanpur here at Lajpat Bhawan at Motijheel on Sunday.
He said that since long the Indian culture has been promoting humanity by bringing closer the followers of all religions and encouraging them to peruse the teachings of other religions, so that they could know the facts about other religions.
Expressing his concern he said that due to rigid attitude of the religious followers in a few countries the trend of coming closer had suffered and this was widening the gap between the followers of different religion.
Dean of the Sarnath University and an eminent religious leader Prof Gas N Samton said that it was necessary to be a good person for being a true follower of any religion and until one became a good person he/she could not achieve the required divine strength within him through any religious practice. He said that this was only possible when one learns about humanity, which includes kindness, mercy and tolerance.
{{/usCountry}}Dean of the Sarnath University and an eminent religious leader Prof Gas N Samton said that it was necessary to be a good person for being a true follower of any religion and until one became a good person he/she could not achieve the required divine strength within him through any religious practice. He said that this was only possible when one learns about humanity, which includes kindness, mercy and tolerance.
{{/usCountry}}Like Anand Sarwati, Samton also told the gathering that due to narrow thoughts of the followers of different religions the distances among them was widening and this was a cause for worry in the present time.
He cited various examples from religious books and said that people had to take the positive route for human service from within and had to work with honesty for humanity.
Eminent educationist Jagdish Gandhi said that there were many religions in the world but humanity was common to all. He further said that differences among the human beings on the basis of religion were due to their ignorance.
The chief guest of the function Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Sri Prakash Jaiswal said that India had shown the path of humanity to world by maintaining equal respect for all religions and their followers.
He said that the Indian Constitution too guaranteed equal respect to all the religions. He hailed the efforts of the Sammelan organisers and said that such efforts were required in future also.
Other eminent religious personalities who delivered their lectures on the occasion included Maulan Abdulla Hasni Nadvi, Sayyed Abdulla, Father Mark Walls, Brijendra Pal Singh, Kedar Nand and Bachulal Jain.
Prominent among those presents at the Sammelan were Dr SK Nigam, Dr KC Lal, Dr Alok Srivastva, Prof RC Saxena, Dr R Sahya, Satyendra Srivastava, Vikas Srivastava and Sushil Prakash.