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A Coalition of the world's Religions for Ecology, Distress-relief and Peace 75
catholic priest, a priest who belonged to a very ancient order but who fulfilled the meaning of religion by a quest. I would like to remind you of a beautiful episode. At the end of the Mahābhārata war, many thousands of years ago, the Pandavas went to Bhisma Pitāmaha and asked him what is the religion of all religions, what is the quintessence of all religion, and the great warrior Bhiṣma Pitāmaha who was awaiting the end of his life, lying on a bed of arrows says, "nahi mānuṣyāt śreṣṭataraṁ kimcit". (Santipavan, 299/20). There is nothing, no religion higher than the religion of humanity. We must develop a greater togetherness. We must renew and realise the togetherness. We must overcome, exclusivism chauvinism and sadism. We must learn to work towards togetherness. And in the learning to work together we will find solutions to the problems of disharmony and tensions. There are positive aspects of religion. Religion has contributed to the uplifting of the soul of mankind. There are negative aspects of religion. Religion has contributed to many conflicts and many times it is the source of hatred among human beings. We must decide the coalition of the positives necessary to overcome the negatives in this world. This is where there is a need for us to proclaim fundamentalism, the fundamentalism of tolerance, and the fundamentalism of togetherness. This fundamentalism of tolerance and togetherness mandate we must learn together in harmony so that when we enter the 21st century-- which is only a seven years ahead when we stand on the threshold of a new millennium-- we would have a worthy legacy to give to human kind, and if this does not happen one would be disappointed. The Parliament of Religions which is a worthy successor to a great and momentous event which happened hundred years ago should now telescope destiny, our tryst with destiny for greater equality, for greater justice, for greater concerns, for greater compassion, for greater togetherness. We must create a spiritual crucible for tryst of that quest spirit of the quests togetherness of human kind, in which religion will fulfil itself. I hope that it will happen if we create a coalition of religions of world dedicated to the cause of ecological preservation, to the cause of distressrelief throughout the world and to the cause of establishing peace and vanishing war from our planet.
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