World Religions Conference November 1957

Author(s): Sushil Muni
Publisher: Achal Singh Seth

Page 56

Speech by Kakasaheb Kalelkor
not say one religion is superior to another. Even in this gathering there is certain amount of difficulty about arranging the seats etc. Some people feel that they are superior and others are not. I am not at all disgusted neither am I disappointed because after all religionists are coming together for the first time. They will have to tolerate each other. These prejudices will die out. The great thing is that they have come together. So this familihood of religions, familihood of aspirations has come together. This is a great day that people of different religions have come together.
Now what is the aim and object of this conference? It is two-fold. We want to have peace in the world. We want to oppose all war, We want to oppose the manufacture and tests of deadly weapons, dangerous weapons. We want that all the differences should be settled by negotiation and by mutual pressure hut not through war and killing. That is the one objective. All killing is abhorred. We decide for the first time in the world that all killing is bad and we do not want killing whatsoever and that there ahould be peace in the world. That is the one object.
The other object is that there should be unity among mankind. There should be familihood of races, familihood of nations and familihood of various groups of humanity. We particularly want brotherhood and sisterhood and let us have familihood of nations and familihood of organisations. For this purpose one conference is not enough, ten conferences are not enough. There must be a permanent body that would do research work. Mankind has been consciously or unconsciously developing and progressing towards development of non-violence or Ahimsa. Ahimsa is the watch-word for the coming age. This word does not belong to this religion or this nation. This word is a talisman for all the races of the world. So Ahimsa must be the guiding-star of the whole world. So, non-violence or Ahimsa has got to be spread. We used to follow it instinctively but hereafter we shall do it consciously. Just as nations today are developing Five-Yer Plans and Ten-Year plans with conscious and definite programme for the economic progress, in the same way we have to find out ways and means of developing and spreading Ahimsa. Not through scripture. Scriptures are of course there and people who have interpreted them however, claim that their religion alone has priority in asserting Ahimsa. That can be done as people often do. But our purpose is objectively to study the conditions of humanity, study history, sociology and ways and manners of people's life, the folk songs and folk dances and their literature in order to understand the common man and then to chalk out the plans for the development of Ahimsa. Ahimsa, hereafter shall be the mighty force and universal force for the development of mankind. Ahimsa has got to be liberated from the
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