World of Philosophy

Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan

Page 422

mate relation between religion and world peace. 'World' here means the earth with all its countries and people. Peace means the two communities live together in peace with one another. It sometimes signifies a treaty of ending a war. Religion involves a subject and object and an intimate relation between the two. On the subjective side it includes man's psychological junction, feeling, willing and thought.
On the objective side it has reference to Trans subjective diving Reality, It aims at the complete unification of life. Religion is the individual's Conscious aspiration for the realization of an Ideal, which can be felt intuitively. God is the highest Being. He is both supreme value as well as ultimate existence. Religion therefore may be defined as faith in the realization of God. It attempts to manifest what lies deepest in our being and tries to have contact with that To have a notion of God isn't enough for religion. Religion finds out the deepest layer of man's being which is spiritual ultimate Reality. Radhakrishnan defines religion as the insight into the nature of Reality or Experience of Reality. Religion is the self-manifestation of the ultimate Reality in man. A true religious soul will identify with the social and human evolution and guide mankind for a better and fuller life. According to Vivekananda, Religion consists in man's capacity for self-transcendence Each soul is potentially divine and religion is the enfoldment of this latent divinity. To Vivekananda religion 'it consists in doctrines and dogmas, or rites and rituals but in realizations. It doesn't mean any institutional religion, but that religion which underlies all religions. According to Vivekananda, "Religion. is the greatest motive power for realizing infinite energy which is the birth right and nature of every man", To Rabindranath Tagore, the only form of religion is the religion of love. As Kalidasa Bhattacharya puts it, "Rabindranath's God is thus, Grand Humanity in man the universal man, one who is wholly or even partly, outside of us",
According to religion, science no doubt has conquered nature but it has not conquered the inner core of man himself. Without religion the beast in man may use science and technology to destroy man and life itself. Improper use of the weapons will violate the peace of the society and mankind will be destroyed. True religious judgments have reference to values, traditionally known as Truth, Beauty and Goodness. Religion leads mankind towards peace. Both religion and science are complementary and aren't opposed. Science raised to the status of religion is known as scientisms, which accept the methodology and result of science as absolute. At present any discipline to gain any adherence has to put on garb of science, thus religious knowledge is always necessary to maintain peace among the nations.
Gandhi gave a practical color to the lofty principles of religion not only for the sake of individual peace but also for the world peace. Gandhi cannot be regarded as the founder of any new religion. Gandhi was influ
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