All Religions Promote Social Harmony

0
266

DR. SAWRAJ SINGH

INTERNATIONALAFFAIRS / EDITORIAL

Many will question this title because ifwe look at history, millions of peoplehave died due to inter-religious fighting.Probably more people have died as aresult of this fighting than due to anyother cause. In spite of this, I will still saythat as a matter of principle, all religionspromote social harmony. All of thesepeople have died because they did notunderstand the principles and messagesof their religions. If we correctly understandthe principles and messages of religions,then there will be peace and harmonyinstead of strife and disharmony.The two main components of any religionare spirituality and ethics. However,instead of these, most people have mostlyconfined religion to formalism and ritualism,and have ignored the essence ofreligions: spirituality and ethics. Both ofthese are very important for maintainingsocial harmony. Spirituality makes a personaware of the higher purpose andmeaning of life. It raises human existenceto universal consciousness and cosmicawareness. It makes a person an enlightenedhuman being. Such human beingshelp to maintain social harmony.Without such elevation to higher levels, aperson’s motivation in life comes fromlower centers. Generally, that means fulfillmentof desires. However, the highercenters promote the concept of living formeeting our needs. Needs can bedefined. Therefore, they can be fulfilled.However, desires can neither be definednor be fulfilled. Living only to fulfilldesires leads to frustration. Frustratedpeople contribute to social discord ratherthan harmony. Moreover, when trying tofulfill desires, people can step on eachother’s toes. This increases tensions andconflict in society. Living to fulfill needsreduces such tensions and conflict andalso promotes social elements of all religions.These concepts are based upondifferentiating needs from desires.Each person has some rights and someduties. The civil rights movements andhuman rights and other social activistsgenerally work to make people aware oftheir rights. However, the emphasis ofreligion is to make people conscious ofperforming our duties. If we understandthat without performing our duties, weare entitled to very few rights, then a betterbalance can be maintained in society.Another concept promoted by all religionsis of sharing. Sharing your goodfortunes and sharing of resourcesreduces confrontation and promotessocial harmony. Guru Nanak showed usthat even a very small object like a sesameseed can be shared by many people, ifthere is an intention to share.Tolerance is a virtue revered by most religions.Again, tolerance comes from highercenters while lower centers give usintolerance. Tolerance is essential forsocial harmony while intolerance leads todiscord and disharmony in society.Tolerance towards differences andrespecting other people’s rights to be differentpreserves social harmony.Tolerating and accepting diversity showsrespect for nature, because nature isdiverse.Capitalist consumer culture promotesindividualism, which degenerates intoself-centeredness and eventually intoselfishness. All religions promote collectivismto some extent. Some call it Sang,others call it Sadh Sangat. By interactingwith others, one learns the importance ofsocial interaction. Social interaction isessential for maintaining social harmony,whereas individualism and selfishnesscreate conflict and discord.Generally, capitalism sees human natureas a negative phenomenon, whereas religionconsiders human nature as basicallypositive. Man’s nature becomes negativewhen he moves away from his innatenature. Therefore, the negative nature ofman perceived by capitalism is actuallynot his true nature, but is polluted by thecapitalist consumer culture, which alienateshim from his true self.One of the most fundamental problemsof our times is that the current globalization,which is the highest stage of westerncapitalism, has reversed the time-testedwisdom of the East, that Ethics areabove economics. Western capitalism hasgiven a new, respectable term to greed.Now, this is called profit. Profit hasbecome the most fundamental motivefor the western-dominated world order.Therefore, economics has been putabove ethics. This wrong notion has corruptedall institutions of society: political,economic, social, cultural, and educational.As a result of this, mankind andthe world are facing the most serious crisis.Unless the fundamental principle ofthe East, that Ethics are above economics(Dharam is above paisa) is revived, thepresent western-dominated world ordercan collapse before the middle of thecentury, leading to complete chaos andanarchy. In the past, whenever there wasa similar crisis, then only the restorationof Dharam saved mankind and theworld.We should understand the differencebetween absolutism of the West and relativismof the East. Similarly, we shouldunderstand that there is no conflictbetween science and spirituality. Theyboth deal with different levels of reality.The concept of living in harmony withnature is superior to the concept of conqueringnature. Living according to naturallaw and divine will promotes harmonywhile ego leads to disharmony.The western word religion has elementsof both the eastern words Dharam andPanth. I feel there is no word in any westernlanguage which is completely equivalentto the eastern word Dharam.Dharam has many dimensions, such asrighteousness, duty, ethics, spirituality,nature, truth, morality, principles, etc.Dharam is truly universal. However, when the Dharampart becomes dominant thenthere is peace, tranquility, andharmony. The time has comefor all religions to emphasize theDharam part because only thenwe can save mankind and theworld. All of these concepts arevery well-illustrated in Sri GuruGranth Sahib. Therefore, SriGuru Granth Sahib can be consideredthe essence of the messageof all religions. The messageof Sri Guru Granth Sahibis of universal concern, universalwelfare, love, tolerance,peaceful co-existence and unityin diversity. This message trulypromotes social harmonywhereas the capitalist consumerculture is the main cause of conflictsand discord in today’sworld. Sri Guru Granth Sahibcan provide us with an alternatemodel of development to thepresent model, which is the rootcause of disharmony in thepresent world. Today we needdialogue among different religionsso that each religion canfocus on what is common in allreligions; instead of fightingover the ways, we should try tounite all religions so that theycan effectively meet challengesbefore mankind and the world.Sri Guru Granth Sahib emphasizessuch dialogue. Based uponthese principles Khalsa was created:A fully enlightened humanwas created, committed to promoteunderstanding and socialharmony.Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD F.I.C.S. is theChairman of the Washington StateNetwork for Human Rights .