A House for the Religion of Man.
The controversy about the Islamic Community Center two blocks away from the World Trade Center (India Abroad, Aug 20) reminds one the famous comment made by the English author, Jonathan Swift, "We have enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another" and Mahatma Gandhi's observation, "An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind." W.B.Yeats also wrote in a similar vein when he said: "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity."
The Ground Zero is a sacred place where thousands were killed for no fault of theirs and by people blinded by their mistaken view of religions .It would be appropriate if people of all religions come together and build a House for the Religion of Man. This could be the meeting ground for all faiths of the world – Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jain, Shinto, Tao and many other faiths. There is more common among us as human beings than the differences. The Religion of Man should explore the commonalities if the human race has to be saved from total annihilation.
The concept of the Religion of Man was first mooted by the Noble Laureate Rabindranath Tagore in his Hibbert Lectures in Oxford in 1930. His prayer in Gitanjali highlights the need for freedom of thought, knowledge and truth :
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where the words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action;
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
The only change one cane make is to add, "let our world awake" in place of "let my country awake."
A monument which brings together people of all countries, religions and faiths would be a fitting tribute to those who lost their lives.
( A letter to India Abroad on the controversy about a Muslim community center near the World Trade Center in New York which was destroyed on 9/11.)
http://www.indiaabroad-digital.com/indiaabroad/20100820?sub_id=z1RM6Qp6YN3y#pg10
Aug.17,2010.
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