Beware of Champions

Attending the second National Seminar on 'Peace and Value Education as a Creative Response to Communalism & Consumerism, held at Kochi in 2002, I said that the real crisis facing the Indian nation is not economic or political but moral and spiritual. I remember Dr. A M Khusro (former Indian Ambassador to Germany) to have said during the same occasion, "However, whether it is in Christianity, Judaism, Zorastrianism, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism or other great faiths, the more we move away from rituals and come to higher levels of thinking and action and enter the philosophical and the spiritual teachings of these faiths, a tremendous amount of uniformity and likeness is discerned. The ritualistic differences get sidelined and a common approach signifying a unity of thought and action emerges." I remember with joy and gratitude my second guru, Fr. Bede Griffths, OSB, who guided me in the process of gaining a mystical understanding of the Church and going deeper into the spiritual treasures of India. It was he who helped me develop the right understanding of other religions. Nobody can deny this unity underlying religions, about which Dr. Khusro referred. India could witness many organisations and individuals rising up in favour of this attitude during the late 20th century. Sri A K Antony (Union Minister for Defence), who spoke on the same occasion said that those who champion peace and love in the society without having these noble qualities within their own lives create more problems. He also said that the sacred field of politics has become the 'last refuge of the scoundrels in India' today. Politics as seen in the present context of India is devoid of moral and spiritual values that constitute the eternal foundation of this ancient land of religions. Those champions of politics who enter the sacred field of politics without these higher values of life will do more damage to the nation than the so called ordinary 'scoundrels'.