Towards a Culture of Peace

"Our school books glorify war and conceal its horrors. They indoctrinate children with hatred. I would teach peace rather than war, love rather than hate." Albert Einstein Religion has been the core centre of Indian thought and culture. Without religion, India will die. Hence, any effort to build a 'secular India', rejecting religion is bound to fail. The solution for headache is not cutting off the head. We need to build a 'spiritual India' in which the truth, goodness and beauty found in our different religions are harmoniously integrated. This process demands deeper understanding of and adherence to one's own religious faith and values. Without being rooted in the deepest truths of our own religious traditions, we cannot be fully open to and appreciative of the truths in other religious traditions. This is the real challenge facing the seekers of Truth from all religious traditions today. Peace is the crying need of the hour. Everyone everywhere desires to enjoy peace. Peace is the common goal of religions. I feel that the harmony of religions preached by Sri Ramakrishna and the principle of non-violence promoted by Mahatma Gandhi can together provide the necessary inspiration for inter-religious co-operation for a culture of peace in the world. The following words written by one of the greatest historians of the modern era, Arnold Toynbee, will suffice to prove this point. "At this supremely dangerous moment in human history, the only way of salvation for mankind is an Indian way. The Emperor Asoka's and Mahatma Gandhi's principles of non-violence and Sri Ramakrishna's testimony to the harmony of religions: here we have the attitude and spirit that can make it possible for the human race to grow together into a single family and, in the atomic age, this is the only alternative to destroying ourselves." It is in and through a common mission to promote a culture of peace on earth that religions can rediscover themselves. Each religion has an important and unique contribution to make in this common mission. A culture of peace on earth is the divine mission that can unite our different religions in a common quest. Sri Ramakrishna and Mahatma Gandhi are two best models in this divine mission.