World religions meet in city to promote unity

A Mid Day Correspondent A Two-Day meeting of world religions will be held in the city in October. The meeting will seek to promote a dialogue between all religions to get rid of terrorism, fundamentalism and environmental degradation, among other things.

The newly established World Jain Confederation (WJC) will celebrate the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on October 2 with a seminar on kshamapana and sadbhavana (forgiveness and compassion).

The idea of the seminar is to get across to the larger society Lord Mahavira’s message of ahimsa, anekant and aparigraha. Scholars from various faiths, including Jainism, Buddhism, Vedism, Hinduism, Christianity, Sikhism, the Bahai faith, Islam and Zoroastrianism, will participate in the seminar.

According to industrialist and philanthropist Pratap Bhogilal, chairman of the Board of Trustees, WJC, the confederation considers the prevailing societal situation as detrimental to the development of an individual and existence of society.

“Recent events of violence in the name of religions and an atmosphere of resultant mistrust among communities have resulted in the disruption of the social fibre,” he said.

The WJC aims to develop a consensus among all faiths on the basis of principles propagated by Tirthankar Mahavir, founder of the Jain faith.

The WJC had sponsored a two-day celebration of the Ahimsa Varsh (Year of Non-Violence) in New Jersey on April 13 and 14, 2002, along with the New York branch of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

A tri-faith seminar where Hindus, Jains and Muslims participated was also organised by the WJC in Mumbai later.

The WJC was established on April 6, the 2,600th birth anniversary of Tirthankar Mahavir, and was launched on April 9, 2002, by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee at a ceremony at Shanmukhananda Hall, Sion.

Apart from India, WJC is active in London, Chicago, Singapore, Dubai and Nairobi.