Give God Some Credit

Zarina Geloo

In a world that seems to have abandoned spirituality to focus on material existence, WSF participants were walked through the basic tenets of eastern religion as a tool for socio-economic development at Monday's Principles and Values conference.

Lao Siddharta and Vijay Pratap, from the Alliance for a Responsible, Plural and United World, both said that traditions of wisdom, whether religious or otherwise, have provided values to guide human behaviour towards a responsible attitude.

Societal transformation will not come about without self-transformation, they said.

Quoting heavily from the Bhagavad Gita, a Hindu sacred book, Pratap and Siddharta told the audience, most of whom sitting in the lotus position, that religious values are those that respect life, dignity, choose dialogue over violence and the common good over self-interest, and believe in justice and equality.

Pratap said, however, that there would be times when values had to be weighed against each other when hard choices had to be made - like the need to encourage economic development while being attentive to environmental protection and respect for human rights.

'In such cases, human responsibility dictates that none of those imperatives should be sacrificed to any other others,' he said.

It would self-defeating to believe that a sustainable solution could be found for issues of economic injustice and disregard for human rights and the environment if they are approached separately, said Pratap.

'Everyone must be aware of the interconnectedness; and although their priorities may differ due to their specific histories and circumstances, they cannot use those priorities as an excuse for turning away from the other issues at stake.'

Siddharta who talked about the teachings of the late Indian philosopher and activist Mahatma Ghandi in the same breath as Buddha, said the problems that drew people from around the world to meet at the WSF were caused by selfishness.

'We are mutually interconnected but have become individually selfish,' he said.

The world now clings to temporal things. Skyscrapers and shopping malls had become the new temples and churches. Global capitalisation had created a mirage that the things of the world were permanent and had to be owned by an individual, Siddharta stated.

'Every now and again,' he said, people experience a state of nirvana (when they attain divine peace and harmony). This should spur them to attain the kind of just world that is desired.

Just as the world has accepted the idea of Human Rights, the time has come for it to adopt the notion of Human Responsibilities, he said.

Govind Tamoure from the Hare Krishna movement in Nepal said people should integrate a spiritual path in their activist programmes and plans of action.

'The reason so many good plans fail is because people have removed Krishna (God) from their plans and think they can succeed on their own,' Tamoure said.

He was quick to explain that not everyone had to believe in his movement but that each person should delve into their inner selves and find the God they believe in.

'All religions have basic fundamentals that are the same: good works, justice and equality and peace. It is how we achieve these that is different. But if we were all spiritual, we can achieve what we want for a better world.'