Fw: A long-term plan to counter this menace.

[Guest guest]

-

P. S. Kamanat

The President of America Whitehouse ; Vice-President America Whitehouse

Cc: First Lady of America ; Mrs Cheney Whitehouse

Tuesday, September 18, 2001 2:20 PM

A long-term plan to counter this menace.

 

 

Mr. President George W Bush and the Vice President Mr. Cheney,

 

We join with you in your sorrow at this tragic moment. It is the sorrow of

all of us. You are not alone in the fight against such attrocities emanating

from the deranged brains and minds.

We congratulate you for quickly arranging a prayer at the National Cathedral

to seek God's intervention and to remember who suffered at this tragedy. The

world urgently needs streams of sincere prayers and noble thoughts of exalted

nature now to counter the devilish frenzy building up around us.

All of us have to admit that this situation is a creation of all of us.

Religion is the most powerful weapon for the humanity to upgrade ourselves from

brutality and to grow spiritually. It is also the most powerful tool to keep us

united with God in life and death. But, it will destroy the human race if it is

not harnessed properly. The present calamity is the result of handling the

religion by the spiritually under-developed religious teachers of the present

day religions.

Such leaders and their followers live in unwanted sympathy generated out of

hatred and suspicion against the non-believers of their gods. This is a very

disturbing mania in their psyches. On the other hand, the followers of other

religions who happen to hear such untimely missionary calls will equally develop

the same disturbing phobea and turn out to be the enemies of humanity. We have

to stop this once for all.

It is high-time for the world leaders like you, Mr. President, to observe

closely those who publicly proclaim slogans like " my God alone is true " or

" evangelisation of Asia is our mission of the new milliennium " or " Allah is the

only God " or " Christ is the only way and path " . We have to openly brand all of

them as dull-headed religious leaders, however powerful and organised they are.

These slogans will create chaos in a secular society if they miss the real

spiritual and mystical significances.

It is absolutely helpful if the terms My God, Christ, Allah, Krishna, Buddha

and so on are projected as the various names of the same One Eternal Truth, or

of the same God Almighty. Those leaders should be taught and pressed hard to

assert that all religions are calling on the same God and to consider the whole

mankind as the children of God, as a first step. But, if we allow them to

identify publicly these terms with the deified conceptions of individual

sections or races or religions, such calamity is bound to happen again and

again. This should be stopped. Let us take a hard decision and please send

strong warnings and concerns to all the leaders of major religions of the world

for the safety of all of us.

Mr. President, let this assertion of equality of all religions and negation

of all religious exclusivenesses be one of the two-pronged tools you can use

against the long-term war you have declared on the hiding culprits. We do not

have any dearth of religious leaders who proclaimed the equality of religions in

our history, both in the East and the West. Ramakrishna (1836-86) and His chief

Disciple Vivekananda (1863-1902) are the greatest prophets of the harmony of

religions of the modern time. Let us recall that America had the unique

opportunity to extend Her warmth and loving hospitality to SIX of the SEVENTEEN

Monastic Apostles of Ramakrishna during the last part of the 19th century and

the early decades of the 20th century. She heard them preaching in Her own soil

the refreshing messages of the harmony of religions.

There is a wonderful piece of a speech that sent waves of thrill among the

audience of the Hall of Columbus in Chicago on 11 September 1893 when the world

parliament of religions started its procedures with Cardinal Gibbons in the

chair " .................Sectarianism, bigotry, and its descendant, fanaticism,

have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with

violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilization,

and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons,

human society would be far more advanced than it is now. But their time is come;

and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honour of this

convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with

sword or with pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending

their way to the same goal. "

This is how Vivekananda, the Chief Apostle of Ramakrishna, concluded the

first of a series of speeches in the World Parliament of Religions that held in

connection with the 400th national day celebrations of the America in 1893. Mr.

President, you can highlight now the relevance and acceptance of that clarion

call made in America's soil by VIVEKANANDA a hundred plus years ago.

 

Sincerely

Prakash and friends from Singapore.

 

Note:- We saw TV telecasts of the grand prayer session in the National Cathedral

last Friday. The representatives from Islam, Judaism and various sections of

Christianity were invited to say prayers there. A very grand function. It would

have been grander had you invited the representatives of the most ancient

religions of the world, Hinduism and Buddhism also to say prayers on that solemn

occasion. America and the world at large would benefit more if all were invited.

Here in Singapore, all the major religions are invited for such

government-sponsored functions to share the same platform.