Religious Harmony in Support of Freedom

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Religious Harmony in Support of Freedom

Broad-mindedness is not merely the willingness to accept other people who hold different views of Truth and live peacefully with them. To be really broad-minded, people, while professing different faiths, must be willing to cooperate and work together to achieve global well-being. Peaceful and cooperative relations must help further the search for knowledge and truth through freedom of thought and discussion. This may be a step forward beyond mere tolerance.

King Asoka heralded a new era of religious freedom and harmony in support of intellectual freedom when he declared the following in his Rock Edict XII about 2,315 years ago:

…there should be growth in the essentials of all religions. Growth in essentials can be done in different ways, but their root is restraint in speech, that is, not extolling one’s own religion and condemning the religion of others without good cause … Concord (samavāya), therefore, is good, One should listen to and respect the doctrines professed by others…people of all religions should be well-learned…

The foundation of a lasting peace must be made firm by the strengthening of the two layers. The outer one consists of freedom from poverty and the absence of all the vices that threaten basic human security such as drug abuse, trafficking in humans, international unfair trades, and the exploitation of natural resources. Supported by favorable external conditions, the inner layer of inner peace and freedom, on which the outer one rests, must be reinforced.

This can be achieved only through right human development that creates truly free humans whose development is assessed on the basis of the ability to enjoy inner peace and independent happiness. These free people, whose happiness is relatively independent of external material pleasures, enjoy, amidst peaceful and friendly relations with their neighbors of all the faiths, the freedom of searching for knowledge and truth. Only on such a sound foundation can the perfection of the individual life be realized and the nobility of human civilization be attained.

It is the construction of this lofty foundation that the UN, assisted by or in cooperation with religious and spiritual leaders of all faiths, should carry on to assure the achievement of world peace.

Thank you.