We, Helping Hands, are a Cooperation Circle (CC) of URI, whose purpose and mission are to cultivate peace and justice by engaging people to initiate unity in all religions. We are based in the secular nation of India, where our Constitution gives every citizen of the nation the right to practice and promote their religion peacefully. India is a country of over 1.32 billion people staying together, keeping aside their religious differences. Our country is one of the most diverse nations in the world, in terms of religion. India, being the birthplace of four major world religions, namely Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism, has significant Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, Jain and Zoroastrian populations.
We visited religious places of Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Muslims, and Jains.
We at Helping Hands CC celebrated in our religiously-diversified country the World Religion Day on Sunday, 21 January, 2018. We visited various religious places around the city of Kolkata, as we respect the sacred wisdom of each religion, spiritual expression and indigenous tradition. We visited religious places of Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Muslims, and Jains. We went to the Birla Mandir, Gurudwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha, St Paul's Cathedral Church, Tipu Sultan Mosque and Jain Swetambara Dadaji Temple, honouring each and every religion.
Click the yellow arrows to scroll through the photos in the slideshow below.
We tried to create an atmosphere of tolerance and respect for all religions. We also understood that it's very important to be compassionate and understanding towards people of other religions and their cultural traditions, especially now when there are so many incidents of religiously-motivated violence around the world. On the auspicious occasion of the World Religion Day, we pray for harmony between different religious traditions, as this is essential for World Peace.
In the words of the Dalai Lama, "When there is peace among religions, there will be peace in the world."
All the religions in the world talk about empathy, giving to the poor, taking responsibility for one's actions, peace and harmony. The conflict between religions arise because we are not well-versed about other religions. If we read all the Holy books of different religions, we will realize that the essence of every religion is the same. We aren't as different as we are made to believe by religious fanatics. We at Helping Hands CC openly discussed different religious faiths, and people from the respective religions answered and cleared the doubts about their religions that the others raised.
Ultimately, we all came to the conclusion that we are all same, as GOD doesn't have any religion. Religion is created by man.
"Many are the names of God and infinite the forms through which He may be approached. In whatever name and form you worship Him, through them you will realise Him." - Ramakrishna
Praying for World Peace.
Shreyosi Biswas,
Secretary,
Helping Hands CC, Kolkata.
