(ZENIT News – Asia News / Vatican City, 12.02.2024).- Dialogue between religions has ancient roots in the heart of Asia. Pope Francis showed this again November 30 when he received in audience at the Vatican the participants at a meeting promoted by the Indian foundation Sree Narayana Guru, an association that continues the work of a great Hindu leader who a century ago had the intuition to bring together representatives of different religions in his ashram.
That conference – organised in 1923, at a time when Kerala was shaken by serious tensions between religious groups – has become a tradition that is repeated every year and, in collaboration with the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, on the occasion of its centenary, the idea of bringing it to the Vatican was born. The event offered an opportunity to rediscover the figure of Sree Narayana Guru (1856-1928), a great Hindu religious figure who dedicated his life to the struggle to overcome the caste system. In 1925 even Gandhi, visiting his ashram, was impressed by the place where even Dalit children studied the Upanishads along with everyone else. And from then on, the caste issue became an important element of his political proposal.
«Sree Narayana Guru,» said Pope Francis in his audience at the Vatican to participants at the interreligious meeting promoted by the foundation, «dedicated his life to promoting social and religious redemption with his clear message that all human beings, regardless of their ethnicity or religious and cultural traditions, are members of the one human family. He insisted that there should be no discrimination against anyone, in any way and at any level. His message is very apt for our world today, where we see increasing instances of intolerance and hatred between peoples and nations. Unfortunately, manifestations of discrimination and exclusion, tensions and violence based on differences of ethnic or social origin, race, colour, language and religion are a daily experience for many people and communities, especially among the poor, the defenceless and those who have no voice».
Pope Francis emphasised the closeness of Sree Narayana Guru’s message with the Abu Dhabi Document of 2019 and the recent Istiqlal Declaration, released in September during his trip to Indonesia: documents he signed with representatives of the Muslim world that put fraternity at the heart of interreligious dialogue. «All religions,» the Pontiff commented, «teach the fundamental truth that, as children of the one God, we must love and honour one another, respect diversity and differences in a spirit of fraternity and inclusion, taking care of one another and of the earth, our common home. Failure to respect the noble teachings of religions is one of the causes of the troubled situation in which the world finds itself today. Our contemporaries,’ he added, ‘will rediscover the value of the lofty teachings of religious traditions only if we all strive to live them and to cultivate fraternal and friendly relations with all, for the sole purpose of strengthening unity in diversity, ensuring harmonious coexistence among differences and being peacemakers, despite the difficulties and challenges we face. In this way,’ he concluded, ‘we can contribute to defeating the culture of individualism, exclusion, indifference and violence that is unfortunately spreading’.
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