The Faithful Unite

 

The initiative taken by Pope Francis to hold a multi-religious prayer gathering with Palestinian and Israeli Christians, Muslims and Jews in the courtyard of the Vatican palace is commendable.

The action is apparently in the perspective of peace and harmony in the region but it has global ramifications.

 China and India have both grown into world military powers and if the current trend continues, in a decade or two both may acquire super-power status dwarfing the existing powers.

China is a communist country and although the Chinese leaders have not shown the same contempt for religion as their defunct Soviet Union counterparts, one can hardly expect them to do any good to the adherents of the Biblio-Quranic faiths.

Although the Indians claim to be secular and followers of the slain nonviolent Mahatma Gandhi, the recent upsurge in “hindutwa” or Aryanism leading up to the election of Mr. Modi as prime minister does raise an alarm. Deadly religious violence against Christians and Muslims is a regular occurrence and is often backed by extremist Hindu political outfits. Given the right factors, Indian Aryanism may quickly grow into a monstrosity exceeding German Nazism of the 20th century. Let us not forget that the swastika originated in India and is still a common symbol in Hindu shrines.

Historically, India was ruled by Christians during the century preceding its independence in 1947 and by Muslims for nearly four centuries preceding that. Although none of the reigns was tyrannical, biased historians can easily distort facts to raise mass hysteria.

Historic revenge is a strange phenomenon. It remains in the subconscious of nations and may show up centuries or even millennia later. The sudden resurgence of black slavery in North America during the last few centuries may be linked to the Exodus of Israel from Egypt. They were held in servitude by the Negro Pharaohs and the tales of their persecution are harrowing.  It is possible that buying African slaves and treating them badly was an act of misplaced historic revenge.

If the faithful people of the world do not unite in peace now, they may get exterminated by the newly emerging pagan super-powers in the long run.

To read manuscript of my book “What and Why I Believe” click on link below:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/53723169/What%20and%20Why%20I%20Believe-2.pdf

Feedback will be welcome.

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/news/detail/articolo/francis-34578/

Clarion Call - 1

In the 20^th century the key to success in business, politics, law and other professions was to dazzle everyone and smother the brightness of the opposition. It could be called the century of illusions and it has landed the world in the mess that we are faced with. In the 21^st century let us base success on sustained brilliance and only positive thinking. We have already wasted thirteen and a half years, so we have to work swiftly to make up for the lost time.

Some time ago I read a story about how five hundred participants of a seminar were asked to sign their names each on a balloon and throw them in a room; then everyone was asked to find the balloon with his name on it. Everyone rushed in and burst most of the balloons. One or two lucky ones got the right balloon.  The exercise was repeated with people going in one by one and picking up the nearest balloon and finding its owner and giving it to him. It worked and everyone got his balloon.

In real life assets and ideas do not have names of the people who deserve them written on them. But with a little commonsense we can tell whether what we have is necessarily useful to us or not. If not, it should not be too difficult to find someone who needs it. All you need to do is to post it somewhere or send emails to those who you think would be glad to receive it.