'Realisation of truth, theme of all
faiths'
The Hindu
CHENNAI, March. 18.
Swami Gautamananda, President of Ramakrishna Math, Chennai, has underlined the
need for inculcating higher religious values in the minds of the people so that
India could become a `great
nation.'.
He said if the spiritual values of truthfulness, purity, faith in God and
selfless sacrifice, which were common to all religions were inculcated,``we will
be a great nation sociologically, economically,
politically, morally and spiritually''.
Similar views were expressed by Mr. Abdul Hadi, former Judge of the Madras High
Court, Most Rev. Dr. Arul Das James, Archbishop of Madras-Mylapore, and Mr. M.
R. Nagasubramaniam,
Harikatha scholar, who said the essence of all religions was love and affection
towards one and all.
They were speaking after the release of a book, `The Hindu Speaks On Religious
Values', containing a compilation of ideas from scriptures and holy books of
several religions as interpreted from
time to time by a host of discoursists and published in the religious columns of
The Hindu for the last 35 years.
The Swamiji said, ``realisation of truth is the central theme of all religions''
and the book was being brought out at the right time when things were
deteriorating in society.
``We want to spread higher values which will give us eternal joy,'' he said and
complimented The Hindu for its religious column and for bringing out the book.
Mr. Abdul Hadi said religions, rightly preached and practised, would enable
people to reach the goal of perfect human conduct.
He said all religions contained common moral messages for the good of the
humanity. He lauded The Hindu for its commendable effort in bringing out the
book.
Dr. Arul Das James offered felicitations to the newspaper for publishing
regularly the religious column and for bringing out the compilation. He said,
``every religion leads us to God and sincerity,
honesty and truthfulness are values common to everybody.''
Mr. Nagasubramaniam said the compilation contained moral and spiritual values
common to all religions and they served as a code of conduct for the humanity.
Mr. N. Ravi, Editor, The Hindu, said over 300 reports a year had been published
in the newspaper since 1964 on some aspect of religious teaching and this
compilation by Mr. D. V. Vasudevan, who
had written 75 per cent of the pieces in this compilation, contained 500 such
reports.
Care had been taken to cover as wide a range of themes as possible, encompassing
different aspects of the Hindu religion and philosophy, together with the
essentials of Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Jainism and Buddhism.
Mr. Ravi said the articles were grouped in 25 chapters under various heads such
as Vedas and the different sources of Hindu philosophy, the schools of thought
such as Adwaita, subjects such as
morals and devotion and major religions.
A reading of the book would show how much of a force a good religion could be,
with its emphasis on morality and virtuous conduct and the finer values such as
tolerance, respect and affection for all.
Mr. N. Murali, Joint Managing Director, The Hindu, said this was the fifth in
the series of such compilations of articles brought out by the newspaper. The
other four publications were on
Libraries, Information Technology, Management and Education.