WALKING TOGETHER IN LIFE

 

WALKING TOGETHER IN LIFE

Dr M. D. Thomas

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Life is the most sacred gift from the Creator. All living beings in their different forms share in the some gift though in different degrees. The humans are privileged to receive the maximum possible measure of life. They are invited to recognize the greatness of this gift in an equivalent manner, too. The religious traditions are oriented to provide a contextual setting required for the above purpose. Only a spiritual perspective of life is capable of maintaining the link between the diverse dimensions of the created as well as between the Creator and the created, in all its dimensions. That, in its turn, furnishes the raison-de’tre for celebrating the fullness of life.

'Keep going' is what life really is. That is the thread that keeps the finest particles of life connected. That is indeed the 'spinal cord' of life, without which no form of life could have been composed. That is the pendulum that swings between the moments on either side of the interval. That is the cementing element for bridging the divided spaces of the path of life. How could there be a journey in life without joining the steps, one after another? How could the life aspire to reach its divine destination with out those queued steps? If life is set on a journey, it has to keep going, in spite of all possible hurdles on the way. Such a never-ending process defines life, in the vertical sense.

'The spirit of togetherness' is the pivot of life. Could anyone intend to travel in life alone as an individual? How could one justify the social aspect of life then? Life has immense faces. All those faces are worthy of being identified. Diverse ethnic characteristics, inclinations, languages, ideologies, cultures and religious traditions, both on individual and community levels, are precious streams of life. All these dimensions of life are among the choicest gifts of the some Creator. They are the common heritage of the human society, too. They need to be coordinated among them. Here is the real relevance of faith in the divine. There are commonalities as well as differences. Commonalities are the uniting factor, whereas the differences are the enriching factor. Being together is life proper, in the horizontal sense of the word.

'Walking together in life' is the sum and substance of life. The diverse elements in life, including faith, have to cc-exist, interact, give and take, and find each other other-oriented. They have to recognize, respect, accept, learn, understand, love, serve and thus promote each other. Difference in the other is that which creates appetite in living. When each singular element permeates into the details of the other, there is real celebration of life, in other words, 'unity in diversity'. This is the faith perspective of life. Religions vacations have to keep monitoring such a harmony perspective of life. A higher level of spiritual experience is the clarion call addressed to the leaders of religions. Would the diverse faith affiliations 'in a spirit of walking together' facilitate the entire human society to travel a joint pilgrimage towards the some Creator? That is the question to be answered in action!

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The author is Director, Institute of Harmony and Peace Studies, New Delhi, and has been committed to cross-cultural perspectives, cross-scriptural values, constitutional values, interfaith relations, communal harmony, national integration and social wellbeing, for the past over 40 years. He contributes to the above cause through lectures, articles, video messages, conferences, social interactions, views at TV channels, and the like.

He could be viewed, listened to and contacted at the following portals – websites ‘www.mdthomas.in’ (p), ‘https://mdthomas.academia.edu’ (p), ‘https://drmdthomas.blogspot.com’(p) and ‘www.ihpsindia.org’ (o); social media ‘https://www.youtube.com/InstituteofHarmonyandPeaceStudies’ (o), ‘https://twitter.com/mdthomas53’ (p), ‘https://www.facebook.com/mdthomas53’ (p); email ‘mdthomas53@gmail.com’ (p) and telephone 9810535378 (p).

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Published (as Editorial) in ‘Fellowship (Half-yearly Journal), Vol.13, No. 02, p. 01 -- published by Commission for Religious Harmony, CBCI, New Delhi -- in October 2005