Spiritual Awakening, The Bedrock Of Interfaith Harmony

One day while going through an English daily, I came across a news item that was headlined ‘Man-Made Barriers’.

- C.L. Gulati

I readily presumed it might mention some heroic deed of men in constructing barriers against floods. Out of curiosity, I went through the news item minutely.

The news said that a 45-year-old Maharashtrian tourist stopped outside the Jaganath Temple in Puri, Odisha. The sign in bold letters read, ‘For Hindus only’. He was a Muslim. The flickering flames inside the temple beckoned him to the house of God but the priest refused him entry. The tourist engaged the holy man in a discussion and stated, "Do not consider me a Muslim but a yatri who has come for Darshan.” The plea was not well received. At Mathura too, he was turned out from a temple on the grounds of religion. There was a flood of tears in the tourist's eyes when he narrated these incidents and added frankly that the same was the case with Muslims. At one police station in Uttar Pradesh, the same tourist was well received because of his faith by a Muslim police officer. His stay was made quite comfortable.

Barriers against humanity

The article was not on barriers built by men to stop floods but on barriers between men. Every blind adherent of a religion believes that the worst man in that religion is better than the best man in another religion. This poses a threat to humanity and is more devastating than sporadic floods.