New Delhi,
October 7(Aditi Tandon)-Sikh scholar Mohinder Singh took Guru Nanak’s message
of peaceful co-existence to the world stage last week. The occasion was
International Prayer for Peace, a two-day congregation of representatives of
different faiths to appeal for reconciliation in Syria. Attended by 350
delegates, it was hosted by the Community of Sant’Egidio and officially
supported by the Head of the Roman Catholic Churchn Pope Francis.
Back from
the Vatican, Mohinder Singh, honorary director of Bhai Veer Singh Sadan, said:
“It was a fascinating assembly of believers and non-believers. For the first
time, the Head of the Catholic Church openly welcomed a dialogue between
believers and non-believers and between faiths.” Mohinder Singh, who
represented Sikhism at the conference, took part in a panel discussion on
“Dialogue between Religions: A Road to Peace”. He shared the dais with Jean
Pierre Delville, Bishop of Belgium; Yahya Sergis Yahe Pallabicini, Imam of
Milan; and Tep Vong, patriarch of Cambodian Buddhism.
“For me it
was an occasion to recall the fundamental message of Guru Nanak to his
followers, to listen first and sermonise later. I narrated an incident from the
Guru’s life. When the Guru visited Multan, he was stopped at the city’s entry
by a group of holy men who showed him a bowl full of milk, indicating that the
city was full of saints and there was no place for more.
“The Guru
smiled back, saying he was like the jasmine petal that floats on the milk
without taking any space,” Mohinder Singh said in his address at the Vatican.
The Sikh
scholar was part of a select group of faith leaders who had a special audience
with the Pope.
Among the
delegates was a Holocaust survivor David Barodman and Italian journalist
Antonio Ferrari, released by Syrian militants after six months in captivity.
Mohinder
Singh, who is also member, National Commission for Minority Educational
Institutions, said the highlight of the event was the presence of all Cardinals
across the world, whom the Pope had invited for the first time.
The
conference culminated in an appeal for peace in Syria followed by a procession.
“The event marks a change in the attitude of the Catholic Church which had
hitherto believed that all solutions lie in Christianity,” said Mohinder Singh,
who presented the Pope with his book on the Golden Temple and invited him to
visit the Sikh seat of worship.
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