19. UNIVERSALISM ........... entire earth is a family !

Ayam Nijah Paro Veti Gananam Laghu Chetasam
Udara Charitanam tu Vasudhaiva Kutumbhakam ||


"This is me and that is a stranger" - is the thought of the narrow-minded, for the magnanimous person, the Entire Earth is a family"

This is a verse from Hitopadesha a collection of prose and verse written in 12 century, for the benefit of teaching our children moral, ethical and emphatically values. If we try to understand this sloka we can realize that this was what made Swamy Vivekananda to address the gathering at The Parliament of the World’s Religions at Chicago, in 1893 as “My dear Brothers and Sisters of America” By addressing the gathering as brothers and sisters Swamy Vivekananda showed his belief in Universal Brotherhood.

Universalism is the ideology which prepares us to tolerate and respect other religion as the religion we are practicing. It also guides us to accept the intent of the philosophies which are to fortify human values. There is a Sufi song which Wadali Brothers sing; the lyricist compares the humans to pigeons. He says “Oh Lord what have we humans done in dividing our religions and separating ourselves in the name of God, a Hindu never goes to a mosque, a Muslim does not enter a temple. Christian is bounded to a church and a Sikh to Gurudwara, Oh Lord; I feel that a life of a pigeon is far better than mine. Once it sits on minaret of a mosque and the next on the gopuram of a temple or on the bell tower of a church and on the dome of a gurudwara”.

Universalism helps in the spread of awareness of unity, the religion of love which roots out the distinctions and differences which are the causes for hatred and violence.