World Peace..

We recently visited the Baha'i temple for World Peace, The Lotus temple at New Delhi. It was a nice trip and we loved the whole feeling of it all. One of the rare things that I saw, that people from all walks of life, including from different religions came to the temple to pray for world peace.

The lotus shaped temple was a majestic view. There were water pools besides the temple, that made it look as if this giant lotus of a structure was actually floating in water ( top view, too much of ED in the first year have got us imagining).

The interior of the temple was huge, and there were arrangements for sitting where people can sit and devote time for world peace. Before entering the temple, everyone was urged to keep silent when inside the temple, as a way of praying. I thought this as a great way of praying, as silence has a great calming effect on the mind and the soul.

We loved the whole experience, as it was really very quite, so much different from the traffic outside. Once in a while, you could hear the kids crying,which broke our meditation and made us come back into the real world once again. I think they could have done by restricting kids below a particular age, but then, the temple for world peace is open to all religions, and on a after thought this restriction is what they don't believe in.

Anyways, the whole experience made me think about an important aspect from a new angle : What if there were no religion in the first place? Why cannot we have more such temples for world peace, because that is what we want ultimately : peace for all and love for mankind.

Faith is a good thing, but my experiences tell me that extreme faith and love for one's religion has always created enmity between two groups of people. When a child comes into this world, he does not know from which faith he hails. He is gradually inducted into his religion, and he grows up taking those value systems. What if he is taught that his religion is world peace and that his own moral duty is to remove the suffering of this world by means of erasing poverty, sickness and all the vagaries of the world in his own capacity. I think he will turn out to be better, he will not discriminate ...

The world needs more such centres for peace, as it is the ultimate goal for humankind. Isn't it?