The whole world was totally shocked by the barbaric terrorist action on Sept. 11, 2001 in the United States. All the concerned thinking persons specially religious leaders from around the world were seriously contemplating as to how to restore peace and harmony in the world. So in this connection, the United Religion Initiative (URI) organization in New York hosted a round table conference ‘Uniting for a Culture of Peace in a Time of Crisis’ on Oct 10, 2001.

The founder and the president of the URI the Rev. Bishop William Swing was the keynote speaker and Maharaja was invited to this round table to express his considered views as to how to bring peace among religious groups. Many delegates including H.E. Giandomenico Picco, UN Under-Secretary-General, who attended the round table spoke saying that it was religion that is causing all these troubles. Let us hear Maharaja’s thought-provoking address:

“The human race which populates the earth has many diversities. They speak different languages, have different colors, give different cultural meanings to life, have different eating habits, give different philosophical meanings to life, have different minds, different visions, different religions, different concepts of reality, different dresses, different looks, different understandings about rightness and wrongness of certain actions (moral and ethical values), different degrees of fanatic elements beyond any wisdom of rationality in different religious traditions (like Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc.).

In the 21st century (3rd Millennium of recorded human culture and civilization) theoretically the human race must be making tremendous advancement in all frontiers of human culture in the name of scientific advancement. However, human race has witnessed two world wars. There is a serious threat for the use of nuclear weapons which have the capacity to destroy the entire human race and other forms of life on the planet. We have also witnessed in recent history assassinations of Mahatma Gandhi Martin Luther King, J. F. Kennedy, Rajiv Gandhi, to mention a few names. Just last month (September 11, 2001) in human terrorist attack on World Trade Center, New York City caused the ugliest face of human civilization.

One of the root causes of these tragic acts is uncontrolled anger. It is a disgrace to human culture and civilization and can be termed as a serious crime to creation. In the middle of all these crimes, we are missing the real essence and values of human life. The advantage given by science and technology is that we can communicate and know each other much faster now than in the past. We cannot keep ourselves isolated from any event that happens in any part of the world. We cannot remain blind to any event small or big. Now the time has arrived that we should all collectively and unitedly try to find ways and means to remove all misunderstandings through dialogue, bridge building, and so on, among different communities.

One great hope that religions give to humanity is that we are all children of God. God is called by different names in different religious communities. However, He is our common Father. Thus we all have a common principle. We are all brothers and sisters. In the family, if someone makes a mistake, the mistake must be corrected and it is not a punishment. It is a part of education. This should be done collectively. Fanaticism must be corrected. New revelations can come through the new generation by the arrangement of God. Spiritual education emphasizes that we are all children of God and we must respect each other. This is the foundation and everything will follow from this. The science of value called either “Global Ethics”, or “Universal Ethics” will have meaning when we incorporate the essence of spiritual values from all religious traditions.

We hope that the organizations such as the United Nations, United Religions Initiative will find some practical ways for implementation in this direction.”