Anop R. Vora
Interreligious Conference was held in Monterrey, Mexico from Sept. 20 through 27, 2007 and attended by over 6000 people. About 30 prominent religious and spiritual leaders from Bahai, Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Sikkhism from all over the world as well as Mexican indigenous leaders blessed the conference. The purpose of the conference was to build harmony and friendships among the people of different religions and faith traditions, to discover new areas where interests and convictions converge and where the religions can work together for a better and more peaceful world.
JAINA (Federation of Jain Associations In North America) team included Raksha J. Shah (Bombay), Divya & Vivek Jain (New Brunswick, NJ) and myself. Raksha & I gave a 90 power point presentation on Jainism to two different groups and also participated in panel discussions that were centered on armed conflicts, terrorism, and transmitting religious values. We offered Jain observance once morning. We recited a Jain prayer in one of the plenary sessions-jam packed with over 5000 people. The audience responded with a thunderous applause when they heard us ending the prayer with Viva Monterrey and Viva Mexico. Divya gave an outstanding dance performance in a similar plenary session and made the audience very euphoric. The dance was based on “Allah Tero Nam” and “Vaishnav Jan To Tene Re Kahie”. Naresh Jain, Co-Chair of JAINA Interfaith Committee was instrumental in arranging the JAINA representation including Divya’s attendance.
The Mexican people were extremely pleased with the new knowledge they gained and showered every one with their love, joy and appreciation. The spiritual leaders left the conference with a better appreciation of the perspectives of different faiths and made a renewed commitment to work together to make this world a better place to live in.
We found this conference to be extremely fruitful in terms of educating people about the practices and precepts of JAINISM and making new connections with other religious leaders. We felt that many people at the conference were taking a note of the depth with which our faith looks at the concept of non-violence and how we were practicing “Anekantwad’ at the conference by being open to the view points of other religions. When we offered a complimentary copy of the Essence of World’s Religions to the religious leaders gathered, they all signed up to get one. In addition, I was approached by Dr. Joseph Runzo of California to become a part of his team in the Global Ethics and Religion Forum and provide a Jain perspective. He has stayed with a Jain family during his visit to India and was quite familiar with our non-violent way of life. We foresee more incidences like this happening as more and more non-Jains come to know and appreciate about what we have to offer. Our community is indeed sitting on a golden treasure.
Let us for a moment look at the big picture as it relates our community. There is no doubt in our minds that we are passing through exciting times in the human history. Thanks to the globalization due to which boundaries of time, space and distance are shrinking rapidly. Plurality of cultures and religions is beginning to become a way of life. Consequently, we will hear more and more about the interreligious dialogues as time marches on. How should our community participate in this phenomenon? As a first step, we need to open up and gently and quietly articulate our insight, our values and our approach to daily life as we come in contact with the non-Jains. After we go through this phase, we should think about providing social services to the main stream America as well. JAINA needs to lead the community in this direction through its Interfaith Committee and make a difference in the lives of many. There is indeed a great potential for JAINA to explore.