Christians and Hindus:Rekindling Positivity and Hope during the Covid-19 Pandemic and Beyond.
The ISKCON Communications Ministry hosted the Fifth Annual Vaishnava Christian Dialogue in India, December 16-18. The Dialogue is part of a global effort by the Ministry to promote understanding between members of ISKCON and other major religious communities.
The program, which was conceived and initiated by Keshav Murari Das, Temple President ISKCON Rohini, saw participation of various spiritual leaders from different faiths and communities, who shared their views and realization on the Holy Name as per their practice and faith.
At each meeting over the past decade, volunteers from each tradition have presented a paper on a chosen topic, one sharing the Vaishnava perspective, and the other the Muslim perspective; followed by an open discussion.
Essence magazine, a lifestyle monthly for African American women, has featured husband and wife Krsnanandini Devi Dasi, a disciple of Srila Prabhupada, and her husband Tariq Saleem Ziyad, an Orthodox Muslim, in their April 2019 issue. The magazine has a circulation of 1.6 million readers.
The main topic and the title of the conference was “The Role of Multi-religious Cooperation in Social Cohesion and Human Security.” As part of the program, on May 7th the European religous leaders visited the Hare Krishna Temple in Budapest.
Around 125 people from both traditions attended the third annual Hindu-Catholic Dialogue, held at the Shiva Vishnu temple in suburban Washington D.C. on Saturday November 11th.Participants included Catholic bishops, priests and several dozen Catholic laypeople. From the Hindu community, there were leaders from local Hindu temples, along with a number of congregational members
Over two hundred guests including spiritual leaders, scholars, university students and journalists came together last week at the India International Center in New Delhi to participate in the inaugural session of a two day dialogue between spiritual leaders and scholars from India and Iran on the theme of “Spirituality in Hinduism and Islam”.
Most significantly for ISKCON members, Vatican Council II redefined how the Catholic Church sees and engages with the non-Catholic religious traditions.
Discrimination, whether raced-based, caste-based, gender-based, or religion-based is springs from ignorance and has no spiritual value. It only serves to distance us from other human beings and from God.