Swami Veda Bharati: INTERFAITH ACTIVITIES

From childhood, Swami Veda Bharati was trained to read the scriptures of various religious traditions including Buddhist, Jaina, Muslim and Christian. He has participated in numerous interfaith dialogues through his entire career of pubic speaking and teaching for the past 55 years.

In 1954-56, he participated in numerous conferences of the World Congress of Faiths, and in 1999 attended and spoke at the World Parliament of Religions in Cape Town, South Africa.

His book GOD, brings together the direct experiences of God, or the Transcendent, as manifested in the consciousness of different seekers and saints. His short work Unifying Streams in Religions, is highly acclaimed as providing a fresh perspective for bringing the different faiths closer together. This succinct essay was prepared on the occasion of the World Peace Summit of Leaders in Religion and Spirituality at the United Nations, August 2000.

Swami Veda Bharati has found the experience of meditation to be the common ground among all religions. He not only expounds the same but also gives the experience of deep inner silence according to each tradition. In the Buddhist countries he teaches entirely from within that manifestation of truth, and

(a) Gives initiations of Buddhist mantras, as well as

(b) Helps correct the pronunciations of the mantras, sutras and recitations that were brought to the lands of China, Korea and Japan by masters and teachers like Bodhidharma, Kumarajiva and Huen-Tsang.

His eight audiocassettes on Buddhist Meditation summarise the entire Theravada meditative tradition based on the teachings of the Buddha, such classic texts as VISUDDHI-MAGGA (The Path of Purification) that form the basis of the disciplines like vipassana.

Swami Veda Bharati has done extensive teaching in Christian countries. As a member of the Council of Religious advisors when serving on the faculty of the University of Minnesota, Swami Veda Bharati participated in numerous opportunities of interaction among different faiths. In addition, he has taught meditation to numerous members of the clergy at the Meditation Center in Minneapolis and elsewhere throughout the world. Rev. Dr. Carl Caskey at the University of Minnesota wrote his doctoral thesis primarily based on Swami Veda Bharati’s teaching of Christian meditation.

His cassettes of guided meditation in Christian tradition take the listener into deep silence. His single audiocassette of the summary of the Christian meditative tradition was recorded in the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour in the Marin County, California, and introduced by Rev. Charles Murphy who practised the Christian meditation in depth.

Swami Veda Bharati’s public dialogue with Bishop Otis at the Episcopalian Cathedral in Salt Lake City, Utah, reveals the common ground shared by meditators even while adhering to the tenets of their own faiths.

He has recorded 40 hours of teachings on Christian meditation.

In 1997, Swami Veda Bharati was a major participant in an interfaith encounter partly sponsored and supported by the City of Florence in Italy. In a series of presentations by the proponents of world religions, he was the inaugural speaker in a programme titled Un Tempio per la Pace (A Temple for Peace). The presentations were made by eminent figures like Thich Nhat Hanh, T.K.V.Desikachar (of the Viniyoga School of Yoga), Fuad Alam (Professor of Islamic Studies), Joseph Levi (Chief Rabbi of Florence) and many others. Their presentations, including that of Swami Veda Bharati, are published in anthology titled Un Tempio per la Pace, published by Nardini Editore of Florence.

In the kumbh mela of 2000, for the first time in a history of 26 centuries the most prominent leader of world Buddhism, H.H.Dalai Lama and the highest spiritual leader of Hinduism, the Shankaracharya, together made offerings into the sacred fire of the ceremonies organised by Swami Veda Bharati.

His work in the interfaith dialogue continues with a strong emphasis on the unity of the faiths in the experience of inner silence through meditation. In 2001 he met with the leaders of various religious traditions in New York at the offices of the RudderFinn who have been primary supporters of the interfaith effort at the United Nations; and at the highly prestigious Bhai Virsingh Academy in New Delhi, India.

Also in 2001 the University of Valladolid, the most ancient University of Spain, invited Swami Veda to participate in a similar dialogue among leaders of world religions. Later in the year he was chief guest at the anniversary celebrations of the Mahabodhi Society, an umbrella organisation of world Buddhism at the site where the Buddha had preached his first sermon. Here he addressed the crowd assembled from 21 countries in Pali, the language that the Buddha spoke.

Also in 2001, the director from the Cultural Ministry of Iran visited India and expressed a wish to meet with the leaders of various religions of India. On the invitation of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations of the Government of India, Swami Veda Bharati, together with leaders of the Jaina, Parsi (Zoroastrian) and Sikh religions participated in the discussions, which served as an important exercise for mutual understanding.

Swami Veda Bharati also wrote an extensive 40-page introduction to his Master’s ‘transcreation’ of the Sikh Holy scripture, the GURU GRANTH SAHIB. Since 1995, he has been annually addressing gatherings of up to 200000 followers of the Sikh faith at the Holy Ratwara Sahib near Chandigarh, the capital of the Punjab State of India, where he is highly venerated, following in the footsteps of his Master, Swami Rama of the Himalayas. He is known for placing these lakhs (hundred thousand) people into a state of stillness and meditation.

Swami Veda Bharati’s Meditation Centre in Minneapolis has often held ecumenical services combining the yoga tradition with the traditions of various faiths at sacred occasions like the Buddha’s Full Moon, Christmas, and so forth. His poetic messages for such occasions reflect the oneness that runs through the Vedas, the Bodhisattva idea, the Nordic rituals, and the current Christian stream.

Swami Veda Bharati, who can read 17 languages with varying degree of fluency, is not only proficient in his knowledge of the traditions of widely recognised religions. He has also made a study of such works of literature as Popul Vuh, the Manicaean texts, and so forth.

He has interviewed in depth the Dagbo (the high priest: Souverain Daagbo Houno, Chef Suprême de la Réligion Voudou) and other keepers of the Voudoun tradition in places like Ouida in Benin, French West Africa, where he was given very special honours. In these countries he has taught meditation using the mantra-sounds cognate to such local languages as Fon in Benin.

In the Conference on Science and Meditation, sponsored by his Ashram and the Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust at Dehradun, India, Nov.10-12, 2002, for the first time he brought together the presenters, masters and teachers of various meditative traditions in a dialogue with US, German and Indian scientists and sociologists. The Yoga, Hindu, Buddhist (Theravada and Mahayana), Jaina, Islamic, Sufi and the Christian meditative traditions were represented in this dialogue with scientists and medical practitioners.

In the Conference on Encounter of World Views (visit www.encounterofworldviews.com), November 28-29 in Holland he led the delegates from different countries, cultures and faiths (ambassadors, heads of NGO’s etc.) into unifying meditations in silence. The topic of his own discussion groups was “What is right with the world” in which he emphasized that subtle unifying streams are experienced in inter-faith and inter-ethnic trust even in the times genocidal strife, and that the areas and period of peace and co-operation among faiths in history are far greater than the areas and periods of wars.

In February 2003 (3-9th) he was a keynote speaker in the International Conference of the Elders of the Traditions in Mumbai in which he (a) spoke on the common principles held sacred in belief and practice among the peoples of less articulate and economically disadvantaged ethnic religions, and (b) reported on his interviews with the chief priests of the Voodoo tradition in French West Africa, and the plans for bringing the Indian and African spirituality together.

Around the same time he began his work among the Mazdayasnian communities, giving meditation initiation through Zarathushtrian mantras; his work in this area is growing rapidly.

In all the meditation groups and centres guided by Swami Veda Bharati throughout different continents, the followers of all faiths gather together to practice meditation. They find that through such a spiritual practice they gain a deeper understanding of each his/her own tradition.

It is the hope and aspiration of Swami Veda Bharati

1. That the various theologians and practitioners of religions would not need to state that all religions are one but would rather recognise that the minds and souls become united in the contemplative silence which is a wordless communion, not to be defined, and that is where the true unity in God is experienced;

2. That the followers of different faiths, and those working to bring about harmony among religions, would take cognisance of the various streams of unity that have been flowing naturally among the common folk as well as among the highly realised wise theologians and philosophers for the past thousands of years but have not been recognised;

3. That the contemplatives of various faiths would at some time join together in moments, or days, of silence and experience therein their common thread running from the Transcendental Source. As a result of that unity in divine silence, they would then find the mode of dialogue and would influence and nudge the world leaders in organised religions towards unification in divinity.

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Swami Veda Bharati receives an International Award

The Kunti Goyal International Award 2001, carrying a sum of $ 1000 has been awarded to Swamiji for his scholarship and “directing spiritual lives of students and devotees in over 30 countries for the last 50 years”

This Award was instituted in 1994 by the well know “Kunti Goyal Foundation” Jodhpur. Rajasthan, India. The past recipients of this award include Dr. David Frawley, Dr. Subash Kak, Swami Ram Sukh Das and Mr. Helmut Schreider.

During this visit to Jodhpur, Swamiji also visited Aravali Institute of Management and spoke to the faculty and students on spiritual aspects of management.

Swami Veda Bharati in Maharashtra

Swamiji held a silence retreat for the groups based in Mumbai and Pune at Naval Virayatan Jain ashram in Pune district, Maharashtra, from 30th January to 1st February 2003. The ashram is a deeply peaceful place, set high in the ghats overlooking a lake, the only other building in sight being a small Krishnamurti school. A number of people were initiated during the weekend; many more were initiated in Mumbai during the following week. It was not possible to initiate all the people who had come forward, so the remainder were invited to attend a retreat in Rishikesh in November this year, where the initiations will be completed.

Helping Swamiji were Satish Rupani, Durga and Satya Narayan of Mumbai, and Anne Glazier.

On 25th January, a party of elders of spiritual traditions visited the Rishikesh ashrams. Although their visit was cut drastically short because of problems on the road from Delhi to Rishikesh, the group’s brief presence in the ashrams was notable for its friendliness, happiness, and immediate response to the quiet in the meditation halls.

The group comprised about thirty of the delegates to the first International Conference and Gathering of (Spiritual) Elders held from 4th to 9th February at RMP International, Keshavasrushti, and Mumbai. The World Council of Elders of Ancient Traditions and Cultures arranged the conference. More than two hundred delegates from attended it across the world. Delegates representing spiritual traditions as diverse as Yoruba, Himalayan tribal traditions, the indigenous culture of Trinidad and Tobago, Druid, Maya and many more eagerly awaited their opportunity to talk of their spiritual lives.

Swami Veda was one of the key speakers at the inauguration on the first morning, immediately impressing the gathering with a short-guided meditation and an address demonstrating his wide knowledge of the world’s spiritual traditions.

Returning a few days later for Swamiji to give his longer address and half-hour guided meditation, we were surprised to see that he had been put at the end of the list of speakers and meditation guides for that day, instead of at the beginning as might be expected. The reason was, we were told, that most people were going over time and had to be stopped by the chairperson. Swamiji had been placed at the end so that nobody would stop him if he wanted to go over the time allowed.