Rajan Zed urges countries to promote interfaith parleys

Commending "European Year of Intercultural Dialogue" project of European Union, acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed has urged other similar international organisations and nations to promote interfaith dialogue in their respective jurisdictions.

Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, in a statement in Nevada (USA), says that the challenge for us is to learn to live together with our significantly distinct traditions in peace, in some sort of shared loyalty and trust, and to implore a unity that celebrates diversity.

Zed argues that dialogue brings us reciprocal enrichment because we come out spiritually affluent than before the encounter. Dialogue helps us overcome the caricatures, stereotypes and bias handed down from previous generations. It also aids us in seeing inter-reliance and interconnections between religions and even resemblance in doctrines.

Rajan Zed points out that we are all looking for the truth and in our shared quest for the truth, we can learn from each other, and resultantly thus can come closer to the truth. We are headed in the same direction, so we should at least cooperate in common causes like ecological responsibility, peace, social development, etc.

Presence of different faiths was positively desired by God, as a sign of God's benevolence and bountifulness, Zed adds.