World Religions Conference 

 

Under the heading of “The Ideal of Universal Religion,” Satguru Kirpal Singh had penned the following words in the introduction to gurmat sidhant (published in 1935): “The crying need of the time is to set up one universal religions for the entire mankind which should be a compendium of all that is good in every religion. The basic principle working in all is one.” Twenty-two years later the world fellowship of all religions was brought into being. Two hundred thousands people attended this initial conference, held in Delhi in 1957. The vice President of India, a distinguished patron of the world fellowship of religions, expressed its basic concepts in the following words: “though the various religions stand up like tree in solitary isolation, yet in their roots they interwine, and in their summits they meet one another.” Later on, his holiness sat Guru Kirpal Singh Ji Maharaj was elected President of the world fellowship of religions.

 

In 1958, Kirpal Singh Ji went to Lahore where he met eminent members of the Islamic faith and discoursed upon many abstruse question of a spiritual doctrinal nature. One insistent problem placed before him was the fact that the prophet of Allah had made no mention of transmigration of reincarnation in his scriptures. “The problem of transmigration is not a baffling as some of us have made It.,” explained Satguru Kirpal Singh. It is based on the well-known principle of cause and effect, or every action has necessity of a reaction. If you just strike the bottom out of a vessel nothing will remain within it. The law is for the lawbreakers only. Those who live peaceful under the law and do not break even a jot of it, for them there is no law and no punishment. For instance, I have come to your country and live quite amicably here without breaking any of your country law. Although there are prison and a police force here, for one who lives, by the law they are of no consequence, and as such hardly exist. Some mystics have mentioned transmigration, others, have not. But this involves no contradiction. The prophet wished to take all his followers into the seventh heaven, beyond, beyond the realms of moon and starts, all of which he himself would traverse in his daily meditation.

 

This is significantly apparent from the terminology used by him shaq ul Qmar and al miraj (splitting the moon in two and rising beyond it). One who has access into the beyond has no need for coming and going into the lower world. In other words, for the liberated man there is no transmigration. Little wonder that the prophet made no mention of this in his teachings, since for him and for all those who could tread his path, transmigration could hardly be said to exist. Let us than endeavor to follow the prophet, and if we can achieve this, we need not be concerned with transmigration at all.”

 

In this way, Satguru Kirpal Singh resolved differences of interpretation between the various faiths, correlating passages from the Christians scriptures with passages from the Sikh scriptures, and passages from the Hindu scriptures with passages from the Islamic scriptures. another technical objection was made against the inclusion of the word “God” in the constitution of the W.F.R. this is the objection was made by members of the Mahabodhi Society, who stated that as Budhists they could not believe in God. The resolution in point was fundamental to the dedication of the W.F.R. as being under the “Fatherhood of God”.

 

Satguru Kirpal Singh went to the dissident delegates in order to take up this question with them. “Brothers, do you believe in the commandments of lord Buddha?” He enquired of them. they replied in the affirmative. Then, quoting the words of Lord Buddha, Satguru Kirpal Singh continued: “Self is the refuge of self,” he said, “for who else could be? This self is the over self in which our mortal self finds refuge. This over self is termed God. Our souls emerge from the universal soul and have no other refuge except the universal soul.” This explanation satisfied the Buddhist delegates and they agreed to proceed with the resolution without expunging the word “God”.

 

This episode occurred at the second conference  of the world fellowship of religions which took place in Calcutta on February 2, 1960. During the decade that followed the great reconciler was called upon to resolve differences time and again. During his second world tour in 1963, Satguru Kirpal Singh spread the message of W.F.R. far and wide.

 

Much good came out of the four conference  of the W.F.R. held in India and a similar number in other countries. Lack of inter religious contact and communication had given rise to many differences and blowing out superficial differences out of all proportions. With the widening of horizon of inter religious communication had given rise to many differences and blowing out superficial differences out of all proportions. With the widening of horizons of inter religious communication many differences melted away mankind way for better understanding and concord among followers of different faiths. But there arose a new danger of over enthusiastic followers of religion banding together for the strengthening and advancement of their own sectarian interests, thereby setting up pillars to block the way to unity, which culminated in the founding of Manav Kendra or man center.