I have always sensed and felt the presence of God-the Universal Spiritual Power-in me. However, for a long time I was bamboozled by the cacophony of noises coming from the myriad of religions and religious institutions that I encountered, including the many which claimed to have a monopoly on the path to God. However, my own personal experience with humanity across the world has left me convinced of the common and shared spirituality of all human beings and that God is not limited to any one religion or one group of religions. That common spirituality is something that I continue to sense and feel every day of my life. It is something that overrides the imposing and often divisive influence of religion, culture and race in our societies.
I now strive to be just as much at home in the church, in the temple, in the mosque, or wherever I find myself in the company of human beings. Christ in Matthew 18:20 tells us that God is always with us-"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them." I strive to be able to embrace and love all human beings as my spiritual brothers and sisters, despite their individual beliefs and religions. I strive to always see goodness and godliness in all human beings, in spite of my own occasional lapses. I see myself as an imperfect being trying to become perfect, even though perfection continues to evade me. Here, I am reminded of the words of our former President, Noor Hassanali, when he said: "The object of man's life is the attainment of perfection, and though he may never attain it, it is his duty to keep trying."
Despite my concerns for the tribal nature of many of our religious institutions, I totally embrace the fundamental principles, which I see as the defining common spiritual foundation of our humanity. These fundamental principles encapsulate love, truth, fairness, human dignity, the pursuit of quality and excellence, and the human potential. They form the common message of all major religions since they are the common rules of our human existence. Mahatma Gandhi shared his wisdom with us when he wrote: "The fundamental ethics are common to all religions."
Hence, I believe that as human beings we are all spiritually connected and that we are on a journey to progressively express more of our spirituality and thus release more and more of our potential goodness. It has been a slow and torturous journey that has resulted in the continuing coming together of humanity, despite the many conflicts and wars-some still ongoing-over the centuries. This progressive coming together of humanity is otherwise referred to as the development of civilisation. I believe that humans are endowed with the capacity to take our civilisation to a much higher level through the continuing unification of our humanity.
This unification can only come through the greater expression of our goodness and our godliness. It is building a world in which there is more love and compassion and less unfairness, hatred, oppression and violence. This all translates into human beings becoming more aware of the common spirituality that cuts through our many religions, our many cultures and our racial differences. The true measure of our godliness is how well we embrace and work with other hu-man beings. The display of religious bigotry, and racial and cul- tural superiority, only dilutes our humanity and diminishes our godliness. Human development is about our spiritual development. We know this intuitively, hence the universal acceptance of the desire for peace in the world, peace in our countries, peace in our communities, peace in our organisations and peace in our homes. We know that unfairness, hatred, oppression and violence is the outcome of our tribal behaviours and that it is wrong.
Our spiritual journey is a movement away from the divisiveness of tribalised thinking. Humans have been on that journey for over 10,000 years. There is no doubt that the world is a more unified place than it was 1,000 years ago, 100 years ago or 50 years ago and I believe that this trend is continuing. The world is becoming a more moral place, although there is a common perception to the contrary. There is now among us a much higher level of spiritual awareness, which tends to magnify our immoral behaviours relative to the past. In fact, humanity is on a moral incline, not a moral decline. Hence, as a culturally diverse society we are challenged to continue to grow our spirituality if we are to display more moral behaviours. I believe that the more we promote and celebrate our diversity the longer we will be trapped in a state of divisiveness and wrapped in the morass of corruption and anti-social behaviours; and the more we will delay the harmony and peace that we all desire and long for.
We need to proactively promote a better understanding of our commonality rather than continuing to exaggerate and celebrate our differences. We need to free ourselves to grow rather than stultifying our own development into a unified people living in peace and harmony. It is time to celebrate our commonality. Perhaps this is a national holiday that we should be celebrating as a catalyst for forging greater morality and harmony in our divided society. However, we must note that morality cannot easily be taught through the means of our conventional education. It can only be discovered within ourselves. It can only come from developing our spiritual selves. Virtues do not come from an external source. Goodness is within all of us. God is within and connects all of us. We have to help others, and in particular our children, to discover and express their common spirituality.
I am an optimist. I do not adhere to the doom and gloom that is so often expressed about the future of our society and of our humanity. Human history tells us otherwise. Let us develop our people, and in particular our youth, to live in hope and to have a more optimistic perspective on the future. The gloom-and-doom mentality is sapping the creative and spiritual energy of our people and fostering a culture of helplessness and hopelessness, as fear looms large. People must become free humans rather than allow fear of others to coral them into cages of narrow-mindedness and divisiveness; and there are many cages waiting to entice them in. Let us help ourselves, and all within our sphere of influence, to see the inherent goodness in our selves and to celebrate our common humanity as we strive to make T&T into the great society that it has the potential to become.