MOSCOW: The capital of the Soviet Union where religion was suppressed until recently, seemed an unlikely spot for a gathering that included hundreds of religious leaders, from Russian Orthodox Metropolitan to the Grand Mufti of Syria, A Buddhist monk from Japan to a turbaned Sikh from Washington DC. Equally unusual was notion of holding a global environment conference in a country where the environment has long had a low priority. Yet in Moscow from January 165 to 19 the Soviets played host to some 1,000 delegates from 83 countries at a global forum designed to bring together scientists, political and religious leaders to discuss ways to combat the growing threats to the earth’s environment.
By agreeing to meet in a week-long conference organized by U.S. based Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary leaders on Human Survival, the religious leaders sent a clear signal that they want to join the worldwide crusade to save the planet.
The Moscow forum was opened by United Nations Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar on Jan 15 and it concluded on Jan 19 with a major environmental address in the Kremlin by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.
“The course of civilization has brought us face to face with the problem of the earth itself,” said Mr Cuellar as the conference opened on Monday morning.
“Nothing remotely like this has happened in history before nothing.”
Mr. Cuellar’s sense of urgency and scale would be repeated by speakers all week: Global warming, Ozone depletion, population growth and poverty, species extinction, deforestation, pollution of the elements. But this was not to be a technical conference with new data, nor did a gathering empower to codify standards. Ultimately it was the delegate’s diverse experience of the environment, of nature itself that would make the assembly unique.
Among the political leaders who spoke were former prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, Chairman of the World Comm on Environment and Development; U.S. Senators Clairborne Pell, Al Gore, Tim Wirth, Zimbabwe’s Natural Resource Minister Victoria Chitepo; Soviet Parliamentarians and Scientists Velikoy and Yablo Koy, and senator Manual Ullow of Peru.
Others scheduled speakers included astronomer Carl Sagan; Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel; and Lester Brown founder President of the World Watch Institute of Washington D.C.
Spiritual leaders at the Moscow conference included Metropolitan PITIRIM of Russian Orthodox Church; Audrey Shenandoah, Elder of Native American Iroquois confederacy; Peace Activist Father Theodore Herburgh, Sheikh Ahmad Kuftaro, the Grand Mufti of Syria, Dr, Rajwant Singh of the Sikh community along with the Very Rev James Parks Morton, Dean of the Cathedral of St. John The Divine in New York.
On Tuesday January 16, Spiritual leaders held their press conference in which each spoke on the issues from their own tradition. Dr. Rajwant Singh presented the Sikh perspective and emphasized that science and religion should not look at each as rivals but both of these disciplines have to be integrated to solve the problem facing the world today. He further stated that, this marvelous creation of God has been vandalized by human beings and because of their insensitiveness and lack of moral values.” He said that, “tour greed to produce more, consume more, possess more have made us exploit the abundance of nature callously.” He added that “‘the question of environmental pollution is interlocked in many ways, to the problems of mental pollution, i.e. man’s faulty attitudes, flawed life styles and loss of ethical values.”
On Wednesday Jan 17 the conference started with a Sikh meditation session for the participants conducted by Dr. Rajwant Singh and Major General S.S. Uban another Sikh representative from India, Meditation session started with a recitation of Mul Mantra of Japji Sahib which was translated by Dr. Rajwant Singh. Then he recited a shabad by Guru Arjan with harmonium which expressed the universality of humankind. The Shabad and many other hymns from Gurbani were translated with a brief introduction on Sikhism. Later on all the participants in the session were asked to meditate on the Jaap of the Name “Waheguru” Sikh word for God. Many who attended this session were quite impressed by the Philosophy of Sikhism and asked Rajwant Singh to send them material on it.
Many of the conference’s most interesting moments came from the encounter of different disciplines. This cross fertilization reached even across traditional barriers between science and religion recognizing the power of religion to shape behavior, the 23 scientists including Dr. Carl Sagan in a declaration said, many of us have had profound experiences of awe and reverence before the universe. Efforts to safeguard and cherish the environment need to be infused with a vision of the sacred.””
Dr. Sagan emphasized the need of the all religions to play a major role to raise the status of women to make them responsible partners in solving these problems especially the world population. Dr. Rajwant Singh speaking at the plenary session of all spiritual leaders informed that “Sikhism puts lot of emphasis on giving an equal and respectful status to women in the society and that was practically done by all the Sikh Gutus.” He further emphasized the need to include young people of all faiths to these conferences to which would prepare them to face future challenges.
On the final day, Mikhail Gorbachev’s speech at Kremlin was frank from the outset. “I must say that in the Soviet Union,” he began, “we have only recently come to understand the vital importance of the ecological problem;” On both scientific and ethnical fundamentals he was particularly emphatic.” The stability of ecosystems depends on the maintenance of biological diversity, he said. “The right to a healthy environment is one of the basic human rights.” He proposed an establishment of a
“Green Cross” to assist victims of environmental degradation.
As a first step toward forging a united campaign to protect the planet, the Moscow meeting ended with an unprecedented 2 hour TV and Radio broadcast that was beamed live to more than 100 nations. Two broadcasts were made possible by the collaboration of Inters at, the Wests satellite communications system, and inter sputnik its East block counterpart a good example of the kind of cooperation the environment movement will need to be successful.
Dr. Rajwant Singh who was wearing black Ackan and white pajamas and with his flowing beard got a lot of attention. He was interviewed by Soviet National Television and Radio Moscow interviewed him in Punjabi which was to be relayed to Punjab. He also met President Gorbachev and his wife and also conferred with Secretary General De Cuellar. Most interesting conversation according to him was with Grand Mufti of Syria to whom Dr. Singh informed about the Hymns written by Muslim Saints in the Sikh scriptures. Grand Mufti expressed his desire to keep contact with the Sikhs.
GFSPL was created in 1985 by the Temple of Understanding an international interfaith
Article extracted from this publication >> March 16, 1990
