Our planet Earth favours diversity. In the beginning of time, in the hours of the Big Bang, there was only energy and gas. Over the billions of years, evolution has created countless forms of life. It is a self-evident fact that the Earth and evolution celebrate and sustain diversity. No two trees are the same. No two human faces or two human bodies or two human voices are the same. Each person has his or her own voice. Each tree has its own personality. Each animal has its own individuality.
I was a Jain monk. The Jains not only celebrate the diversity of life, but they also believe in the diversity of truths. They call it Anekantvad — No One Truth. Each and every one of us have our own particular point of view, our own truth; each one of us sees things in our own way. This diversity of perspectives is considered by the Jains to be a wonderful and beautiful gift. In Jain philosophy, the diversity of truths and the diversity of lives is the cardinal principle of evolution.
However, modern industrial civilisation has invented uniformity. Instead of celebrating diversity, our contemporary culture is creating uniformity. In my view diversity leads to peace and uniformity leads to conflicts. The idea that everybody should follow the same political principle, the same economic system, the same architecture and consume the same industrial goods, leads to a narrow worldview. People start to think that if you don’t follow a particular ideology, or a particular economic or political system, which they approve, then you are wrong.
At the moment, in particular, the world is following a path of economic uniformity; whether it is a Muslim country, a Hindu country, a Christian country, a communist country, a capitalist country, or a socialist country, whatever ideology they may pretend to hold, most of them are following one basic policy: “Every country should pursue economic growth”. It seems that every country has been converted to a world religion of economic growth! And it should be the same kind of economic growth. You go to New York or to New Delhi, the high-rise buildings and shopping malls are the same or similar everywhere. A few big brand names dominate the markets. Whether in New Delhi or New York, if you don’t know the name of the city, you might not know where you are!
So, we see uniformity of architecture, uniformity of dress, uniformity of food and uniformity in education prevalent everywhere. In the name of globalisation, progress and economic growth, our modern civilisation is being built on mass production, mass consumption and mass transportation, leading to the global uniformity of life, causing huge amounts of waste, pollution and environmental destruction, as well as national and international conflicts.
If we want peace in the world, then we need to celebrate diversity in every field of life. It is wonderful to have many religions, many cultures, many languages and many different ways to produce and to make things. It is good to have diversity in the arts, crafts and cultures. Also, it is good to have many different scientific perspectives. At the moment, if you don’t follow one mainstream scientific ideology or methodology then you are considered to be unscientific or even wrong. Furthermore, science is becoming increasingly dominant. Science is good but also spirituality is necessary, poetry is necessary, arts and crafts are necessary. We need everything in life. It’s not just science, or just technology, or just religion! We need a bit of everything in our world.
The Jains have given us Anekantvad, the concept of the diversity of truths, which is a great ideal to live by. Jains have given us another word and that word is Syadvad, which means ‘it may be true’.
Language has limited capacity to express and articulate universal truths, but we might understand universal truths through silence. Language is like a finger pointing towards the moon. The finger is not the moon! There is only one moon, but there may be many fingers pointing towards the moon. The moon can only be experienced in silent observation. That is the idea of Syadvad or ‘Maybeism’.
Liberal-minded people talk about freedom of expression, freedom of opinion, freedom of speech and freedom of ideas but very few people actually respect that freedom! If we were to accept and practice Syadvad, then it would help us to embrace multiple views, truths and perspectives without getting into conflict and condemnation or even wars. All our thriving is mutual. We all depend on each other and on the gifts of the planet Earth. We are all related. Nothing and no one can exist in isolation. The whole cosmos is our country, the whole planet earth is our home, love is our religion, yet we are rooted in our place, in our community, in our bio-region. This way unity and diversity are the two banks of the same river, community and cosmos exist in perfect harmony, the intimate and the ultimate are two sides of the same story. Local and global are complementary. We need to remember that unity is not uniformity and diversity is not division. With the concept of Syadvad we can overcome uniformity and division and instead embrace unity and diversity.
Truth represents diversity and love represents unity. Whoever you are, whether you are a Christian, a Muslim, a Hindu or an atheist, we are all humans and we can still love one another. We can hold different beliefs and views and still love one another, despite our differences. When I was walking around the world for peace, I went to Muslim countries and I said, “You are Muslims, I love you”. Then I went to Christian countries and I said, “You are Christians, I love you”.
For me, humanity goes beyond labels and names. I walked for two and a half years, 8000 miles, through 15 countries, without a single penny in my pocket. I just carried the currency of love in my heart and I was looked after by strangers everywhere. I was looked after by communists, capitalists, Christians, Muslims, poor and rich. They were all humans and hospitable.
That experience taught me that we can, and we should, love everyone: we should love diversity. Whoever you are, we love you. We need no enemies. And we should have no enemies. We are all friends. Through love enemies are transformed into friends. “Love your enemies” is not just an impractical idealism; it is a very powerful and effective way of life. In Europe, people claim to be Christians. They go to church on Sunday and pledge to practise love, then from Monday to Saturday they pay and prepare for war. Spending billions and trillions of dollars, Euros and pounds on weapons of mass destruction! How can Christians, or any religious people for that matter, contemplate such a thing as nuclear bombs and wars?
The Billion Press
(Satish Kumar is the founder of Schumacher College and an eco-spiritual leader based in the UK. He is the author of several bestseller books.)
