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Ranvir Nayar in Paris
A group of Hindu saints will embark this week on a unique tour of Europe with the aim of creating greater awareness about Hinduism and propagating religious co-existence in the world.
Jagadguru Shankaracharya Divyanand Teerth will lead the group.
Apart from saints, the group also includes several eminent personalities like British multimillionaire L N Mittal and Indian industrialist B K Modi.
The tour, called Vishwa Dharma Prasar Yatra (World Religion Awareness Campaign) will visit nine European countries in the course of 12 days. The promotional trip has been organised by the overseas branch of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, in conjunction with several religious institutions and leaders in India.
Proceedings began with a havan (fire ritual) last month in India on Janmashtami, the birth anniversary of Lord Krishna. After covering select Indian cities, it was seen off by the prime minister in New Delhi on August 15.
The group has been to the United States, Canada, South America and Caribbean countries till now.
On Friday, the tour will arrive in the English town of Birmingham, which has a significant South Asian population. After going to London the next day, they will visit Paris on September 9. A trip to Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Portugal and Russia are also on the cards.
The organisers of the campaign said the focus is to create awareness about Hinduism amongst Hindus and Europeans.
"We want to talk of peace and spirituality during the yatra. We want to bring communities of the world together, using the principles of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (a Sanskrit saying that means the whole world is one family)," one of the main organisers of the campaign said.
"We want to sustain the world's cultural diversity in the context of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam and support efforts to move humanity from one global market to one global family," the organisers said.
They added that the tour has the support of some of the most prominent religious leaders from India, including the Dalai Lama, Sathya Sai Baba and Baba Manjit Singh of the Sikh Takht Shri Keshgarh Sahib.
The organisers said though the campaign has largely been organised by Hindu groups, they would like to involve other religions as well.
Indo-Asian News Service
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