Bangalore is gearing up to be a spiritual hub in the near future. A Spiritual Parliament (Anubha Mantapa) for the comparative study of spirituality of all religions based on the philosophy of Basaveshwara (The 12th century socio-spiritual reformer) has been conceptualised to be built in Kengeri.
Being built at a cost of Rs 10 to Rs 12 crore, the Spiritual Parliament will be spread over five acres of land. The parliament will comprise of well equipped and spacious library, auditoriums, discussion rooms, accommodation and other facilities. Besides, a forum on internet will also be created to discuss about spirituality.
The brain child of Aravind Jatti, president of Basava Samithi, the parliament will take a concrete form soon. “People from various religions can come here and read about other religions, debate and discuss their views about spirituality. Religions can be several but spirituality will always be universal,” he said.
The thought of reviving spirituality came to Aravind almost accidentally. “It happened in 2006 when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had visited Bangalore. In his speech, Singh talked about how moral and spiritual values were slowly disappearing in the country. His statement struck me. Being a president of a social organisation, I thought I should work towards reviving it.”
Jatti started the movement with children. He visited schools and spoke about morality based on spirituality. In six years, he spoke to over 5 lakh students.
The positive impact of his programmes encouraged him to extend his service. It was then that the idea of the parliament came to his mind, “Basavanna always propagated spirituality and not religion. He picked laymen in society - a cobbler, a washerman and others - and showed them the path of self-relisation. Even to this day, there is always a pre-conceived notion about these professions. We discriminate against them. But Basavanna saw divinity in every man. Unfortunately even Basavanna has been given a caste-tag.”
Jatti has named this unique platform ‘Spiritual Parliament’ as the name opens up other horizons of thinking. According to Jatti, it will be a place where a comparative study of spirituality of different cultures, religions and nations are studied.
This parliament is named after late Vice-President and Aravind’s father, Dr B D Jatti. “It is also a memorial to commemorate the birth centenary of my father who lived with social and spiritual values and adhered to philosophy,” he said and added that spiritual leaders from different parts of the world would visit and share their thoughts on inner-self.
“A committee will be formed to decide on the development of this parliament. For funding, we have sent a request to the state government and we are planning to take it forward to the Central government,” he concluded.