Arya Samaj leader Swami Agnivesh (80), who was admitted to a Delhi hospital, Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences due to liver related illness, died of multiple organ failure (see inset facebook release)
Jaipur-based feminist and human rights activist Kavita Srivastava shared the news with her facebook friends and paid homage to him for his contribution to social reforms.
Swami Agnivesh - Arya Samajist, activist and politician - who is known for his work against bonded labour through the Bonded Labour Liberation Front founded by him
He remained president of the World Council of Arya Samaj from 2004 to 2014) and also served as the chairperson of the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery from 1994 to 2004.
Here are some of his quotes:
All human beings have a right, and duty, to be joyful. Anything that thwarts this spiritual human right goes against the very purpose of human being.
Spirituality mandates us to wage a relentless war to eradicate the forces of oppression and dis-empowerment.
First, we must liberate people from religion, as religion is understood and practiced today. Second, we must effect a paradigm shift from religiosity to shared spirituality.
Spiritually, life is a festival, a celebration. Joy is of the essence of life.
The essence of spirituality is the duty to live to its full the glorious destiny of being human. The purpose of religion should be to empower all people in this adventure of living with dignity and fulfillment.
The religions of the world must be assessed, not on the basis of their convoluted theologies, but in terms of the extent to which they serve as forces of liberation and empowerment.
Peace among religions is a precondition for world peace. But religions, as religions, can never be at peace with each other.
To enable religions to be instruments for peace we need to enable, first, religious communities to progress from religion to spirituality.
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