Religion vs. Spirituality Swami Agnivesh Wednesday, October 12, 2005 at 7:30 pm Series: Preserving Spiritual Values in the Face of Religious Differences: A Series of Encounters

Agnivesh will address two major phenomena posing challenges to economic development and social justice: world poverty and hunger. He will relate the principle of justice with the ethics of compassion, concentrating on compassion as the ethical principle that guides many civilizations and faiths on a micro and macro level. Agnivesh will speak on the great need for education which develops this spirit of compassion and justice among all people and sectors in both North and South nations. Born in 1939, Swami Agnivesh has dedicated his life to working against corrupt social and political institutions. Serving in both the religious and political spheres throughout his life, Agnivesh rejected commonplace and dishonest ideas in order to pursue the ideals he felt could become realities. Some of Agnivesh’s many causes include ending bonded labor, child labor, women's issues, modern consumerist trends, ecological destruction of the third world, racial discrimination, religious fundamentalism and slavery of all kinds. He has served as chairperson United Nations Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery and the Bonded Labor Liberation Front. Since 2003 he has been the Vice President of Niwano Peace Prize Committee, as well as a member of the International Peace Council. In recognition of his deeply committed activism, he has been honored with following awards: Anti-Slavery International Award in London in 1990, and the Freedom and Human Rights Award in Berne in 1994, Rajiv Gandhi National Sadhavana Award 2004 and Right Livelihood Award Sweden 2004 (also known as Alternative Nobel Prize).