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58
Jagdish Sahai
Essential Unity of All Religions
What is man's religion? In answer to this question we find numerous Faith and Philosophies prevalent in the different communities of mankind. Just as Nature everywhere is One, but there is Diversity in it, even so Humanity throughout the world is one although every man differs from the others both in thought and conduct. In spite of this obvious diversity, we find that it is a common but powerful desire of man to conform to a particular mode of behaviour in the world. Incarnations, saints, prophets, seers, and sages have appeared in different parts of the world from time to time in order to teach men Haw to behave in harmony with the underlying spirit of the Cosmos These great souls, on the basis of personal experience, expounded the essential ideas and values in life and taught how these can be achieved. Their spiritual thought and teachings from the subjectmatter of the scriptures and philosophies of the different Fiths. In addition to their moral and spiritual teachings, almost all the religious teachers and reformers of the world gave out a plan and a system of their own on which human society would best be organized. It was thus that every faith helped to establish customs and conventions, with rites and rituals, amongst the communities of mankind and gave birth to a particular type of civilization and culture which naturally differed from the others.
Although everyone, after studying the scriptures of the various faiths, can find out for oneself the essential unity underlying them all, the differences in their respective customs and conventions also become equally patent and obvious. For this reason, we often find that the followers of one faith harbour feelings of hatred towards those of other faiths. Every man considers his own religion to be not only right but superior to those of others. If a man, leaving aside the difference due to customs and conventions, were to try to grasp and live up to those spiritual truths that are essential to him for reaching the ultimate goal Which is common to all humanity, he is bound to love and extend full tolerance towards the followers of other faiths. Every religion, no matter of whatever label, can take man to this common goal. Therefore, all those who fight in the name of religion do not, in fact, understand what religion is. They stultify themselves by becoming victims of their one selfish, sectarian, and bigoted thoughts and actions. Man should ever
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