Religious Problem in India

Author(s): Annie Besant
Publisher: Theosophist Office Adyar

Page 10

THE RELIGIOUS PROBLEM IN INDIA
India all the world's faiths are planted, and therefore here, and here alone, can they find their unity and mighty consummation.
Yon may remember that some three or four years ago I spoke to you of four great faiths-Hindūism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism and Christianity. That left three faiths still that found their home on Indian soil, the faith of Islām, the Jaina faith, the Sikh faith-the three reinaining that make up the seren faiths of India and of the world. At the present time they divide Indian from Indian and heart from heart; now they separate men of one faith from men of another, and those who worship but the ONE divide each other in His name. O my Brothers, if it may be that on this land that the Gods have blessed we shall make religious unity; if it may be that here one nation shall be builded of many faiths; if the Musulman can love the Hindu and the Hindū love the Vusalmān; if the Christian can clasp hands with the Pārsī and the Pārsi with the Christian; if the Jaina and the Buddhist and the Sikh can love each other as brethren and not hate each other as rivals; then shall be the triumph of religion, and then alone shall the name of God become a name of peace.
To-day, to-morrow and the next day we shall take up the three remaining faiths of India, and on the last day we shall take that which is the union and the crown, the Divine Wisdom, Theosophy, that which is common to every faith and belongs equally to all, which none may claim as his to the exclusion of his brother, but that cach may claim as his to the