The goal of religion

We have had crises before in different forms — political, economic, cultural and religious — but we have never before experienced the total crisis we are facing today. We face conflicts between secular values and faith; between economically developed anad underdeveloped societies; between generations; between religions; between dogma and reason; between human beings and nature. Politics has become the religion of our times and civil unrest based on religious prejudice has become the norm.

Nonviolence and tolerance are basic virtues taught by great teachers of all faiths. While prophets teach love and tolerance, those who trade in religion preach division and dissension. What good is it if we acknowledge in our prayers that "God is supreme for us all” while refusing to accept differences in our daily lives?

With the knowledge that God is one and that the same godhead exists in all religions and faiths, people could give up bigotry and fanaticism which have made religion an object of denigration for so many.

One of the worst modern day mental illnesses is to hurl abuses against persons because they do not think exactly as we do. If I am a rational man, I should be glad that others do not think exactly as I do.

A religion may be 2,000 years old or even 3,000, but if its core has not been violated, its ideals kept pure, nothing can kill it. But when the ideals are lost and the principles are forgotten, nothing can save the religion.

Each one of us has a place in this world. There must be acceptance, not exclusion. Accept all religions and worship God through all. Let every window of your heart be open. Have we forgotten that it’s only because of the large­heartedness of Hindus that our faith is still alive in India?

Swami Vivekananda said that "I am purer than the others” is the most awful idea that can enter the human heart. In what sense are you more pure? The God in you is the God in all. If you have not known this, you have known nothing.

CYRUS BAGWADIA

bagwadia@hotmail.com