RIGHT ATTITUDE TOWARDS RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES

Whoever performs devotional exercises, with the belief that there is but one God, is bound to attain Him, no matter in what aspect, name or manner He is worshipped.

You will advance, whatever way you meditate on Him or recite His holy names. The cake made of sugar candy will taste equally sweet, whether it is held straight or oblique when you eat it.

Q. If the God of every religion is the same, why is it then that God is painted differently by different religionists?

A. God is one, but His aspects are many. As the master of a house is father to one, brother to another and husband to a third, and is called by different names by different persons, so the one God is described in various ways according to the particular aspect in which He appears to His particular worshipper.

As a mother, in nursing her sick children, gives rice and curry to one, sago and arrowroot to another, and bread and butter to a third, so the Lord has laid out different paths for different men suitable to their natures.

Sankaracharya s exposition of the Vedanta is indeed true, and true also is what Ramanuja speaks of it— his Visishtadvaita philosophy.

Let a man be a Christian in the matter of mercy, a Moslem in the matter of strict observance of external forms, and a Hindu in the matter of universal charity towards all living creatures.

When you go out and mix with people, you should have love for them all; mix with them freely and become one with them. You should not shrug your shoulders and hate them, saying, M They believe in a Personal God, and not in the Impersonal, or They believe in the Impersonal, and not in the Personal, or " He is a Christian, a Hindu, or a Mussalman. Man understands about Him only so much as He makes him understand.

Moreover, knowing that men are of different tendencies, you should mix with them as much as you can. And you should love all. Then returning to your own home' (heart) you will enjoy bliss and peace. There you will meet your own real self.

Every man should follow his own religion. A Christian should follow Christianity, and a Mohammedan Mohammedanism. For the Hindu the ancient path, the path of the Aryan Rishis, is the best.

A truly religious man should think that other religions are also so many paths leading to the Truth. We should always maintain an attitude of respect towards other religions.

Dispute not. As you rest firmly on your own faith and opinion, allow others also equal liberty to stand by their own faith and opinion. By mere disputation you will never succeed in convincing another of his error. When the grace of God descends on him, every man will understand his own mistakes.

One day the Master was heard talking to the Mother of the universe, in a God-intoxicated state: ' Mother, every one says, ' My watch keeps correct time.' The Christians, the Hindus, the Mohammedans, all say, My religion is the true religion. But Mother, nobody's watch is exact. Who can truly know Thee ? But again, if one seeks Thee with a yearning heart, one can reach Thee by Thy grace through any path, through any religion."