Swami Atmashraddhananda
Sri Ramakrishna Vidyashala, Mysore
Religions of the world are a great driving force in imparting guidance and inspiration to human beings in general. But, as in music, only when different notes are strung together, they produce a symphony of pleasing sound, so also, only when different religions are strung together in understanding and mutual acceptance, that we create a pleasing world of human well-being and peace. Without harmony of religions, harmony among their leaders and followers, religions seem to loose sight of their original purpose of giving a higher turn to human tendencies and usher in happiness and peace.
Religious harmony should not be treated as a mere academic pursuit, giving a certain intellectual contentment to the learned but it must be given a much mere vital status of necessity, if we wish to live a fulfilling and meaningful life.
The idea of religious harmony is very ancient, at least intellectually. But the fact of religious discord is equally very old. History of mankind is replete with the instance of such a disharmony. And never was the need for religious harmony more keenly felt and required as in the modern times. Violence, injustice, wars and human cruelty _ our modern age is well aquainted with all this. Scientific progress has further sharpened and refined our skills of destroying each other. Today terrorism based on religious intolerance is well known to even primary school children, not to speak of millions who are under the direct influence of dark forces of death and suffering born of this evil.
Seen in this present scenario of enhanced need for religious harmony, let us try to understand the `Why' and `How' of religious harmony first.
Religion has a powerful influence on man's aspirations and activities. Many systems of governance have tried to replace religion but in vain. Religion, however has been as much source of charity, brotherhood and human well being, as it has been a painful channel through which have flowed untold misery, hatred and violence against the innocent. This contrasting picture of religion owes its origin to the fact of differences in human conceptions and capacities. Human beings are thinking beings. The faculty of thinking gives rise to difference in opinion as well. Moreover there is this fact of different levels of human evolution.
Now, let us understand what religion itself is. Each religious person claims to know about religion and interprets this phenomenal world according to his knowledge and understanding. Swami Vivekananda, one of the greatest luminaries in world of religion, however, regarded religions as a means to manifest the inherent potential called divinity. Various religions and religious tradition are merely paths to reach this goal. He classified every religion into three aspects:
1. Philosophy 2. Mythology 3. Rituals
Every religion, therefore, functions at three different but inter-related levels.
Philosophy is the systematic statement of a religious conception. It consists of how we relate ourselves to and explain the triple subject of God, soul and the Universe.
Mythology is the treasure of stories of great men and women in a religion handed down from generation to generation. It contains accounts of the miracle and supernatural attributed to them.
Rituals are the concretized philosophy. Symbols, ceremonies, worship, festivals, pilgrimage _ rituals have various forms.
Religion is basically a path to spiritual transformation. Various religions have various paths to that goal, called God.
Religion does not consist of a set of dogmas and doctrines but a way to reach God who is the nature of supreme blessedness. Whenever this essential fact is forgotten, religious discord and disharmony take birth. One interesting fact about religious discord is that much of religious difference originates in human vanity and arrogance. It has nothing to do with religious truth, per se.
As Sri Ramakrishna sued to say that every man thinks his watch alone gives right time.
A discussion on religious harmony would be incomplete without a specific reference to Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the nineteenth century spiritual giant from Bengal who hardly needs any introduction, particularly to the students of comparative religion. Born in an orthodox Hindu family, Sri Ramakrishna lived an intense life of devotion, meditation and spiritual discipline. Though blessed with numerous spiritual experiences, he was not satisfied with it. He was eager to see and experience God as taught in various religious tradition of the world. Accordingly he practiced Islam, Christianity and other spiritual paths detailed in Hinduism. In this sense, he was a unique person for not only he practiced them but also has spiritual experience outlined in these paths. His words, born as they are from his own personal experience, have therefore an unusual ring of authority and direct appeal. He used to say that same God who is worshipped by the learned is worshipped by the ignorant. We may call Him by any name, our worship is to the same God. Like the bathing ghats to a pond, he said, all religions are but various approaches to the same God. When Hindus, for instance, sip water from that pond called religion, they call it JAL. Muslim, while using the same water, call it PANI, and the English people call the same substance as Water. Names vary but the object is same.
How is it, the question may be asked, that ultimate Truth called God be perceived and called by so many ways and names? Why this variation, when the truth be spoken is the same?
The answer lies in the different stages of human evolution, and the influence of our various cultural, geographical and historical and other factors. And our concepts are greatly dependent on the degree of evolution we have attained.
Moreover, the same truth can be stated in various ways. If you take photograph from four different sides of a Church, for example, though different, each of these shapes will be a photo of the Church only.
Unity in multiplicity is truth that often remains undiscovered for majority of people. People fall into all sorts of complications because they fail to understand it. But in the Indian tradition, far away in that remote part, at the dawn of civilization, Vedic seers discovered this truth and declared: "Truth is one, sages call it by various names" (Rig Veda) or "The one Glory manifest itself in various ways" (Atharva Veda).
With the passage of time, as the world we live in, is increasingly getting bloodier and more violent, the need for religious harmony, is assuming greater importance. All right thinking people, who wish to live in a peaceful world and leave behind a rich world for the
generation to come, should go deeper into this issue and try to live it in life _ individually and collectively.
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