Essential Unity of Religions

 This is a topic which has been thought of by many and I have often reflected on the same. Religion is defined as a belief in and worship of a superpower or powers represented by a God or system of Gods. Religion also consists of actions or activities undertaken to enable one to worship God or Gods. The word Religion comes from Latin Religo  which means good faith or rituals connected with them. Besides, there are many who believe that the word may come from the original Latin word Re-Ligare which means to tie fast and resonated to us surgeons with the word ligature to tie up a bleeding vessel during surgery. The more I think of this the more I believe that the evolution of the human race and religion seem to be closely intertwined. I do not want to go into the evolution of religion and it's different forms but seek trough this blog to debate a few points and spark a debate on some points. 

Choice of Religion and Conversion:

Religion is dictated by birth conventionally, in mixed marriages in a patriarchal society the child is conferred the father's religious label. In a matriarchal society it is the mother's religion which is adopted. Besides this often times persons in their life times choose to convert from one religion to another. These conversions are by choice, coercion or sometimes a means to escape certain bad practices that have creeped into the practice of a person's religion which he or she have inherited from birth. 

Types of Religion 

Religion can be a very personal thing and can be abstract too. For the sake of simplicity it simply is a belief system handed down through generations and interpreted by thinkers, reformers, priests or an organized authority. This structure can lead to fragmentation when one authority challenges the authority of another to interpret the same belief system. 

Broadly speaking there are old primitive religions based on nature like Animism, Chinese Folk Religion, Tribal Religion and customs and are often based on superstition. 

Then there are the Abrahamic Monotheist Religions like Islam, Christianity, Judaism which believe in one existing God to the exclusion of others. 

There is also Zoroastrianism which is a very old religion perhaps among to oldest to which I belong. It is Monotheist but it differs from the Abrahamic religions in that it does not claim exclusivity but claims that no one who is not born a Zoroastrian can join this religion. 

There is Hinduism which is seeming polytheist, but confers divinity on everything in nature. However, it allows one to evolve and adopt but ultimately is Monotheist in that it dehumanizes the concept of God. 

Religions like Buddhism. Jainism, Sikhism, Bahaism etc coming from enlightened beings who responded to the times and gave people their interpretation of religion. 

Philosophical religions like Toaism, Confucianism, Deism and others.

Offshoots of Christianity like Protestants, Evangelists, Orthrodox Christians and others round up the list. 

I would like to add Atheism and Agnosticism to this list. 

Still this list is not complete and if I were to continue there will be no end to this list. 

Need for Religion 

Homo Sapiens on earth seem to be the most evolved and powerful species on the planet earth and at the cost of sounding arrogant believe that they are probably the most powerful species in the Universe. 

 At different stages of evolution man started wondering about the various phenomenon of nature and the creatures around him. Man survived by worshipping these forces of nature and then because of the evolution of his brain he found a way to survive by using intelligence and despite the presence of stronger creatures and forces of nature, he was able to tame the forces and become the predominant species on the planet earth. 

Religion evolved from Nature Worship, Worship of Ancestors maybe the ghost phenomenon, from fear and punishment or the presence of a power outside oneself among many others. Also religion was required to explain the good and the evil and the conflicts which occurred between these forces. The wise tried to create theories to explain everything on religious lines. They were in time scoffed on by men of science who were able to give reasons for many things which were passed off as unquestioned ordained religious beliefs. 

In society men were divided into classes broadly named Thinkers, Warriors, Traders and Laborours. To add to this there were the Scientists and Creators who started deciphering the reasons behind everything and came in conflict with religion. 

Despite advances in science many scientists acknowledged the presence of at least an underlying force which went beyond religion. 

Definition of Religion  
For me personally based on the above information and superficial overview of major religions, I have come to a conclusion that even as we are born into a religion it is our bounden duty to think for ourselves and create a belief system based on first principles. So in that quest I feel that there are as many religions as there are persons and while we may follow the outward trappings of the religion we are born into, our belief systems are our own. Unless we question our belief systems we will be trapped in the past and will not be able to change attitudes towards our own and towards the religions of others. 

Religion is the combination of essential values and the rituals to help realize the divinity which is within us. Religion is therefore Knowledge of Truth and the Consciousness of the same which creates a state of Eternal Bliss. 

Sat-Knowledge Chit-Consciousness that underlies the unity of the plurality of the world and Ananda-Infinite bliss. While borrowing these terms from Vedanta every religion gives the same message using different words. 

Essential Unity of Religion 

This is a terminology which has been a title of two books written in India both 70 years apart. Both have the same title one by a scholar Bhagwan Das in 1932 and the other by a legal expert Mr. Nani Palkhiwalla in 2002. 

Both these books I stumbled upon by chance and years ago when there were no online resources I read the slim volume by Nani Palkhiwalla, who was born a Parsi but was head of Vedantic study department of the Bharitiya Vidaya Bhavan a cultural  organization which existed to propagate and spread I

ndian Culture. In the wake of partition and the havoc that communal strife created for a newly independent nation there was a need to have some person do the job of educating the youth of India that religions were meant to tie human beings together and not to divide them and even though outwardly the symbols and trappings of the display of religion differed, their essential teachings were the same. The messages of the prophets and preachers meant the presence of a single entity called God, Brahman, Atman, Soul or name it, what you will. That entity was within us and not outside or different from our real Self. This real Self is the substratum underlying the three states of conditioned consciousness namely waking.state, dream state and deep sleep state. 

Bhagwan Das was a Theosophist and for this work he was conferred the Bharat Ratna award in 1955. 

In his book he has painstakingly compared the essential teachings of major religions and has found striking similarity in the scriptures and in many case the Bhagwat Gita and Koran had identical passages or words. Slowly and steadily I realized that in this diverse world of multiple religions which led to so much of confusion and worse than confusion division, the essence of the real Self was the same. Therefore all the essential teachings of religion and all the methods prescribed to achieve Self realization, salvation and Nirvana were the same. We as seekers of the truth should keep an open mind with respect the teachings of all religions. If for any reason false and evil practices creep into one's religion, especially those that did not find favour with human rights and individual liberty, they need to be discarded. 

A small note for the agnostics and atheist, they need not worry as not believing in God is not a negation of religion as it is in fact an affirmation of the right to not believe in a God outside us. They believe in the Truth as verified by scientific evidence and believe that the unexplained will eventually be explained by science. For me that is the eternal immortal Brahman. 

Vispi Jokhi