LESSON 2: RELIGIONS MANY,TEACHINGS ONE.

LESSON 2: RELIGIONS MANY,TEACHINGS ONE.

Silence creeped in to our conversation. I didn’t know how to react to his philosophical and profound words.I looked at him and asked him to continue.

After some moments he narrates again:

“Well,I lost all my money and hence all my contacts. But I learnt many more things during these difficult times..

India is a culturally diverse country and is a blend of many religions,ethnicities and cultures.Here,religion plays a very important role in our daily lives.Whenever we pass by our place of worship we do pray- pray for our loved ones,for our well being and most importantly for ourselves.The number of atheists here are very few.

Here,in this land of religions,people strongly believe in their God and leave no stone unturned blaming them when they didn’t get what they prayed for.Rarely people go and thank Mr.God when they achieve what they wanted. To put it simple,its a kind of exchange market-
“I’ll perform this pooja worth ₹501 and in turn please pass me this exam!”.This is what mostly happens.Right?

When I was well busy in the biz world,I was a staunch Hindu,and used to visit  Laxmi-the Goddess of wealth’s temple every Monday and Hanuman’s temple every Saturday.
For me,other religions didn’t matter.I always felt my religion is way superior than theirs.I have  never visited a Church or a Mosque before, because I never felt the need to.I never liked the other religions,to be true.I dont know why,but there was an unwanted sense of inferiority towards them and their religion.

But as times changed,my mind changed too.Simple things like hunger and shelter lead me to the other places of worship-those places which were once inferior to me.At first, I was unsure, but my situation was so worse I couldn’t stop myself from going.It was a Gurudwara,and I entered inside,looking lost.A person came towards me and asked me to be seated.He perhaps understood from my looks that I was visting a Gurudwara for the first time.
I decided to sit, and listen to their bhajans and preachings, only to find it similar to the Hinduism teachings.That urged me listen to them more and slowly I forgot about my hunger that was killing me.Soon,the bhajan ended and we went inside a hall where food was served to one and all for free,without any bias of religion.

I felt relieved,since I had some edible food after 3 days or so.
At the same time, my mind wandered over the bhajan that I just witnessed.

In a few weeks,I went to the Church and Mosque as well.There too,I observed the same thing that I found at the Gurudwara.They all preached the same thing but in a different way:

“Treat all people equal.
Be kind always.
Promote peace..
Always help the needy..”

No religion promotes violence or ill thoughts.
Then why do we always look down at the other religions?
Aren’t we at fault here?
All religions preach the same thing.There is just one God.
We human beings started classifying and differentiating here too for our own needs-the same way we created the caste system.

Do think about my words my son.It will sure help you out one day.

There are many religions,
which preach the same.”