All Religions Teach Love, Not Hatred

Given increasing religious intolerance and violence in the world there is an urgent need to create awareness and develop a culture of peace in the world. Religion has a vital role in fostering gestures of peace and in consolidating conditions for peace. Hatred and violence in the world are witnessed only when some people do not understand the way of religions. In the long run, violence is always conquered by peace because all the religions of the world have the same routes.

Religion is one of the most essential needs of mankind. It is based on upon some of the most fundamental human instincts.? Religion survives despite the repeated shocks it has received as a consequence of the theories of nationalists and scientists. Just as our body requires food for our sustenance and our mind knowledge for expansion, so do our souls require religious experience for their perfection? In the course of man’s quest for good many religions came into existence. Some of them died out, but many are still living and flourishing. Every established religion possesses its scales of moral values and system of moral discipline.

Religion is not a set of beliefs, nor it is a matter of rituals and ceremonies, but it is a way of life. True religious men readily help those who are under stress, relieve human misery and seek to increase human happiness. The cycle of birth, growth, childhood and youth, sickness, old age and death, love and friendship, sorrow and joy, are the same for all men. We share a common origin and a common destiny. (Ref 1) God is sought in various ways and called by various names in various religions, and he has sent various prophets, and teachers of various ages to various peoples and places.(Ref 2)?God is one; sages called it by various names. It is not that Shiva is superior to Vishnu, nor Vishnu is everything and Shiva is nothing, but it is the same one whom you call either Shiva or Vishnu, or by a hundred other names. The names are different, but it is the same one.(Ref 3)

It has been said in the Mahimnah-Stotram –“as the different rivers, taking their start from different mountains, running straight or crooked, at last, come unto the ocean. So, O Shiva, the different paths, which men follow through according to them taster, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all laid thee.” Religion plays an important role in the lives of people. All religions emphasize the same basic values of love and universal brotherhood. That religion which is the conflict with another is not religion. True religion is that which does not oppose any religion.(Ref 4) Religion alone makes a man self-controlled, courageous, forbearing, heroic dutiful and a master of his senses. Religion also teaches us the virtues of compassion, harmlessness, forgiveness, service, truthfulness and continence.(Ref 5)?Studying the ancient religions of the Egyptians, Babylonians, Chinese and many other races in America and elsewhere we find very clear traces of ancestor worship being the beginning of religion.(Ref 6) Religion is the greatest motivating power for realizing infinite energy; which is the birthright and nature of every man. In building up character, in making for everything good and great, it brings peace to others and peace to one’s self. Religion is the highest motivating power and therefore, ought to be studied from that standpoint. Religion must be studied on a broader basis than formerly. All sectarian ideas national ideas and religions must be given up. As the human mind broadens, its spiritual, its spiritual steps broaden.

We read in the hymns of Rig Veda, addressed to the god of fire which is burning the dead body, “ Carry on, O fire in your arms gently, give him a perfect body, carry him where the father lives, where there is no sorrow, where there is no more death.” The same idea we find present in every religion.

The function of the institutional religion is to help people put into practice the teachings of the founders. As long as institutional religion is faithful to the inspired religion of the founders, it serves a very useful purpose, but when it departs from the spirit of their teachings and assumes independent importance, it becomes more a hindrance than a help.(Ref 7) Religion is the response of the whole being of man to the call of God. It is the most comprehensive of all our activities. A man has a conscious mind with its three main aspects of will, emotion and reason, and past experiences of the individual and the race.

Fetishism, Totemism, animism, and ancestor worship all belong to the childhood of the races and are practised by tribes who have not outgrown their spiritual infancy. In religions like Taoism, southern Buddhism and Jainism, a code of ethics is all in all. Other so-called theistic religions of the world, like Zoroastrianism, Judaism, northern Buddhism, Vaisnaivsm, Saivism, Saktism, Christianity and Islam, regard God as a personality whose qualities are revealed to the loving heart of the worshippers either independently or through the medium of a prophet saviour, avatar or Bodhisattva. (Ref 8) Shintoism and Buddhism are mixed in Japan. Shinto divinities are said to be the spirits of the Buddhist pantheon and Shinto religious practices are accepted as means to enlightenment. We sometimes find temples used as houses of worship by both religions. The Greeks and the Romans adopted a similar attitude of hostility. (Ref 9) Mohammad tells us, that there is not a people but a wiser has gone among them and every nation had a messenger.(Ref 10)? When Christianity arose, it had to deal with Greek thoughts and Roman organization and it made adjustments. Today that environment has become wider. We have become heirs to the spiritual traditions of merely Palestine, Greece and Rome, but China, India and West Asia. We are brought together and we need to discover the areas of agreement among all these religions, emphasize them, and on that basis build up a human fellowship, wherein the fulfilment of man is achieved.

The most important principle of religion is the love of one’s fellow beings. Christ’s famous precept “Love thy neighbour” is the basis of all true religions. The love of one’s neighbour implies an ideal of service of self-sacrifice. A truly religious man readily helps those who are in distress, relives human misery, and seeks to increase all human happiness. He is full of sympathy and the “milk of human kindness”. He draws happiness from selfless acts of charity and benevolence; such a man hates cunning, hypocrisy, fraud, deception and cheating. He would not exploit others for his ends; he would not victimize or persecute others; he is free from all cruelty. Above all he is honest. It is possible for a man not to label himself as a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim or a Sikh, and yet be truly religious.

Sympathy and service to one’s fellow human beings are more valuable than all the ceremonies and rituals of all the religions of the world. Ashoka in his rock edict xii proclaims: “One who adores one’s religion and disparages that of another from devotion to one’s religion and to glorify it over all religions does injure one’s religion most certainly. It is verily concord of religions that is meritorious.” We must try to get away, get rid of these religious antagonisms, religious animosities which divide man from man and make them get back to the roots of reality, make them understand what true religion is, then there will be no quarrels in this world. It is because we are religious with our spinal cord, not with our whole being that we have all these quarrels.(Ref 11)?In China, Lao Tse and Confucius; in India the seers of Upanishads, Mahavira and Gautama the Buddha; in Iran, Zoroastrian Judea, the great Prophets; and in Greece, the philosophers Pythagoras, Socrates and Pluto; all of them turned their attention from outward nature to the study of human self.(Ref 12)?Lord Krishna declared “I am in every religion as the thread through a string of pearls.”(Ref 13)? Wherever thou seest extraordinary holiness and extraordinary power raising and purifying humanity, know then that I am there.(Ref 14)?

M. K. Gandhi said, “Just as a tree has one trunk but many branches and leaves, there is one true and perfect religion, although it is divided into many, as it appears through human intermediaries.” He briefly defines religion as trust in the moral organizations of the universe. He says that religions are different roads of the same goal. When we look at all the symbols, statues, and other relics that have come down to us from the time of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa down to our day, we are reminded of the tradition that he who establishes the supremacy of spirit and its superiority to matter is the religious landscape of our country for four or five millenniums.?

The religion of truth is based on spiritual inwardness. Both the Buddha and Jesus tell us, “Be courageous. I have overcome the world.” Religion is an inward transformation from darkness to light. All religion is human attempts to reach the ultimate reality. Quran states that every nation has been given divine guidance, “thou (O Muhammad), art but one who warmth and for every nation there is a (divine) guide.”(Ref 15) Mohammad adopted the rigid monotheism from Judaism. The important point about our moral life is, not whether we are Hindu or Muslims, Jews or Christians, but whether we are good or bad.(Ref 16) All prophets are not prophets; they have spoken on one common ground in one language, through different dialects. As the great civilizations of every kind are the same, the unfolding on one life, so are also great civilizations of every kind are the same, the unfolding of one life, so are also the great mythical elements of the whole religious genesis- a single growth planted by the very spirit of god, and nourished by him with aims of heaven and the dews of earth, unfolding itself in joy throughout all ages.(Ref 17) We must treat one another as spiritual brethren.

Sufi and Bhakti movements in India created a spirit of love and affection among people. They exposed the hollowness of religious practices. As such both these brought about socio-religious reforms. They also contributed much to the development of common Indian culture and provided a background for Akbar’s religious policy and his Din-I-IIahi. Adi Granth contains the writing of the religious teachers of Hinduism, Islam, etc. People of different races, languages and cultures met on the soil of India; and though we read of occasional clashes, common civilization whose primary characteristics are faith in an unseen reality, of which all life is a manifestation, the primary of spiritual experience, a rigid adherence to intellectual norms, and an anxiety for harmonizing apparent opposites. (Ref 18) The deathbed statement of Socrates should serve as an eye-opener to us all, “I am not an Athenian or a Greek but a citizen of the world.” The Bhagavad Gita tells us that a truly religious man sees with equality everything in the image of himself, whether in pleasure or pain.

The conception of second birth is the central teaching of the Hindus and the Buddhist religions. The conception of the world as Samsara, a stream without end, where the law of Karma functions, is common to all Indian systems like Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh. The Buddha taught us that we would be judged not by the creed we profess the labels we wear or the slogans we shout but by our sacrificial work and brotherly outlook. His humanism crossed racial and national barriers. “The whole earth has come to rest and has become free of disturbance. People have become cheerful with joyful cries.”(Ref 19)

?Hinduism and Buddhism describe the broad features of human life. The Upanishad writer prays, “Lead me from the unreal to the real, and lead me from the darkness to light; lead me from death to immortality; lead me from the world of time to the reality of eternal life.” Muhammad recognized the fact that each religious teacher has faith in his mission, and his vision and experience about the world alone can help to fulfil the needs of the people. Tirikkural is used by the Buddhists and Jains, the Saivites and the Vaisnavites. It is called a common scripture. In China where the followers of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism meet and exalt their religion, they conclude with the chorus: religions are many, the reason is one, and we are all brothers. (Ref 20) The Jewish Bible does not begin with the Jews. It starts with the story, which is Hebrew meaning man. Genesis (VI) says, “The children of the Earth are viewed as one family. They have one ancestor who is father of all.” When Christianity arose, it had a Jewish soul, but it absorbed Greek thoughts and Roman organization.

Thus, major religions emphasize love and compassion as core principles, promoting kindness, respect, understanding, forgiveness, and empathy. They encourage followers to cultivate understanding, forgiveness, and empathy, rather than hatred or intolerance. The universal message is love, unity, and goodwill towards humanity.

?References :

1.??? Dr S Radhakrishna –The Creative Life, page 104.

2.??? Philosopher Nicholas of Cusa.

3.??? Swami Vivekananda the Youth of India.

4.??? Manusmriti-iv 239, 42-44

5.??? Jayadayal Goenker-Gems of Truth II series, page 21.

6.??? Swami Vivekananda- Jnana-Yoga, page 2.

7.??? D S Sharma-Essence of Hinduism, page 5.

8.??? D S Sharma-Essence of Hinduism, page 9.

9.??? Holy Quran xxx v-5.

10.? Dr S Radhakrishna –The Spirit of Religion, page 15.

11.?Dr S Radhakrishna –The Spirit of Religion, page 57.

12.?Dr S Radhakrishna –Religion and Culture, page 134.

13.?Srimad Bhagavad Gita-7,7.

14.?Srimad Bhagavad Gita-10;41.

1. Sura 18-5-37.

16.?Dr S Radhakrishna –Religion and Culture, page 63.

17.?Prof Fried Rich Heiler –quoted in the Hibbert journal (January 1954) page 111.

18.?Dr S Radhakrishna –Religion and Culture, page 110.

1. Isaiah 14.7.- New World Bible.

20.?J. Estlin Copenter-The Place of the World, page 60.

Other references:

1.? O.P.Ghai- Excellence in Zoroastrianism, Islam, Jainism, Christianity, Buddhism, Sikhism.

2.? Frenk Alexander- In the hours of meditation.

3.? New World translation of the Holy Scriptures (Bible) by New World Bible translation committee revised 1984.

4.? Swami Sivananda- Divine Nector.

5.? Herbert Warran- Jainism.