Common Themes in All Religions

Common Themes in Religion and the Essential Unity of All Religions

So many religions, so many paths to reach the same goal. I have practiced Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, and in Hinduism again, the ways of the different sects. I have found that it is the same God towards whom all are directing their steps, though along different paths. -Swami Ramakrishna, Hindu Monk

Different Religions and Personal Beliefs

My parents celebrated my tenth birthday in an unusual way. Rather than showering gifts on me, my mother took me with her to feed the poor people outside the temples of six different faiths: a Sikh temple, a Hindu temple, a Jain temple, a Christian church, a Jewish synagogue, and an Islamic mosque. As I handed over two pieces of bread and some very appetizing curry to each person, I did not see Muslim or Hindu or Christian faces — I only saw grateful human faces. Even though it was a fleeting exchange — a small act of kindness and the acknowledgment of gratitude — I can still vividly remember the deep human connection I felt that day, and the profound sense of joy it gave me.

When we returned home, my father read from the scriptures of these six major faiths. He told us that there is only one God who has been manifested on Earth in different times through Krishna, Christ, Mohammed, Moses, Guru Nanak, Buddha, Mahavir, and many others. The words, Ekam sat vipra bahuda vadanti (truth is one, but called differently by many) from the Rig Veda (I.164.46) still ring in my ears. He ended our prayer by saying, Sarve Janah Sukhino Bhavantu, (May ALL the peoples of the world be peaceful and prosperous).

Essential Unity of All Religions and Personal Beliefs

A few years later, I was reading a book given to me by my father. It was written by Dr. Radhakrishnan, a former president of India who also inaugurated the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School. In the book, Radhakrishnan wrote about how he recognized himself as an heir to the entirety of human civilization and not just Hindu civilization. This struck a chord within me that continues to resonate in my life today.

These two events, two beautiful gifts handed to me by my mother and father, enriched my life immeasurably by teaching me how to cherish and harness the diversity in the world around me.

Common Themes in World Religions and Personal Beliefs

My own family was Hindu, and this shaped the way I saw the world as I was growing up in Old Delhi. Hinduism came with its own set of beliefs and rituals, but ultimately, the emphasis was to find truth through one’s own experiences. I started my life as a believer, but at the same time, a seeker of truth.

My beliefs continued to evolve as I gained wider exposure to the world and became more analytical while pursuing an engineering degree. A lot of cognitive dissonance started to set in regarding the beliefs I held. However, as my beliefs continued to evolve, I still found value in religion. The difference was that I started to see religions not as a matter of absolute certainty or the “Word of God,” but more of a never-ending quest for meaning and truth. Viewed in this way, it becomes clear that much of religion is meant to be interpreted metaphorically rather than literally. This, in turn, makes it easier to find wisdom in all religions, without seeing them as conflicting with one another. Rather, they are all part of a shared human meaning-making project that has been ongoing for our entire history as a species. Of course, it took time for all of this to fully crystallize in my mind.

Interfaith Dialogue and the Essential Unity of All Religions

Hindus believe in four stages of life—  Brahamcharya (discipline),  Grahastha (pleasure), Vanaprastha (learning), and Sanyasa (retirement). Though I was not fully conscious of this at the time, it was my own personal pursuit of the third stage, Vanaprastha, that brought me to study at Harvard in the Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI) program.

The ALI fellowship provided me with an amazing platform that allowed me to audit classes across the university without any grades or assignments — the perfect setting for my Vanaprastha stage of life. I did this not for any kind of certificate or other end result, but simply because I believe in learning as an autotelic activity — that it is valuable and fulfilling as an end unto itself!

I took a variety of classes on religions, including several on Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. I thereby learned a lot about other faiths, as well as a lot about my own faith that I did not know. One of my key insights was that much of what I had believed in as literal truth from the Hindu scriptures was actually best interpreted metaphorically. I used to believe, for instance, that God incarnated on Earth as Krishna and actually gave a sermon in the form of the   Bhagavad Gita. Now I believe instead that the Gita does contain profound wisdom, but it was given to us in the form of a fictional story so as to be more easily grasped by the average person.  My new perspective on the Gita was catalyzed by a class I took with Professor Francis X. Clooney, who is a scholar of Hinduism as well as an ordained Jesuit priest. He told me that reading other religions helped him become a better Christian. This warm embrace of wisdom from diverse belief systems is a great model for the rest of us to follow. He exemplifies a type of religiosity that can be great for society and humanity, as being more authentically religious means showing true and unconditional love towards every “other.”