Article – One Universal God

I was born in Old Delhi, which remains one of the most religiously pluralistic places in the world. As a child, I was exposed to the living traditions of many religions. In our family temple we had the picture of Prophets from all religions and a copy of holy Quran, since there is no picture of prophet Mohammed. My dad would read from various scriptures and say that God has incarnated as Krishna, Christ, Mohammed, Buddha, and so on. He would quote the Rig Veda (1.64.46): “Ekam sat vipra bahuda vadanti” (truth is one, but called differently by many). I was always convinced that there is only one God, and in adulthood the commonalities of religions were reinforced as I have looked more closely at the scriptures of all major religions.

If there was more than one God, we would expect to see more than one structure of life. But we have only one sun as the source of all energy. We all have the same anatomy, the same internal systems. The structure of our brains and nervous system is the same. We are born the same way and 99% of our genes are identical. We have the same emotions—joy, anger, sadness, curiosity, fear, etc.—and the same facial expressions for those emotions. Different gods would have made life differently.

But if there is only one God—a God that represents love and unity— and we are all his children, then why do people kill in the name of religion? In India, when leaders are addressing a crowd they address them as brothers and sisters. Then why do people kill in the name of religion? Why is there so much antagonism between followers of different faiths? Different languages do not pose the same problem. It is regrettable that the way people have been taught to think about God—their God—triggers irrational emotions, and that any other person’s version is deemed to be an assault. This remains one of the biggest challenges in the world today.

Judaism

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” (Deuteronomy 6:4)—The Hebrew Bible, Jewish scripture