Why are there many religions – can we believe in more than one religion?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
peripheral and central aspects of the religious teachings.
Why are there different religions? Who is the correct God? Are all there one God in different terms? Can you believe in more than one religion? Yeah, good questions. There is one supreme being. By definition, you cannot have two supreme beings.
Supreme means the greatest. So, there is only one God. The Vedas say that one absolute truth is known by different names and different traditions.
So, we can say that there is a top of a mountain and there are different paths to go up to the top of the mountain. The top of the mountain is like God consciousness, is attainment of God. The bottom of the mountain is like material consciousness, where all of us are at present.
And different religions are meant to help us rise from our present material consciousness towards God consciousness. So, is it that all religions are right? Well, not exactly. Can I say that if I am at the bottom of the mountain, all paths are going to the top of the mountain? No, some paths may be going away from the mountain also.
So, we have to see the result. Is a particular religion, is it elevating people’s consciousness? Is it actually transforming people from materialistic to becoming spiritual? From becoming lovers of worldly things to becoming lovers of God? If that transformation is happening, then that means that religion is a path by which people can rise upwards towards spiritual consciousness. So, why are there different religions? Because different people have different mentalities.
Different people have different cultures, different mindsets, different backgrounds. So, the path of the mountain is customized according to the people who are there at the foothill, at the bottom of that particular path. So, in different religions, different religions which are revealed at different times, they give people different ways to rise up to God.
Now, whether people are actually rising up to God or not, that is something which has to be individually seen. Sometimes religion becomes just like a social designation. One of my friends is a Bhagavad Gita scholar and author.
He is from a Jew background. So, once he was talking with his family, his uncle and his aunt and other extended family about his understanding of the Bhagavad Gita. So, his uncle asked him suspiciously, are you trying to convert me? He said, I didn’t know that you belong to any religion.
His uncle was an atheist. He said, I am a Jew, I am an atheist, but I am an atheist Jew. Now, the first commandment of Judaism is that you should love thy Lord with all thy heart, all thy soul and all thy might.
Now, if somebody doesn’t believe in God, then what kind of Jew are they? So, that is, Judaism here is no longer a spiritual path. It has simply become a social designation. So, what that means is that all people who follow any particular religious path or who belong to a particular religion, that does not mean all of them are following a particular religious path.
They just nominally belong to that religion. That means, this is a path up the mountain. So, if somebody is born in a Christian family, you could say they are at the bottom of the path, the Christian path may take them up.
Somebody born in a Muslim family, somebody born in a Hindu family, somebody born in a Sikh family. They are all born at the bottom of the mountain, from where there is a path up. Now, whether they are going up or not, that is up to them.
Some people may not be going up at all. Some people may actually be, some people may just be at the bottom of the mountain and they just circle around the bottom of the mountain and pull everyone down. You know, your path is wrong, your path is wrong, your path is wrong.
And are you going up? So, sometimes some people just get caught in competing religion. My religion is better than your religion. Your religion is better than my religion.
Whether, if it is really better, show it through your actions. Show how devoted to God you are. And if you are really devoted to God, people will see that.
But religion can, if religion becomes just a social designation or a tool in power games, in power politics, then that religion is not actually religion. So, when people say that they are committing violence in the name of religion, there are terrorists who kill themselves and kill others in the name of religion, what are they doing? Actually, they are not worshipping God. They are simply having their own conception of God, which somehow they have extrapolated from their holy books.
And they want power, they want prestige and often they are misled by their beliefs that okay, if you die and you kill, you will go to heaven and you will enjoy. This is, as I said earlier, religion without philosophy. So, we can’t absolutely say that all religions are paths to God.
All religions were originally meant to be paths to God. But today, whether that religion is taking people to God or not, that is up to individuals to see. Whether the individual follower is worshipping God or not, that is important.
So, once a person went to God and he said, oh God, I have purchased this lottery ticket. It’s worth 50 lakh rupees. So, if I get this lottery, I will give you 25 lakhs.
He went to that, eagerly went on the day when the lottery ticket was announced and he found that he had won the prize. But then he saw that he had won the second prize, which is worth 25 lakhs. And then he went to God in the temple and he said, oh God, you are so clever.
You took your share beforehand only. So, here people are not approaching God as the object of devotion. Here, they are treating God, which can be for any religion.
It can be a Hindu, it can be a Muslim, it can be a Christian, whatever. Here, as a business, we can try to manipulate and try to get as much as possible and give as less as possible. That’s what people are doing.
So, religion can be a social identity and religion can be a spiritual path. So, originally, religion was meant to be a spiritual path. And if people are practicing that religion as a spiritual path, then through different religions, people can rise up to the top of the mountain.
But we have to see whether they are actually rising up the top of the mountain. And if people are practicing the process of religion with philosophy and with practical application of the religious practices,