It
can only take us to the idea of God, heaven or salvation that is its
stated goal. A pluralism of paths implies some plurality in the goal
as well, with the true goal only coming at the end of a complete
path. We should respect a
diversity of paths and the freedom of people to follow them,
including to follow paths that do not lead to the full truth. No one
path to truth can be imposed upon all humanity. Truth is something
that we can only discover in the freedom of our own inner seeking.
If it is imposed upon us externally
as a belief or a concept, it becomes artificial and prevents real
inner growth. Sometimes through taking a wrong path and realizing
our error we can learn a great deal, perhaps more than halfheartedly
following a true path. There obviously is no cosmic law preventing
wrong paths to exist or stopping people from following them. A
pluralism of paths encourages discrimination between paths rather
than making all paths the same. If many paths are possible, some
true and some not, we must be very careful about the path that we
are taking.
Even a path that may be right for one
person may not be right for another, so we cannot assume that what
worked for someone else must work for us as well. Recognizing one
truth and a diversity of paths requires that we examine each path
critically, not that we blindly make all paths equal and true.
Making all religions the same destroys this discrimination and
allows wrong paths to be placed beyond scrutiny. It would be like
saying that all so-called medicines are equally good for everyone
and prescribing the same medicine for all. The result would be not
healing for all but the poisoning of many. |