Above all, Hinduism cannot accept various religious divisions as real. Truth, after all is One. This means that there are no separate religious compartments that we belong to, Hinduism for the Hindus, Christianity for the Christians, and so on. In Sanatana Dharma, like science, Truth is a matter of reason and perception. Truth is a universal fact that each objective observer can discover by probing to the depths of his or her own mind. We must question and examine all that we call religion in the fire of inquiry.

Otherwise we are not searching out the Truth but merely attempting to uphold various identities, which have no real value except as tools of self-discovery. This means that people of all religions must come together and question what religion and spirituality really are, even if it requires, as it must, questioning our own traditions, and abandoning those aspects of them which fail to hold to the Truth.

There may be those who feel hurt or offended if their religion is questioned, but no true scientist feels offended if his theories or experiments are scrutinized. Nor is questioning in itself offensive. On the contrary, it can be a courtesy and a help. Those who follow Sanatana Dharma are open to having their views questioned, particularly those on the nature of consciousness, which is the real issue of all true inquiry.

There is no reason for us to feel offended if our religious beliefs are questioned. If they are true, like the heat of fire, any objective examination will affirm them, and such questioning will only make them stronger. If they are not true, like fire being wet, we have lost nothing in discarding a false belief.

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