Let no real spiritual aspiration be destroyed in the name of conformity to a belief. As human beings we should all come together and share our spiritual knowledge, not out of trying to convert others, but out of seeking to unite with the Infinite. We should have more religions, not less. Each one of us should have his or her own religion, and it should agree with our inner perception, not be the product of social regimentation.

The important thing is that our religion is a seeking to connect to the Divine within, that it is part of a path to Self-realization, not merely trying to conform to a social image of what is supposed to be holy or pious. Hinduism does not see it as a sign of greatness that all people in a country belong to the same religion, follow the same prophet, read the same holy book, or perform the same prayers. Hindus would consider it a sign of spiritual poverty.

It would be like if the people in a country all wore the same style of clothes, produced the same style of art, ate the same food, and all tried to look like each other. Diversity, through freedom, leads to true Oneness. We discover the unity of the tree by tracing back the creative current from each leaf to the trunk, not by reducing the tree to one branch only, which is only to stifle if not kill it.

Hinduism states the more the sects the better, as each sect will allow different people to find a connection with the Divine. It says that the religions we know are not separate or self-contained entities. They are merely sects of the universal religion and to the extent they think they alone represent that universal truth, they lose their value. What is important is that all the different religions come to recognize each other as subgroups within a greater or universal tradition that transcends any person, book or historical revelation. Then alone will there be peace in the world and in the hearts of human beings.

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