SANATANA DHARMA AND THE MODERN WORLD

Isn't It Wrong for Religious People to Disagree?

Each one of us sees the world differently. The very beauty of life is that each being is unique and has his or her own unique perspective. Such differences need not be a problem. We should honor and respect them. Through them each person provides a new vision of the universe. Such differences only become a problem when we insist that one perspective is correct for everyone.

For example, there is an underlying unity of all human beings but we all have different faces. To arrive at human unity it is not to make all people have the same face, but to see the common humanity behind and through all different human forms.

It is not wrong for us to disagree with one another. After all, no opinion of any human being can be regarded as the absolute truth that no one can question, and no verbal formulation is final or incapable of being distorted. We must hold to the truth that we perceive, even if no one in the world agrees with us.

To find truth we must express how we see things and compare it with how other people see them, and try to find out what is really there. This clash of inquiry leads us to discovery. But we should not promote disagreements or refuse to recognize common truths merely to uphold a particular identity or belief as opposed to others.

We must recognize the right of others to see things differently than we do. We must create a culture that honors many different points of view. This does not mean that we should create a culture in which all things are permitted. We must base our lives on higher universal values, like non-violence, truthfulness, compassion, and self-discipline. But this should allow any number of names and forms for the spiritual life and its activities. Universality is not a matter of agreement, which may be no more than a social consensus or blind uniformity, but of integration in which one goes beyond all dualities.

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