This question cannot be answered with a yes or no, because it depends if you have good reasons why you believe that your religion alone is the right one. If your belief is based on reason, intuition and experience than surely it is not wrong to say so and to try to make others see your point, too.
Now there is one problem. The faith for which the term ‘religion’ was first used – Christianity and Islam – are neither based on reason, intuition or experience but only on blind belief. One can never know for sure if Jesus is really the son of God who was sent to earth to save us from the original sin and who declared that the way to the father goes only through him.
Or we can never know if Allah really communicated via Gabriel with Prophet Mohamed and declared that he is the last prophet and all must follow what Mohammed said.
These two religions make blind belief even into a virtue: ‘if you believe blindly what the Church or the mullahs tell you, you will be vastly rewarded with eternal heaven after Judgment Day’, is promised.
So to claim that only Christianity is right or only Islam is right, is wrong, as both cannot be right and in all likelihood none of them is right, because both of them have a harmful, divisive aspect in their doctrine, which is meant to frighten people. Both claim that whoever does not follow their “only true” religion will burn in hell for ever. This would dispatch half of the world population to hell if it were true. This simply cannot be true.
But there is another ‘religion’ which is not really a religion, in the sense that it is not a fixed, unverifiable ‘belief-system’ but is often called religion. It is the ancient Indian wisdom and tradition which is called Hindu Dharma or Sanatana (eternal) Dharma. This is based on reason, intuition and experience. It makes claims that make sense and can be verified, like the claim that the essence in all is one and the same – ‘sat-chit-ananda’ – blissful awareness beneath the names and forms.
So in this case it is not wrong to say that Hindu Dharma is right. That means, it’s also not wrong to try and convince others of its value.
Unfortunately, only members of Christianity and Islam go all out and try to spread their religion with full zest. They don’t hesitate to claim that their religion alone is true and all others are wrong and will not be accepted by the ‘true God’, though they have nothing to support their claim.
They are on a blind, irrational mission to eradicate all other faiths because they believe that their respective God wants all to follow only Jesus or Mohammed and then only Judgment Day will come and they can go to heaven.
It would be so much better if Hindus would go all out and explain the philosophy of the Vedas, that the Supreme Intelligence behind this universe (called God in English) is one and the same; that it is the innermost essence in everything, including in us and can be experienced.
These insights results in a very beneficial mind-set, definitely more beneficial than the divisive mind-set of the new-comer religions. It gives inner strength, knowing that God is within, and it makes people kind, because they know that God is also in others, including in animals and nature. If this mind-set would spread all over, we could even have a word without borders, as we would feel like one family…
Can anyone explain to George Soros that his dream world would turn out well if he used his billions to spread Hindu Dharma??
By Maria Wirth
(A similar question was on Quora to which I replied on similar lines)
7 Comments
It is a certain religious fanatics and then another that converts people to their religion by coversion under the name of education etc..both of these religions, if u are intelligent u would have identified them without feeling guilty that u belong to one. Both of these are propagated by certain parasites to the world.
So, now you decide!!!
Maria ji, as you know, while Christianity and Islam are religions to follow (by alluring many ways or by force/threaten), whereas Sanatana Dharma is not (and never been) a relgion but a way to follow to have a better life and reach the omnipresent.
No doubt, one day the people World will realize this, would follow Sanatana Dharma. Only the time is the matter.
You made your point in the above article very precisely. Thank you for your consistant service to Sanatana Dharma. Kudos to you.
When faith is in harmony with reasoning and science and in conformity with the laws of nature, it is right.
“Worshipping a false God is equal to the commission of a thousand crimes.” Swami Dayanand
In search of the one true religion – http://www.vjsingh.info/index.html
. I am not a blind-follower of Christianity, but I found out Christ Jesus is the Lord and Saviour as He has revealed His ‘forgiveness’ and ‘free eternal salvation’ to me (I was earlier a Science enthusiast and therefore I always suspected the existence of God, but I thank Lord Christ that He has revealed His devine truth and Himself to me and I can also say that His truth is a little different than what traditional Christianity teaches which is based upon some adulterated views of White Europeans and is different than the classic Christianity views ) . Everything which is happening in the world is happening according to Christ Jesus’ prophecies, so He will come back one day to judge every dead and alive and I think that time is near, may Heavenly God bless . Thanks
While I, personally, revere Jesus Christ for his service to human kind in terms of advice or so, I still say, Christians were violent and shown the height of atrocities to non-Christian countries and histories are evident for this. Secondly you folks some time call him as ‘messenger’ and some time ‘lord’, get yourselves clarity on this.
If you admit him as messenger, then there is no need to follow him as he is not a God.
If you admit him as God, then God will not tell to show violence with fellow human beings. Why so much of violence against humans by Christians?
Interestingly, Jesus never claimed himself as god, don’t you agree?
Hope you get my points.
But Vijai, which science & reasoning are you referring to? The science which in itself is marred by limitation and constant changes based on assumption! A religion which said earth revolves around the Sun and about the nine planets, millenniums before Christ was born, should find relevance and pass the QC of the human science which accepted this some 500 years back!
On the contrary, scientific studies should be ardently based on Vedanta philosophy. This would not just help in speedy but righteous evolution of science.
Would agree with Manjesh. Wonder when west will acknowledge that all this progress of science in the last few centuries is entirely based on Indian knowledge. they plundered Indian texts, many missionries took texts to the west, too, set up Sanskrit departments, but told Indians that their heritage is nothing worth. they very well knew and still know the worth. Wonder if India even knows how much is there in the west…