Where Religions Meet

Swami Smaranananda .

The transcribed and slightly edited lecture delivered by Swami Smaranananda, the General Secretary, Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, at Olema Interfaith Convention convened by the Vedanta Society of Northern California, the USA, on May 29. 2000.

Om! Asato ma sadgamaya, tamaso ma jyotirgamaya, mrityor ma amritam gamaya. Om Shantih Shantih Shantih.

Please lead us from the unreal to the real, from darkness to light, and from death to immortality. Om peace, peace, peace.

We have been having a feast of ideas and a mart of humour since this morning. Now-a-days in many cities, there are laughing clubs. They say the more you laugh the more you become healthy. So today we have all been able to laugh so much--that is a great thing--actually, that is joyful religion. Sri Ramakrishna didn't want a monotonous, melancholy religion. He prayed to the Divine Mother, and said, `Mother don't make me a dry Sannyasin, a dry monk.' Religion should be joyful. That is one of the great contributions of Sri Ramakrishna.

Many of you know about Vedanta. When Swami Vivekananda appeared at the Parliament of Religions in 1893 at Chicago, that was the first time in history that these ideas of Vedanta were brought to the Occident, or to the New World. We have been talking about ways to explore our common spiritual ground. Before I come to the subject, I would like to make one or two remarks about what our eminent speakers this afternoon so beautifully placed before us. We all know and respect Prof. Huston Smith. He had mentioned two ideas--one is about organized religion versus spirituality. The word `religion' is a bit unfashionable in many countries in the west; they say spirituality is all right, we don't want organized religion. Long back I happened to talk with one Anglican gentleman who was the Vice Principal of Bishops' College in Calcutta. He asked me about it. I told him that in our Order only the work is organized; not religion. If you have to work effectively, then we need organization. In fact, Swami Vivekananda was in two minds whether to have an organization or not. Finally he opted for an organization and that is the reason why I am here before you representing an organization.

Another important point made by Prof. Smith was the so-called religious conflicts throughout the world, in the past and in the present. I don't know what is going to happen in the future. I say, they are all political--not religious. God is not asking us to fight with one another. Rather the common ground, the spiritual ground is to be found and we have been exploring it since this morning. Many others are exploring in many other ways. But the one common ground, is God himself. God is the common ground, the common spiritual ground, for all religions. Rabbi Slater beautifully said in answer to a question, `Seeing God in everyone; not gods but God.' It is an interesting statement, and precisely our idea also. Seeing God in every person. There is only one God, not many gods. If so many gods were there, like people belonging to different religions fighting each other, the gods themselves would start a fight among themselves.

So, we do understand that there is only one God and we should see that God in everybody else because all are children of God. That is wonderful.

One day when Sri Ramakrishna was at Dakshineswar, some devotees had gathered round him and somebody mentioned about compassion to living beings. Immediately he said: `What compassion? Who are you to show compassion to anybody, you are just a worm crawling over the surface of the earth. Not compassion, but service to man as service to God. Serve man as if you are serving God--serve humanity.' Swami Vivekananda was a young man at that time. He was present there and he remarked, `This is a wonderful truth I have heard today. If I have the opportunity, I will preach it everywhere throughout the world.' And you know he did it. And that is how one of the main activities he entrusted to the Ramakrishna Mission created by him, is service to the people, service to the poor people, service to the illiterate people, service to people suffering because of natural disasters. All this work is being done by the Ramakrishna Mission in India. Miss Murshida Batul mentioned about love of God and following your own path. Follow your path but love God. Loving God is the main thing in every religion, not fearing God. Don't fear God because, if you are the children of God why should you be frightened by God? You should learn how to love God. And Sister Mary also mentioned about joyful religion and service. Service itself should become joyful. Swami Vivekananda said: let there be as many sects and religions as there are human beings.

So the common ground can be found if you allow everybody in the world to have their own religion. Each can have his or her own religion, because God is Infinity itself and infinite are the ways to reach him. That is what Vedanta says. That is why the Vedantic principles are universal. It gives you immense freedom to choose your own path. There are some broad classifications like Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism etc. But they are only broad classifications and in and through each religion also we can have any number of paths. That is how you find through the centuries so many new sects are coming up within each religion. But unfortunately the new sects begin to quarrel with one another. You find it in every religion in the world today. If one's path is correct and others' path are all wrong why should that create a headache for that one person? Suppose the path by which I am travelling to God is right and the other person's path is wrong why should I get a headache on that account? Let him go by the wrong path and then let him get disappointed. But why should I go and hit him? This beats common sense.

So first of all there need not be any conflict between religion and religion. Each can follow his or her own path. This is a great message of Sri Ramakrishna for this age. This was there already, these ideas, in Hinduism. But they were not made so prominent. Sri Ramakrishna practised all aspects of religion. He was not satisfied with practising only the various paths found in Hinduism, and so he prayed to the Mother, `Please show me the path by which the Christians attain you, please show me the path by which the Muslims attain you.' He got his realization in his own way. We don't go into the details of it here. So we have to explore the common spiritual ground for all religions, for all of us.

One word that has been coming, recurring here again and again is the word love. In the Bible it is said `God made man in his own image. And God is love.' But this word `love' is a very difficult word and very often it is used in so many senses and so many meanings are ascribed to it. But love is a universal phenomenon and love can be the basis, that can be the common ground, for all religions. One person belonging to one religion loves another person belonging to another religion--here too there is a positive approach. But the negative approach has been emphasized all through--hatred, jealousy etc. As Buddha says, you cannot conquer hatred by hatred, you can conquer hatred only by love. But this love is in everybody and in every heart. Everybody experiences what love is, they only need to give it a higher direction, that's all. This is what Sri Ramakrishna taught again and again.

One lady came to him and said, `Sir, I want to love God, I want to think of God, but I am not able to do so.' `Why?' `My little nephew is there and I love him very much. Whenever I try to think of God I think of my nephew.' Sri Ramakrishna said, `Well, that does not matter, you love your nephew, but love him as God, as God's image and serve him with all your heart.' The lady took the advice and her whole life was spiritually transformed. That means there can be innumerable images of God but the image itself is not totally God. We can never draw a line--this much is God and beyond this is not God. God is everything that exists. But everything can be only a poor reflection of God. It is only a poor mirror. The infinite God cannot be reflected in a mirror however nice, however costly that mirror may be. If you understand this, we will not be fighting in the name of God. God must be laughing at us looking at all this; seeing how these people are fighting in My name. I belong to all.

Again, to mention another incident, another teaching of Sri Ramakrishna: Two brothers measure their land and say that part is yours and this part is mine. God is looking at it and is laughing to himself. He says, `The land neither belongs to this man nor to the other man and still they measure and say this part is mine and that part is yours. But all land belongs to Me.'

So, the idea is that we really underestimate God--that is the problem. God is not to be restricted by our intellect, by our own understanding but we have to bring God into our heart. He is already there but we are not aware of it. This is what the Vedanta says. Vedanta says God is in every heart. The Upanishads which form the basis for Vedanta say that the same God is dwelling in all. Eko devah sarvabhuteshu gudhah sarvavyapi sarvabhutantaratma. He is in everybody and He it is who is looking after what we do. We may ask why he does not put us on the right path. In Christian mysticism too an example is given, which Sri Ramakrishna also mentions. A boat is sailing on water when a favourable breeze is there. All that you have to do is to raise the sail. Raise the sail--the boat will go of its own accord. You need not exert yourself. But raising the sail we have to do. That means we have to be committed to God, whatever be our understanding of God. Our understanding will be always imperfect. The Vedas say so, the Upanishads say so and in all other religions they say we cannot understand God totally; it is impossible. Because our intellect's capacity is very limited and God is infinite. At the most we can see one part of God, one aspect of God. Again to quote Sri Ramakrishna: If you have to go and bathe in the Ganga, you need not bathe in every place beginning from its source up to the ocean where it merges--about 1,500 miles. You need not bathe in every place. If you bathe only in one place, that is enough. Similarly if you know a little of God that is enough. We don't have the capacity to see God in every aspect--the totality of God.

Some lines from a sonnet by Cardinal Newman come to my mind. He says, `I do not ask to see the distant scene but one step enough for me.' I did not understand the meaning when as a boy I read these lines. But they were in my memory. Many years later when I had joined the Order, I happened to be climbing a mountain in India and suddenly a big fog came, and covered up everything. If you fall you may fall a thousand feet below. But I could see one step ahead of me and one step behind. Then I suddenly remembered this line `One step enough for me'. I can carry on; I can go on, I need not see the distant scene--one step enough for me. That poem begins with `Lead kindly light amidst the encircling gloom, Lead thou me on.'

In spiritual life too we need not see the distant scene nor is it possible for us to see. But if we have to keep ourselves on the path; we have to commit ourselves to God--I live for God whatever may be my vocation. It doesn't matter what I am doing. Everybody has to earn a little money, everybody has to look after the family, look after the society. It doesn't matter. But your minds must be turned to God. In this matter I don't see any conflict with any religion. All religions say you pay a little attention to God, don't be steeped in your material needs alone and material life alone. All religions say that. Another important thing Swami Vivekananda points out is: All religions consider that man is a degeneration, he was in a perfect state and there was a degeneration. The idea of Adam and Eve committing the original sin is also the same thing. According to every religion man has lost his perfection and he has degenerated and he again has to climb up to that original state, back to that original state. This is common to all religions. In fact if we carefully look, there are so many common features in all religions. But we have thrown away the seed and we are busy with the chaff. The grain is thrown away--that is the whole problem. We are busy with the externals, we are busy with unimportant things in every religion.

That is why an author wrote a book and called it `Vedanta: the Heart of Hinduism'. Hinduism has got so many gods, so many rituals, so many varieties of worshipping God and in other religions also there is a lot of variety. If you look at Tibetan Buddhism there are a lot of rituals. So that is according to the aptitude, according to the temperament, of each practitioner of spirituality. Each person who wants God, likes a particular path and then goes forward by it. It is not difficult to find the common ground. But still we emphasize the differences between ourselves, differences between various religions and a fight is begun and we go on fighting. So as Prof. Smith said this fighting is political and not religious.

When Swami Vivekananda first met Sri Ramakrishna, he sang a song which means `O, mind! Let us go back to our own Abode, why are we wandering here as strangers in this foreign land.' Going back, this idea of going back, the very word religion also indicates that you will have to have the idea of going back to your source and that source is God.

Therefore, I feel that instead of finding the common ground at the lower level, we will have to find the common ground at the higher level. For instance, Reverend Hong Suren talked about filial respect. Filial respect is one of the moral ideas. In the Upanishads too it is there. Matridevo bhava, pitridevo bhava, acharya devo bhava--worship your mother as God, worship your father as God, worship your teacher as God. After completing one's education the student leaves his teacher. While he bids good-bye to his teacher, the teacher advises the disciple. These are the first three instructions: Worship your mother as God because up to the age of five or six the mother is the guru and after that up to teenage the father is the guru, after that the teacher is the guru. But this is the age of freedom. Everybody wants freedom. But how to use that freedom? Freedom should not deteriorate into licentiousness or anything else. How to use that freedom as a responsible citizen--this teaching has to become a part of our educational system in every country. It is not the case at least in India. For the last one and half months, I am on a tour of the United States and Canada. Here too I learn that teenagers are rebellious, they don't care for the parents etc. But the question is whether the parents care for the children or not. The teenager may not care for his or her parents, but the parents should care for them.

There is an incident about which I heard: One boy in somebody's house--a teenager used to sleep up to nine o'clock in the morning and again start sleeping by eight o'clock in the evening and his daddy used to go before nine o'clock to work and come back after eight o'clock at night from work. So, he could never see his son for days or months together. One day he didn't go to work and he found his son sleeping even after nine o'clock, He got very much annoyed and gave him a nice slap. The boy got up and laughed. Why ? Because his daddy for the first time paid some attention to him. Everybody wants attention in the world. Old people want attention, young people want attention. If you pay some attention to somebody, they are grateful and glad; they feel, `Yes, some attention has been given to me'. All parents, both the husband and the wife, are all going to work and since they are so busy with the work, they have no time for the children; caring for the children becomes a problem. So, parents too will have to fulfil their duties.

Duty is the lower rung of the ladder in religion. As Swami Vivekananda says duty is the midday sun, scorching midday sun. If duty is greased by the grease of love, then it becomes pleasant and joyful. Otherwise, if duty is done because it is duty, then one cannot be very happy about it. The ethical basis for all religions is common. But ethics vary from place to place, from culture to culture. It is not the same. What one may do in United States may not be right in India; what an Indian does in India may not be correct in United States, ethically speaking. But broad principles of ethics must form the common ground on which religion is built and religions should have the highest aim of spirituality. Religion on the lower level is a sort of piety only; ritualistic worship; we have to worship God everyday at a particular time etc. Particular ritual is to be performed. But when the human mind develops further, then one wants to know God, in other words one wants to become spiritual.

So, common grounds of religions are there, but at different levels, there are different kinds of common grounds. Ethics is a common ground, moral life is a common ground, but one should not stop there. As Swami Vivekananda said it is good to be born in a church, but not to die there. We should transcend that. All religions are only methods of transcendence. We have to transcend this present level and go to higher and higher levels of spirituality. That is why Sri Ramakrishna says mind itself becomes the guru in course of time. Therefore the Vedantic ideas are universal in character. As Swami Vivekananda said in the Parliament of Religions `I do not want a Christian to become a Hindu or a Hindu to become a Christian or a Buddhist to become a Muslim or a Muslim to become a Buddhist etc. Everybody can remain where he or she is and then go forward.' All that is necessary is love of God and yearning for God: `Yes, I want God, I may not know what God is, but still I want God'. Now how to create this feeling in everybody? We don't seem to have it now. Even then, one day or the other, even the so called worst of persons may feel that he or she wants God. We may not know what God is because He is beyond the ordinary mind.

Sri Ramakrishna says, if the mind is hundred percent pure, then God can be realized through that mind. But as long as the mind is not pure, God cannot be realized. Again, realization does not mean that you will know the whole of God; you will only touch one part of God or one aspect of God. Only in the case of Sri Ramakrishna we find that he wanted to practise various religious disciplines to reach the Goal. And after twelve years of spiritual practices and spiritual experiences he declared, `As many religions, so many paths. All paths lead to the Divine.' Suppose you are climbing a mountainsomebody is climbing from the south, somebody from the north, somebody from the east, somebody from the west. At the bottom the distance between them is great; one doesn't know if another man is climbing from the other side or not. But if all of them go towards the top, the distance goes on reducing. When they reach the top, they all meet together there. At the top everything is same; it is at the bottom that there are many differences and the differences are being emphasized too much and therefore there are quarrels and fighting in the name of religion. It is only to protect one's social identity that this fighting is going on. But social identity is not important for God. As Swami Vivekananda said, `Truth does not pay homage to any society, ancient or modern. It is society that should pay homage to Truth or die. And that society is the greatest where the highest ideals become practical.' Religion is closely associated with society and religion should give to the society these highest ideals. That is the role of religion. And it is also the responsibility of religious teachers to give these highest ideals to the society.

So, I think that by the discussions that have been going on since this morning, we have tried to explore various areas where different religions or spiritual paths can come together, come nearer to each other. We should thank the Vedanta Society of Northern California for organizing this meet and giving an opportunity to all of us to think about the common grounds of all religions.

Thank you all.