Universal Message of all Religions of the World By Lanka Krishna Murti
By Late L. Krishna Murti
The cultural and spiritual upliftment of the human beings is the religions. Cultural upliftment consists of development of wisdom, moral sense and aesthetic temperament. Lack of wisdom leads one to dangerous situations. Lack of moral sense brings down the image of a person in the society. Lack of aesthetic temperament blocks entrance to higher spheres of joy. Absence of spiritual upliftment results in lack of self control and makes one the victim of circumstances. A culturally and spiritually developed person dissipiates and receives life, light, and love and stands lofty. Therefore religion is the devine part of human life occupying a higher position than the Mere persuit of material prosperity which is but the animal part fit to occupy the lowest position even if it is backed by the latest scientific technology.
The human being though belonging to different races is substantially the same throught the world and has been struggling from ages for the material prosperity and cultural and spiritual developemen. In this struggle religion has been playing an important role and has its own history of successes and failures. Though the outword forms of different religions namely the customs, rituals and symbolism are different due to natural differences in geographical and historical factors are great, religions that have stood the test of time have the same valuable message like the sweet nourishing content of different fruits with different outward appearances. But, alas, even these fruits are not spread by the pests of superstition, fanatism and hatred and wars in the name of religion only indicate the demon being still very much alive even in the present age of mass awakening and icreased intercourse. For setting things right religion alone appears to b the best means. But this should be given the sound base of scientific outlook to avoid repetition of the history.
The basic principle of any religion in all its aspects is “Unity in diversity”. The following discussion illustrates this:
- Promotion of wisdom
By nature every person is selfish. Selfishness has the tendency to promote competition. Competition
implies conflict which should be avoided as for as possible by a wise person. Cooperation is a wiser step forward. If each member of the society is wise enough to show a little patience and cooperate with others he can get a better, risk free and enduring benefit as a sharer of the total benefit got by the society with combined effort.
- Promotion of moral sense
To work with cooperation with others one has to follow certain principles congenial to mutual love and trust. These are words and adherence to them with conviction, overcoming the temptations of the mind, is absolutely necessary.
3.Promotion of aesthetic temperament
Gratification of the stomach and the sex are the animal ways of getting happiness. But , for a human being, there are higher realms of happiness in the great fine arts like the music, painting, sculpture, poetry, drama, philosophy etc. The happiness got here is of a higher quality and more permanent and therefore divine. Every artiste and art lover looks at diversity not with diverse feelings as the common man does but with an inner sense of the same love and derives the same aesthetic joy even when the diversity touches the limits of opposites. Every religion makes use of this aesthetic appeal, only the degree may vary, in the direction of promotion of universal love. This universal love helps release of the spirit from partial attachments and helps it rise in the same way as the self that tries to break the attachments with true knowledge and rise to its unique blissful position.
- Spiritual upliftment
By separating the self from the worldly attachments and by enjoying the bliss of pure self the self becomes independent of the outside circumstances and becomes fit for liberation from bondage. Philosophy helps the process. Knowing the ultimate truth is the object of philosophy.
It has to be noted that in the above 4 items the direction of movement is from diversity to unity and the progress in the former items as well. The religious approach stresses this greater and greater importance of the succeeding items and their inevitability unlike the secular approach and therefore it is better suited, if it is properly made use of. The idea of “God” is meant to nourish all the four aspects together and is the best possible symbol of unity in diversity, which is also the principle, followed by the science to go deeper and deeper into the diverse natured fundamental power. But the philosopher gets at God and the non believer scientist gets at the demon.
I have tried to give below in a very very brief manner, the common preachings of the following 12 great religions of the world viz Hinduism, Judaism, Zoroastianism, Taoism, Jainism, Buddhism, Conucianism, Shinto cult, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism and Bahaism borrowing them from a book by a learned author.
Wisdom and Morals
Be in the company of good persons. Avoid t he company of bad persons. Respect your parents, elders and saintly persons and listen to their advice. Study religious literature. Obey the law of the land. Obey the institution of marriage. Do not be lazy. Do your duty. Always try to do good things and avoid sinful acts. You cannot hide anything from God. God will definitely give reward for good deeds and punish doers of bad deeds. Speak pleasantly. Control Passions. Do not be greedy. Control anger. Be generous. Avoid pride and jealousy. Avoid killing or causing pain to any living being as for as possible. Speak the truth. Do not steal. Practice purity of body, mind and money. Control your senses. Avoid liquor. Avoid luxurious life and practice austerity. Work hard and be satisfied with what you earn thereby. Do not indulge in vices. Make charity from hard- earned money. Help persons in distress. Give food and shelter to guests. Conquer others not with sword but with love. Respect ladies. Debauchery is sinful. Do not cheat in business. Get rid of sin by repentance and a firm resolution not to repeat the sinful act and by austerities, prayer and charity. Make pilgrimages to holy places.
Aesthetic and spiritual development
Try to seek higher happiness within meditation. See unity in diversity. The supreme self, universal self or God is within you and in everything. He is eternal, all pervading and all knowing. He is full of great qualities. He is the controller of the whole universe and giver of happiness and liberation of all individual souls. Surrender to him and he will pardon all our sins and lead us to bliss. He is the ultimate Truth. B y knowing the ultimate Truth differences of good and bad, small and big etc. vanish and you get permanent happiness. Pursuit of ultimate Truth will lead to universal love. Service of all living beings is service to God. By spiritual development one gets rid of birth and death and enjoys eternal joy. Hell and heaven ara within ourselves. Devotion to supreme self, God or highest truth is the best path for salvation.