All religions are true! Is it so ?

The learned Hindus often quote statements from Scriptures to control their fanatical fraternity. A statement from RigVeda "Ekam Sat Vipraha Bahuda Vadanti"(the truth is one,the learned call it by different names) , and other statements like "Vasudaiva Kutumbhakam". The other religions too have such concepts and are provided by their respective liberal brothers to the conservative fraternity. In Hinduism the liberal view dominates while in semitic
faiths(Judaism,Christianity,Islam) the conservative view dominates.

Truth or the Ultimate truth as specified by Vedanta or other philosophical systems can never be known. At the best a person can have is an opinion on this truth. Jesus had it ,so did Mohammad or Moses. They directly gave a system which should explain everything on this earth. The system they gave has great contradictions for a thinking man and is duly rejected. The single point that all of them held earth is flat suggests it can't be the truth about the reality. Whether they said it or their followers twisted their teachings and wrote it is quite a different issue. All we can know about them is through these books and through these books alone they have to be judged whether they are fictional or real. Hinduism has its traditions of Vaishnavism ,Shaivism and various schools of philosophy to explain the truth, but every philosophical thought has been fractured with the arguments from the other schools. The Bakti tradition though very different from Christian faith or Muslim faith has many problems in too. The puranas(Bhagavatam,Shiva Purana..) filled up with so many fictional and imaginary accounts can never be deciphered to provide what ultimate reality they suggest. So where does all this uncertainty leave us?

All the actions of reading past scriptures , understanding them analyzing them(be it vedas,bible ,quran,zend avesta) is based on one single hope that the past knew the truth. NO, it was never known to them.

Accepting that all paths lead to the same ultimate reality ,whatever the political compulsions be in such statements, we are killing the natural free inquiring spirit in us. Going by the mis guided notion that their was a past Golden age be it Satya Yuga or Garden of Eden man searches in the past for the ultimate reality. One truth which explains everything else. Religions in the popular sense are taken as the providers of truth. Religions don't provide truth , they attempt to provide it and it needs the help of human intellect and reason to guide towards it. Any Religion that proclaims that it has reached the end of the search and can provide the reason for everything should be infallible if not it is still in the process. . All our religions are incomplete. A better statement could be , All religions are runners in an open race and anybody can join it at any time and all of them aim for the trophy , the ultimate truth. All paths have the same goal but that doesn't necessarily mean that all of them are equal. They are equal only in the sense of their participation but no that all of them will finally win.

There is another danger with such humanitarian beliefs. They give rise to fanaticism. Since it is a settled matter that all religions are true there is nothing to be discussed. A modern Hindu faces this problem. He can never criticize other religions even when they appear to his reason as dangerous or wrong. An example, every point raised by an Hindu against Christian ism is turned down as that person either lacks the complete grasp on Christianity or else he would n't have any problem in seeing the similarity between Hinduism and Christianity. The case with Hindu against Hinduism , he doesn't like some parts in the religion.He is free to question the philosophical aspects but not the social aspects..This will only increase his frustration of not being to grasp such simple truth .He either believes blindly that he is wrong or becomes more fanatical in his approach. Both of these thoughts are not good for mankind. Christians or other monotheistic faiths don't have such problems because they don't recognize other religions anyway and what they provide is complete truth which in many situations don't stand the test of reason. The knowledge of the past never gets evolved because of such dangerous beliefs . Semitic faiths stagnate knowledge by stopping the inquisitive mind with their version of truth and the truly democratic faith like Hinduism is hampered by such stupid humanitarian beliefs.

Since religions don't provide the required truth should we reject it them? NO. Instead one has to become more religious then ever but faith should not be on past traditions and past thoughts but faith should lie on human intellect and reason and with that should explore everything to reach towards the truth. One should becoming uncompromising and the reverence one gives to their scriptures should be put on our reason and intuition.
A Hindu when he starts reading Vedas ,there is only disappointment that comes through. The Rig Veda extensively describes some yagas,some wars and gods. Some other vedas describe marriages, music. This suggests Vedas don't just speak about some abstract notion of truth by which if on starts reading from the beginning to the end and even memorize them he will know about the truth. He ultimately has to use his discriminatory intelligence .Using this intelligence he becomes sharp and with that he by his own efforts will understand the real essence of his existence. Vedas where the starting point and not the ending point of one's journey. Traditions have to be continued but not because they are great ,but they are the frame work to reach the truth. Vedas, Upanishads are the questions and we have to find the answers. Upanishads where not pre-Vedic but started some point of time after Vedas but how did they suddenly stop after that. Does that mean Upanishads have reached the goal. NO. It is we who have stopped that process. We stopped questioning and started accepting. We compromised on whether we should live comfortably with our family or should we explore the truth alone. We elaborated extensive rules to run this society but who runs us ? This question has now become a theoretical question only fit for some academic philosopher-historians.

A true enthusiast in present times is the person who understands the history behind every action. He understands there are four vedas, 18 puranas,108 upanishads.He understand what is Sankhya Yoga in second chapter of Bhagavad Gita , what is vedanta?.But can he add anything to them? Can there be a fifth veda coming up? NO. We stopped that process by all ready asserting that all religions are the same and true at the same time. If every child tomorrow who is born grows up with the knowledge that Vedas are incomplete ,Upanishads are half done then can there be not a single person who will do something towards it.

The point of pride for religions is not in past but how it's present generation is taking it. We can thump our chests seeing Charka's medicine,Bhaskara's Mathematics,Arybhatta's astronomy but did they provide the complete picture? If one is really proud of them then why not take it forward?

Atheism is the answer some say, but atheism has no independence. It is born by the negation of theistic faiths. If there were not such rigid faiths then the philosophy of atheism doesn't come into picture. There is another interesting point it is that Atheism is often mixed with science to provide that romantic modern understanding. Atheism by denying GOD in the theistic sense or the ultimate reality in the philosophical sense doesn't recognize law and order. I hope atheism limits itself to the negation of GOD and not ultimate reality then they are even denying science.

Science assumes there is order and there is a law which ultimately governs everything. This goal is no different from religion. The finding of that law is the goal of science, in it's quest Science employ human senses as the only means of knowledge . Such science which is finally dependent on man's very much fallible senses can ever give us the truth. I hope I am wrong but this is the only area which mankind is at least seriously working.

To substantiate the similarity between religion and science I will give an example. Hinduism long ago,was the sole religion in India and every aspect of life was derived from it. How we eat,sleep,cook,sing,socialize everything was dependent on that Religion. It had its share of evils(caste system,women empowerment in society) too. This place is now occupied by Science. Everything we have around us is a product of Science. It has it evils too(complete destruction of diversity on the planet, pollution in every sphere of our life).Both of them aimed at providing the ultimate truth and at the same time as an off shoot they dictated how we live. Just because we have Internet and computers doesn't mean our ancestors were in any way backward. After all, the man and his mind didn't change much.

"aa no bhadraaha krathavo yantu vishwataha" (let
noble thoughts come to us  from all directions)
       -Rig Veda 1.891

PS: i through out placed extreme faith in human reason. It may be wrong sometimes but that is the best we have got.