Toward a Universal Religion

Almost every living religion today claims that it is a world religion. In so far as the term `world religion’ connotes the wide geographical extent of its spread, it is perhaps a justifiable claim. Most religions that had their genesis at particular places and at particular historical periods, and under certain political and social circumstances, have not only survived the ordeals of history, but have grown to maturity and developed under traditions entirely different from those of the place of their origin.

Christianity, which was basically a religion of the West, has now permeated all over the globe. Islam, which had its origin in the Middle East, has spread through India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Buddhism, a religion of Indian origin, has grown out of its geographical confines and spread to China, Japan, Ceylon, and other countries. Hinduism, which had its birth in the ancient Indian ethos, has survived the internal dissentions and external onslaughts and is now gaining ground in the West in the form of some cult or another. In the limited sense of global spread, all these religions can justifiably be called world religions. But alas! None of them can, with equal justification, claim that it is a universal religion.

What is universal religion? To define it is to confine it to a set of theological doctrines. In fact it defies all definitions and outgrows the narrow confines of the doctrines of any single living religion. Since universal religion resists definition, it is not only easier to describe its import, but is consistent with its true nature.

The universal religion, to be worthy of its name, must be universal in intent and outlook. While each of the other faiths develops its own exclusive doctrine and is eager to impose it on others, the universal religion is happily free from any doctrinaire rigidity and is good to all, intended for all, and is available to all. It is a quintessence of the spirit of all living religions, without, however, their fanaticism and frantic eagerness to convert others. It embodies in itself the virtues and excellences of all religions without their bigotry and their dreadful hostility for one another. Its one supreme message is the message of love based on faith in the “fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man.” Is this not the core of all religions of the world?

Three most prominent avenues to realization of the ideal of establishing the universal religion are: (a) to get the whole of mankind to rally round one spiritual genius and owe its absolute allegiance to him, (b) to pursue a unifying movement based on the syncretistic elements available in all religions, and (c) to pursue comparative study of all living religions and discover the fundamental and unifying core of all faiths, hidden deep under the superficial patterns of diversity in rituals, traditions, and doctrines.

In Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba’s divine person and in His eternal message of love, all these avenues merge into one broad highway that leads mankind to the universal religion that assures the troubled generation of mankind a millennium of peace, prosperity, truth, love, and righteousness.

In the person of Sri Sathya Sai Baba, we find not only a spiritual genius who can rally round Him men of different faiths, but the manifestation of the Divine. In Him are found the Gods of all religions. He repeatedly tells His followers that they need not give up their faith in, and worship of, their traditional Gods, Christ, Allah, Rama, or Shiva, because He is the manifestation of them all.

It is, therefore, no miracle that His Christian devotees who throng Prasanthi Nilayam from the remote corners of the West see Him as Christ reborn in India. The Muslim devotees see Him as God. From other devotees we gather that He grants them a vision of Rama, Krishna, Subrahmanyam, or Shrinivasa depending upon the Gods whom they believe in. He is the universal God, of all ages and of all lands and creeds, and has come down to us to dispel the darkness of our hearts filled with ego, pride, selfishness, and fanaticism.

All roads to lead to Him; all faiths find their ultimate goals in Him; all streams flow to Him; all wills lose their identity and become one with His Divine will; all voices blend themselves into one exquisite melody in singing His glory. It is a part of Bhagavan’s mission to bring us to a blissful awareness of oneness of God behind the multiplicities of multiplying creeds. Underneath the ripple of waves is one undisturbed current.

In fact, every religion has its inherent and inbuilt factors conducive to a sense of unity. For example, Hindu philosophic doctrines tell us that all Gods are varieties of expression of the same God. Advaita Vedanta [one sole reality] and Visishta-advaita Vedanta [non-dualism] agree that Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are the three facets of the one ultimate unity, Brahman. Lord Krishna said, “When Righteousness declines, O Bharat! When wickedness is strong, I rise from age to age, and take visible shape, and move as man with men, succoring the good, thrusting the evil back, and setting virtue on her seat again.”

Lord Krishna not only revealed His mission, but also implied the oneness of all avatars that went before Him and that were to succeed Him (including Sri Sathya Sai and His future avatars). Other religions of the world have also enshrined in their doctrines and practices the sense of oneness in the many. The multifarious springs of religious thought in China have united to make one cultural stream fed by the famous `Three truths’ including Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. Japanese Shintoism absorbed into itself not only Confucian and Taoistic doctrines, but also Buddhist ideas.

In the West, Christianity unmistakably displayed such synthesizing trends by accepting Jesus, the Jew, as Savior, and by incorporating Hebrew ideas and scriptures in the Bible. In the Middle East, Islam accepts Moses and Christ as apostles of God’s message to the world. The 99 attributes of God central to Islamic faith include all the myriad names of God used in all other religions of the world. Sikkhism, a blend of the best from Hinduism and Islam, is a pointer toward the universal religion.

Besides these synthesizing tendencies displayed by individual religions, there have been collective efforts to establish a kind of universal religion (though feeble and ineffective) such as world’s Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893, the World Fellowship of Faiths, also held in Chicago and — the World Conference of Religions held recently in Bombay. By underlining the common core of all religions in His discourses, Bhagavan Sai has been fulfilling His self-imposed task of elevating man to nobler and divine heights from where it would be an easy step for mankind to forget the differences and live in peace.

There is yet another path, an intellectual path, in which Bhagavan shows the common core of all religions. In the Summer courses on Spirituality and Indian Culture held for students and teachers, not only does Bhagavan Sai Himself deliver discourses, but several intellectuals and acknowledged authorities on various religions are asked to lecture, thereby giving an opportunity to the participants in the summer course to have a glimpse into the nature of every prominent religion. Those who have an insight into things do not fail to realize the oneness of all religions.

But study of all the unifying elements in any single religion or a comparative study of all religions is a path too tortuous and too exacting for man, and is often full of insurmountable hurdles of doubt and skepticism. Faith in Sai is the surest and quickest road to universal religion. He is a living God in man’s image; an Avatar in flesh and blood, of Christ or Allah or any other God known to man. So long as men have faith in Him and follow His teachings in thought, word, and deed, no matter what Gods they worship, it is better to believe in one than to believe in none or all. All roads lead to Him and all sheep come into His fold. Mankind shall attain the kingdom of God for the mere asking, for such is His boundless love for man, the sinner in religion!

~J. Srihari Rao, Raipar (M. P.)
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, April 1975

Egoism—ahamkara [pride] and mamakara [selfishness]—can be removed only by the twin detergents of viveka [discrimination] and vairagya [renunciation]. Bhakti [devotion] is the water to wash away this dirt of ages and the soap of japa [repetition of the Lord’s name], dhyana [meditation], and yoga [union] will help to remove it quicker and more effectively.

Each of you must take up some spiritual sadhana [spiritual effort] in order to cleanse the mind of lust and greed, anger, and hatred. Come out of the well of ego and swim into the sea of the universal spirit or Paramatma of which you are a part. Force your mind (or persuade it, gently, and caressingly) to breathe the purer and more vital atmosphere of the eternal; remind it of God and His glory, every second, every breath, when you repeat any one of His names.

~Baba