EQUALITY OF RELIGIONS
J.C. KUMARAPPA
(Being a Summary of a talk given at Gandhiniketan Ashram)
When, during our prayers, every day, the mantra stating that all religions are equal, is recited doubts rise in some people’s minds as to the validity of this statement. If they are so equal, then what is the purpose of their separate existence?
Man differs from man in his approach to God because the personality of one differs from that of another. God is infinite while man is finite. Hence the understanding of the same object is bound to differ. One particular aspect of God appeals to a certain group of similarly constituted individuals, while some other aspect claims the devotion of another group. Accordingly, each group wishes to pay its devotions to the Infinite in the manner best suited to its genius.
Jesus reveals God through love. Society is bound together through love. “Love thy neighbour as thyself” is the charge to those who can realise God through love. Strife should cease in such a Society. If a man strikes another on one cheek, “turn to him the other also” is the way to settle disputes. Love is a binding and unifying factor.
The Muslims see God as a Father and regard all co-worshippers as their brethren. Human race is one family and all divisions that make for strife disappear before their fraternal affection. There can be no rich nor poor, no black nor white, no high nor low in such a closely knit family.
The Hindus conceive God as the creator and all life as his creation and so divine and sacred. While the Christians and Muslims limit their allegiance to the human family, the Hindu extends his feeling of oneness to all sentient creatures, human, animal or vegetable. Hence, destruction of any life is a sacrilege and is to be condemned.
While the Buddhists may even deny the existence of a God, yet their moral sense regards killing as a sin. So, all life becomes sacred.
Thus, though each may differ in its philosophy and application they are all one fundamentally. Any separatist tendencies we may notice in them arise out of our limitations. Let us not emphasise these minor differences but recognise the fundamental brotherhood of man and work together for unity.
(Undated. Source: Kumarappa Papers, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library)