A friend in India emailed me saying that there is a movement in India, saying, “a new concept is fast moving here, that is one earth one religion.”
I responded by saying that religions are 1/2 spiritual and 1/2 cultural. The idea of ONE religion is not correct. There is one central God, worshipped differently in different cultures. Even polytheistic religions recognize that all the Gods are aspects of the One. However, whitewashing the world is not correct. Multinational corporations tried to do that decades ago. It was a huge failure.
Cultural integrity is a good thing. Yet, racism is cultural integrity gone insane. As humanity evolves, religions will honor and respect one another. They will live in harmony and mutual support, not opposition or friction. It will be the laws of Mother Nature that determine which religion flourishes in which part of the world… not the laws of men. The laws of nature differ in different regions of the world. The laws of nature, for example, differ on mountain tops versus desserts. Cultures culture the lives of the people to live in harmony with nature. Mother Nature cultures each culture. When we live in foreign lands, we honor the culture of that land, while maintaining the integrity of our personal lives.
I was born and raised Christian. Yet, I have learned of the tremendous value of Vedic wisdom, knowledge, and technology. All humanity can benefit from those Vedic principles. Similarly, all humanity can benefit from science. But it is not right thinking to believe we must abandon our cultural integrity to benefit from things Vedic or scientific.
There will, and should always be, differing affinities and faiths throughout the world. That is natural and good. Peace, love, and harmony will only arise from Unity in the midst of diversity. We must learn to live together in harmony on all levels of life: family, neighborhood, community, society, nation, continent, and world.
“Unity in the midst of diversity” – beautiful. Thank you.