The Ganga, the longest river in India, originates from Gangotri, in Himalaya. At the place of origin, the stream of Ganga is scanty. At the point of her origin, it can be controlled and diverted into different direction also. From the origin place to Rishikesh, where Ganga touch the earth; the Ganga is clean, pure and pious. The Ganga is known by different names viz. Bhagirathi, Jahnavi, Vishnupadi, Padma etc. Despite the different names and places she passes, she remains the same. But when she comes in the touch of human beings, she becomes polluted. Her intention is to provide water, irrigation etc for the welfare of the human beings on the earth. She descended on the earth to make the human beings pure and pious and wipe out their sins, and to provide one more opportunity to indulge in good Karma. But the human beings, out of their selfish nature, they have made the Ganga polluted. It is well known that only source or means are not enough to get the set goal achieved; but the efforts of the aspirants are mandatory. At last, irrespective of her names and shapes, she merges with sea (Bay of Bengal) at Ganga Sagar.
Like Ganga, many other rivers around the globe, originate with small stream for the welfare of the humanity, and merge with ocean/sea. The waters of rivers do not make any difference of their users. The water of the river quenches the thirst to anyone who uses it, irrespective of caste, creed, religion, region, cult etc. It does not matter whatever the name we can give to the rivers, whence it originates; which area it passes. The constituents of the water does not change, its chemical composition remain H2O only. It has been left on human being, whether we want to keep the water clean or polluted. Clean water gives us healthy life, and polluted water spread the infection and even can snatch our life.
The similar is true for our religions also. We have around 10-13 major religions and many other cults in the world. When we trace back to the origin of the religions, we find the same intention, the same source, the same process is working behind every religion. The purpose of every religion and cult is to remove the vices from within. When we observe the spearhead and progenitor of any religion, we find the initial path, process and source are the same; that is the meditation with pure heart, and they got revelation, at different time and different places.
As we have physical perception, the seers/prophets have spiritual vision. They can see what we cannot see through our physical perception. The sages/prophets are men of direct vision. Chronologically, let us shed some light on the different religions. In Sanatan religion (The Hindu); the seers of yore meditated over, and got the direct revelations of Vedas and Upanishads through the out breath of God. The Veda and the principal Upanishads are called Shruti, which can be heard, which can be conceived. Veda means the knowledge par excellence. There is no beginning or end of the knowledge, and hence the eternal religion (Sanatan Dharma) took place, which has no beginning and no end. The followers of Veda are called Vendatist .The Hindu is misnomer for the Sanatam Dharma. Hindu is a geographical definition, not a name of religion.
In Jainism, the spearhead of this religion are also called Jina, means conquerors of internal vices through introspection and meditation. And, the followers of Jina are called Jain. In Buddhism, Lord Buddha teaches to masses to attain the Buddha, the enlightened one, by meditating and removing the internal vices.
Jesus Christ lived in obscurity from the age of twelve until he entered into public life, at the age of thirty. It is said, in those years, he learned meditation and the divine knowledge got revealed to him. By His hidden life Jesus Christ teaches the followers to learn holiness and wisdom before teaching to others. By living in obscurity, he teaches to fight against the vanity and vices. He did some miracles on the wish of God to strengthen the belief of the existence of God. He took his birth miraculously without father intervention, at that time, when the atrocity was on the top in Jerusalem. This historical incident took place around 2500 years back. Jesus got crucified for the sake of others, and one more, the biggest (in term followers) religion, the Christianity took place.
Prophet Muhammad adopted the practice of meditating at secluded place for several weeks every year in a cave on Mount Hira near Mecca. During one of his visits to Mount Hira, the angel Gabriel appeared to him in the year 610 CE, around 1400 years back, and the holy Quran got revealed to him in the month of Ramadan. He prophesized the masses, and one more religion ISLAM, means peace acquired by submitting your will to the Almighty God, took place.
Guru Nanak Dev (1469–1539), was the founder of the religion of Sikhism and the first of the ten Sikh Gurus. Nanak stressed that God must be seen from "the inward eye", or the "heart", of a human being: devotees must meditate to progress towards enlightenment. Guru Nanak Dev emphasized the revelation through meditation, as its rigorous application permits the existence of communication between God and human beings. Sikhs, the learner, are expected to embody the qualities of a "Sant-Sipāhī"—a saint-soldiers, dedicate themselves towards the security to the weaker in the society.
We can go on and on to talk about other religions and cults which can give us the same purpose to remove the vices from our life and focus on good deeds, the karma. There is no any other purpose of any religions rather than the spirituality, the knowledge of the spirit. The religion is not the destination; it is a way and means to reach the destination, the spirituality. It does not matter, where you are, and whence you started, but it does matter a lot that where you want to go. The progenitors of the religions had only one purpose, the welfare of the humanity, without any second thought out of that. We have observed that there is one source, the Meditation with pure heart and one destination, the Spirituality.
The spirit inside us has the same constituent, like water in river. It is up to us to keep it cleaned or make it malign. The various religious scriptures are on the phase of the earth. Any one of these religious scriptures is enough to make the spirit pure, pious and clean. Now volition is ours, whether we want entangled in the social concept of the religious stratification or natural concept of oneness of God.
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