My Side of the Story.

Before I begin I'd like to say this is not a My Religion V/s Your Religion Showdown. There is no loser in this discussion, even if what I say is proven wrong I still find out the truth (unless all the contributors here are totally wrong). So either way everyone wins!!!

I feel that people from all religions should read this post because there is nothing to lose here.

When I thought of doing this post I was initially going to write about the different ways to salvation. Oscar believes that there is one and only one way; I believed that there were many other ways. But on closer inspection, I found that there were more similarities than differences, and for once Oscar and I reached some sort of agreement on a religious topic rather than saying 'Let it be man......you have your beliefs and I have mine' which by the way is an achievement of sorts. So here I am to present the similarities before you.......

In the Gospels, Jesus used the phrase "I tell you the truth" 80 times; He said "I am the way, the truth and the light".

In Islam the first step is Kalima (Proclamation of Ones Faith) which says, ‘There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet. There is one and only one God who is all merciful all powerful and all wise.

In Hinduism we say "Satyam Shivam Sundaram" which also says that God is the only truth!!

God would never lie to his children because he is GOD!! So therefore if I say that the word of the Bhagwad Gita is the only true word of God, I will be negating the others; and Hinduism never negates any other holy book!!

I as a Hindu can worship Jesus Christ (which I do) and still be a Hindu. According to the Vedas God is one! He is beyond the limitations of time, space and causation. None of these three things are man-made. So how can God be bound by religion which is a man made concept? The fact is that God himself hates religion. He doesn’t want me to think of myself as only Hindu; he does not want Oscar to think of himself as only Christian because by doing that we not only defeat the purpose of religion we also disappoint God!

A volunteer from ‘The Every Nations Leadership Institute’ once told me this, ‘Religion and I mean any religion is man reaching out to God. It is like swimming from India to Brazil; there are different routes, but they all eventually lead to the same place.

Now say A is a better swimmer than B; he will reach there before B even if B follows the same route. But if A takes the longer route B will reach there before him. Neither A nor B can ever guarantee that he will be the first to reach or that the other person will never make it.

Oscar says that being a Christian is the only way to salvation and everything else will lead you to eternal disappointment. He says that even if you are a Roman Catholic (who also believe in Jesus Christ, only in a different way) are in for eternal disappointment. How can this be possible? Out of two people who believe in the same God, one is damned to hell for being a Roman Catholic? God is just and I don’t think that any such injustice will ever be meted out to one of God’s children

If we are lost God will show us all the right way. He won’t let us be ‘left behind’ just because we belong to a different religion.

Hinduism as a religion says ‘Come as you are’. It does not tell you to fulfill any pre-requisites as such. If you are Christian and you pray in a temple; your prayer will not be turned down just because you are Christian!

Quote From Oscars Post

"The religions which believe in heaven state you can only get there by working for it and trying to live a good life.You earn your salvation by making yourself worthy enough, but the God of the Bible says you are saved by his grace through faith in what he has done for you."

This is not entirely true mere Karma will not get you salvation

God+ [Karma (Actions) + Purushartha (Four Main Aims of Life)] = Moksha (Salvation).

In Islam the 5 pillars (Kalima, Zaqqat, Namaz, Ramzan, and Hajj) are the way to salvation and not just actions.

In Buddhism the 8-fold path is the way to salvation. Right actions are only one of the 8 principles.

Quote From Oscars Post

"All other religions involve people attempting to earn God's favor and mercy through living a good life. Make no mistake about it, living a holy life is very important but believers do good deeds because they are already on their way to heaven not because they hope to go there one day. "

Not true. The Bhagwad Gita says "Karma Nye Vaddhika Raste Mafaleshu Kaddachana" which translates as 'Keep performing your Karma without the expectation of it bearing a fruit'. If you do something with the selfish purpose of gaining God’s favor and mercy, it will not be entertained. Only selfless actions will bear a fruit. The path of well-directed karma is the path to salvation, so people who perform good selfless karma are also on their way to salvation.

The four noble truths say that desire is the cause of all suffering thus Buddhism too discourages selfish actions!

Quote From Oscar's Post.

"No other book in the world claims to contain direct quotes from the mouth of God."

The word 'Veda' means the ‘Knowledge of God’ and not man....the Vedas are based on revelations made by God, yet another similarity.

What I am trying to show through this post is that, despite the radical differences we have shocking similarities and no matter how much you try you cannot negate them.

I am trying to promote brotherhood here, trying to show you that we are not so different after all. We live in a secular country here, not only do we need to respect each others religions we need to know what they teach.
You the reader can fiercely cling on to your faith and try to differentiate yourself by bringing up more differences but that won't negate the similarites presented here. I am not asking you to agree with them, I am just presenting some facts in front of you. Call it the truth if you may. You don't have to agree with the truth, just accept it!
Oscar asks me , "If there are similarities why are we different? Why isn't there one religion?"
Well dude I ask you ,"If Christianity is the only way, why do you have Syrian Christians, CNI,CSI, New Life Church etc. etc. Why are people who believe in the same God divided? If you go to Eben's Church why do your church folks frown at that?"
My explaination is that God didn't divide us, we did! That's why the similarities and differences.
As far as the question of antiquity is concerned, Hinduism is way older than Christianity and so is Buddhism or even Jainism for that matter!
If you are saying that all this time no Hindu/Buddhist/Muslim/Roman Catholic etc. has ever gone to heaven and none of them ever will then that is your opinion and I don't agree with it!
If you are saying that by promoting unity and brotherhood and by being a good human being, I will be damned to hell for not being Christian then you seriously need to look your facts up. Gandhi was not a Christian believer, neither was Raja Ram Mohun Roy and if they went to hell for not being Christian believers then I'll gladly join them in hell!!
Take an example from history, before America was discovered by Columbus there was no America on the map! You have to explore be open minded, let your mind go places its never been. Oscar says that Christianity is the only truth.....not totally right, Christianity is the only truth Oscar knows.
Before you know whats right you have to find out whats wrong! If you have explored all other religions before choosing your religion then maybe you can say that which is the right path.
But if you've been brought up in a certain religion and have never looked beyond it you look at the world through a key-hole. Widen your horizons, be open minded!
I agree that on one side there is the truth and then theres everything else, but there are multiple truths and each truth is multi-faceted. The truth is not a simple concept, it goes way beyond the limitations of the puny human mind.
There are so many things we cannot answer and the question, "Why are there different religions despite of the similarities?" is one such question.
The world cannot exist without differences, not even two Christian believers from the same church have the exact same beliefs.
If your desire to be one with God is strong enough God will make sure that you are united with him. No matter how off-track you are he will show you your way, like I said earlier God won't let you go astray just because you don't belong to a particular religion. If a true believer of any religion is going down the wrong road, God will show him the right way, he won't let him lead a whole life going down the path to eternal disappointment. That's just not the way it works!
God is one, he always was he always will be! We are all equal before him and that my friends is not going to change any time soon!

Before I end I have to say that this post has helped me find more similarities than differences. It has helped me understand the true meaning of my beliefs and also helped me to understand the beliefs of others and respect them!

I may not have exact quotes from religious books (Hinduism doesn't have one standard book). If you the reader agree with me then I will be happy; but if u disagree I will be happier still because then I will have the opportunity to look at it through your eyes. Maybe that will give me a clearer picture than what I already have!And remember at the end of the day God just wants you and me to live together despite our differences. If everyone was the same, there would never be a problem. But that is not the case and no matter how diametrically opposite we are we still have to live with that! And that my friends, is the only truth!!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>The End<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Paras R. Sharma A.K.A