By Pavey Serjney
If God exists as a Person separate, in some sense, from the Universe (as hundreds of millions of people believe, and perhaps rightly so), one question I might like to ask God if I do get to meet ‘Him’ after I die is why ‘He’ has allowed, or perhaps even arranged, for a multiplicity or plurality of religions, or theories about ‘Him’, to exist, a phenomenon that has been the cause of terrible confusion and horrific conflict through much of human history, with this continuing to be the case even in our own, supposedly more ‘enlightened’, times.
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Much has possibly been written and said about why God might have allowed, or even personally arranged, for so many religions to exist that make conflicting truth-claims about ‘Him’. For me, while seeking to understand this phenomenon might be entertaining or intellectually stimulating, it is a complete waste of time and is entirely pointless because, frankly, as far as I can see, we humans simply cannot know the Mind of God, because of which we just cannot know the reason for this phenomenon, unless God unambiguously and clearly tells us so—which I do not think ‘He’ so far has or that ‘He’ will, at least for as long as we remain here on Earth. Hence, the many different hypotheses that we might come up with to seek to account for this phenomenon are quite likely to be empty speculation.
This being the case, rather than seek to answer why God has allowed or perhaps even arranged for so many different, conflicting religions to exist, in my view, we need to simply accept religious plurality as a fact that is beyond our understanding, a mystery that we simply cannot fathom, and which, therefore, we need not break our heads over.
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A phenomenon in itself is neither negative nor positive. It is we, with our system of values, who evaluate it as being either this or that or perhaps a bit of both. The same is true for the phenomenon of religious plurality. One way of viewing it is to regard it as a problem, something that needs either to tackled, in order to put an end to it or something to be grudgingly tolerated, based on the realization that putting an end to it is simply not humanly possible.
This is a negative way of looking at the phenomenon of religious plurality. But there is a positive way of looking at it, too: One can see religious phenomenon as also having a positive side, this being something to cherish.
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One key aspect of the phenomenon of religious plurality that is positive and certainly something to cherish is that it makes it possible for people to benefit from the good things to be found in many different religions, thus providing them a much wider range of sources to learn and gain from than if there were only one religion accessible to them. Each religion contains at least one good thing, and so, the more religions a person can access, the more good things they can potentially avail of and benefit from.
I have myself found this to be the case in my life, and it has made a world of difference to the way it has unfolded. Although I do not identify exclusively with any particular religion, I have certainly gained much from my personal familiarity with many different religions and their votaries. From one religion, I have learnt lessons in dedicated service, and from a second, the need to spend from out of one’s wealth on worthy causes. From a third religion, I have learnt a most useful method of chanting one or the other Name of God, which helps keeps the mind from hopping about like a frenzied monkey. From a fourth religion, I have learned the importance of silence. From a fifth religion, I have learnt about caring for animals and birds. A sixth religion has taught me the importance of going beyond religion itself. And so on.
I might never have learnt these valuable lessons had there been just one religion accessible to me or if had I not been willing to go beyond the boundaries of the religious framework that I was born into, as it were. It was because I was able and willing to access many different religions and learn from them and some of their followers that these precious lessons were made possible for me.
For me, then, religious plurality has been, in very clear, practical terms, a great blessing, even though the confusion and conflict that it has caused, and still causes, pains me immensely.
While there are things in various religions that do not resonate with me and which I do not find acceptable on ethical and/or logical grounds (these for me being clear evidence of religions being human constructs), there are also things in different religions that I do find beautiful and beneficial. While I have differences with the various religions I have encountered so far, including regarding certain dogmas and practices of theirs that I just cannot accept, I have, at the same time, benefitted much from them all. My understanding is that one should take the goodness that resonates with oneself from wherever one may find it, including in many different religions, and leave aside or ignore anything therein that does not so resonate.
This is just as a bee sits on one sort of flower and sips nectar from it, and then, after a while, makes its way to another sort of flower to do the same, where it drinks a different flavor of nectar. No sensible bee would insist that it would sit on and sip nectar from only a rose, and not a pansy or lotus. (According to a Google search I just did, a bee can visit 1,500 flowers in a single day and 63,000 in its entire lifetime!) In the same way, to my understanding, a wise person would not restrict themselves to learning and benefitting from just one religion or other such belief system. They would be glad to learn and benefit from any source, including many different religions.
For me, there is no reason to sit on just one sort of ‘flower’ all my life—to confine myself exclusively to one religion or other such belief system—when there are so many different sorts of ‘flowers’, so many different belief systems, that I can access and sip ‘nectar’, or gain goodness, from. Without identifying exclusively with any of these religions or other such belief systems and while being mindful of their limitations and faults, I can gain from all of them, picking and choosing as I like, leaving aside what does not resonate with me and imbibing what does.
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Like possibly everything else in this phenomenal world that is characterized by all sorts of dualities, religious plurality is a mixed blessing—it has its negative aspects, but it also its positive side. Rather than regarding it as only as a problem, one that has undoubtedly led to much havoc, a more holistic and also wholesome way of approaching it is to also see it as a resource. Recognizing, in this way, religious plurality to be also a blessing, rather than just a burden, a boon and not just a bane, one can try to avail of the goodness that this phenomenon affords us while seeking to avoid its ‘not-so-good’ (to put it politely) aspects that are also integral to it.
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