Man is religious by nature. Though it is not possible to give a definitive definition of religion, we may identify certain characteristics of human activity and belief which are commonly recognised as religious. These are worship, separation of the sacred from the profane, belief in the soul, belief in God and an aspiration for liberation. Religion is a growing and dynamic subject and we are aware of the presence of two kinds of integration in religion. There are essential counsels and truths and there are non-essential practices and propositions. Since religion appears today almost as a universal phenomenon, it is necessary to find out the real nature of religion for its better understanding. However, the rich variety of religions makes it difficult to discover the essential ingredient in all religion, because an element treated as essential in one religion is considered to be peripheral in another.

The essential basis of religion is a perception of order in the soul of Man who strives for harmony or identifies with that order. Almost all the saints, mystics, philosophers and prophets of East and West confirm this analysis of religion. This order or principle is visualised as Reason, God, Being or Goal. Religion is commitment to a kind of quality of life that purports to recognise a source beyond itself. God is the supreme value or highest Being in whom all values are conserved. Religion may be defined as faith in the realisation of God.

At present the world is facing terrible problems with regard to religion. There is no harmony among the different religions which have been existing in the world. Each individual religion attaches importance to its own faith and underrates other faiths. Several world religions claim dominance over other religions and over all mankind and have undertaken ruthless wars and the shedding of blood to achieve dominance This impedes the spiritual development of its followers and others. Among the consequences are the creation of obstacles to human development, by misleading the masses, hindering scientific growth, the taking of life and the spoliation of property. This further results in hatred of one another. More conflicts are due to the misunderstanding of the religion.

Actually, religion comes from the latin word ‘religio’. It means ‘to bind’. Literally speaking, religion means unification and harmonisation. It is a principle of unification of man with other men and unification of man with God. Religion takes care of the whole personality of man. It takes care of the inner as well as the outer values of man. Here the inner values represent Man’s spiritual evolution and the outer values represent human conduct. In religion spiritual values as well as social attitudes are equally important; both have equal value. Religion has provided society with ethical codes, social norms, and ideals. Religion has also provided man with the ways to realise contact with a higher power.

But there is a pluralism in the field of religion. Our understanding of religion is intellectual and ideological. We find that human beings do not possess identical intellects and ideas. Any attempt to make all men think in the same way is bound to failure. So our religious practices also differ. The survival and progress of all religions, in the face of challenges posed by some of them against the others, prove this. Besides even those religions which claim a right to absorb all others into their own have given rise among their own followers to breakaway sects with conflicting interpretations of the sacred texts, thus demonstrating the futility of imposing a single system of thought or way to salvation on all alike. Religious plurality is a phenomenon natural to human society, and any attempt to deny it will be like efforts to deny the existence of natural forces.

Now the question arises: if all the religions are widely different, how can the different religions all be true. If one is true, its contradiction must be false. But the truth is that all religions are not really contradictory. There are some differences in language and forms used by different religions, but this difference is not so much contradictory as supplementary. The truth in religion is one. Actually each religion, as it were, takes up one part of the great universal truth and spends its whole force on embodying and typifying that part of the great truth. It is therefore an addition and not an exclusion. Though there is religious pluralism and if one religion attaches greater importance to its own interpretation of the truth, it must be remembered that man never travels from untruth to truth, but rather from lesser truth to higher truth. So the idea that all religions differing from one’s own are contradictory and cannot therefore be true, is not accurate. Besides there can be a diversity of views, all of them alike referring to the same thing but revealing different aspects of it. Their apparent differences cannot be called contradictions, but only show the many-sideness of a single unique entity.

Each religion has a particular ideal which is formed, as it were, in its soul. So long as that religion is true to that ideal, it never perishes. Conflicts arise when we try to prove that only our religion is true, but this attitude militates against religious harmony. I may consider my religion to be true but I have no right to try to prove that all other religious sects are false. I consider my religion to be true only because I have perceived it as such, but I should not consider other religions to be false because I have not been able to understand them so far. For religious harmony it is necessary that we should keep our minds open. And so, in dealing with religious plurality, a positive attitude should be adopted. Instead of indulging in proselytism directed at other sects of religions, we should concentrate our attention on disseminating our own viewpoint. We should practise tolerance towards the opinion of other people. We should refrain from launching campaigns of hatred and ill-will against another sects and their followers. Also if some sects have recourse to change existing religious practices, this should not be of an undesirable nature. To establish religious harmony, joint endeavours should be undertaken to encourage the maximum member of people to practice such fundamental principles of religion and morality as non-violence, truth, respect of property, chastity, peace, compassion, etc., in their lives.

All religious faiths of the world constitute a revelation of truth, But all are imperfect and liable to error. One must therefore entertain the same respect for the religious faiths of others as one accords to one’s own. Where such tolerance becomes a law of life, conflict between different faiths becomes impossible, and so does every effort to convert other people to one’s own faith. One can only pray that the defects in the various faiths may be overcome and that they may advance, side by side, towards perfection. Reverence for other faiths need not blind us to their faults. We must be keenly alive to the defects of our own faith also, yet not leave it on that account, but try to overcome those defects. Looking at all religions with an equal eye, we would not only not hesitate but would think it our duty to blend into our faith every acceptable feature of other faiths. Tolerance obviously does not disturb the distinction between right and wrong, or good and evil. All the principal religions of the world are based on common fundamentals.

Though there are differences among the religions of the world, there is an underlying unity among all religions. As it is already said in the Rig-Veda, "truth is One but wise men describe it in several ways". The core of all religions is the same. Plurality is only external. Unity is the basic principle of all religions. The ultimate aim of all the world’s religions is to establish unity among people. Though some religious leaders do not understand this, the real meaning of religion, and try to differentiate between one religion and another, this attitude basically contradicts the essential religious principles. Unity in Diversity is the pattern and framework of creation. The whole universe is a wonderful case of Unity in Diversity. In all religions we find essential elements of that unity. Their essential elements are common. All religions of the world accepts the existence of God. It is the essential principle that shows unity among religions. Every religion accepts moral values and more virtues which are the unifying principle of world religion. All religions of the world teach peace, compassion, bliss and humanism. This also shows the essential universal sense of the world religions. The unity and universality of religion signifies the peaceful co-existence of all religions.

There are some basic and essential principles which underlie all religions of the world, explicitly or implicitly.

Those are:

1. The ever changing world of phenomena, marked by interdependence, and consisting of pairs of opposites, is held by one eternal ideal Reality, usually called God, who is self-existent and self-manifest, and answers to man’s conception of perfection in every way.

2. Every individual psychological system of ceaseless change is sustained by a central principle, which is constant, self-luminous, ever pure and free.

3. The central principle of the microcosm is not different from the central principle of the macrocosm, that is to say, there is kinship or unity between the soul of man and soul of the Universe. The truth is, what is innermost in the one is innermost in the other.

4. To realise this kinship or Unity is the Goal of life. All human concepts should be regulated with this end in view

So we find unity between man and men, man and God and between various religions. Spiritual unity is the only common ground where men can meet in spite of their differences. Unity in variety or plurality is the pattern for world culture. There is no conflict between one aspect of life and another. The Goal of Civilisation cannot be different from the Goal of Religion. The unification of the world with recognition of the spiritual oneness of mankind is the greatest aim of religion.

Though the diversity of religion will remain, the different religions will co-exist as diverse paths of worship of the one infinite. The result is not a uniform pattern of religion for diverse people but the acceptance of religions as true by all. But we must go above sectarian religion and try to understand that religion which underlies all religions. True religion must awaken the spirit within man. Mahatma Gandhi states that "by religion I do not mean formal religion or customary religion, but that religion which underlies all religions, which brings us face to face with our maker". Again Gandhiji says, "religion should pervade every one of our actions, here religion does not mean sectarianism, it means a belief in ordered moral Government of the Universe". It is not less real because it is unseen. This religion transcends all religions, it does not supersede them, it harmonises them and gives them reality.

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