The way to the realization of the universal religion:

No study has taken so much human energy, whether in times past or present, as the study of the SOUL, of GOD, and of HUMAN DESTINY. Humans have always wanted to look beyond, wanted to expand himself; and all that we call progress, evolution, has always been measured by that one search, the search for human destiny, the search for GOD.

As our social struggles are represented, among different nations, by different social organizations, so man’s spiritual struggles are represented by various re- ligions. And as different social organizations are constantly quarrelling, are constantly at war with each other, so these spiritual organizations have been constantly at war with each other, constantly quarreling. And thus we find that though nothing has brought man more blessings than religion, yet at the same time there is nothing that has brought him more horror than religion. Nothing has made more for peace and love than religion; nothing has endangered fiercer hatred than religion. Nothing has made the brotherhood of man more tangible than religion; nothing has bred more bitter enmity between man and man than religion. Nothing has built more charitable institutions, more hos- pitals for men and even for animals, than religion; nothing has deluged the world with more blood than religion.

We must remember that all the great religions of the world are very ancient – not one has been formed at the present time – and that every religion of the world had its origin in the region between the Ganges and the Euphrates. Not one great religion has arisen in Europe, not one in America. Every religion is of Asiatic origin and belongs to that part of the world. The western people are grand in organizations, social institutions, armies, governments and so forth, but when it comes to preaching religion they cannot come near the Asiatic. In every country you would find that the religions sometimes progress and some- times go back. Sects are multiplying all the time. If the claim of any one reli- gion that it has all the truth and that God has given all the truth in certain book, why then there are so many sects. Take the bible for instance, and all the sects that exist among the Christians. Each one puts its own interpretation upon the same text and each says that it alone understands that text and all the rest are wrong. So is with every religion. There are many sects among the Mo- hammedans and among the Buddhists, and hundreds among the Hindus. You see that happening all the time. You cannot make all conform to the same ideas and that in fact is good. I am glad that sects exist and wish they might go on multiplying more and more. Seven billion people of the world should have Seven billion ways of realizing God. If all the people of the world were to think exactly the same thoughts, there would be no thought for us to think. We know that two or more forces must come into collision in order to produce motion. It is the clash of thought, the differentiation of thought that awakens thought. Variation is the sign of life and it must be there.

YET WE ALL BELONG TO THE SAME GREAT, UNIVERSAL RELIGION.