Q. Why have religions caused so much trouble in the world?
A. Think back. We have blamed religion for being responsible for the miseries of man. It is not religion. It is the abuse of religion, the misrepresentation the exploitation of religion that has caused misery and suffering. Let us be clear about this. We need to come to an impartial, a pure understanding, of the essence of all religions to
start changing our attitude toward religion, to change religion itself the way it has been practiced.
Do you understand that the basic message from the very beginning of time has been the revelation of the enlightened ones, who lived in a world of chaos, of confusion. They lived in a time of tribal warfare, where tribe had its own concept of God and believed that its god was superior to all the others and therefore the others had to be destroyed. Or when they won a war, they were convinced that praying to their idea of God is what was responsible for their conquest. Therefore they set up an image, an idol, they worshipped as God and forced everyone to submit to that God. Or the others, called the enemies, were forced to believe that they were defeated because of the God of the victorious tribe. Eventually there arrived the coalescence of all those tribal gods by virtue of the one that was most victorious as the one God.
So it came to pass that Abraham, the father of monotheism in that part of the eastern world, taught the belief in one God. But what kind of God was it? It was the idea of one God over all other gods that man had created. It simply meant the replacing of a higher concept of God, a higher understanding, for the lesser understanding. Then that became worship as the one God. In arrogance of human conceit and ignorance, that was the God they believed favored them above all other beings. Then they developed a self-righteousness, postulated on the belief that since their God led them to victory, their God must be the true one.forgetting that in many a battle they lost and the gods of the others were attributed as the source of victory.
Where has this all led to? Well, Abraham was dealing with diverse tribes, warring factions that have been rampant throughout the eastern world. First of all, he united these diverse tribes, which became known as the 12 tribes of Israel. That was a masterful stroke of spiritual revelation and insight and genius, to be able to unite so many divergent tribes under the idea of one God. Though monotheistic, his was a God of judgment. Ah, do you see what happens when you postulate a God of judgment, a tribal God elevated above all other Gods. Now you have to
live in fear of that God, you have to obey that God, for if you would disobey, you would be struck down. You would be visited with plagues or suffer from pother diseases. To this very time, man blames man's disobedience to the concept of God for his sufferings. Do you realize that is part of the old paradigm? Nay, nay, nay, never has there been a God responsible for the plagues in Egypt, for the sufferings of the Jews, the Diaspora, or for the Inquisition, or for any human warfare that has emerged as a result of Abraham's vision.
Moses had the greater vision that the one God is not a tribal God; for he realized no matter how high any concept of God is, it is not complete, and he sought completeness. Completeness equates with Self-realization. He sought greater understanding that is a manifestation of completeness. Do you not see, your desire for greater
understanding is a manifestation of perfection, of the unfoldment of perfection? Otherwise, my friends, we could not desire or achieve ever greater expansive understanding. Is it not simple when you know the truth, when you finally hear it, when you finally discover the missing piece in the puzzle of your life, which has been so ravaged with conflict and confusion and self-doubt, fear and superstition, disorganization and disunity?
In all parts of the world, the spirit of unity bears witness to the truth that God is one. Consider what was occurring in the Indus Valley in the beloved land of Bharata, the land of illumination, ancient India, which gave to us a fusion of ideas, an unfoldment that came to be known in modern times as the Hindu religion. In fact, the Hindu religion is
known by its true name as the Sanatan Dharma, the eternal truth, the eternal way, the eternal religion. That which is eternal cannot be created by man. Religion is not the creation of man. Religions are the interpretation of that which has always been.
