Talk:Religious Tolerance

By Vishal Agarwal

Krishna starts the description of devotees who are extremely dear to him with the phrase ‘adveṣhṭā sarvabhūtānāṃ’ or ‘Without any hatred towards all creatures.’

In whatsoever way men approach Me, even so do I bless them. For whichever path that men make take in worship, they will all come to Me. Gita 4.11

Swami Tapasyananda says- “This verse is the fundamental tenet of universal religion. Whatever worship is done, only the one Supreme Being is worshipped. No one, except the perfected sage, can worship Him in His fullness, since the human mind can grasp only limited aspects of Him. The more an individual or a community is evolved, the more noble and comprehensive will be their conception of the Deity. But the less evolved man too is adoring of the same Deity, grasping such aspects of His as his undeveloped mind would allow. It is just like various forms being chipped from a huge block of marble. The more skilled the workman, the more artistic will be the form he chips out of the block. Even if it is crude, it is of the same block. Such are the various conceptions of the Deity; none can claim that his conception embraces the whole of Him, because He cannot be limited within the limitation of a mind, as a bottle cannot contain the whole of the sea…So according to the stages of human evolution, there will be different conceptions of the Deity, and the followers of one, even if they think that theirs is more refined, need not look down upon others as heathens or Kaffirs worshipping false Deities, and consider themselves alone as the followers of the true Deity. For whatever the path, God approaches man through that path, and if the faith of the votary is genuine, he will be led to higher and higher forms of worship. So the followers of every religion must have respect for, and acceptance of, the faith and form of worship of other religions in spite of the differences that are sure to prevail in their ideologies and practices. For, it is the same God that is worshipped by them all. Just as all rivers, in spite of their divergent courses, lead to the same ocean, so do all faiths lead to Him i.e., take one to the same God who inspires them all.”

Swami Chidbhavananda (2002: 281) also notes:

“Different kinds of food suit different beings. What is food to one may be poison to another. But each being receives nourishment from the food it takes. Religions are similarly divergent to suit the varying temperaments. Worship with the aid of an image, for example, is a help to one and a hindrance to another. An act held as the adoration of the Almighty by one path, is abhorred as blasphemy by another. But the same Lord recognizes the need for all these divergent paths, understands the urge in the hearts of the various types of devotees and graciously helps them all to attain perfection. It is incumbent on the aspirant to see into this universalism of the Lord. He sees into the glory of the Lord who sees how He is shaping all beings through their various paths.”

This verse does not indicate that Krishna rewards all worshippers of various deities identically. Rather, it means that through these deities, Krishna addresses the respective wishes of the worshippers differently but that He is the final rewarder in every case.

Those whose knowledge has been affected by different desires seek refuge in other gods. They observe diverse rituals relevant to the tradition of worship of these respective gods, being constrained by their own material nature. Gita 7.20 Whichever form (deity) such a devotee seeks to worship with faith, in that very form I make his faith unswerving (or firm). Gita 7.21 Endowed with that faith, he seeks to worship that form (god) and through that, he fulfills his desires, which are really fulfilled my Me (through the medium of that form or god). Gita 7.22 Son of Kunti, even those who perform yajnas to other Devas with faith also worship Me alone, even if does not follow the proper procedure. Gita 9.23

They who seek Moksha through Bhakti worship the beatific manifestations of Narayana in preference to the terror inspiring forms of the Deity. But they do not cavil at any form of worship. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 1.2.26

A famous verse of the Shivamahimna Stotra of Rishi Puṣhpadanta illustrates the appreciation that Hindus have for diverse modes of worship -

The different practices based on the threefold Vedas, Sāṃkhya, Yoga, Pāshupata tradition, Vaiṣhṇava etc. are but various paths to reach the final goal (=Divine). Due to their different aptitudes, preferences and understanding, different paths appeal to various people. But as all streams eventually find their refuge in the ocean, every person eventually reaches you alone, whichever path, straight or twisted, he adopts. Shivamahimnah Stotra 7

In Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), God is a jealous person who does not tolerate any rivals, rewards only those who believe in Him, condemns non-believers and those who do not meet his moral precepts to eternal damnation. Given that pluralism is the bedrock of Hindu beliefs and practices, Hindus find it very difficult to comprehend how the god of the Bible, who claims to love all humans, can say these words himself or through his prophets-

In the Bible, Moses warns his people –

“If you do not obey the Lord, then you will be destroyed just like those nations that he is going to destroy as you advance.” Deuteronomy 8.20 God himself warns in the Bible: “If you will only obey Me, you will eat all the good things the land produces. But if you defy Me, not be buried, but will lie there rotting and stinking; and the mountains will be red with blood.” Isaiah 34.2-3

A Christian Saint even wrote that one of the rewards of a believer will be watching the unbelievers being tortured in hell, and feel glad that he had not erred like them. Numerous church hymnals right down to our times have the worshippers sing how blessed they were to believe in the only true god and how damned the infidels and pagans were.

Similar statements are found in hundreds in the Koran, wherein ‘idol-worshippers’ and those who ‘reject’ Allah and his prophets are condemned to everlasting hell where they will be roasted perpetually in an oven along with their ‘stones’ (=idols) and forced to consume the bitter fruit from the tree of Zakkhum there. Allah has condemned the ‘unbelievers’ not only after their death, but has also exhorted Muslims to persecute and slaughter them even in this world. ‘Infidels’ are prevented by the Koran from even entering or passing through the holy cities of Mecca and Medina because the ‘polytheists are unclean’ (Surah 9 of the Koran) which is nothing but divinely ordained untouchability. The results of these types of teachings on the disruption of world peace and interfaith harmony are quite obvious even in our times.

In fact, the character traits of God in these religions are not always edifying. He exterminates entire cities to punish sodomy and homosexuality. He condemns women to prostitution. He participates in the domestic disputes of his prophets to magnify their unjust actions, instead of elevating them spiritually – for truly he plays favorites. He is revengeful, he threatens angrily, he is a jealous god and he condemns all those who do not believe in him. But Hindu sages say that God should shower his grace on all-

“…Hinduism says that God’s grace cannot be conditional. Any conditional gift cannot be called real grace. Therefore, God’s grace has to be unconditional, unbiased and impartial. Just as the sun shines on both the good and the wicked, so also God showers His grace impartially on everyone, whether good or evil. The good use God’s grace for good purposes. The wicked use God’s grace for bad purposes. Shri Ramakrishna explains this with the help of a beautiful analogy. In a small room a candle is burning. By the light of the candle one person is reading a holy book, while another person in the same room is forging dollar bills. In this analogy the candlelight represents God’s grace. It is impartial; it shines equally on both. The two persons are using God’s grace for two completely different purposes – one good, and the other bad. Perhaps one of them will eventually turn into a saint, while the other will end up in prison.”

A loving parent has infinite patience with his recalcitrant prodigal child. He could never smite him or condemn the child to everlasting pain no matter how disrespectful and disobedient the child is. In Hindu Dharma, Brahman gives us not just one but many lives, so that we have several chances to understand the true nature of things, or ourselves and reach the Final Goal. The Abrahamic God gives the finite human being with finite understanding and a finite karma an infinite reward or retribution – all this just does not sound fair.

In short, whereas Bhakti in Hindu Dharma leads to tolerance for others, in Abrahamic faiths it often leads to intolerance, religious wars, persecution of infidels, forcible conversions and so on.

Guru Tegh Bahādur: Sacrificing one’s life for the sake of Dharma

Emperor Aurangzeb, who ruled India from 1658 – 1707 CE was a very fanatical Muslim ruler. He destroyed several temples of Hindus, dismissed his Hindu employees from their jobs or underpaid them, and even denied them promotion. He imposed several special taxes on the non-Muslims, and also banned

the celebration of Hindu festivals and other religious ceremonies. In the year 1765, he also issued orders to burn Hindu scriptures in several cities to stop all types of traditional Hindu education. The Emperor decided that in order to convert all Hindus to Islam, it was very important to first convert the Brahmanas, who were their religious leaders.

And therefore, he ordered his Governors to capture the Brahmanas, snap the sacred thread that they wore around their right shoulders and coerce them to convert. The persecution of Hindus was especially very severe in Kashmir. A group of Kashmiri Hindus went to the Amarnath cave shrine of Shiva, and prayed to protect their religion. Shiva appeared in a dream to Pandit Kriparam Dutt, their leader, and asked him to seek the help of Guru Tegh Bahadur, the 9th Guru of the Sikh community. The Pandits of Kashmir appealed to Guru Tegh Bahadur to help them. He asked them to convey the following message to Aurangzeb, “If you succeed in converting me to Islam, then all the Hindus of Kashmir will also do so. But if you fail to make me a Muslim, then you will not force Kashmir’s Hindus to convert either.” Aurangzeb accepted. Guru Tegh Bahadur left for Delhi to see the Emperor with his three disciples, who were willing to risk their lives as well.

At Delhi, the Guru and his disciples were immediately imprisoned. The Muslim Qazi (magistrate) asked the Guru to either convert to Islam, or face death. When the Guru did not relent, they started torturing his three disciples and killed them one by one in front of the eyes of the Guru. The first disciple was sawed into two pieces alive. The second was boiled to death in an oil cauldron. The third was wrapped in a bale of cotton and was burnt to death. The Guru was deeply pained but refused to convert to Islam. The Emperor asked the Guru to show a miracle if he wanted to save his life. But the Guru refused, saying that it he cannot disobey God’s rules by showing miracles.

It was ordered that the Guru would be beheaded if he did not convert. But the brave Guru agreed to face death rather than give up his religion. The site where he was beheaded is today a Sikh shrine in Delhi. The great sacrifice of the Guru was possible because the Guru valued his religion more than his life, and was willing to stand up for his principles as a brave man, and as a spiritual person who believed in the eternality of the soul. His is an example of a true devotee of Bhagavān who accepted his murder as the will of Bhagavān, and therefore did not forsake his principles. The sacrifice of the Guru did not go in vain. His son, Guru Gobind Singh, raised an army of Sikhs within a few decades. And within less than a century, the Sikh warriors freed large parts of the region of Punjab in India from the Islamic rule.

Sant Rāmānanda – The Savior of Hindus Swami Rāmānanda lived in the 14th-15th century CE. He lived largely in the sacred Hindu cities of Prayāga and Varanasi. In those days, the Tughlaq Sultans ruled the region. The Muslim generals and preachers used to oppress the Hindus and prevented them from practicing their Hindu faith openly. A group of Hindus approached Swami Rāmānanda and appealed to him to do something about it. The Swami agreed and decided to use his Yogic powers.

As a result, it so happened that the Muslim priests in Varanasi suddenly became incapable of shouting out their calls of Muslim prayers five times every day. Whenever the time to give out the call to prayer came, the Maulvis (Muslim priests) suddenly seemed to become tongue tied. Some of them realized that it was the result of Swami Rāmānanda’s powers.

Therefore, a group of them decided to visit the Swami and intimidate him. But as they approached Swami Rāmānanda’s home, he blew a conch shell. All the guests fell into a swoon and had a vision of their prophet Muhammad. In that vision, their prophet told them to listen carefully to what Swami Rāmānanda had to say.

When they came back to their senses, Swami Rāmānanda said, “Bhagavān is One. The same Divine Being creates us all, looks after us and then destroys everything. People worship him in different ways according to the traditions of their own religion. But if He is One indeed, then why do you prevent the Hindus from worshipping their own way? Surely, He cannot belong to Muslims alone! Henceforth, I want you to make sure that:

1. The Jaziya tax that the government takes from the Hindus every month is stopped.
2. No existing Hindu temples are demolished.
3. Hindu scriptures are not destroyed.
4. Cows are not slaughtered.
5. Hindu women are not molested.
6. The ban on temple construction must be removed. Hindus should be allowed to blow conch shells following their ancient traditions of worship.
7. No Hindu should be converted to Islam forcibly.
8. If a Hindu approaches a Muslim saint out of reverence, he should not be persuaded to convert to Islam.
9. There should be no ban on the celebration of Hindu festivals.
10. No one should be prevented from chanting the name of Rama.
11. When a bridegroom is proceeding to his wedding stall on a horse per our ancient custom, he must not be asked to get off the horse when he is in front of a mosque.
12. Hindus must not be forced to pay extra taxes during their festivals like the Kumbha Mela. When the Muslims are celebrating their own festivals like the Muharram, they should not prevent Hindus from celebrating their own festivals if they happen to fall on the same day.”

The Muslim leaders took his message to Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq, who was the Sultan of Northern India at that time. When he heard how the Yogic powers had stopped the Maulvis from shouting their calls of prayers, he became scared. He issued a royal proclamation that all the 12 conditions listed by Swami Rāmānanda are agreed to, so that Hindus can practice their religion freely in his Empire.