~~.SRI SWAMI SIVANANDA

Religion is the true life; it is living in consonance with Truth. Dharma or virtue is the character of Satya or Truth and Truth is the nature of Self-certainty. Virtue is inseparable from religious conduct, for virtue is a constituent of real religion. Religion is the form taken by the relation that is between man and God, the link between the lower and the higher natures in oneself. Your own Higher Nature is God; your essence is the Real; your existence is universal and immortal. Do not quarrel over the why, the how and the what of religion; these questions can be easily answered by your own self, if you realise the oneness of all religions on the basis of the one God. Oneness can account for and explain duality and multiplicity, but the latter cannot survive without the One that is behind all of them. Everyone in the beginning has a religion of his own, though it is limited to his private notions and aspirations, for everyone tries to grasp and reach something beyond himself; being dissatisfied with his present lot, he reaches out to a beyond or a higher being. But, this higher being is, at its highest reach, the same to all people. All have an innate wish springing from the core of their being, and this wish does not contradict another, because this is the wish to be supremely perfect. Therefore, religion is one, though it appears to have many forms, when it is confined to persons or social circles. Man is a citizen of the universe, and his religion cannot but be universal ~~.SRI SWAMI SIVANANDA