A Comparative Study Of Religions

A Comparative Study of Religions has been written by a scholar who has occupied himself with the subject of religion for over fifty years but no finality can be claimed. The reason is that religion deals with what is transcendent in the sense that it deals with what man is going to be. Advaitism terms this futuristic end as becoming Brahman, Jainism as regaining one ís pristine glory, and theists as becoming gold fit for heaven. However, Bergson and other evolutionists would say that religion is a collective and cooperative effort of men to become gods. This simply means the divinising of man what Aurobindo calls 'supermind'. They refer to a state beyond human ills, beyond human infatuation and beyond the befogging of human intellect. This is known in Jainism as sarvajnata. One thing is clear fighting with other human beings in the name of religion is subhuman. As religious men, we are fellow travellers in the direction of the realm of spirit. Here the nomenclature of Hindus, Muslims, Christians etc., ceases to be meaningful. Of course, we have to go very far and we have not made any beginning yet. However, at present, the Advaitic principle of differences Brahman can serve the purpose of harmonizing all religions. Here we have adopted this principle. Secondly, the key concepts of different religions have been shown to mingle with one another.