Which Religion to follow?

By-R. Shrestha
I believe being religious is to walk on the path of humanity. It’s the way to become wise, moral and embrace your tradition and culture. I consider ultimate goal of any religion is to believe in one super natural power that has created us and the universe. There would be different ways to reach out the eternal power but the final destination for all of us is to be sanctified and blessed from that super natural power. People may have given different name to their religion but does any religion say something unique to one another? I haven’t read all holy books but I think they all have one universal message: peace, harmony and divinity for mankind.

When you ask someone what religion one should follow to be blessed by god? You would get different answers. If you meet Christian he may suggest you to come to church, Hindu may advise you to go to temple, Muslim may invite you to mosque and Buddhist may ask you to visit monastery. But, we all know god can be felt anywhere with true heart and pure soul. It’s like asking someone what medicine I should take to get relief from body pain. Someone would say Tylenol, other would say Advil, and some would even say Paracetamol. But, a little wise people who have knowledge about drugs may give you little different answer. He/ she would say you can have any medicine that contains acetaminophen or ibuprofen. We should note that Tylenol contains acetaminophen and Advil contains ibuprofen but there ultimate function is to relief your body pain. In same way different religion seems to have different content but the ultimate goal is same for all, to realize that ultimate supernatural power and bestow mankind.

So, I would suggest you can follow any religion which suit you and embrace your culture. Because I feel our culture make us unique from each other, at the same time we should not forget that all religion has ultimate one message. So, we should not bring politics into religion and claim that one religion is better than other. It’s like advertising that Aleve is better than Advil. We should recognize the diversity in human approach towards, and realization of, the one Supreme reality. The essence of religion consists in man’s hold on what is eternal and immanent in all being. Every religion is true, only if its adherents sincerely and honestly follow it.