Conclusion

All religions are equally great and true. They are all but different pathways leading to the same goal. They all emphasise the brotherhood of man and Fatherhood of God. All religions preach that man should love his fellow-beings and all the creation. All religions exhort their people, “Be good, do good, see good.”

Therefore, we should treat all religions as friendly partners in the supreme task of nourishing the moral and spiritual life of mankind. When the different religions begin to fertilise one another, they will be supplying the soul (inner unity) which this world is seeking. Let us have the richness of the various traditions; let us be the heirs of a heritage of the whole of humanity and not merely of a particular religion or particular nation. Let us all seek unity of hearts, on which task Sri Sathya Sai is set upon. He has given us the Sarvadharma emblem, in which all the religions find concord, harmony, unity and Oneness.

“May everyone be happy, may everyone be free from disease, May everyone be prosperous, may none fall on evil ways.”

When it is said that man is made in the image of God, or when Baba addresses us as “Divyatma- Swarupas”, it is meant to say that the Universal Divine Principle is indeed the true and very core of our being. But in most of us, in our unregenerate state, it (the Divine/God principle) is only in its potential state, but not in the actual functioning state. It is dormant. Instead of it being the functioning principle, our ego is operating and ruling in its place. The chief and sole objective of all the religions is to help us regenerate ourselves, purify or sublimate the usurper-ego, and to make the Divine Principle as the actual functioning principle of ourselves. The latent divinity has to be made to manifest in all our thoughts, words and deeds. Thus when the Divine Principle becomes the controlling, conducting and guiding principle of our lives, of all our activities and conduct, then alone we become worthy of our divine heritage – the true embodiments of the divine spirit. The purpose of all religions is essentially only this, to make man divine (God-like).

[Source: The Path Divine, Sri Sathya Sai Balvikas, Dharmakshetra, Mumbai]