Whose Religion is True ?

There have been many founders of religions, but only four powerful religions have captured the mind and heart of men. Therefore I want to draw some comparisons among the four founders with a view to arriving at certain conclusions.

The four founders of religions are :-

1. Buddha

2. Jesus Christ

3. Mohammad Saheb

4. Sri Krishna

Buddha by virtue of being righteous, occupies the highest place among the four as a result of this comparative study. Let us know some significant facts about the other assertion.

the essence of the teachings of the whole of 'The Bible' is an abiding faith in God. According to it, either you have faith in God or you shall plunge into hell. There is no alternative other than this. In order to justify it Jesus Christ proclaimed himself to be the son of God. He has power and resources to transport man to the realm of God, but the question arises why has the man been suffering up to this moment if he was invested with divine power and resources ? Why have so fierce battles been waged in this world ? Why does man labour under such odd circumstances if the divine will were responsible for all his activities ? the truth is that after discarding the theory of divine power if ever any religion would remain it is the teachings of Buddha and no other.

Now let us forget about God for a while and call to our memory Jesus Christ. His greatest mission is to transport man to the Kingdom of God, but a bit of serious consideration would reveal that he would be failing in his mission so long as he justifies himself as the son of God. Because on the other hand the identity of God is meaningless in the view of honest persons and on the other hand he has no strong and valid proofs which are infallible and support his claim.

Mohammad Saheb, the founder of Islam, declared that "I am the prophet of God." He was not satisfied after having declared himself as a prophet, but he claimed to have been the last prophet. Thus by virtue of his self styled personality he strove, on the one hand, to occupy the highest place in the 'ism', but on the other hand, he spoke against the ism as according to Mohammad God incarnates from time to time or sends His angels. Efforts have always been made to maintain the importance of this principle forever. The fact is that this statement has neither proved the real identity of God nor his claim of being the last prophet.

Now we have Sri Krishna who surpassed Christ and Mohammad for he did not proclaim himself to be the son of God like Christ, nor did he claim the last prophethood like Mohammad. He declared himself God.

Buddha never derived inspiration or power from an invisible authority to justify his personality. Buddha spread his message only and never advised mental slavery for others. And even then he did not take help of age old authority and faith. He, on the contrary, declared them blind faith and blind devotion and all things that supported them were mere jugglery of words. He was pained o realize it and harboured hatred against the priests who spread such false notions, but he was full of milk of human kindness for the entrapped human beings. His teachings are not only true but simple also, for they are not jugglery in words and there is no difficulty in understanding Buddha. He was the son of a mortal and he never declared himself an angel of God-the source of eternal power. He has not given indication of eternal power in order to show that he was invested with material power. If even he has been presented like God it is in reality, the glorification of knowledge with the help of imagination.

The qualities of Buddha as accepted, are nine and whatever he has said about our earthly life is, in a nutshell, contained in the word 'suffering'- its causes of origin, means of controlling it, and the state of deliverance.

The nine qualities are :-

1. Arham (Freedom from wordly attachment, envy and greed)

2. Samma Sambuddho (Full acceptance of faith)

3. Vijjacharana Sampanno (One who has attained knowledge and right attitude towards life.)

4. Sugato (One who can tread the path of salvation easily)

5. Lokavidu (One who knows the past, present and future)

6. Anuttara Purisa Damma Sarathi ((One who is matchless in suppressing men.)

7. Sattha Deva Manussanam (Teacher of mankind and Devas.)

8. Buddha (One who knows the four noble truths himself.)

9. Bhagawa (One who invested with luck.)

Now let us consider the commands of our lord about the world.

Different theories have been propounded by different religions about the cause of pain and suffering. bur there is little difference about the need of getting the rid of them. That is to say that every religion wants an end of pain. If one thinks over honestly one will realize that we can produce facts in support of Buddhas ways indicated to get freedom pain. In his views one's actions are solely responsible for one's suffering. Therefore one can not attribute the cause of one's suffering to the divine power any where or any way. In order to understand it once again we can reverse the proposition why does man labour when pain or pleasure in the life of man is the result of God's mercy or anger why does God not pour mercy on man when he is sitting idle or engaged in futile efforts. Now if pain and pleasure are the result of man's actions then God is a follower of man and nothing more, and then we can either raise our follower or lower him.

How can we depend on God when he is a puppet in our hand ? Any talk about this dependence sounds strange.

In the opinion of Buddha, the means of getting freedom from pains are in man's hand. He is very explicit about it when he says that he is not the deliverer but the path-finder.

Buddha says, "Come, O wise men and see what I have explained at large. It is worth testing." On the other hand, Jesus Christ says that the suffering and suppressed humanity should come to him, for he would give them relief and comfort. He enters into a contract to deliver them. Sri Krishna says, "Abandon all religions and seek my shelter; I will set you free from all bondages; do not grieve." thus he declared himself the deliverer. Thus, these three founders of religions- Jesus Christ, Mohammad Saheb, and Sri Krishna try to get their words accepted as containing the last truth about God and there is not the least ground for doubt and disbelief. They do not allow knowledge to widen its frontiers by reasoning out of the prescribed paths. Thus we can easily say that the words of Christ, Mohammad , and Sri Krishna are not identical even when they are the commands of God. Thus it is difficult to decide which one is the word of God. This conclusion compels us to say that there is no God and there words are not the words of God. For one word of God differs from the other word of God. Whose statement of the three noble personalities is true and whose false ? The teachings of Buddha imparted to kalama who was faced with this dilemma are quite contrary to the teachings of these three founders, Buddhism teaches independent thinking these instills, freedom of choice about religion to man. The Lord said Kalama, "Come, do not accept a hearsay, Do not accept a thing because it is conventional. Do not accept it for is has been said so. Do not accept a thing for it is in accordance with the sacred books. Do not accept a thing because it satisfies your reason. Do not accept a thing as its dimensions and beauty please you. Do not accept a thing as it is according to your views. Do not accept a thing by being swept away by the attractive personality of a great man. Do not accept a thing as it is related to a saint who ought to be respected by you etc. (Anguttara Nukaya).

Buddha said to Ananda at the time of Mahaparinirvana, "My teachings are not only sermons but also code of ethics. they should not be followed blindly." Necessary reforms are possible in Buddhism. That is to say that some changes may be introduced to suit their requirement of age and circumstances Buddha did not like that his teachings should remain forever like dry leaves of a blighted tree. He wanted that his religion should even grow like a banayan tree and be capable of providing shade and succour to mankind in future too.

No Other teacher of religion can mustor courage to say so boldly. Where there is fear of being reformed there can be no reform because the reformer belittles the stature of the founder by Suggesting reforms. Buddha grants the right of introducing reforms if neccessary, fearlessly. He has no such fear that the more introduction of reform would destroy the very basis of his religion, like other founder. The logic of simple to understand, if we lose faith in God the structure of religion will collapse. There is no caste-system in Buddhism and it will not dwindle into oblivion if we argue against caste-system. The roots of Buddhism spread in the background of the welfare of mankind. Therefore he did not deem it necessary to ask others to accept it as the words of God, nor did he threaten others to be guilty of sin if they suggested reforms.

Buddha is man. hence man can not perform his activities unless he is aided by wise counsel who is God ? Man is not God. Who is Man ? God is not man. Thus theism is not humanism. Buddhism is the religion of mankind and among the four founders of religions. Buddha is the noblest founder of religion which seeks to confer the greatest amount of benefit on mankind.