The Oneness of Humanity

The Hindus suggested that the concept of the oneness of reality should be inculcated in people’s minds. They held that the truth was one, but the paths to reach the truth were many. Any path one followed would finally lead one to God. This is an age-old concept, in support of which the arguments are all based on analogies. For instance, one Hindu scholar had this to say: If you are standing at the foot of a hillock, you will find only one way going to the top of the hill. But if you climb up the hill and look around, you will find that there are paths all around the hillock, and that all these paths, albeit separate from each other, reach the same destination, that is, the top of the hillock. Such analogies carry no weight in academic terms. Arguments based on such parallel cases can easily be refuted by citing other parallel cases. For instance, if someone is standing at a railway station like Bombay or Delhi, he will see dozens of trains in motion, but that would not imply that all the trains were going to the same railway station. In one analogy all the paths are converging on the one destination, while in the other all paths are diverging to a separate destination. This concept, in essence, has nothing to do with creating tolerance and respect in human society. Even if everyone accepted this theory, it could not serve any purpose so far as the desired social goal is concerned. The practical proof of this is that infighting among the adherents of the same religion has continued since ancient times till today. Then how can the concept of unity which has failed to unite the adherents of the same religion, succeed in uniting the followers of different religions? “The unity of religion produces social unity.” This statement