I remember many years ago, while in Europe, I received an invitation to speak at a church. The minister of the congregation took the chair. I spoke on “The Wisdom of Higher Life”. The reverend gentleman was very kind. At the close of the lecture, he said that evening they had “listened to a non-Christian but to words of inspiration.”
Then a friend came to me and said: “There is one little thing I wish to communicate to you. The question of your being invited to speak here was brought before the committee of the congregation, and one member of the committee objected to your being invited at all on one ground: ‘So and so is an Indian and a heathen!’”
What a wonderful teaching comes to us from Sri Krishna in the ancient words: “I am in all religions!”
Greece and Rome, Carthage and Assyria, Egypt and Babylonia have vanished and are, today, a memory of the past. They are gone, but India lives on. And if the history of man be not an aimless pursuit of shadow-shapes that come and go, but a sacred scripture showing a purpose of the world-will, is there not some great meaning in this survival of India?
India has survived the many shocks and changes of time, because I believe India is meant to be the standard-bearer of a great message. I believe that India is meant, under the grace of God, to be an interpreter to the nations of a religion of reconciliation, a religion of harmony. But India may not enter upon her world-mission, if you and I will not strive to verify in every-day life the vision of harmony and love.
Religion is love! The highest force in life is love! Love is in truth the profoundest philosophy of life! For love is expansion of the self. The lord of love is the inspirer of all religions. And the paths of all converge to a common centre.