The Family Tree of the Major Religions

Welcome all faiths and religions as kith and kin; all faiths are but attempts to train men along the Path; all aspire to win the same illumination through the cleansing of the mind by means of good works. The seeds of all religions are in the Eternal Truths of the Vedanta. That Truth examines all possible approaches to the Divine, and arranges them in the order in which they can be utilized by the aspirant, according to his level of equipment and attainment.

All faiths are inter related and mutually indebted to each other for the principles they teach and the disciplines they recommend. The Vedic religion is the first in time. Buddhism, which appeared about 2,500 years ago, is its son; Christianity is its grandson. Islam, which has the prophets of Christianity as its base, is the great grandson. All have love as the fundamental discipline of the mind in order to chasten it and merge man with the Divine.

If there is any misunderstanding between them, it is but a family affair. The ancestral property, of which all are co-sharers, is the same.  - Sri Sathya Sai Baba
  Religions are different but the language is the same, even as the Cows may be different in color but the milk is the same; ornaments maybe different in shape but the Gold is the same.   Sri Sathya Sai Baba.
  When your life is filled with the desire to see the holiness in everyday life, something magical happens: ordinary life becomes extraordinary, and the very process of life begins to nourish your soul. Rabbi Harold Kushner
  It is good to be born in a church, but it is not good to die in it. Grow and rescue yourselves from the limits and regulations, the doctrines, that fence in your freedom of thought, the ceremonials and rites that restrict and direct. Reach the point where churches do not matter, where all roads end, from where all roads run.  SSSB
 Practicing meditation in silence and solitude, one can in due course establish silence and solitude in the heart, even in the busiest thoroughfares.    SSSB

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