“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds” – Bhagavad Gita 11:32
Frankly, I was never an orthodox believer. I have always been deeply attracted to the moral teachings of various world religions, but I admit, I am a clear hypocrite for rarely implementing them. Coming from a Hindu family, I struggled immensely with the institutionalized aspects of the faith; staring at the idols often made me feel a sense of intense discomfort. I had no interest in the traditional yogic sciences either. My spiritual quest is not about finding a new institution, but about discovering the essential, unifying philosophy that lies beneath all of them. I find myself drawn to the concept of monotheism and a formless Creator; a perspective shared across traditions like Vedanta, Islam, and Judaism. I refuse to believe in divine elements or human-made concepts like Avatars or the Holy Trinity.
My most significant point of departure from organized religion lies in the nature of God itself. While many Vedic traditions, along with Islam and Judaism, assert that the Creator is beyond and separate from His creation, I find this argument conceptually flawed. How can something exist outside of existence per se? This is why I find myself leaning toward Spinoza’s God, the idea of God as Deus sive Natura (God or Nature), where the divine is inseparable from the cosmos. This pantheistic view bypasses profound philosophical dilemmas, such as the infinite regression argument and the problem of how a creator could fashion matter without any raw material. It also resolves the question of why one being was privileged with divine power while the rest live in misery. I prefer to view religious figures such as Jesus, Krishna, and Muhammad not as supernatural beings, but as extraordinary teachers whose lives offer profound philosophical inquiry and ethical conduct.
This intellectual skepticism is not a modern invention; it is rooted deeply in ancient thought. I am particularly moved by the arguments found in the Hindu and Jain traditions that challenge the very idea of creationism:
“Some foolish men declare that a Creator made the world. The doctrine that the world was created is ill-advised, and should be rejected. If God created the world, where was He before creation?…How could God have made the world without any raw material?” – The Mahapurana, Jinasena (9th century)
This rationalistic current is also powerfully expressed in the Nasadiya Sukta (Hymn of Non-Eternity) from the Rigveda, which poses an ultimate question about the origin of the universe:
“Who really knows? Who will here proclaim it? Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation? Gods came afterwards, with the creation of this universe. Who then knows whence it has arisen?” – Rigveda 10.129 (Abridged)
As Carl Sagan noted, this passage speaks to an ancient Indian tradition of skeptical questioning and humility before cosmic mysteries, which, in my view, is the true greatness of the Vedas. However, historical texts require critical engagement. While the Upanishads built the foundation of rationalism in ancient India, texts like the Manusmriti, a law text, are often accused of being sexist and casteist. Though I haven’t read all of it, some commandments are indeed disturbing in the modern world. Yet, it is wise not to forget the possibility of wrong translations, interpretations, and manipulations over the years, a phenomenon common to ancient law texts of the Middle East and Europe as well.
The closest expression of this universal brotherhood and religious unification that I have encountered is the Baha’i Faith. Emerging in 19th-century Persia, it worships the formless One and incorporates elements from all organized religions, acknowledging figures like Krishna, Jesus, Muhammad, and Buddha as prophets born to guide humanity. But this open-minded approach has always faced resistance. The founder, Báb (Siyyid Ali Muhammad), faced persecution and was accused of heresy, suffering the same fate as other intellectual figures, most notably, Giordano Bruno. Bab was executed in 1850. Movements like the Brahmo Samaj in India and the Theosophical Society in New York also championed this mission of universal respect. Their efforts proved the idea of universal brotherhood by uniting the eastern and western world, particularly during India’s freedom struggle.
This profound realization that Ishwara, God, Allah, Yahweh, all are the same and one came to me around two years ago. I was contemplating the complexity of worshipping multiple Hindu deities when I stumbled upon the truth that all of them are merely personifications of a singular, formless, all-pervading reality. Further reading confirmed this: Hinduism was originally a monotheistic religion, and modern deities were developed in later civilizations, nowhere mentioned in the primary texts of the Vedas. This truth is echoed by the mystical saints I admire deeply: Ramana Maharshi, Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rūmī, and Saint Augustine. They lived in different times and places, without opportunities for cultural exchange, yet their teachings are almost identical. Their lives prove that this unifying truth is accessible to anyone who seeks it. The history of belief systems in the subcontinent shows a consistent pattern of seeking essential truth beyond corrupted structures. Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism were, at first, ideologies rooted in Hinduism, much like how Christianity developed inside Judaism. People converted to Buddhism when they felt disillusioned with corrupt Vedic Brahmins. To this day, Buddhism remains the most practical and is widely considered an atheistic religion; Buddha never claimed any divineness in himself. He stands out as one of the most humble religious figures we have. His influence was so profound that Emperor Ashoka renounced his throne in his later years.
Even so, these new ideologies eventually fell prey to the same dogmatic principles from which they were born. I find Buddhism to be a little pessimistic and overly ascetic, and Jainism faced a similar fate of institutionalization. The speculations of ancient Hindus, while making significant contributions to Mathematics, Cosmology, and Medicine, were ultimately restricted to Philosophy. It is disheartening to observe the disconnect between these ideals and our contemporary reality. While historical figures who attempted to reconcile belief systems faced persecution, nothing seems to have changed much today. Here in India, the situation seems far worse than before. Media houses and social media are full of mutual hatred and intolerance. The general public appears to follow the mainstream, and anyone who tries to unify belief systems is still labelled as an infidel or heretic. Yet, we can choose to root ourselves in enduring wisdom. I am confident that the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta, Sufi Islam, and the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew are eternally worthy of study.
As Mahatma Gandhi, whose disciple I have become, once wrote: “Religions are different roads converging to the same point. What does it matter that we take different road, so long as we reach the same goal. Wherein is the cause for quarrelling?”
Notice – This article is a chapter from Glimpses of My Worldview (2025). It is being republished here on my blog as part of a complete serialization of the work.