Religion is a much-misunderstood term today. Some understand by it various sets of dogmas and beliefs while others identify it with a set of rituals. The fact of the matter is that it represents none of these misplaced notions. Religion is a Truth expressed by various sets of people in various ways, some by elaborate rituals, some by prayer and some by simple faith but all these acts, which may be called religious rituals, go to express the same truth that there is but one unifying principle among all the diversities one is apt to perceive in the universe. Religious pursuits of the entire humanity from time immemorial point to seeking of the Luminous One through which all else shines and which itself needs no illumination. Seeking of this truth – that of unity in diversity – is what may be truly called religion.
How does religion stand in relation to Philosophy? On a close analysis we would find that philosophy is nothing but the conceptual version of religion. Generally what we conceive as philosophy, we practise it as religion. If philosophy is a view of life, religion is a way life. Both are different versions of the same Truth. But there is a thin line of distinction between the two. Philosophy flows from the intellect and reason while religion springs forth from the heart, and love, devotion and adoration are its tools.
Now we may have a look at Science that is based purely on theories. Its methodology is simple –observing facts, generalizing them and finally deducing conclusions from them to reach a universal principal which, if applied to one, may explain the rest of the similar phenomena of the universe. If it be so, is it not endeavouring to reach the same goal that religion and philosophy have been pursuing i.e. to seek a unifying principle amongst the apparent diversities of the universe? Swami Vivekananda echoed similar sentiments in his Chicago Address (1893) when he said: “Science is nothing but the finding of unity. As soon as science would reach perfect unity it would stop from further progress because it would reach the goal. Chemistry could not progress farther when it would discover one element out of which all others could be made. Physics would stop growing when it would be able to fulfill its services in discovering one energy of which all the others are manifestations and the science of religion become perfect when it would discover Him who is the one life in a universe of death, Him who is the constant basis of an ever-changing world, One who is the only Soul of which all souls are but delusive manifestations.”
Viewed in this perspective, all three – Religion, Philosophy and Science, though appearing to be at loggerheads with each other, have the same goal of finding a unifying and universal principle. You may call it God, the Absolute or by any other name because ‘what you call rose by any other name will smell as sweet’.
