Bhakti: The Universal Religion According to Swami Prakashanand Saraswati

1. Title: - Bhakti: The Universal Religion According to Swami Prakashanand Saraswati Swami Prakashanand Saraswati highlighted bhakti as the essence of all spiritual paths, advocating for a return to this fundamental principle. He taught that through pure love and devotion to God, one can transcend the divisions of religion and achieve true unity and peace. There is always more than one religion in the world but in general, religions show the path to find God. In all our Sanskrit scriptures, the path to reach God has been defined as bhakti. There is one God, one path, many religions, the mayic (this material) world, and uncountable souls. As Swami Prakashanand Saraswati clarifies, “Nowadays if you try to learn the path to God and study various religions, you may get very confused. From one prime religion, many branches have been formed. Why are there branches? Because of personal intellectual disputes. When quarreling starts, harmony disappears. Intellectual conflicts entered into religions and that's the only reason that there are thousands of branches of religions in the world. When vanity and showing

2. one's own superiority enter into a group of religious people, then there are conflicts and divisions. However, those who really desire God have to understand what religion is, and what the path to God is. In Sanskrit, there is a word "Divya" - Divine; and a word "Bhagwan"-God. Do you understand the meaning of the word Divine, or the word God? No. Absolutely not. If you had truly understood the words Divine and God, you would have found God. Understanding and finding is simultaneous, not step by step. So, God and Divine are words to explain the omnipresent Personality Who is beyond your intellect. How then does one reach God? God Himself sends His Saints in the world to teach the path. It makes no difference what language a Saint speaks or where he is born. All the Saints have the same message; to show the path to reach God. Through bhakti, a soul could reach God. Bhakti is the origin of all the religions. In fact, all the Saints are equally respectable because they came from God. If you disrespect one, you disrespect God. Love one path, but respect all the paths. All the Saints gave the message of bhakti. When pure love of God comes into your consciousness, that is bhakti. So bhakti is the basic theme of all religions. All the Saints have said,“Love God”. God has uncountable names, and hundreds of names are available in our scriptures, but God is only One. The Saints explain how to reach God. They say you must use your heart to love God. That is the origin of all religions, the message that all the Saints teach: bhakti or divine-love- consciousness. We have to come back to originality. Don't go out multiplying the branches. Reduce the branches. Come to the main trunk. Come back to oneness. When you come back to originality you will find there is no conflict in religion, in any Saint - they are all coming from one single God. We have to love and long for God. Then all conflicts will finish, and we can create better harmony in the world.”