The True Religion

Once in a kingdom, there were riots between people following different religions. The king became extremely disappointed to know about this. He announced that he would not follow any religion. Only when some scholar of any religion could convince him that their religion is true, then only he would accept and follow that religion. After announcing this, he gave strict orders to his soldiers to kill anyone who they found involved in riots. Soon, the riots were controlled completely.

The king disillusioned with everything, started living a life without the impact of any religion. Many religious scholars (or pandits, maulvis etc.) came and tried to convince him that their respective religion is the true one and rest are false. But the king was not convinced with any of their explanations.

This way, many years passed and the king ultimately became an atheist. He then ordered all temples, mosques, churches etc. to be broken and put all the religious scholars behind bars for spreading falsehood and superstitions. Soon, there was a huge public outcry against the orders. There lived a saint near the banks of Ganges. Many people approached him and requested him to meet the king. The saint heard them patiently and accepted the request. Then he left for meeting the king.

Although the king had turned atheist, but still there was some thirst left inside him for knowing the true religion. The king welcomed the saint and asked him the reason for visiting him. The saint asked, "Why have you ordered to destroy all temples, mosques and all the religious places?" The king replied, "You must be knowing that I do not follow any religion and all the religions are based on falsehood and superstitions. I can not accept any wrong thing in my kingdom. There is no true religion. All religions are bad." The saint interrupted him and said, "Hey king, what do you think; how many religions exist in your kingdom?" The king felt strange to hear such a question and replied, "There are many religions. Some follow Sanatan Dharma, some follow Islam, some Buddhism, some Christianity and so on."

The saint said, "You are only looking at the cover of the book. When you will unfold the cover and start reading the pages written inside, you will find that all these religions are only different ways of reflecting the only one true religion. The great personalities have come from time to time to revive this true religion in their own way. Because of the ignorance of their followers, that happen generally after that great person leaves the worldly body, they separate themselves from others as followers of a new religion." The king then asked, "Then what is the true religion." The saint replied, "The only true religion of humans is humanity. This is the essence of the message provided by all great personalities around the world." The king asked, "How can I follow the true religion?" The saint replied, "Know your true self. Only when you know who you are, you will realize that all human beings are just like you and there is no difference."