Religious Harmony Quotes

“Religion is at its best when it makes us ask hard questions of ourselves. It is at its worst when it deludes us into thinking we have all the answers for everybody else.”
― Archibald MacLeish

“Divide and divine can never go together.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavatan: 100 Demilitarization Sonnets

“Secularism is not a rejection of religion, secularism is inoculation against fundamentalism.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Dervis Vadisi: 100 Promissory Sonnets

“Letter from God
(An Autobiographical Sonnet)

Some people chant Bismillah,
Some people chant Bhagvan.
Some people call me Lord God,
I'm actually very much human.

Seek me in church and temple,
I shall elude you for time eternal.
All churches are without God,
But God cannot be without human.

Above all hagiographies, human is real,
There's nothing more divine than human.
Godliness unfolds only through humanness,
Only sin in the world is the sin of division.

Secularism is not a rejection of religion,
secularism is inoculation against fundamentalism.
Religion is not the search for a mythical deity,
but the realization of oneness within every human.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Dervis Vadisi: 100 Promissory Sonnets

“All scriptures are blasphemy, when peddled as exclusive, infallible handbook to divinity.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Dervis Vadisi: 100 Promissory Sonnets

“If you can't find God in
people, your God is dead.
If you can't find holiness in
people, your holiness is fake.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Dervis Vadisi: 100 Promissory Sonnets

“While Jews for Jesus is a misnomer to many Christians and almost all Jews, Daoists for Confucius and Confucians for the Buddha are thick on the ground in China. According to a popular Chinese saying, “Every Chinese wears a Confucian cap, a Daoist robe and Buddhist sandals.” Or, according to another, Chinese are Confucians at work, Daoists at leisure, and Buddhists at death.”
― Stephen Prothero, God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World

“We don’t need to build a world of faith,
We don’t need to build a world of logic.
We just need to build a world human enough,
To place without prejudice, all faith and logic.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Iman Insaniyat, Mazhab Muhabbat: Pani, Agua, Water, It's All One

“Many fervor, many faiths.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Vande Vasudhaivam: 100 Sonnets for Our Planetary Pueblo

“Hz. Muhammad, Hz. Isa (Jesus), Hz. Mevlana, or Hz. Naskar - the message comes in many forms, but the message itself is one and the same - it's the message of love, not hate - it's the message of assimilation, not dissimilation - it's the message of peace, not pieces.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Iman Insaniyat, Mazhab Muhabbat: Pani, Agua, Water, It's All One

“Animal awareness is the perfect carrier of propaganda - it is the ideal facilitator of animal conditioning, while human awareness is the only civilized answer. Let me show you how animal conditioning through propaganda works.

I'll mention a word, and you'll tell me what's the first thing that comes to your mind.

And the word is - "terrorism".

Here, the first thing a white american nationalist will think of, is "arabs". Ask an indian hindu nationalist the same question, and their first thought would be "pakistan". In the same way, israeli zionists would automatically associate the word terrorism with palestine.

Like it or not, that's animal nature. Every moment you are bombarded with materials that have no relation to truth and humanity, as far as the civilized mind could see. Through cinema, through video games, through news - propaganda is everywhere. And no, I am not talking about some grand conspiracy. Apes, who still cannot look past the color of skin and language of tongue, do not have the brains to orchestrate some grand scheme of manipulation - all they can do is, simply peddle the same old rotten narrative of hate and fanaticism repeatedly, and the rest is taken care of by the primitive survival instinct of the ape brain.

So, what's the way out? Simple - start using that grand instrument you carry on your shoulders, which you call a brain - driven by an actual civilized craving for uplift and illumination.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Iman Insaniyat, Mazhab Muhabbat: Pani, Agua, Water, It's All One

“World Gospel (The Sonnet)

So long as there is selfishness,
There is no Christmas.
So long as there is occupation,
There is no Hanukkah.
So long as there is cruelty,
There is no Ramadan.
Till we end militant atheism,
There is no Humanism.
Till you conquer superstition,
There is no Diwali.
So long as there is division,
There is no Vaisakhi.
So long as there is inequality,
There is no Fourth of July.
Till we abolish hate from earth,
At half mast all flags must fly.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavatan: 100 Demilitarization Sonnets

“Till we end militant atheism, there is no Humanism.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavatan: 100 Demilitarization Sonnets

“Militant atheism is the antithesis of humanism. Fundamentalism is the antithesis of religion. Nationalism is the antithesis of peace.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavatan: 100 Demilitarization Sonnets

“Shall Meet You There (Sonnet 1319)

Beyond tongue and tradition,
Beyond king and nation,
Beyond ignorance and intolerance,
Beyond cowardice and castration,
Beyond fear and fanaticism,
Beyond rigidity and recklessness,
Beyond the desert of dead habit,
Beyond the logical heartlessness,
Beyond the guise of practicality,
Beyond the price of convenience,
Beyond the lies of selfish order,
Beyond the highs of whims and wishes,
There's a valley of love and laughter.
Come someday, I shall meet you there.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavatan: 100 Demilitarization Sonnets

“Beyond tongue and tradition,
Beyond king and nation,
Beyond ignorance and intolerance,
Beyond fear and fanaticism,
There's a valley of love and laughter.
Come someday, I shall meet you there.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavatan: 100 Demilitarization Sonnets

“It's not enough to outgrow the divisions in culture, we must also outgrow the divisions in intellect. For example, if you think theology is all about the supernatural, it doesn't mean the entire field of theology is nonsense, it just means, you are studying the wrong kind of theology – you are stuck with an archaic notion of theology. Likewise, if you think science is all about cold facts and figures, then you are studying the wrong kind of science – you are stuck with an archaic notion of science.

Till you develop a common humane ground underneath your feet, all the facts and all the faith won't do you any good.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Insan Himalayanoğlu: It's Time to Defect

“Sonnet 1359

I know people who use God
as excuse for hate and war.
I know people who use God
as inspiration for love and peace.

I know people who use Science
as excuse to be cold and inhuman.
I know people who use Science
as means to be warm and responsible.

It's neither God nor Science,
that causes coldness and war.
In the hands of a selfish ape,
Science and God are equally impotent.

But when it's a responsible human
that wields either God or Science,
You can rest assured of one thing,
nothing can dent their humanness.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavatan: 100 Demilitarization Sonnets

“Love is not christian,
Love is not muslim.
Names are mere reflection,
Love is the source beam.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavatan: 100 Demilitarization Sonnets

“It's neither God nor Science,
that causes coldness and war.
In the hands of a selfish ape,
Science and God are equally impotent.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavatan: 100 Demilitarization Sonnets

“For one who lives with kindness, everyday is Ramadan.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Dervis Vadisi: 100 Promissory Sonnets

“To be treated as a human being,
One must behave as human being.
Faith, intellect, both are poison,
If the heart remains ever so mean.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Either Right or Human: 300 Limericks of Inclusion

“Only sin in the world is the sin of division.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Dervis Vadisi: 100 Promissory Sonnets

“The ability to accommodate rather than reject older beliefs has a very practical outcome. India has had its share of religious intolerance, but thanks to its paradigm of unity-in-diversity and its cumulative strategy for preserving culture, those individuals and communities who respond to outward forms of worship have kept their place and dignity in the system, while at the other extreme individuals who have really had mystical experience have been unusually free to transcend all religious forms and not only follow their own path but become beacons for the culture as a whole. “As men approach me, so I receive them,” Sri Krishna says in the Gita. “All paths, Arjuna, lead to me” (Gita 4.11). This too helps explain the mixtures, or more properly layers, of religious consciousness displayed in the Upanishads.”
― Eknath Easwaran, The Upanishads

“Every Religion is Right Religion
(Unscriptured Holiness Sonnet)

Islam* is not the right religion, *peace is.
Christianity** is no right religion, **kindness is.
Judaism is not the right religion, equality is.
Sanatana isn't right religion, nonsectarianism is.

All scriptures are blasphemy, when peddled
as exclusive, infallible handbook to divinity.
Literature that demands rejection of backbone,
is a lot of things but not material of sanctity.

Every religion is right religion, or none are;
Claiming exclusive rightness all breed cowards.
Every faith is an attempt at divine, or none are;
Claiming monopoly of truth faith forfeits regard.

By saying your religion is the only right religion,
you only prove, your religion is the wrong religion.
Religion as an excuse for separation is always wrong,
till you transcend religion, all faith is delusion.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Dervis Vadisi: 100 Promissory Sonnets

“Every religion is right religion, or none are.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Dervis Vadisi: 100 Promissory Sonnets

“By saying your religion is the only right religion,
you only prove, your religion is the wrong religion.
Religion as an excuse for separation is always wrong,
till you transcend religion, all faith is delusion.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Dervis Vadisi: 100 Promissory Sonnets

“By saying your religion is the only right religion, you only prove, your religion is the wrong religion.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Dervis Vadisi: 100 Promissory Sonnets

“Beyond all crucifix and calculus, Love is the only cosmic education.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Dervis Vadisi: 100 Promissory Sonnets

“Ardent critics of religion are just as animal as fundamentalists.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Dervis Vadisi: 100 Promissory Sonnets