| [The speech made by Mr. Sasidharan
Nair at the anniversary of Gregorian Study Circle in Houston] In Kerala where I was born and lived until I came over to the US, I lived together with followers of other religious faiths. I haven't experienced any discrimination there based on religion. The reason, I believe, is that the great teachers like Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Swami Vivekananda had such strong influence on people at that time. In fact, all the great teachers in all the religions have told us to love one another and live together in peace. I believe that there is only one God for all people whatever religion they belong to. Different religions are like different colors in the rainbow. If you put all the colors together you get white. The religions, like the colors, are complementary, not contradictory. Therefore, diversity in religions is not a drawback. However, if we are not able to create unity amidst the diversity by understanding one another better, the diversity can be very harmful indeed. Ignorance of this makes people fight over their beliefs, and makes the world a madhouse, as Swami Vivekananda said. |