Which God should I worship? Which religion should I follow?

The human in this world is probably more confused and disoriented as ever. The main reason for this being not knowing or understanding the reason of our existence here, in this world.

We have all been taught that material success alone is the goal of our lives here.

And, to achieve our goals, we have Gods in different flavours, at least one for each.

To add to the confusion, there are a few religions whose followers say that their God is the only God. Follow my God, or else...

I had the same thoughts most or at least some of us have during our childhood. The question about our existence. Why do we exist? What is the purpose of this life?

In my quest, I used to travel alone to various places where religious discourses were held, just to know and to try and understand the hidden truth. The Gita discourses by Sunanda Parthasarathy at the Nadigar Sangam hall and subsequently at the Narada Gana Sabha hall impressed me to a great extent, with her eloquence and diction. The discourses used to be in English.

The sishyas used to recite the slokam and thereafter Smt. Sunanda elaborated on the meaning of it.

I also remember attending one such discourse by Shri. Parthasarathy, of Vedanta Society, Mumbai and at the end of the event, I asked him, "What should I do with my life?" Should I come to Mumbai and get enrolled in the Vedanta Society? He was probably taken aback and did not answer. I took the prasad and came away.

It would be interesting to note that in the whole gathering there would be just a handful of youngsters; the rest were in their 50s, 60s and 70s. I remember people looking at us with some curiosity. What are they doing here at this age?

I guess that trend continues and even now there is this perception among people that you need to become spiritual after you have settled in life.

There is another set of people who go and visit the religious place in the quest for something, though.

Which God? Which Religion?

I never differentiated between religions either. I used to visit churches, dargahs apart from temples.

Everywhere I went, I used to make this request there; to know the purpose of my existence; and seeking guidance from the higher spirits.

Of this thing I was sure, without a proper guide, we will never get anywhere on anything.

In the quest for knowledge, the journey has covered many religious places and final abodes (Samadhis) of earlier spiritual teachers.

Visiting old places of significance used to give a sense of peace and belonging. Nature has been kind to me and has offered me gentle guidance all through. There have been obstacles and setbacks, which I think are put in place, to make us a better being.

Looking back, the feeling of nature guiding us in the course of our lives is very obvious now. 

The Purpose of Life

After all these years, I have understood that there is more than one life for us on this Earth. There is re-birth and we are reincarnated. And, in every birth we take, we become more refined than we were in our earlier life.