>Dear Madhudvisa... > >Long time no hear! I'm glad that you will be back on-line now. I >wasn't sure if I was ever on the hare krishna mailing list after I >emailed for it. Guess I am! > >I was thinking over the past few months to ask you if you believe that >all religions lead to the same end. And is that in the Vedas >teachings? > >God Bless You! > Dear Scott Hello. Hare Krishna! It's very nice to hear from you too. Yes -- all real religions lead to the same end. Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita(4.7): yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata abhyutthanam adharmasya tadatmanam srjamy aham "Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion--at that time I descend Myself." So the purpose of human life in the material world is to restablish our relationship with God, Krishna. To this end Krishna appears Himself and He also sends His representatives or sons like Lord Jesus Christ, Mohamad and many others to reestablish religous principles. They preach according to time and place and according to the mentality of their audience. Although the message is one it requires a different presentation to get it across to different people... So if you carefuly read the Bible and the Bhagavad-gita, you will find some things that appear to be contradictory, but the basic message is the same. There is a supreme person [God or Krishna], this world is not the Kingdom of God, it is not our real home so we should use this life to become God conscious [Krishna conscious] so at the time of death we can go back home, back to Godhead... So the details may differ but the message is one.. Even Lord Buddha is listed as an incarnation of Krishna but his philosophy is atheism... Buddhists don't believe in God at all... So Buddha's mission was to stop the animal killing which was going on at that time in India... He preached ahimsa, non-violence and as the people were mostly atheistic at that time he didn't mention God... But he stopped them from killing the animals... So Krishna [God] is coming personally or sending His representative into every society to establish religous principles. Even the primitave aboriginals have some spiritual knowledge so it has come from God also... There is only one God.. People see Him from different angles of vision and He appears different... But there is only one God. So looking forward to hearing from you again... Madhudvisa dasa