Religion is Godly Life
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
RELIGION IS GODLY LIFE
No religion of the world is without any connection with God. The principal religions of the world are 1. Hinduism, 2. Islam, 3. Buddhism and 4. Christianity. And all of them have some sort of direct or indirect connection with God. Such religions are made and propagated by God Himself or by His authorised agents. So far Hinduism is concerned and the Bhagavad-gita is accepted, all sects and subsects of the Hindu population take up the cause of the Bhagavad-gita and it is directly preached by God Himself in the Form of Lord Krishna. So far Islam is concerned and the Koran is accepted, all Islamic population accept Hazrat Mohammad as the authorised agent of God and the faith is propagated by Him. So far Buddhism is concerned, all the people of the world professing faith in Buddhism obey Lord Buddha as God or the greatest authority. Lord Buddha advented Himself in India and He took up the cause of the poor animals who were being slaughtered unhesitatingly on the plea of Vaidic yajṣa and therefore Lord Buddha was compelled to disregard the principles of Vedic sacrifice just to establish the principles of nonviolence. The Hindu scriptures especially the VaiḶ_avite literatures of the Vedas accept Lord Buddha as the incarnation of God. It is said that He preached His philosophy amongst those who had practically no faith in the existence of God but by His propaganda such men become faithful to Him and therefore indirectly they accepted God. So far Christianity is concerned, there is open acceptance of God because Lord Jesus declared Himself as the son of God. So all the religions of the world have direct or indirect connection with God and therefore we can take it for acceptance that religion means to learn obedience to the Laws of God as it may be compared with Nationalism means obedience to the laws of the state.
Obedience is the first law of discipline. Even in your national life, you may be a member of a great independant nation but that does not mean you have absolute independence and you are able to do anything and everything at your will without the sanction of the state. Similarly in terms of our wider and universal relation we may be all independant individual living beings but our independence is not absolute and we have to depend mostly on the laws of God and in every step of our life we cannot do anything without the sanction of God. There are five causes to effect a definite thing may be good or bad. The first cause is the place where the action has to take place, the second cause is actor or the man who will do the act, the third cause is the instrument by which the action has to be executed, the fourth cause is the endeavor which pushes the actor to do it and above all there is the fifth cause namely God's will and that is the ultimate sanction. However may the other four causes be efficient, if the fifth cause is not favourable the effect cannot take place and therefore in every action the hand of God is there we may or may not appreciate it.
The conception of God in every religion is either personal or impersonal. But those who are expert in the science of God have said that God is both personal and impersonal and not He is personal and impersonal but also He is localised. At the ultimate issue God is personal. Impersonal feature of God is the manifestation of His all-pervasiveness and localized function of God is His representation. The king of a state or nowadays the president of a state is always a personal affair. The supreme executive head of a state cannot be impersonal and there is no such example anywhere. The impersonal feature of the king or the president is His all pervasive power in the form of government and the localized representation of the king are executive officers who carry on the orders of the king for maintenance of the state law and order. Similarly, the ultimate authority is God in person and the form of His government through various agencies are His impersonal form and the different representatives for executing the function of God's government are different demigods. According to Hindu conception the actual head of a state, be he the president or the King in person is the representative of God. Therefore the conception of God in all religion is to accept one Ultimate Truth from where everything emanates nevermind personal or impersonal.