How according to you is Islam the greatest religion?

Dr. V Jaganmohan asked: Would you please enlighten us on the following: How is Islam greater than any other religion? By Islam, do you mean the ideology as developed on the teachings of the Koran, Hadis, and Mohammed? Thanking you, Sincerely, DrVJ.

Swami replied: You must be knowing that in Hinduism we do some special rituals called vratams to worship God. Some examples are the Satyanaaraayana Swami Vratam, Varalakshmii Vratam, Nandikeshvara Vratam, Mangala Gauri Vratam and so on. You must have observed that a common verse is read out in each of these rituals. The meaning of the verse is that this ritual is the best of all rituals (vrataanaam uttamam vratam). How is this possible when the superlative degree must be used for only one in a given group? You can say that this student is the best in the class. You cannot say that every student in the class is the best. This is the underlying doubt in your question. The answer for this reasonable doubt is that you must first know that God is the greatest as said in the Veda (Na tat samah) and in the Gita (Mattah parataram...). The common object of all the above rituals and forms of worships is the same greatest unimaginable God existing in different divine forms. From the point of view of the common God who is the greatest, every worship becomes the greatest. Similarly, all religions are like different roads converging to the common center, which is the greatest God. Hence, every religion is the greatest.

We should get rid of all fanatic behavior towards our religion. It causes us to look upon other religions as inferior to our religion. Every religion says that God alone created this earth and humanity on it. If the Gods of different religions were different, there would have been different earths. But unfortunately, there is only one earth. So, we are forced to accept the existence of only one God! The God of the other religion is also the God who created us and the God of our religion is also the God who created them. There is only one God and one created earth! The external names and forms of the same God differ from religion to religion, but the internal God is only one. If you disrespect the form and the name of the God of another religion, you are disrespecting the God of your own religion. Do you respect a person only when he wears a certain dress and disrespect the same person when he wears another dress?

★ ★ ★ ★ ★