If you travel around the world you will note that in different sections of the world religious observances are different. If you go to the Indian subcontinent in Asia you’ll notice that Hinduism is the majority religion, and it has a particular way to it, it has a particular look to it, it has a particular aspect to it, it has particular forms of devotion. And there are many Hindu temples throughout India, and they have a certain look to them. Also in that part of the world there is Buddhism and if you go to Buddhist temples they also have a particular look to them.
One of the things I found interesting when I was in that part of the world is that the Buddhist temples are sort of plain on the outside, and the Hindu temples have a very decorated outside; there’s almost like a mound of gods built on the top of the Hindu temple. But if you go inside the Buddhist temple, the similar decorations that you see on the outside of the Hindu temples you’ll find on the inside of the Buddhist temples.
If you go to the Middle East and you look at the religious structures in the Middle East, which are mostly Mosques, you will find that they are devoid of the kind of decorations that are found in India. You don’t have pictures of people, you don’t have images; you have almost entirely calligraphy as opposed to the images. They don’t believe that you should make images of things.
If you go to Europe and the Christian world, you’ll find the Catholic Church, which has statues and paintings, and then you’ll go to the Protestant churches which are devoid of that kind of implementation, they don’t have the statues and they don’t have the paintings; they’re much plainer.
Until you get to people like the Quakers, or the Amish, who are very plain; they are totally devoid of ornamentation. And so it goes around the world. Some people believe in the ornamentation, some people believe you shouldn’t have ornamentation, some people forbid ornamentation, and of course everybody fights about it, and what is the correct way of how to do it.
Then if you look at the religious rituals in each of these places, you’ll find that the rituals are quite different, and very intense. There is a large body of information that one needs to learn in order to be able to perform the rituals in an appropriate way, and for some people, ritual is the heart of religion. To them ritual is the religion, and they become very orthodox in their performance of ritual. They also become very orthodox in the way they dress, and they also assume a very distinct personal behavior. They are bound by rules.
So you have the world of orthodox religion, orthodox observance, and orthodox ritual which exists all over the world in different religions. And you will find, almost entirely, in the different religions, that they all also preach that their form of observance is the form of observance that will save your soul. Their form of observance is the form of observance that will carry you to heaven. Their form of observance is the observance that will lead you to be rewarded in the future, and without that form of observance you’re lost as a soul, you’re lost as a being, you’re lost as an individual, and there is no salvation for you.
But then, within all of these religions…
