1 June 2015 - QA 11

What is your opinion about religion?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Religion has a role to play. Everyone is born into a religion. All the rituals in your life go through that religion. It has a limited role to play. Religion is not everything. You should be more spiritual.

When your movement is from religion into spirituality, that is more important. People who move from religion to spirituality, they bring dignity to their religion. When people move from religion to criminality, they bring disgrace to their religion. Today, this is what is happening around the world.

Today, people are not moving towards spirituality from religion, they are moving towards criminality. They use religion as an excuse to further their own agenda, and that has cost humanity a great deal.
When you move from religion to spirituality, you will find that everyone is yours. Otherwise religion divides people. In fact, within religions also, there are divisions. When you move to spirituality, not only do you unite within the religion, but also across religions.