The same applies to that Christian philosophy propounded by the so-called ministers of the present day who preach that salvation can be won only through accepting the faith of Christ and baptism, that all non-believers in Christianity are heathen, and so on. What is all this nonsense which is happening in the sacred name of religion? Shaking the beliefs of other people is, if not a sin, a weakness, indeed, an expression of cowardice. What earthly benefit derives from increasing the number of people who believe in and adhere to a particular faith, and from boasting before the world that one’s religion has so many thousands or even lakhs of followers? Is the merit of a religion to be measured by counting the number of its believers and followers? If you give to the teeming millions of India who are poor, needy, destitute, and illiterate some little inducement in the form of good food and clothing and money, at once they will agree to accept and embrace any creed. And they will immediately abandon that creed and accept another if someone else offers them some superior inducement. What’s so great in that? Nothing at all! Therefore I say:
Win control of your mind, lead a pure, clean, and virtuous life,
purge low desires, and follow One who has realized God—and
you are saved. “Following” in this sense does not mean giving up
your own creed or religion. What has to be given up is your own mind!
Failing to adopt such broad, liberal views of religion, most people—particularly the orthodox section of all religions—look from a narrow angle of vision, blow their own trumpets, and proclaim, “Our religion is the best; it is the only source and means for seeing and realizing God.” They condemn other religions, sometimes shuddering at the mere mention of the greatness that any other religion might possess.’
– “Meher Baba’s Tiffin lectures”, p88
26-June-1926; Meherabad