Various scriptures and spiritual texts point to the same Reality describing it in diverse ways and calling it by different names. Yet, the great spiritual masters insist that it is the same, One and only Reality. The reason for such diversity is the need to express it in a way that the students and devotees of each tradition will be able to grasp it. Moreover, all societies are made up of individuals, who possess different levels of spiritual maturity. This is the cause of such a proliferation of myths, stories, names, practices and expressions of Reality (which in some traditions is named God).
In the same manner that electricity is explained differently to a three year old, a fifteen year old and a college student, so is the need to explain Reality by various means. The scriptures of the world encourage people to pursue religious and spiritual practices in diverse ways, due to their differences and levels.
This is also analogous to extracting the unknown ‘X’ in algebra. In the beginning the ‘X’ is mixed with many other values. It is methodically extracted till it becomes a known quantity (number). This is similar to the various ways of describing Reality. In the same way that ‘X’ is expressed differently throughout the process of solving the algebraic equation, so is the same Reality expressed and understood differently along the path of spiritual evolution. Only at the end of the process X is known and so it is with the spiritual path; the One Essence is realized after mentally eliminating all that is not IT. One can’t expect everyone to possess the same tendencies, skills and ways of understanding, thus a process of a gradual exploration and realization is necessary.
Understood in this light we may stop persecuting the ‘other’ for their interpretation of the scriptures or the various names by which they call Realty. It is not a vastly different and exclusive realty, but rather the same Realty explained in various ways (see the analogy of electricity explained) or expressed in a gradual, sequential way (see the analogy of algebra). The great spiritual masters encourage us to see and know “Unity in diversity” - a Homogenous Reality, seen through its multiple names and forms.