I am sorry I could not respond to you before. Life has been very busy lately.

I will try to answer your questions in brief. But first let me congratulate you on the sicerity of your interest in the subject of religion.

I was born a Hindu but right from childhood I was taught that Krishna, Jesus, and Buddha were all Gods and that there was no difference between them. Hindus believe that as long as somebody believes in God and lives his or her life accordingly, it does not matter what or who that God his. In other words Hinduism allows complete freedom to an individual to conceptualize their own image of God. That also explains why there are so many Gods and Goddeses in Hinduism. Hinduism has never attempted to convert people of other religions to Hinduism because there is no need to do that.

No - I think that either all God are inventions or all are real. No one religion has the monopoly on authenticity or reality. No one should feel the need to convert to any other religion.

And personally - I will share with you what I think about religion. True religion is the one that takes birth in us, not the one in which we are born.

In other words - when a person goes deep inside and develops a direct relationship with God based on his or her own experience of the world - then that faith is the true religion for him. It does not matter which religion we are born in to.

I hope I have clarified some things for you, my friend.

Keep inquiring...

Pankaj