Swami Prakashanand Saraswati, a revered spiritual master, has dedicated his life to guiding seekers toward divine love and absolute truth. His profound teachings emphasize that the essence of every spiritual path lies in bhakti—loving devotion to a personal form of God. In this discourse, he reveals how even forms of diversity can follow the principles of Sanatan Dharm and remain united and alive on the path to God Realization.
According to Swami Prakashanand Saraswati..
We have only one thing, dharm, that joins a soul to God. Dharm means the procedure of devotion, meditation and worship that joins you with God. That is term which was introduced in this seminar.
The topic for me today is “Unity in Diversity.” It is the same thing as Sanatan Dharm. Among all the diversities there is some unity, some unifying factor. It’s always one. And that one is Sanatan Dharm. If there is no Sanatan Dharm, there is no unity. If there is Sanatan Dharm, there is unity. You see in a tree, there is a trunk and branches. There are thousands of branches. When they are attached to the trunk, they are alive. When they are cut off from the trunk, they are dead. So any kind of diversity, if it is related to Sanatan Dharm and follows the line of Sanatan Dharm, then that lives.
Sanatan Dharm is the eternal religion. God is eternal. And what is God? A simple definition of God is, He is absolute love and absolute bliss. Then for absolute love and absolute bliss who is God, the factor that unites is called dharm. It is sanatan.
God is eternal, so dharm is eternal. What unites a soul with God? Faith, shraddha, dedication. You see, you love someone, you are united. You dislike someone, you are separate. So loving God is the uniting factor.
One of our main Divine personalities, Bhagwan Ved Vyas, revealed all the scriptures, all the Vedas, all the Puranas, Gita, Bhagwatam, Upnishads… He says the gist of all knowledge is साविद्यातन्मतिर्ययाsa vidya – that is the knowledge that unites you with supreme form of God. There are two things: vidya – knowledge that which unites you with God, and avidya – that which distracts you from personal God.
Take for example Shankaracharya; he revealed the truth of the scriptures. He revealed both vedant and bhakti; vedant in his bhashya of Brahm Sutra and bhakti in his Prabodh Sudhakar, his last work. He says that the one who wants to follow the path of gyan may not be found in the world. But if someone wants, this is the qualification for who can follow that path. It is described in the first verse of Brahm Sutra, अथातोब्रह्मजिज्ञासा, and he tells in about ten to twelve pages of description that,साधनचतुष्टयसम्पन्न, which means that the one who has renounced the world completely – physically and mentally, has no attachment or animosity anywhere in the world. Such a person who is engrossed in thinking of God 24 hours a day, he is qualified to follow the path of gyan. Imagine, who is that person. Maybe a few in the world nowadays. Then what a soul should do?
He said it is simple for us, do what I am doing…
भगवतितवतीरनीरमात्राशनोहम्।
विगतविषयतृष्णःकृष्णमाराध्यामि॥
कृष्णपदांबोजभक्तिमृते.
He said, “I am worshipping Krishn near Bhagavati Gange and O, souls…” he makes a rule, शुद्धर्यातहीनान्तरात्माकृष्णपदांभोजभक्तिमृते, “…without worship of Krishn your heart cannot be purified.” So he introduced bhakti for all the souls of the world.
Shankaracharya, Nimbarkacharya, Madhvacharya, Ramanujacharya, Vallabhacharya, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, all the supreme descensions of great Masters in the world in the last 5,000 years, they all taught to love God, bhakti. They all taught Sanatan Dharm.
Those who say that dharm has so many variations, many paths to God-that’s totally wrong. God is one. Your dharm is one, to find absolute love, and the path is only one, not even two. There are many ways of doing that, many ways. Through karm, through yog, through gyan, many ways. But the path that joins a soul to God is only one – that’s absolute bhakti, nothing else.
Conclusion:
Swami Prakashanand Saraswati beautifully reminds us that all true spiritual traditions culminate in devotion to God. When diversity is rooted in Sanatan Dharm, it becomes a living expression of unity. Bhakti alone connects the soul to divine bliss; this is a teaching that echoes the wisdom of all great saints throughout time.