Where a candidate stands on the following issues, and not the faith background of the candidate, should be high on the agenda of the voter while going to presidential polls in 2008: fiscal policy, foreign policy, economy, health care, immigration, employment, civil liberties/rights, international trade, world peace, social security, etc. Religion, although the most powerful and pervasive force, is very personal. Political blueprints should not be based on a decree from heaven.

Life does not end at death. It is just completion of an important particularity. Life rolls on till it merges in the Absolute. Life drifts on to achieve its triumph of the universal.

Self is reborn many times before it advances to moksha (liberation). Atman (self) is Brahman (the supreme being). Soul goes through many semblances.

Physical death is not final. Bhagavad-Gita compares death with the changing of worn-out clothing.

The major quest for us is to break the cycle of rebirth and attain a state of supreme freedom or liberation (moksha), which is a timeless state.

Religions may start as sublime in their beginnings and their core doctrines, but slowly they mature into something which lacks perfection.

In addition to “love, compassion and forgiveness” of Dalai Lama, there are some more things in common in religions: misapplying holy scriptures through selective study and decoding, seeing ourselves as God’s charge d’affaires, claiming to be the lone owner of the truth and all the roads to salvation, positioning the ideal portrayal of one’s own religion with the apparently defective truth of other religions, etc.

As other human run establishments, all religions are equally vulnerable to pollution and exploitation.

Physical truth and spiritual truth are inseparable. Religion and science are connected.

In Hinduism, science and religion go hand in hand. The relationship between Hinduism and science goes back to the Indus Valley civilization, as old as 2500 BCE. Vedic science appears to have included components of astronomy, biology, mathematics, chemistry, medicine, metallurgy, etc. The notion of atomic/molecular world was integrated into Vaiseshika school (between around 250 BCE to 100 CE) of Hindu philosophy. Yoga included some remarkable methods of breath/respiration control. Ancient sages were said to be acquainted with radar, microbiology, radioactivity, television, etc. Epic heroes of Hinduism flew first aircrafts. In Hinduism, there is theory of Seven Worlds, Doctrine of the Ages of the World, religious categories of Space in Veda, reference to quantum mechanics in scriptures, as well as mysteries of Vedic/Puranic aeronautics and Tantrik biochemistry, etc.

Because of ingrained respect for all forms of life and universe being a divine creation, Hinduism supports environmental protection. Nature is sacred and the divine is manifested through all its forms.

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