Q: What is your opinion of those who preach the gospel of eclecticism?
There are those who because of their past life involvement with various religions need to pick up the threads of those religions and follow them to some extent.
One of my teachers at California State University, Los Angeles, had grown up in Hawaii attending a church that honored four major religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism. The pulpit in the church had four panels depicting the founders/symbols of those religions, and the Sunday sermons were based on each of these religions in turn: one per Sunday. She knew a great deal about those religions and considered herself an adherent of them all.
Certainly there are those that just make a kind of mishmash of bits and pieces from religions, but that, too, is their prerogative.
Informed and respectful
One of the things I admire most about the swamis of the Ramakrishna Mission in the West (Vedanta Society) is their very real knowledge of all the major world religions and their genuine respect for all. Of course that just points out that fact that Sanatana Dharma is the only religion in the world that enables its adherents to comprehend all other religions.
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