Aano bhadra krtavo yantu vishwatah
आ नो भद्राः क्रतवो यन्तु विश्वतः
āno bhadra krtavo yantu vishwatah
'Aano bhadra krtavo yantu vishwatah' (meaning: Let noble thoughts come to me from all directions).
This is a Vedic mantra ( Rig_Veda 1.89.1) often quote by scholers for projecting Hinduism as a tolerant religion. Hinduism is defenitly a tolerant religion and unlike Muslim kingdom none of the Hindu kingdom imposed jasia or some other form of tax to non-believers in Hinduism.
But this mantra do not say that all religion are equal or admirable, it only advice to test the validity of all knowledge that is available. The famous daita philosopher Madva in his work sarvadharma --- quoted even the view of charvaka and other atheist philosophers.
Hindus believe in Pluralistic society. It invite knowledge from all sides, but are not foolish to admit that all knowledges are same or valid. Some people ask, “Aren’t all religions the same?” No. Every religion is different. So all religions willnot give the same result.
Hindus respect other religions. A Hindu is ready to admit various levels of spiritual truth in other spiritual paths. Different religions take their practitioners to different levels of philosophical understanding, spiritual knowledge, levels of consciousness, and different abilities to perceive spiritual Truth. So a religions can be a right path and different from all others. Swami Chinmayanda once compared Hindu religion with that of a subject like chemistry. It has no single authors or single text. The truth in it is vast and you cannot say that you have studied it completely, for it develop and get modified with every passing days. The most intelegent will do research on it and realize new truth and develop the religion to fit to the new minds. Some religion are like a single man written guide to pass a particular exam, it has no view of the full subject and its potientional, but are enough to pass a perticular exam and irrelevant to all other exams. This narrow-mindedness has created the entire problem in the name of religion. Ancient religions like Hinduism are more tolerant, congenial and respectful toward members of other religions because it accommodates different vews on spirituality.
The mantra, 'Aano bhadra krtavo yantu vishwatah' represent the core of Vedic spirituality that it goes beyond conventional religion, rituals, customs and ceremonies. Serious spirituality is always pathlessland, beyond religion and each sadaka should tread on his/her own path. The ceremonies and rituals connected with Hinduism (and other religions) are designed to cultivate basic foundation for spirituality. At advanced level of spirituality, spiritual aspirant go beyond the rituals and ceremonies. In Swami Vivekananda’s words, “If you want to be religious, enter not the gate of any organised religion. They do a hundred times more evil than good, because they stop the growth of each one's individual development.... Religion is only between you and your God, and no third person must come between you. Think what these organised religions have done! What Nepoleon was more terrible than those religious persecutions? If you and I organise, we begin to hate every person . It is better not to love, if loving only means hating others. That is no love. That is hell! If loving your own people means hating everybody else, it is the quintessence of selfishness and brutality, and the effect is that it will make you brutes”
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