The Myth of Truth in Love & Religion

The major preoccupation of Western literature & cinema is romantic love often touted as the only meaning of the word love. Frequently it is designated as the "true love" when one has presumably found the object of one's affections. Whether it is "true" can be examined further.

Richard Bach, philosopher-author of "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" married 4 times including the longest lasting one of 22 years with Leslie Parrish whom he designated as "soulmate" & celebrated his "true" love for her in "A Bridge Across Forever". He was earlier also married. After 22 years with Leslie, his "soulmate", he divorced her & married 2 more times. One may wonder what happened to his soul, whether it was split into pieces like the Horcruxes in the Harry Potter stories.

Even among human love, which is arguably neither true nor lasting, including the much touted maternal love, romantic love may be less strong than filial or sibling love in many cases. Even in Western literature, this is occasionally depicted.

Divine love is the highest form of love, declare all the religions of the world. From the Upanishads to the New Testament & the Quran, it is reiterated. This is also reminded by Saints & mystics of all religions. 

Now about religions, each of the Abrahamic religions, which comprise the highest number of adherents, claim themselves as the only "true" religion, implying that the others are false. This highly arguably tenet, was first publicly repudiated by Swami Vivekananda, who in spite of being a Hindu monk, famously said that all religions are true. Depending on the varying needs of the people, living in  different places at different times, different religions arose to satisfy those needs. Instead of celebrating the essential unity of the human race despite their diverse religions, claiming their own as the "true" religion & themselves as the "Chosen People", is both irrational & dangerously divisive.