He will love Buddha, but he will not follow him; he will not follow him in the details. How can you follow a Buddha in the details? He is a totally different kind of person. You have never been before, nobody like you has ever been before, and nobody will ever be there who is exactly like you . Hence your religion has to be your religion, your truth has to be your truth.
And that is the beauty of truth, that it always comes in such a unique form that you can say, “This is a special gift from existence to me.” Hence there are so many religions. And it is beautiful! – there should be many more. Many people have been trying to make one religion; that is utter stupidity. You cannot create one religion. You can enforce one religion on people, but that will destroy their spirit, their freedom; that will cripple their being and paralyze their growth.
Just as there are so many languages, there are so many religions. The variety is beautiful, the variety makes it possible for you to choose according to your type. Religion is not and cannot be decided by birth, and those who decide their religion by their birth are utter fools. You cannot be born a Hindu and you cannot be born a Christian; birth has nothing to do with your religion. Religion is an inquiry. You may be born to Hindu parents – that is one thing – but if your parents really love you they will not convert you into a Hindu. Of course they will tell you all they have known and experienced, but they will leave you free. And they will tell you, “Become more alert, watchful, mature, and when you are mature enough and you want to decide, choose your own religion.”
Go to the mosque, go to the church, go to the temple, go to the gurudwara. Listen to all kinds of things, see all kinds of flowers: the garden of existence is so full of variety, is so rich because of variety. There are roses and lotuses and a thousand and one other flowers. Go and choose your own perfume, your own fragrance, because unless you yourself choose you will not be dedicated to it, you will not be surrendered to it.
The world is not religious because religion is imposed upon us. The parents are in a hurry to impose; the church, the state, the country – everybody is in a hurry to impose a certain religion on the child. How foolish! How stupid! Religion needs maturity, great understanding, before one can choose.
Nobody is born a Hindu or a Mohammedan or a Parsi. Everybody is born clean, innocent, a tabula rasa, and then everyone has to seek and search. This is the beauty of life because life is an inquiry. And don’t be settled too early; there is no need. It is possible that no existing religion may satisfy you. But that is good; that means a new religion is born in you. The world becomes richer: one more religion, one more flower, one more tree – a new phenomenon.