Ideally, the true purpose of any religion should be to facilitate a direct connection with the "Divine," and to support spiritual awakening. Unfortunately, few, if any religions, fulfill this purpose. If they did, many more of us would be awake by now, or at least intimately connected to the Source of who we really are. Even with the prevalence of "new age" spiritual practices today, few of us have attained full spiritual awakening and direct Divine connection.