Use Google Maps? or Paper Maps? Ask Somebody? or Go Alone?
(Understanding Different Religions)
Let's say you want to get to a remote, less-travelled destination, you can do any of the following:
1) Try like Columbus
2) Ask people you meet, on the way, who may or may not be familiar with the destination
3) Ask a person(s) who are familiar with the destination to guide you throughout the journey
4) Use Paper Map or Triptiks* provided by centers like AAA
5) Use Google Maps Navigation System
Except for #1, you must have belief in other methods until you reach destination... In #5, as a special case, you can verify the results as you progress along the path, so the provisional belief can be transformed into faith (i.e., belief is verified by experience) as you travel.
What is this to do with understanding religion?! Ok, Let me explain...
Fasten your seat-belt please! :-)
Religion's purpose is to help guide an individual towards God. Let's use the above analogy to understand each one of the religious approaches, in the order of ease to difficulty.
#2 - Current Approach of Those Grow up in Secular Environment - Ask people who you encounter
In this approach, the people you ask on the way may either be ignorant of the destination or may misdirect you, for whatever reasons, ranging from inattention to criminal intentions. So, this approach #2 is fraught with uncertainty! There are more chances for error and your effort will be futile especially if the destination is less-traveled. Although the damage is caused to the individual's journey, its impact to others is relatively small.
In the postcolonial era, many governments throughout the world and people, in general, have distanced themselves from religion as it was perceived as the cause for many social evils and, in addition, the scientific advancements and materialistic success in multiple fronts made people not to bother much about the religion in their daily lives and it has been largely reduced to an optional, occasional affair for the purposes of social gatherings and conveniences.
India is somewhat in peculiar position. Being deep-rooted in Hindu religion which cannot be easily separated from daily lives, the majority who grew up in a secular environment is somewhat at crossroads. Although many people in Hindu religious culture observe festivities and occasional visits to the temple, there is no specific religious discipline are followed by the majority who are consumed by daily-life struggles of making their ends meet. Due to lack of familiarity with scriptures and misunderstood "caste" (division-of-labor) systems, there are abundance of superstitions and dogmas, in the name of religion but with remote relevance to the intended purpose. Quacks, in the name of religion, do easily cheat commoners in order to make quick money, popularity, illegal activities, etc.
A notable widespread evil of untouchability, which is attributed to Hindu religion, was at the peak in 18th and 19th centuries. This uprise was mainly caused by different sects, local-bodies, or groups of people, in certain areas, that typically take on the characteristics of the Organized religion (#4), but the evil has been largely contained in 20th century by the efforts of various spiritual leaders and social reformers.
Around the world, many are on the borderline of sliding into becoming irreligious, some lose interest in religion altogether with the bewilderment of differences in them, or intentionally becoming atheistic, given negative press the religions receive these days. Some, especially the under-privileged due to financially or socially or both, are targeted for proselytization by other Organized Religions.
#3 - Master-Disciple Schooling - Seek the Qualified Guide's Help
While approach #3 is highly reliable for success, it requires a proper guide who must be skilled and able, and importantly, the commitment to guide the traveller throughout the journey.
In the fast-moving world, the availability of such qualified Gurus and the Disciples are becoming increasingly meager. Various sects of Hindu religion and originated from the ancient and medieval times, which followed Guru-Sishya lineage living in hermitage-like environs, are dwindling due to lack of support, from the secular post-colonial era governments. A similar situation prevails in the age-old Master-Disciple traditions of Taoism and Zen Buddhism.
Few schools and monasteries of Vedanta, in India, and Buddhism, in Himalayan region, are able to withstand and survive against the onslaught of materialism. Albeit very limited, still a lucky few get chosen by these religious pontiffs and get trained in this traditional approach, for the primary purpose of maintaining the lineage unbroken.
#4 - Organized Religions - Use the Map Provided by Authorized Centers
The approach #4 is fairly reliable for frequently visited destinations, however, occasionally the routes in the Paper maps might have become incorrect due to change in circumstances or natural calamities. In these exception cases, the authorized representatives at the local centers, typically being unfamiliar with the destination or the changed circumstances, they ignorantly but "authoritatively" instruct the traveller to follow the map that is not correct any more. Also, the same error is pretty much applied at every center for that destination that leads to mass disillusionment, until some investigative corrective process is undertaken, which is less likely to happen for remote destinations. Another aspect is that in order to maintain the centers, the membership support is essential. Aggressive, competitive marketing practices to expand and to keep the loyal customer base secure is not uncommon, at the expense of compromised quality of the maps which should be the primary purpose of these centers.
The church-governed Christianity, clerics-controlled Islam, state-managed Judaism, and many other "fundamentalist" organizations of other religions fall under this category. Although these help form a community that provides a support network for the like-minded people, grave theological errors continue to be strictly enforced, even if they defy common-sense, under their centralized authority throughout their religious base. Inter-religious enmity on establishing supremacy over the other is quite rampant between the groups under this category and violence erupts often among them. Spanish Inquisitions, Crusades, Holy-wars, Jihads, Fatwaas, Sectarian rivalry such as Sunni-Shia muslims, etc. are the ironic examples of such massive acts of violence under the name of religion, all of which invariably teaches peace to the mankind! In addition, to expand their footprint, these Organized religious groups use all kinds of means, including unethical means, to induce or force religious conversion of people from other groups, especially those who are gullible in category #2.
#4S - Special-Interest Groups under the Religion - Use of Specialized Maps like Triptik*
The groups below form a special subcategory under this heading:
- Devotion-based (e.g., Christian Monasteries, Hare Krishna - ISKCON, Swami Narayan Group - BAPS)
- Service-based (e.g., Schools, Hospitals, Shelter-homes, under the religious banner that provide free service or at subsidized rate)
- Intellectual study-based (e.g., Christian Theology Study-groups, Vedanta self-study groups, Comparative religion study)
- Health/Life-force based (e.g., Hatha-Yoga groups, Qi-gong, Pranic-Chakra Healing methods)
- Traditional Art forms (e.g., Sufi Qawwali Music, Japanese Martial Arts, Indian Classical Dance/Music)
Although these groups provide immense help to the society but the practitioners typically fall short of gaining spiritual realization which is the true purpose of religion. The inter-group rivalry, in this special category, is certainly neither violent nor gross but does exist at a subtle level as that distinction gives them their unique identity.
However, it does happen time to time that sincerely devoted individuals in these groups gain further spiritual advancement that will not only help them but also propel the associates in their local chapter. But this benefit is normally localized and does not spread throughout the larger parent body which typically adhere to their distinct ideologies. In this respect, the progressive behavior of the local chapter is akin to the local centers in #5 category.
#5 - Spiritual Traditions with Meditative Techniques - Use the Google Maps-type Navigation System
In this approach, the traveller requires a reasonable level of skills to self-navigate with the aid of software-controlled devices. Also, there must be network service available to know the current location and verify the progress made throughout the journey.
From ancient times, in almost every major religion, there have been groups of people which are small in number but advanced in mysticism. Himalayan Yogis, Siddhars of South India, Tibetian Buddhist Monks, Christian Gnostics, Sufi Muslims, Jewish Kabbalah, and the likes are in this category. They devote their lives mostly in seclusion in deep meditation using advanced techniques to directly experience the presence of God. These practices, until the beginning of 20th century, were not available beyond select individuals which required extreme measures of preparation and capacity.
With the advancement in science and technology and, in general, with human mind, in the 20th century, few notable mystics primarily from Hindu and Buddhist traditions have simplified the techniques and structured this approach in such a way that they are suitable for the general public with a reasonable sincerity and maturity. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa/Swami Vivekananda's Ramakrishna Mission, Sri Paramahansa Yogananada's SRF/YSS & Ananda Sangha, Sri Swami Sivananda Yoga Centers, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Vipassana Meditation, Sahaj Marg (SRCM), Transcendental Meditation of Maharish Mahesh Yogi, and few more of the recent origin form this category. These modern groups typically offer detailed and integral self-study guides coupled with procedures for a regular, personal meditation practice. They also have centers throughout the world to provide an optional local guidance to the practitioners (like Wi-Fi Hotspots in our analogy!).
An important aspect about these groups is that these groups are inclusive of entire human race and believe in inter-religious harmony and do not force or induce to change one's religious affiliation and rather focus on their spiritual substratum, which is the same across different religions. This reduces the chances for alienation from one's family and friends greatly, which are commonly seen in proselytisation. For a nominal level of lifestyle adjustments by following these teachings with meditation practice, one gets in return the harmonious development of the physical, mental, and spiritual health together, which enhances the quality of life tremendously!
#1 - Try like Columbus - Go on Alone
Although extremely difficult and has a very slim chance for success, this avenue is also available for the adventurous rare few. There is a great risk in this approach, as it happened in Columbus' case, that one may end up in an incorrect destination. Some may even "celebrate" with where they ended up and make others believe in it!
In spiritual path, there are numerous chances to be sidetracked even at the height of getting closer to the goal. Many saints have warned the aspirants about not getting side-tracked by super-natural powers (Siddhis) that may ensue on the spiritual path. There are cases where these "side-tracked" leaders commit heinous crimes by misleading their innocently believing followers and essentially destroying their spiritual lives.
There are successful ones too: Sri Ramana Maharishi, J. Krishnamurthi (JK), and Osho Rajneesh are the recent examples in this category who became successful in their mastery, on their own, without any known prior tradition. All of them do have the followers worldwide and they follow practices laid them according to their leaders' teachings that are very similar to the category #5. Despite JK's insistence of not having any particular tradition or path, his followers take his teachings itself as their guide!
- PHD
#ARIAN Q&A 6
*** Participate at "Atma Rashtra" FB group for a broader, deeper discussion ***
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1387605774879544/
(Understanding Different Religions)
Let's say you want to get to a remote, less-travelled destination, you can do any of the following:
1) Try like Columbus
2) Ask people you meet, on the way, who may or may not be familiar with the destination
3) Ask a person(s) who are familiar with the destination to guide you throughout the journey
4) Use Paper Map or Triptiks* provided by centers like AAA
5) Use Google Maps Navigation System
Except for #1, you must have belief in other methods until you reach destination... In #5, as a special case, you can verify the results as you progress along the path, so the provisional belief can be transformed into faith (i.e., belief is verified by experience) as you travel.
What is this to do with understanding religion?! Ok, Let me explain...
Fasten your seat-belt please! :-)
Religion's purpose is to help guide an individual towards God. Let's use the above analogy to understand each one of the religious approaches, in the order of ease to difficulty.
#2 - Current Approach of Those Grow up in Secular Environment - Ask people who you encounter
In this approach, the people you ask on the way may either be ignorant of the destination or may misdirect you, for whatever reasons, ranging from inattention to criminal intentions. So, this approach #2 is fraught with uncertainty! There are more chances for error and your effort will be futile especially if the destination is less-traveled. Although the damage is caused to the individual's journey, its impact to others is relatively small.
In the postcolonial era, many governments throughout the world and people, in general, have distanced themselves from religion as it was perceived as the cause for many social evils and, in addition, the scientific advancements and materialistic success in multiple fronts made people not to bother much about the religion in their daily lives and it has been largely reduced to an optional, occasional affair for the purposes of social gatherings and conveniences.
India is somewhat in peculiar position. Being deep-rooted in Hindu religion which cannot be easily separated from daily lives, the majority who grew up in a secular environment is somewhat at crossroads. Although many people in Hindu religious culture observe festivities and occasional visits to the temple, there is no specific religious discipline are followed by the majority who are consumed by daily-life struggles of making their ends meet. Due to lack of familiarity with scriptures and misunderstood "caste" (division-of-labor) systems, there are abundance of superstitions and dogmas, in the name of religion but with remote relevance to the intended purpose. Quacks, in the name of religion, do easily cheat commoners in order to make quick money, popularity, illegal activities, etc.
A notable widespread evil of untouchability, which is attributed to Hindu religion, was at the peak in 18th and 19th centuries. This uprise was mainly caused by different sects, local-bodies, or groups of people, in certain areas, that typically take on the characteristics of the Organized religion (#4), but the evil has been largely contained in 20th century by the efforts of various spiritual leaders and social reformers.
#3 - Master-Disciple Schooling - Seek the Qualified Guide's Help
While approach #3 is highly reliable for success, it requires a proper guide who must be skilled and able, and importantly, the commitment to guide the traveller throughout the journey.
In the fast-moving world, the availability of such qualified Gurus and the Disciples are becoming increasingly meager. Various sects of Hindu religion and originated from the ancient and medieval times, which followed Guru-Sishya lineage living in hermitage-like environs, are dwindling due to lack of support, from the secular post-colonial era governments. A similar situation prevails in the age-old Master-Disciple traditions of Taoism and Zen Buddhism.
Few schools and monasteries of Vedanta, in India, and Buddhism, in Himalayan region, are able to withstand and survive against the onslaught of materialism. Albeit very limited, still a lucky few get chosen by these religious pontiffs and get trained in this traditional approach, for the primary purpose of maintaining the lineage unbroken.
#4 - Organized Religions - Use the Map Provided by Authorized Centers
The approach #4 is fairly reliable for frequently visited destinations, however, occasionally the routes in the Paper maps might have become incorrect due to change in circumstances or natural calamities. In these exception cases, the authorized representatives at the local centers, typically being unfamiliar with the destination or the changed circumstances, they ignorantly but "authoritatively" instruct the traveller to follow the map that is not correct any more. Also, the same error is pretty much applied at every center for that destination that leads to mass disillusionment, until some investigative corrective process is undertaken, which is less likely to happen for remote destinations. Another aspect is that in order to maintain the centers, the membership support is essential. Aggressive, competitive marketing practices to expand and to keep the loyal customer base secure is not uncommon, at the expense of compromised quality of the maps which should be the primary purpose of these centers.
The church-governed Christianity, clerics-controlled Islam, state-managed Judaism, and many other "fundamentalist" organizations of other religions fall under this category. Although these help form a community that provides a support network for the like-minded people, grave theological errors continue to be strictly enforced, even if they defy common-sense, under their centralized authority throughout their religious base. Inter-religious enmity on establishing supremacy over the other is quite rampant between the groups under this category and violence erupts often among them. Spanish Inquisitions, Crusades, Holy-wars, Jihads, Fatwaas, Sectarian rivalry such as Sunni-Shia muslims, etc. are the ironic examples of such massive acts of violence under the name of religion, all of which invariably teaches peace to the mankind! In addition, to expand their footprint, these Organized religious groups use all kinds of means, including unethical means, to induce or force religious conversion of people from other groups, especially those who are gullible in category #2.
#4S - Special-Interest Groups under the Religion - Use of Specialized Maps like Triptik*
The groups below form a special subcategory under this heading:
- Devotion-based (e.g., Christian Monasteries, Hare Krishna - ISKCON, Swami Narayan Group - BAPS)
- Service-based (e.g., Schools, Hospitals, Shelter-homes, under the religious banner that provide free service or at subsidized rate)
- Intellectual study-based (e.g., Christian Theology Study-groups, Vedanta self-study groups, Comparative religion study)
- Health/Life-force based (e.g., Hatha-Yoga groups, Qi-gong, Pranic-Chakra Healing methods)
- Traditional Art forms (e.g., Sufi Qawwali Music, Japanese Martial Arts, Indian Classical Dance/Music)
Although these groups provide immense help to the society but the practitioners typically fall short of gaining spiritual realization which is the true purpose of religion. The inter-group rivalry, in this special category, is certainly neither violent nor gross but does exist at a subtle level as that distinction gives them their unique identity.
However, it does happen time to time that sincerely devoted individuals in these groups gain further spiritual advancement that will not only help them but also propel the associates in their local chapter. But this benefit is normally localized and does not spread throughout the larger parent body which typically adhere to their distinct ideologies. In this respect, the progressive behavior of the local chapter is akin to the local centers in #5 category.
#5 - Spiritual Traditions with Meditative Techniques - Use the Google Maps-type Navigation System
In this approach, the traveller requires a reasonable level of skills to self-navigate with the aid of software-controlled devices. Also, there must be network service available to know the current location and verify the progress made throughout the journey.
From ancient times, in almost every major religion, there have been groups of people which are small in number but advanced in mysticism. Himalayan Yogis, Siddhars of South India, Tibetian Buddhist Monks, Christian Gnostics, Sufi Muslims, Jewish Kabbalah, and the likes are in this category. They devote their lives mostly in seclusion in deep meditation using advanced techniques to directly experience the presence of God. These practices, until the beginning of 20th century, were not available beyond select individuals which required extreme measures of preparation and capacity.
With the advancement in science and technology and, in general, with human mind, in the 20th century, few notable mystics primarily from Hindu and Buddhist traditions have simplified the techniques and structured this approach in such a way that they are suitable for the general public with a reasonable sincerity and maturity. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa/Swami Vivekananda's Ramakrishna Mission, Sri Paramahansa Yogananada's SRF/YSS & Ananda Sangha, Sri Swami Sivananda Yoga Centers, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Vipassana Meditation, Sahaj Marg (SRCM), Transcendental Meditation of Maharish Mahesh Yogi, and few more of the recent origin form this category. These modern groups typically offer detailed and integral self-study guides coupled with procedures for a regular, personal meditation practice. They also have centers throughout the world to provide an optional local guidance to the practitioners (like Wi-Fi Hotspots in our analogy!).
An important aspect about these groups is that these groups are inclusive of entire human race and believe in inter-religious harmony and do not force or induce to change one's religious affiliation and rather focus on their spiritual substratum, which is the same across different religions. This reduces the chances for alienation from one's family and friends greatly, which are commonly seen in proselytisation. For a nominal level of lifestyle adjustments by following these teachings with meditation practice, one gets in return the harmonious development of the physical, mental, and spiritual health together, which enhances the quality of life tremendously!
#1 - Try like Columbus - Go on Alone
Although extremely difficult and has a very slim chance for success, this avenue is also available for the adventurous rare few. There is a great risk in this approach, as it happened in Columbus' case, that one may end up in an incorrect destination. Some may even "celebrate" with where they ended up and make others believe in it!
In spiritual path, there are numerous chances to be sidetracked even at the height of getting closer to the goal. Many saints have warned the aspirants about not getting side-tracked by super-natural powers (Siddhis) that may ensue on the spiritual path. There are cases where these "side-tracked" leaders commit heinous crimes by misleading their innocently believing followers and essentially destroying their spiritual lives.
There are successful ones too: Sri Ramana Maharishi, J. Krishnamurthi (JK), and Osho Rajneesh are the recent examples in this category who became successful in their mastery, on their own, without any known prior tradition. All of them do have the followers worldwide and they follow practices laid them according to their leaders' teachings that are very similar to the category #5. Despite JK's insistence of not having any particular tradition or path, his followers take his teachings itself as their guide!
- PHD
#ARIAN Q&A 6
*** Participate at "Atma Rashtra" FB group for a broader, deeper discussion ***
*** Any peace-loving individual is welcome to join ***
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