HARMONY OF RELIGIONS Your catholicity of writing, dear Bhaskar, is redolent of the universality of the message of the sages of yore who had discovered these truths in their Himalayan caves, in their forest retreats and on the banks of the great Indian rivers, the Ganga, the Sindhu and the Saraswati. Ekam sad vipra vahudha vadanti (Truth is One but sages have given utterance to it variously) was the clarion call of the Vedas. Yo ekovarno vahudha shakti yogat (That is of a single colour but has assumed multiplicity through the enjoining of the Primordial Power) is another great aphorism that has rolled down the ages with the waters of the Ganga and has permeated the psyche of the Indian people. These and countless other aphorisms are literally littered across the holy books of the Hindus and have impregnated the very being of the Hindu people and rendered the religion of this ancient land Bharatvarsha sublimely synthetic with its spirit tending to the oneness of all existence amidst the rich natural diversity of this phenomenal universe. This is the music of India, the marvellous melody of moods, the sublime symphony of the soul. The Sanatan Dharma (The Eternal Religion/The Perennial Philosophy) is the vast body of spiritual laws that governs phenomena. Natural Law holds the physical universe together. In a like manner Spiritual Law holds the spiritual universe together and the Veda is the aggregate or the universal set of such spiritual laws. The Veda is not a book but the cumulative body of spiritual vibrations which associate and dissociate in varying patterns to give rise to phenomena, sustain phenomena and eventually dissolve phenomena into its potential state whence a fresh cycle of cosmic manifestation begins. And thus, the eternal play of forces goes on in manifesting space-time through cosmic cycle after cycle, beginningless, endless manifestation in alternating mode, perennial oscillation of the cosmos within limits. This is Vedic cosmology, completely in tune with the findings of modern astrophysics. And this is the vast basis of the Sanatan Dharma (Hinduism) so far as its explanation of cosmic phenomena goes. Thus, the religion of the Hindus, profoundly spiritual as it is, nonetheless has a strong rational basis and is founded on the realizations of thousands of sages down the ages and not some special messenger of God whose articulations are thrust down on all to be accepted as Gospel Truth without scientific scrutiny or rational enquiry. It is heresy to challenge the message of such messiahs of men for theirs is the inviolable truth of God after all and a pious submission to it is all that goes by in the name of truth-seeking which may never be in contra-disposition to the so-called revealed truth and should it be perchance so, then, which ought to be discarded into the cosmic bin whence it had arisen as so much material garbage while the original or final revealed truth ought to be worshipped in the sanctum sanctorum of the human heart. It is outright degrading for humanity to continue to subject itself to such baneful irrationality and to the will of an archaic personality or principle that has outlived its time. Time it is to live like 21st century people with a clear head and a compassionate heart with a rational truth-seeking mind guiding us on to higher human aspirations where a vision uncluttered by superstition and dogma is the guardian angel and not arbitrary assumptions of apostles of God and their scriptural injunctions, unverified, unalterable, inviolable, archaic and flawed conception of truth relative and absolute. And to supplant this age-old tyranny of a vast unreason that has cast a hypnotic spell over the masses and is the primary force of fanaticism that has spelled the doom of civilization, a vaster network of liberal scientific education for children must be established so that future generations may be spared the inheritance of superstition masquerading as truth and may stand in the clear sunshine of truth, reasoned, experimented and verified through instruments external and the inner eye of introspection, intuition and inspiration, never exclusive or peculiar to a particular person but common to all humanity and well-founded on reason though transcending it where relativity breaks down and thoughts and words may not reach (Avaangmanasogocharam/Yato vacho nivartantey aprapya manasa saha). If this world has to rise, it will have to adopt scientific principles as its guiding light, liberalism of thought as its creed if there be one and investigative rationalism as the method of enquiry into truth, be they secular or spiritual. But mere external observation of phenomena, arrangement of data and arrival at scientific principles will not suffice for knowing the subtle truths of the spiritual world. Meditation, introspection, purity and charity must all go hand in hand as well for spiritual knowledge comes from the study of the mind by the mind and the culture of the heart comes from practising charity, the humble service of humanity and the world around. And all this must be founded on a spontaneous chastity of living, ever free and never forced by doctrine or dogma for purity is the basis of concentration of the mind which must focus itself on itself to reveal the truths embedded deep inside its recesses culminating in the discovery of the supreme Self of man which is his trans-organic reality irrespective of his religious affiliation or any ideological associations whatsoever. But the entire process of spiritual investigation must follow strict scientific rigour adjusted to the demands of subjective enquiry to avoid the age-old pitfalls of superstition, assertions of ignorance, consequent on stumbling upon truth without adequate organic and cerebral preparation, as inviolable truth and to allow the evolution of human spiritual thinking through the rationalization process called philosophy. Only when a vast section of humanity practises this liberal scientific spiritual philosophy which may today sound like a contradiction in terms but which has been the age-old Vedantic practice in India can humanity hope to extricate itself from religious and ideological fanaticism and a harmony of forces of the human mind have its full play. Then and then alone will peace reign and all faiths co-exist complementing each other in this panoramic drama of human life. Jai Ramakrishna, the embodiment of the harmony of religions! Jai Vivekananda, the incarnation of the harmony of all human forces! Written by Sugata Bose
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 08:20:17 +0000