Religious wars in today’s world is
common. Every day in newspaper we find people fighting for defending their
religious founders and ideals. In fact the boundary of each religion has become
like that of countries that needs to be defended and fought for. Fanatics are
ready with their guns and weapons to kill at moment’s notice and also ready to
become suicide bomber, killing themselves and their targets. On one hand if scientific
developments is leading to increase in benefits and comforts of people then on
another side it is giving a tool to fanatical fighters to work stealthly thereby
causing mass destruction. On comparing the basics of religion we will observe
the futility of such activities of much destruction and also the ideals
expected to be achieved by mankind.
Actual Reality which only the knower of experiencer
knows.
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Idea of
Gods
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Brahma, Vishnu, Jesus, Buddha, Ahura Mazda, Allah
etc. Believe in Gods with Form or Formless. Actually Idea of an all-pervading
infinite perfect being.
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Methodology
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Different according to time, place, situation.
Rituals, rules, dos and don’ts, Idols, non-idols, scriptures likes Vedas,
Puran, Bible, Quran, Zend Avesta etc.
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Basics
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Truth, Purity, Honesty, Non Stealing etc.
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Basics: - When we observe the ways of religion scientifically we will become aware of the overall puzzle and intricacies of process involved. The basics of all religion are the foundation stone upon which the whole edifice of organization is built. There cannot be any religion with the idea of stealing, hatred, dishonesty etc. The basics of all the religion is in short Truth, Honesty, Purity, Non Stealing etc. The morality of all religion are same except that each sect tries to present it as their own. The Hindus, Christians, Muslims etc. all over the world want their followers to follow the moral and ethical code. In ancient book of Patanjali Yoga Sutra we find this system of practise in religion being systematically organised as Yama and Niyama. The concentration level of mind increases with each step of practise and it becomes necessary to become established in moral and ethical code of conduct. If the concentrated mind contains any strain of negative thought then it will become more potent to express itself in action thereby obstructing the progress of the aspirant. We find numerous spiritual gurus and practitioner doing act which does not befit them and damages their social respect due to being not properly established in moral code of conduct.
Methodology: - After
the basics, the methodology of each religion is different. Their scriptures
describe their way of achieving the specified objective thorough the rituals,
code of conduct etc. The Methodology of the working of each religion is
different. The Hindus offer prayer to their gods, reading puran etc. Muslim's
prayer is the way of Namaz, Sahada (Faith), reading Quran etc., Christians
praying in Church, reading Bible etc. Each religion being developed in specific
time zones has their own procedure to work upon in day to day life dealings.
Also in methodology we find the difference of practise based upon the dominant
quality of aspirant emotion, intellect etc.
Ø Bhakti:
- Some by nature being more emotional do follow the Bhakti way like repetition
of god’s name, worshipping with love, reading stories about love of god etc.
In the Book, Universal Message of
Bhagvad Gita, Swami Ranganathananda writes,
“Our country never had the
problem of drunkenness. Most people never knew what is an inebriating drink,
though unfortunately, after independence, we are learning it quickly and well,
because the bhajanananda idea is being forgotten. We used to take the name of
God; after a whole day’s work, when we would come back home, we would repeat
the name of God, sing Ramnam Sankirtan. Our common people did not need this
external kick coming from drinks and other drugs. That joy, bhajanananda, is
taken away from them today. So, they have to depend upon the external joy. And
what is the result? Unhappy homes, break up of marriages, etc. So human being
must understand how to experience joy from within.”
Ø Jana:
Intellectually dominant individuals try to think out about God and know him
directly by discriminating the real from the unreal. “Real me” is found out by
constant discrimination between false identity and real identity.
Swami
Vivekananda lecturing on Jana Yoga says,
“We see, then, that this human being is composed first of this external
covering, the body; secondly, the finer body, consisting of mind, intellect,
and egoism. Behind them is the real Self of man. We have seen that all the
qualities and powers of the gross body are borrowed from the mind, and the
mind, the finer body, borrows its powers and luminosity from the soul, standing
behind.”
Ø Raja Yoga: Some people being
naturally contemplative practise Raja Yoga, Meditation, and Concentration etc. Concentration
is increased by practise and is directed inwards to watch the activities of
mind. As we observe the external things and compare them, in a similar way the
sense doors are closed and the mind is made to observe the internal.
Swami Vivekananda in his introduction to Raja
Yoga writes: “The powers of the mind should be concentrated and turned back
upon itself, and as the darkest places reveal their secrets before the
penetrating rays of the sun, so will this concentrated mind penetrate its own
innermost secrets. Thus will we come to the basis of belief, the real genuine
religion. We will perceive for ourselves whether we have souls, whether life is
of five minutes or of eternity, whether there is a God in the universe or more.
It will all be revealed to us. This is what Raja-Yoga proposes to teach. The
goal of all its teaching is how to concentrate the minds, then, how to discover
the innermost recesses of our own minds, then, how to generalise their contents
and form our own conclusions from them. It, therefore, never asks the question
what our religion is, whether we are Deists or Atheists, whether Christians,
Jews, or Buddhists. We are human beings; that is sufficient. Every human being
has the right and the power to seek for religion. Every human being has the
right to ask the reason, why, and to have his question answered by himself, if
he only takes the trouble.”
Ø Karma: Work oriented people being
naturally prone to work addiction practises Karma Yoga, it is working without
expecting any fruits of work. Swami Tyagananda in his book, “Walking the Walk”,
beautifully illustrates in the diagram how this is accomplished.
Swami
Tyagananda writes: “Detachment is the AX which breaks the karma and snaps the
link that connects desire with karma. We need to keep in mind that behind every
link in the karma chain stands a conscious person.” Accordingly detachment from
karma comes by the following methods:
- Work for Work Sake: - For those who don’t believe in a personal God.
- Work as an offering to God: - For those who do believe in a personal God.
To
break the karma chain, we must attack its weakest link, the link that connects
desire with karma. This is accomplished
through a twofold practice of detachment as mentioned above. Swami further
elaborates, “All the four yogas have their specialized approaches to develop
detachment from desire. But detachment from karma is where karma yoga lays
special emphasis and the two principal methods employed are “work for work’s
sake” and doing “work as an offering to God. Both these method spring from
love”
Idea of Gods: - The
Idea of Gods is different in different religion. Even in each religion there
are many sects and believers of different Gods, demi gods, subsidary gods etc.
The Hindus are said to have 33 crore gods. Muslims, Christians initially has
one founder but later on they were also divided to sects. Similarly so many
religious ideas started with one founder but later on they were branched into multiple
sects according to difference of opinion, interpretation, heir etc. Again some
religion give emphasis to form and some to formless. Some disregard idols some
worship idols. In fact the idea of God is basically a thought of perfect infinite
being, who is the cause of the Universe or Existence. The reasoning mind wants
to understand that perfect law or being from whom the whole universe came and
emotional heart want to feel it and become one with it in love. According to St
Augustine (354-430 A.D) God is the beginning, the middle, and the end of all
things. Nothing exist outside Him, beyond Him, and without Him. He is the
creator of reason, and yet superior to it. Reason cannot comprehend Him fully.
In the ancient book of world i.e. Rig Vedic Nasadiya Sukta, hymn of Creation we
find
“But, after all, who knows, and who can say
Whence it all came, and how creation happened?
The gods themselves are later than creation,
So who knows truly whence it has arisen?”
Pursha Sukta of Rig Veda speaks
of creation as coming out from God.
“Thousands of heads has the great being.
Thousands of eyes has he and thousands of legs.
He manifests the world.
He stands beyond the count of ten fingers.”
Samarpan, author of famous book Tiya, Param, Junglezen & more
recent Craving the Sky in his write up on, “Living Hinduism – the world and
beyond” says:
“Yoga shows how when a person starts meditating, he first mediates on
some gross object, say, a flower. As the mind becomes concentrated, he tries to
mediate on that flower without confining it in space-time. Once successful, he
mediates on the subtler components of the flower. This is the point where
Indian philosophy and the present day Physics part their ways. Physics tries to
break down the flower into compounds, elements, molecules, atoms, and finally
into subatomic particles. But the goal of Indian philosophy is not to explain universe, but to realise God,
so it does not care for the actual molecular structure of the flower, rather,
it looks for the relevance of the flower to the observer, who takes it in
through the five senses as touch, taste, colour, sound, and smell. Whatever the
chemical composition of an object or its sub-atomic layout, ultimately the
object will have to be observed by a person through the five senses that can
grasp its specialised properties. The finer components of an object that are
graspable by the senses are known as tanmatras, which are five in number
for each of the senses.
A yogi then learns to mediate on the constituent tanmatras of
the flower, and slowly goes deeper into meditation when layers after layer of
the covering that made the existence of flower possible, get uncovered. The
Yoga philosophy, and consequently, Vedanta terms them, in terms of their
subtler nature, as – matter, tanmatras, cosmic ego, cosmic intelligence, and
unified existence. Beyond these rungs of the universe lies the spiritual
reality that is variously called as Atman, Purusha, God, etc.”
Our practical experience make us see so many idea of gods like that of
Jesus, baby Jesus, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Sarasvati, Druga etc. that
make us ponder about the significance of each of these. For this the Indian
thought believes that each mind is unique and everyone’s choice is different,
similarly our liking for each gods is different and by following our own idea
of god through its own methodology we can realize the actual god. In fact we
can take the example of mould where the melted gold is poured and when it
hardens then the mould is broken to get the desired shape. The Idea of God is
like a mould and the individual character is made to melt and separate the ore
of impurity through the methodology, poured in the mould of Idea and when mould
breaks the god shines in its own purity.
Actual Reality: - The
actual reality experienced by the founders of religions or sages are beyond the
grasp of ordinary man without any similar practise. When they spoke, their
words became scriptures but unless we have understood their words and gone
through similar experiences it is impossible to get the original import of
their meaning. Suppose in his whole life, a man has seen only black cow and someone
after seeing the white cow tell the man about cow using the world only
"Cow", then his understanding will be that of black cow only.
Similarly the transcendental experiences when spoken in words is interpreted by
general people in their own way but unless originally experienced subjectively,
it is of not much value.
Swami
Vivekananda speaking on Practical Vedanta says:-
“Great souls,
who first felt these great ideas in their hearts, manufactured these words; and
at that time many understood their meaning. Later on, ignorant people have
taken up those words to play with them and made religion a mere play upon
words, and not a thing to be carried into practice. It becomes "my
father's religion", "our nation's religion", "our country's
religion", and so forth. It becomes only a phase of patriotism to profess
any religion, and patriotism is always partial.”
Although the
methodology and idea of Gods are different in all sects and religion but the
basic idea behind it is to trace the origin of the cause of universe, know the
reason for the phenomenal existence of this world. Free from death, diseases
and decay is the goal we want to achieve. In simple terms we want to have
unlimited peace. The founders of religion after experiencing certain high level
consciousness, established their realised idea of perfection in the world
through words and symbols but the followers unable to follow the real import
and meaning simply fight over words. Like defending the property or territory,
the followers simply defend their faith without any actual individual experience.
They only defend the words of their religious founder, methodology etc. With
maximum enjoyment of the world as the only objective they fight and will keep
fighting. But the sincere ones will reach that God, realizing whom they will
find the eternal peace. As Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa after practising the
methodology of different branches of Tantra, Vaishnava, Rama, Vedanta,
Christianity, Islam etc and achieving the peak state as described in all the
major religion of our time has said that we should follow our own methodology
and practise sincerely the tenets of our own religion and at the same time we
should not fight with other followers. Let us follow and let other follow their
own. Religion should not be like a territory to be defended or conquered but it
must be a living experience showering love, peace and tranquillity to all. In
other words, basics, methodology and ideas of Religion must be used as a
scientific investigation & experimentation through our own instrument of
body and mind to know the actual reality, the truth of our own existence and
that of cosmos.
Reference:
Complete
Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol 1 Raja Yoga
Walking the
Walk – Swami Tyagananda
Living
Hinduism-The world and beyond - Samarpan
