RELIGION

Incarcerated beliefs of present day religion- Shackles of bondage . BY DR. HARIOM JI www.radhasoamitaradham.com

Thanks to the pluralistic culture of this country (India) that has endowed me with the right to utter these words, "Yes I am a true follower of Patanjali, Budha, Jesus, Muhammad, Nanak and Krishna simultaneously". Is it possible to reconcile the opposition and be released from the incarcerated beliefs of the religion? Yes, the solution lies within us.
A few rational forces thrust for a benign separation of religion and reason. The Gandhian philosophy compares the separation of politics from religion with the severance of logic from the consciousness. Aristotle elicits that man is a political animal; animal because he is gregarious in nature, needs society for personality development and political; for he is the only animal endowed by nature with the gift of "Reason". ‘Eater eating is being eaten in the evolutionary process’, says Aurobindo, indicating the existence as an integrated whole. He asserts that the ascension of lower nature towards higher nature brings a purified and enlightened reasoning which imparts the power of psychic understanding and right discrimination. The inception of higher consciousness builds a firm ground to solicit its well-deserving liberty and independence. Thus the right to live cannot circumscribe its boundaries with respect to the changing mental and spiritual perceptions of the society in which a man lives.
The evolution of life, in its turn earmarks a need for struggle between the individuals (Darwin) or a class-struggle between bourgeoisie and proletarian as predicated by Karl Marx. He emphasized that the seeds of opposition in a system always remain embedded in its base and upsurge with the swaying of congenial environment. His ‘Dialectic Method’ postulates that nature proceeds through rise and fall of opposites. Hence in the process of evolution, a conscious being has to confront and combat the creeping hostile vital forces of limbic system preserved in human mind, which sometimes due to loose control of conscious mind goes berserk and becomes violent. So we have to supersede the intricacies of life vibrating under the influence of forces of determinism and free will.
Nehru's explanation of free will and determinism enunciates, "Life is both. Life is like a game of cards. You have no control over the hand that deals you. The hand corresponds to determinism; the way you play the cards corresponds to free will". Determinism is fixity where the energy works like a machine; free will is flexibility which refers to the faculty of mind. Once the bullet is triggered off, it results into a vicious chain of reactions. But the decision to press the trigger rests with the free will of an individual which may propose or dispose the moral and ethical values of a society.
Some prominent western philosophers like Rousseau, Kant, Green, Bradley and Bosanquet have brought further refinement in defining "Free moral will", differentiating into actual and real will. Real will is the Sovereign will which must be honoured by renouncing actual will or individual will. Real will corresponds to higher self and actual will corresponds to lower self. Blind belief in religion or a political set up is covetous and a pursuit of lower self, undoubtedly baulks the progress of any society or nation. Cicero favoured moral law identified with right reason. It is neither true religion nor right reason that construes nefarious designs of communalism and fundamentalism.
The present-day politics has done a great harm to religion. The so-called saints are getting political asylum. When reason and spirit become intuitive, a 'Will-to-do' is born, either Copernicus or Gandhian; a stoics not epicurean, a celibate not utilitarian. But when the marriage becomes occidental lacking intuition, a disaster is predictable. Civilization barbarized. Dark Age becomes inevitable. The intrinsic values succumb to death. The intelligible reality dwindles to extrinsic and presumptuous rituals. 'Love and universal brotherhood are persecuted and put to strictures. Jesus falls prey to the orthodox and superstitious beliefs of the society. Stones are thrown on Mahatma Bhudha and Mahavir Swami. The great library of ancient Alexandria is burnt in the name of fanaticism and blind belief in God.
Higher life hardly recognizes written inscriptions. Life is a spontaneous and organic necessity that Budha, Krishna and Jesus were. Today Christianity is the biggest religion of world. There was a web of superstitions and exploitations when he was born. The same web of incarcerated ethical codes and rituals has been fabricated by the present-day Christianity leaving no possibility for the rebirth of the spirit of Jesus. For Jesus will be a barrier in the rigid superficial structures knitted by the mendacious papacy arrangement not different from the labyrinth constituted by Hindu or Islamic priests in intimacy with the statesmanship.
Extremism and fundamentalism are not sparing any religion of the world. Even Sikhism which had been considered a live and benevolent representation of values has now become out skirted from its umbilical teachings. "Revealing Word' which was called Jesus by Saint Augustine and other mystics of christianity and doctrine of intrinsic 'Sabad' called 'Gurvani' or ‘Sound of God’ by Sikh Gurus has undergone complete annulment. The ‘Supramental Word or Supramental Logos', called a creative principle of all worlds and heavens by Sri Aurobindo is buried to death.Hinduism which always offered opportunity to extend one self to the subliminal highs and abysmal lows of the multidimensional possibilities of the spirit, has started denigrating its age-long spiritual heritage known for its illimitable tolerance.
A true spiritualist does not entertain power for himself but offers his life for the welfare of people. He does not solicit awards. Personal lust of salvation or power vanishes from him. His working is a natural flow of higher consciousness, "Prajya”. He stays above mundane longings and aspiration; Trigunatit, beyond the modes of nature. Chuang-tzu, a prominent interpreter of Taoism, declined an offer to be Prime Minister of the State of Chu. He said, "It was better to be a free pigling wallowing in the mire than to be a sacrificial cow adorned for the kill". Such sages rarely enjoy power but their teachings deeply influence socio-political life of the nations for a longer time.
Religion without its practical utility is futile, says Vivekananda. He preached to have a glimpse of God in poor and indigent man and called God by the name of Dridranarayan (God of poor). Other philosophers tried to visualize the glimmer of God or Goodness in the formation of the most ideal State. State is individual writ large (Plato). State is prior to man and state is real nature of man (Aristotle). Citizen is prior to man (Rousseau). State is the body of God; state is ethical whole (Hegal). State is working conception of life as a whole (Bosanquet).
These western philosophers left lesser or no room for individual freedom. Hegal and Bosanquet had rudely sacrificed individual will on the sovereign will. For the sovereign will was thought to be the will of God and the body of State as the body of God. State which had been considered the result of "Sin' and Satanic Kingdom upto 13th century before the arrival of Saint Thomas Aquinas, was now made a medium for the vision of God. In this new set up, personality could be denounced for the State's cause. States dignity was a priority even at the cost of war. The inner vision of spirit thus found outer expression giving way to the adamant national patriotic forces which resulted into wars for establishing superiority. As and when the inner intuition was lost, there were spells of discord and disharmony and the history of destruction was written.
Philosophy is said to be handmaid of theology like waves on the surface of sea. Indian philosophy urges to seek Truth within microcosm for realizing the mystical secrets of macrocosm, ‘yat pinde tat brahmande’. “The kingdom of God is within you", say Jesus. Know thyself (Socrates). Be a lamp unto thyself (Buddha) and "I am Atma (the Soul)", says Krishna in the Gita. It is man who denigrates the brightness of the Sun of Truth that shines eternally within us, adityavat prakasyati tat param. The whole stock of society remains ever-beautiful in the innermost penetralia of heart. It is only selfishness that mars selfless, nobody else. The solution lies within us. Awakening towards ones own self is the answer.
Does it mean seclusion or departure from mundane responsibilities? Whether state or spirit? Neither state nor spirit, neither ought nor naught. Sri Aurobindo has reconciled this opposition of Ksara (mutable) and Aksara (immutable) into Supramental unity. Saint Kabir has stressed for the blissful fusion of physical and mental consciousness into the supreme Will which is a source of all oppositions and compositions. After merging into this state of consciousness, individual self is blessed and merged into the ecstasy of enlarged self of Braham (Supreme God). Each one is lifted to the higher self, loses ego, gets enlightened, and becomes Catholic or Braham. All the religions of world find their original source and ultimate destination. Such an evolution of humanity is a future inevitability.
Radhasoami
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