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All
religions that exist today are based on books, which people
call scriptures. Some religions have many books. Most of those
who call themselves religious are followers of the precepts
and knowledge as they appear in the scriptures. Many people
know verses, commandments and written prayers by heart and at
times they even quote them to support their arguments in
religious matters. Books are made of paper, ink and words,
then why do people give much more importance to them rather
than to God or Truth itself?
Any
rational person will understand that truth or its experience
has to do with the individual, not with books or the words
that are contained therein. All religions of the past and the
present have originated through a prophet or an enlightened
master. Besides, there have been many people who have created
sects to propound their own opinions about God, life, death
and so on. Amongst them, there have been fakes who have tried
to take advantage of the ignorance of their followers.
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All
races say that their respective religion comes directly from
God, and also that their religion is superior to all others.
Some nations believe that apart from their books and their
prophets all else is demoniac. Let me here ask a few questions
to one and all: “How many among those who are followers of
their scriptures and prophets have an iota of experience of
what has been written in those scriptures? Who can say with
absolute conviction whether their guru or prophet really tread
the earth?”
If
we have to follow what has been written in the scriptures
without questioning or reflecting on what they command, then
what is the place of logic, and thus the mind, in religion? If
one man has become a prophet or guru, why cannot others do
likewise? All religions say that our essence is part and
parcel of the Supreme Spirit, then why cannot we experience
it? Do the religions existing today teach how to be our
essence, that is, godliness? Were the contexts, in which the
different prophets and enlightened beings evolved and taught,
the same?
All
the great ones had experienced the same spirit from within,
the difference lies only in the way they expressed it. If one
prophet laid emphasis on the greatness of God, another one
praised His beauty and still a third one talked about It as
ineffable peace. But they are all referring to the same
Supreme Spirit. Not everything that a prophet says can always
be practical: we have to choose only those things that can
help us to experience the inner truth, then all else will
become clear to us. Our behaviour will flow spontaneously from
the experience, without being in conflict with the
circumstances that come on our way whatever' be the epoch we
find ourselves.
Life
is a constant change; ready-made answers or solutions do not
help. I will even say that it is ugly. Each era, each
circumstance has its own challenge which calls upon our inner
abilities to become manifest, thus giving us the opportunity
to grow in a unique way. We cannot have a general formula as
this would prevent the tapping of our inner potentialities.
Truth and its infinite virtues are concealed in the depth of
our being and not in books, which are based on the personal
experience of the one who has written or spoken it. For
example, Bhagavad-Gita is the experience of Krishna, it is not
meant to be learnt by heart and recited. We certainly can
learn from it so that we too have the urge to go through the
experience.
In
today's world we have problems and challenges that differ from
those of the past, therefore the solutions too should be
different. For example in ancient India, if a king did not
have any son to succeed him and continue his family lineage,
the king had to marry another woman. He could remarry if he
still did not get a son from the second wife. At that time, it
was very natural as it was not known that it is the father's
chromosomes that determine the sex of the child. But today
things have changed. One can, not only have recourse to
artificial insemination, but even choose the sex of the
forthcoming child.
The
marriage system of the Hindus is something from the past,
therefore people do not understand the implications and cannot
maintain even one of the oaths they take. How many people
understand how great a responsibility they are taking when
they go around the fire? Do they know that it is an oath taken
in the presence of the gods? Do they know the consequence of
not keeping such an oath? But there is something called culte
des ancętres, that is, we simply follow what parents and
great-grand parents have done. Society will find it strange
and even sacrilegious if couples live together or have
children, if they have not undergone any rituals. People do
not even know why man and woman come together. Their knowledge
is limited to the fact that we have to come together for the
purpose of sexual pleasure or having children and having a
partner who would help in difficult moments and in old age.
Religion
means scientific approach to oneself first, then to our
relationship with the external world. What have books got to
do in it? If a scripture cannot create the desire in a person
to experience his soul, then what is the use of such a
scripture? And once the soul has been experienced, then what
is the use of a scripture? Words are means to express a truth,
why be attached to them? Seek rather to experience the truth.
Let us give scriptures their value but let us not stop at them
because by so doing we stop growth, both spiritual and
material. It is said that the tenth incarnation of Vishnu will
come on a white horse, and most Hindus have taken the white
horse in a literal sense. Is not a car's engine capacity
expressed in terms of horsepower? Literal interpretation of
the scriptures has led people astray. Man and the Universe are
the only true scriptures that exist; God is the only aim. Once
God is attained, both man and Universe are left aside.
Nature
operates according to a set of laws to which man's evolution
has to conform to, both on the material and spiritual planes.
Man already is a reservoir of virtues. Whatever we find in the
scriptures come from the depth of an enlightened being. If we
become enlightened, we too will be recipient of such virtues
and wisdom. Therefore instead of following the scriptures
blindly, we should learn how to become pure in body, mind and
heart.
We
have always been looking at life through the distorted visions
of others. And they are nothing but the visions of prophets,
saints and enlightened beings that common people have
distorted. Those people had looked at life directly, their
visions were their own experience and experience cannot be
transmitted. What they did was that they taught ways and means
for us to experience the same and lo! We have distorted their
language and have thus become blind followers. We do not want
to take the pain of seeking for ourselves; we prefer to be
followers or people of the book. And today we can have
innumerable interpretations and commentaries of one and the
same scripture. What to take and what to reject? People follow
religions and books according to their minds and feelings, and
are thus deprived of the sublime experience which is acquired
only when books and religions are relinquished.
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