Article on Interfaith

[Guest guest]

Further to mesg from:

laurie mannino <manninol

Re: Interfaith meeting last night

 

I'm very active in the infaith community in my area and would love to see

the article.

thank you.

Laurie

 

The Tabulation may get distorted but article enclosed

 

Article on Faith in the future

23rd Nov 99 function at Interfaith Centre

Faith in the future

 

We stand at the dawn of a new millennium. The new millennium offers a lot of

opportunities as well as challenges in the realm of spirituality.

 

Many seem to think that spirituality is something that only belongs to a

by-gone era, with ancient prophets and equally ancient teachings. This is

not true. If spirituality has any credibility then it must withstand the

test of time and still be equally relevant. In fact, I go further and say

its message must become even more vibrant and relevant as time progresses.

What was relevant in ancient times must be true now and has to be true in

the future too. If this criteria, is not met then religions cannot claim to

have anything special. Then they become nothing more than some outer form

adopted by society to fulfil purely secular motives.

 

Let us first examine the challenges faced by faiths in the next millennium.

Many think that the most crucial challenge we now face, is how to sort out

the in-fighting seen between different religions or between different

sectarian movements within the same religion. This is not the real problem.

Here religions have inadvertently become a tool to resolve social and

political issues.

 

The real challenge, he faith communities face come from two different

directions.

First we have the onslaught from the social sciences. They say, "Why do you

need vocabulary like God or Divinity? We can provide the correct emphases

for the same values that you preach by resorting to social sciences. Man is

a social animal and must learn to live in society. Surely to do that we can

devise some rules that will allow us to live harmoniously with each other.

This is very practical - it is commonsensical and it does away with the idea

of God sitting in judgement or dishing out commandments to obey. These

social scientists will say "Look, let us give this subject a new name a name

in line with its motto - Humanism. Looking after human beings. There is no

need to bring in the ideas of the divine.

 

In short, humanists are very keen to replace the role of religions with

their own rational approach to understanding and handling social issues. Can

any religion deny that they have a serious point to make? Can any religion

take on the challenge of the social scientists? They are quite keen to steal

a march on religions and are already on equal footings in many fields. In

fact, in many universities religions are subjects taught under the title

'humanism'. Will the humanist movements replace religions? This is one of

the challenges for the new millennium. We can only answer this directly if

it can be shown that 'conscious being' is something very special. If science

can show that consciousness is a by-product of the material universe then

'humanism' will win over religions. 'Nature of consciousness' is an on going

dialogue in the science community and the answer holds the key to resolving

this first challenge.

 

 

The second challenge we face is from material science itself. Science has

made such dramatic progress in the last two centuries and holds society so

hypnotised that unless religions are seen to be in harmony with the findings

of science - religions cannot have popular support. We see this today by

looking at the attendance figures at most religious gatherings. Unless

religions can bear the full glare of rationality that science imposes on it,

it will have little to stand on. Are religions able to respond? This too is

an on-going challenge faced by religions in the next millennium.

 

We have looked at the challenges - now let us examine the opportunities that

may arise and may offer fresh stimulus to religions.

 

Firstly, as we now live in multi-faith communities. This allows us a greater

opportunity to share our beliefs and faiths with each other. This can

generate greater interest and a more refreshed approach to an old subject -

a subject that may appears to have gone a bit stale. This sharing of ideas

can lead to conflict - but that is the risk we have to take. We have to

hope that our exchange of ideas on spiritual matters should enhance interest

in the subject and may allow better understanding of our own faiths. This is

not a minor matter.

 

Secondly, we are now in the middle of a major communications revolution.

This is a major innovation. All major innovations in the past have produced

major benefits for mankind. This communications revolution - may herald a

new awakening - an awakening in the realm of spirituality. Imagine what is

possible today for a saintly person living in some remote corner of the

world. In the ancient times no body would have even heard of him or seen

him. Today - he can communicate his message to half the population of the

world in an instant. The possibilities are immense.

 

Whether mankind uses this leap in communicating power to put across

spiritual messages or more hedonistic messages is something only time will

tell.

 

Whatever happens - one thing is certain, we are now at the dawn of an

exciting new era where spirituality has to meet up with science. If

spirituality is nothing more than superstitious beliefs from a past era -

then let them melt away like some unwanted mist that has plagued mankind for

many thousands of years. If on the other hand spirituality has a serious

basis then surely it will sparkle even more brightly under the gaze of

science and can be a major force to uplift and benefit mankind in a manner

never witnessed in the past.

 

Daksha

Vivekananda Centre London

[Guest guest]

Vivekananda Centre wrote:

> Whatever happens - one thing is certain, we are now at the dawn of an

> exciting new era where spirituality has to meet up with science. If

> spirituality is nothing more than superstitious beliefs from a past era -

> then let them melt away like some unwanted mist that has plagued mankind for

> many thousands of years. If on the other hand spirituality has a serious

> basis then surely it will sparkle even more brightly under the gaze of

> science and can be a major force to uplift and benefit mankind in a manner

> never witnessed in the past.

>

> Daksha

> Vivekananda Centre London

 

Not so modest.

Kaliyuga IS at the End.

SATyuga is waiting,

is interferencing,

starting

NOW

a

BIG change WILL happen,

possibly

THIS Moment,

 

aum

firak

[Guest guest]

On 11/27/99 at 12:25 AM amrit firak wrote:

>amrit firak <sonja.kotar

[...]

>Not so modest.

>Kaliyuga IS at the End.

>SATyuga is waiting,

>is interferencing,

>starting

>NOW

>a

>BIG change WILL happen,

>possibly

>THIS Moment,

>

>aum

>firak

 

 

It appears there isn't much agreement that Kali Yuga is on end (see quotes

below). The Jainas even have the dire prediction that their religion will

go into oblivion. The matter illustrates what Frank said regarding

statements on the relative plane rather wel...

 

Coomaraswamy states: "Each Manvantara is followed by a Deluge,

which destroys the existings continents and swallows up all

living beings, except the few who are preserved for the

repeopling of the earth."

 

Our Position in History

 

We are located in the fifty-first Brahma year of the life of our

Brahma.

 

Within that Brahma year, we are in the first Brahma day, called

the Varaha kalpa.

 

Within that Brahma day, we are in the seventh manvantara, and in

the 28th maha yuga of that manvantara. This would place us at

about the 454th maha yuga of the 1,000 maha yugas that comprise

this day of Brahma.

 

Within this maha yuga, we are in Kali Yuga. The 5100th year of

Kali Yuga will correspond to the year 2,000 A.D. That means that

we are fairly early in Kali Yuga and this age will continue more

than 426,000 more years.

 

Variant Interpretations of Hindu Chronology

 

The "Traditional Puranic Model" described above is agreed upon

by most authors on Hinduism and Yoga. Six different authors,

listed at the end of this paper, describe this model

identically.

 

However, several other authors, some of them well-known Hindu

teachers, have published descriptions of the cycle of ages that

differ from the traditional Puranic model. These variant

theories are described below.

 

Sri Yukteswar

 

In the introduction to his book The Holy Science, Sri Yukteswar

describes an interesting variant of the Hindu theory of ages.

According to him,

 

....the sun, with its planets and their moons, takes some star

for its dual and revolves around it in about 24,000 years of our

earth-a celestial phenomenon which causes the backward movement

of the equinoctial points around the zodiac. The sun also has

another motion by which it revolves round a grand center called

Vishnunabhi, which is the seat of the creative power, Brahma,

the universal magnetism. Brahma regulates dharma, the mental

virtue of the internal world.

 

Yukteswar goes on to explain that the sun's 24,000 year

revolution around its companion star takes the sun progressively

closer, and then progressively further away from the mystic

center Vishnunabhi. In his system, dharma increases as we

approach Vishnunabhi and decreases as we draw away from it. The

cycle of yugas takes place twice in each 24,000 year revolution.

As the sun recedes from Vishnunabhi, the ages pass in the usual

order: Satya, Treta, Dvapara, Kali. As the sun approaches

Vishnunabhi, the ages pass in the opposite order: Kali, Dvapara,

Treta, Satya.

 

The length of the yugas is: Satya Yuga, 4800 years; Treta Yuga,

3600 years; Dwapara Yuga, 2400 years; and Kali Yuga, 1200 years.

The yugas during the approach to Vishnunabhi he calls

'ascending' yugas; those during the retreat from Vishnunabhi he

calls 'descending' yugas. The most recent ascending Kali Yuga

began in 499 A.D. Since 1599 A.D. we have been in the ascending

Dwapara Yuga, with consequent advances in human culture and

knowledge.

 

Yukteswar goes on to say that the Hindu almanacs, which

correspond to the traditional Puranic model described

previously, are in error. The error crept in during the dark

years of Kali Yuga when scholars misinterpreted the scriptures.

Regarding the conventional view that we are currently in Kali

Yuga, Yukteswar says flatly that it is not true.

 

Yukteswar's model thus differs from the traditional in the

following respects:

 

A cycle of four yugas takes 24,000 years instead of 4,320,000.

 

The yugas alternate between ascending and descending trends

instead of always proceeding in the same order. This alternation

becomes necessary once you posit that the ages result from our

changing distance from Vishnunabhi, rather than a deliberate

divine intervention at the end of Kali Yuga.

 

The greater cycles like kalpas, manvantars, and lifespan of

Brahma go unmentioned.

 

 

Paramahansa Yogananda

 

Paramahansa Yogananda was a disciple of Sri Yukteswar and one of

the best-known Hindu teachers ever to visit the West. He wrote

the perrenial bestseller Autobiography of a Yogi.

 

In the latter book, Yogananda describes and endorses Yukteswar's

theory of world cycles. However, in a footnote, Yogananda adds

the following:

 

The Hindu scriptures place the present world-age as occurring

within the Kali Yuga of a much longer universal cycle than the

simple 24,000 year ecquinoctial cycle with which Sri Yukteswar

was concerned. The universal cycle of the scriptures of

4,300,560,000 years in extent, and measures out a Day of

Creation. This vast figure is based on the relationship between

the length of the solar year and a multiple of pi (3.1416, the

ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle).

 

The life span for a whole universe, according to the ancient

seers, is 314,159,000,000,000 solar years, or "One Age of

Brahma."

 

The Hindu scriptures declare that an earth such as ours is

dissolved for one of two reasons: the inhabitants as a whole

become either completely good or completely evil. The world mind

thus generates a power that releases the captive atoms held

together as an earth.

 

This statement seems at first to reconcile Yukteswar's theory

with the traditional view, but in fact actually contradicts

both.

 

Regarding Yukteswar's theory, in his own writing he clearly

states that the traditional Hindu almanacs are in error and

suggests how the error came about. He states that the length of

the yugas, given in ordindary years in the scriptures, were

misinterpreted by later scholars as being counted in units of

"deva years" which are much longer. This method led the scholars

to believe that the yugas are much longer than they really are.

Yukteswar's theory is thus clearly intended to replace, not to

supplement, the traditional interpretation.

 

Regarding the "much longer universal cycle" that Yogananda

describes, he states that a Day of Creation is 4,300,560,000

years. This is close but not identical to the traditional

number, which is 4,320,000,000 years. Similarly, Yogananda gives

314,159,000,000,000 years the the life of Brahma, whereas

traditionally the number is slightly different:

311,040,000,000,000 years. It seems likely that Yogananda

arrived at these different figures because he wanted to derive

them from some multiple of the ratio pi. The exact manner in

which pi enters into the calculation is, unfortunately, not

explained in his footnote.