Swami teaches... The roots of unity of religions. Sai (Universal Cosmic) religion

[Guest guest]

Sai Ram

Light and Love

 

Swami teaches.... (9 April 2005)

 

The Roots of Unity of Religions. Sai (Universal Cosmic) Religion

 

We often contemplate about unity of all religions and Sai religion as the

universal religion of Love. What is the basis of this religion and what is the

basis of other religions? Why there is a need of one and alone religion of

Love. Swami's explanation concern to religions is a serious scientific work of

the modern time what every Swami's devotee and follower would be properly know.

How without this explanation to practice and experience Swami's Teaching? The

topic is serious and actual. Here one can find the answer to the many 'man

made' controversial problems of religions.

 

The abstractions of faith received concrete form and got crystallised into

specific identifiable names and forms. Each new attitude or aptitude, each new

concretisation, became a special sect and every theory enveloped itself in its

own shell. Thus the one Vedhic religion became the parent of a number of sects

and sets of belief, like Gaanaapaathya (centering around the concept of

Ganapathi), Shaaktheya (centering around the concept of Cosmic Energy as the

expression of the Divine), Soura (centering around the Sun as the source,

sustenance and goal of spiritual achievement), Chaarvaka (centering around the

concept of pleasure and material prosperity) and Veerasaiva (centering around

Shiva as the inner motivator of all beings). Every one of these sects, and many

more besides, elaborated their own rituals and modes of worship, their own

priorities in spiritual attainment and their own body of doctrines about the

individual, the objective world and God. The purpose of these codes and

modes was, in all cases, to purify the mind and practice of high moral virtues.

But this was soon ignored and importance came to be attached tosuperficial

conformity and outer purity. The craving for personal aggrandizement and

powermade every sect, faith and religion, rigid and dry. There is a great need

today to discover theinner spring of all faiths, the spring that fertilises the

outer rites and ceremonies.

 

The religion of the Hindhus stressed the Unity of all creation and declared

that the diversity weexperience is not a true picture. But since faith in the

One come into awareness only to a mindclarified to the utmost, the religion had

soon to posit duality, and even multiplicity, with deitiesfor every facet of the

whole. The most widespread of these qualities is the Shaivite andVaishnavite

faiths, centered around the Shiva and Vishnu aspects of the One.

 

Religions attempt to implant holy ideals in the human's heart, but human

being does not allow them to sprout and grow. The egoistic craving for power

and competitive success has, in most cases, persuaded to use religion as an

instrument of torture and persecution. Instead of unitingmankind in a common

endeavour, it has become a system of walled enclosures, guarded by hateand

fanaticism. So each religion is an armed camp sunk in self-aggrandizement,

trying to weanothers into itself and preventing defections from itself.

Religion, therefore, is being condemnedas the root of chaos and conflict. In

spite of great progress in many other areas of life, religiousanimosity is

aflame even today in many parts of the world.

It has to be emphasised that religion is not the root cause of this state of

affairs. The factionalfights and fanatic hatred are due to the unruly ego that

is given free play. Religion strives todestroy just this vicious tendency. It

has to be supported, not condemned. What has to becondemned is the narrow,

perverted attitude of hating those who do not agree with you or whohold

different opinions of the mysterious force that animates the universe.

Religious wars andconflicts breed in the slime of ignorance and avarice. When

people are blind to the truth that thehuman family is one indivisible Unity,

they grope in the dark and are afraid of strange touch. Thecultivation of love,

alone, can convince man of this truth that there is only one caste - the casteof

Humanity, and only one religion - the religion of Love. Since no religion

upholds violence ordespises love, it is wrong to ascribe the chaos to religion.

Islam has the Shia and Sunni sects; Christianity has Catholics and

Protestants. But however deep the cleavage, no sect denies God and no sect

extols violence and falsehood. Names may be different, the facets emphasised

may be different, but the Almighty Providence is denoted asAbsolute and

Eternal. The terminology may be different but the concept is not different.

Zoraastrianism, the Paarsi religion, was founded by Zoraaster, who wanted that

human should ever have the Fire of Wisdom blazing in his consciousness so that

evil thoughts and tendencies might be reduced to ashes. It has to infuse all

thoughts, words and deeds with the illumination of virtue and vigour, it must

destroy all worldly desire and render human pure for entry into the heaven of

freedom.

 

In ancient Bharath were several directions of belief to the Supreme, what

were as different aspects of the one and same.

1. Shankaraachaarya was the first among the interpreters of the Vedhas who

founded a school of philosophy and laid down the path of spiritual discipline.

He established on secure foundations of logic and intuition, the truth that

there is only One God and that all else is an appearance of the One Reality.

This is the adhwaitha philosophy or faith, that explains the individual nature

and God in perfect harmony.

2. The adhwaitha philosophy seemed to the majority of individuals too simple

a solution to satisfy their inner urges. They could not grasp the truth of their

inner Reality of Oneness. Their emotions and activities had to be sublimated by

disciplines of devotion. Therefore, Raamanujachaarya commented upon the Vedhic

texts and religious scriptures from a new point of view. This made the

adhwaitha take on a special outlook called visishta (special) adhwaitha

(non-dualism). The path of devotion was laid down to enable human to merge with

God. God is loved by the bhaktha (devotee) for His sake and not for any

incidental benefit or blessing. Complete surrender to the extent of the

annihilation of one's own individuality is also beyond most aspirants.

3. Madhvaachaarya declared that the jeeva (individual soul) will remain

ever separate from the Universal, and there can be no merging. Adoration and

worship leads to the fulfilling Grace of God.

Pictorially Adhwaitha (1) posits that the rivrer and the sea is one

'entity.' The Visishtaadhwaitha (2) posits that the river is an integral part

of the sea. Dhwaitha (3) points out that the joy derived from adoration and

worship is enough to draw the fulfilling Grace of God.

There were other seers, too, who laid down paths towards the same goal. They

announced that the universe belongs to God and that human should not desire to

accumulate or appropriate any portion of the Divine Treasure. They advised that

the sapling of devotion must be protected from the pests of sloth, doubt and

fanaticism by the cultivation of valour and vigilance.

Buddha investigated the behaviour of human's mind and intellect and

discovered remedial disciplines; he analysed the vagaries of the mind which

lead into the whirlpools of desires; he analysed the ways of reason. He

preached surrender to dharma (righteousness), tocompassion and to Buddha (the

Enlightened One). All things and beings are holy in their own right and are

but pilgrims on the road to Realisation. Any Injury inflicted on any of them is

an intervention in that sacred journey and so has to be scrupulously avoided.

 

The Sai religion, if the name of religion in its literal sense of binding

human to God is accepted, is the essence of all faiths and religions, including

those like Islam, Christianity and Judaism. The motive behind the formation and

propagation of all these different faiths is the same. The founders and

propagators were all persons filled with love and wisdom. They sought to train

the passions and the emotions, to educate the impulses and instincts and direct

the faculty of reason to paths beneficial to the individual and society.

Swami considers that practice of these disciplines is much more essential

than blind faith in a bunch of philosophical theories. No one has the right to

advise others unless one is already practising what one preaches. First

establish the reign of love between the various members in your own home. Let

the family become a centre of harmonious living, sympathetic understanding and

mutual faith.

Lokah samasthah sukhino bhavanthu (May all people everywhere be happy). This

is the consummation of Vedhic thought since time Immemorial. The same

consummation belongs to the declaration of Cosmic Harmony expressed through the

Divine Love as motto to Sai Religion. In content it is the Universal Cosmic

Religion what connects not only the worlds religions but many standpoints of

modern science.

The holy duty is to be ever aware of the Aathman (Divine spirit) that is

installed in everyliving being. Cast away the vice of egoism, the evil of greed

and the poison of envy. When you seek joy from something outside you, remember

that a far greater joy lies in wait within your own inner consciousness. When

you are afraid of someone or something outside you, remind yourself that the

fear is born, fed and fertilised in your own mind and that you can overcome it

by denying it. Faith in the Almighty God is the impregnable armour that the

saadhaka can wear; and peoples ofall lands are saadhakas, whether they know it

or not.

 

When a religion wants to extend its influence it has to resort to

vilification of other religions andexaggeration of its own excellence. Pomp and

publicity become more important than practiceand faith. Swami wants that the

votaries of each religion must cultivate faith in its ownexcellence and realise

their validity by their own intense practice. That is the Sai religion,

thereligion that feeds and fosters all religions and emphasises their common

Greatness. (Reet's compilation/extracts from, Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 13. "The

Sai Religion," Chapter 23).

 

PS: The spelling of names is as in the original source. (For example,

Aathman, not Atman, Vedhic, not Vedic, etc.).

 

Namaste - Reet