Truth (about all religions) is a pre-condition for harmony

[Guest guest]

> >

> >

> > Dear Semira,

> >

> > Definitely and without question the Divine Message will triumph

> > over the organization itself. In future more and more people will

> > embrace its central message of evolving into the eternal spirit

> > that all religions, holy scriptures and prophets have since time

> > immemorial upheld. The Divine Message is a spiritual sanctuary, a

> > beacon of hope, joy, peace of eternal life to all humans. The

> > Shakti/Holy Spirit/Ruh/Aykaa Mayee is the Divine Feminine that

> > gives Self-realization/Birth of Spirit/Baptism of Allah/Opens

> > Dasam Dwar for humanity to enter the Sahasrara/Kingdom of

> > God/Niche of lights/Inner Sanctuary within where Brahman/God

> > Almighty/Allah/ Waheguru resides as THE LIGHT. Semira, not only

> > the current Sahaja Yoga organisation but all religious

> > organizations as well have merely been intended as temporary

> > vehicles and starting points for the Divine Message.

> >

> > jagbir

> >

> >

>

> i would like to add that the Shakti/Holy Spirit/Ruh/Aykaa Mayee is

> not really an intellectual premise but a faith experience of the

> Divine Message. Immediately after the Divine Feminine gives Self-

> realization/Birth of Spirit/Baptism of Allah/Opens Dasam Dwar the

> seeker will feel the Cool Breeze, the Ruach or Breath of God,

> flowing rom his/her hands and head. The Holy Spirit is indeed a

> daily experience of His Breath for the rest of your life. The

> Divine Message is a spiritual sanctuary, a beacon of hope, joy,

> peace of eternal life to all humans.

>

> " So we must know that it's a new explosion. That's why I call it

> Blossom Time, that we are definitely spiritual people. We have got

> spirituality and that the Divine is working. So the Kali Yuga is

> finishing. Now it is the Krita Yuga . . .

>

> Krita Yuga means at the Time when this All-Pervading Power has

> started acting. Nobody felt the Cool Vibrations. Can you believe

> that? It was never related to any science. It was never related to

> physical science especially. So I must say the achievement of

> Sahaja Yoga is tremendous . . . The All-Pervading Power has started

> acting as I am on Earth! " (Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi)

>

> Just a handful of humanity is stirring to the faintest of Light

> discernible at the earliest breaking of the Divine Dawn. They are

> the SYs who daily experience His breath flowing through their hands

> and head, and meditate on His Spirit within. They truly understand

> that the Shakti/Holy Spirit/Ruh/Aykaa Mayee is not really an

> intellectual premise but a faith experience of the Resurrection and

> Last Judgment. All religious organizations have merely been

> intended as temporary vehicles and starting points for the Divine

> Message, the collective culmination of God's Plan for humanity.

>

> jagbir

>

>

 

 

And no matter what our religious background, we must always proclaim

the Truth about all religions as a pre-condition for harmony. The

Divine Message is a collective Truth that embraces all religions,

holy scriptures and prophets. Those following the Divine Message

practise the basic courtesy of speaking the truth about each other's

religion, embracing all in the process.

 

jagbir

 

 

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Quest For Harmony

by Valson Thampu

 

18 May, 2003

 

 

The stark truth is this: communal harmony is a logical impossibility.

Otherwise, we would have attained it by now; or, at least, made some

progress in that direction. Instead, we seem to be going from bad to

worse. As a matter of fact, the idea of " communal harmony " seems to

be a logical contradiction. Harmony can never be communal; for

communalism — the word " communal " being the adjective in the Indian

context — is necessarily disharmonious. What we ought to seek is

not " communal " , but " spiritual harmony " .

 

Harmony among religions is possible, provided we are willing to shift

from religion to spirituality. The seed of communalism is inherent in

religion as religion. One indication is the inner decay of religions

indicated by the growing gulf between their scriptural ideals and the

norms that shape the lives of religious communities. Our practical

life contradicts the spiritual ideals we endorse in theory. The

spirit of negativity dominates the inter-religious space and shapes

religious attitudes. It is this that leads us to mistake our

neighbours to be the enemies of our faith. Though all religions

recommend values such as generosity, selflessness and charity,

increasingly people resort to religion only to secure limitless and

unmerited advantages in this world and the next. It is this

covetousness that fuels corruption in public life and communalises

politics. Selfishness is the source of injustice, cruelty and

exploitation. Today the more religious zeal a person has, the more

selfish and heartless he is apt to be.

 

Only those who are at the wrong end of the communal stick care for

communal harmony. That, in itself, proves that we do not deem harmony

among religions to be basic to our spirituality. It is only an

indulgence in nice sentiments in times of difficulty. Come normality,

it is business as usual; and all it matters is that we must thrive at

all costs and every game plan, communal or otherwise, that helps is

welcome. Our commitment to inter-faith harmony remains unconvincing.

For all our sentimental endorsement of this ideal, it is doubtful if

anyone is willing to make any adjustment to attain it.

 

There are two essentials for spiritual harmony. The first is to

spiritually renew and reform religions. This involves bridging the

gulf between scriptural and spiritual values on the one hand, and the

practices, values and goals of the religious communities concerned,

on the other. Secondly, the practitioners of a religion have to

develop adequate sensitivity and due respect for the religious

practices and sentiments of others. Rather than glory in our

differences as the markers of our superiority over others, we need to

handle our spiritual heritage with humility and self-denial. There is

an urgent need to evolve an inter-religious code through mutual

consultation, within a framework that can accommodate the genius of

each religion and minimise the offence of what is unique and

different.

 

India has been a confluence of religious plurality for over two

millennia. But we are still far away from developing an integrative,

inter-religious spirituality. Each religious constituency has

remained until recently self-enclosed, except in respect of

festivals. The rise of rabid communalism now threatens to disrupt

even this modicum of religious interaction. The time has come for us

to work earnestly towards evolving a shared spirituality as consonant

with the demands of a secular democracy blessed or burdened with

religious plurality. The alternative to this is the slow but steady

communalisation of the State apparatus, with unthinkable consequences

for all citizens, especially the minorities.The bulwark again the

communalist collapse of Indian democracy is the spiritual renewal of

all religions, which has to be a prime inter-religious agenda.

 

It is customary, in interfaith exercises, to play up commonalities

and to sweep differences under the carpet. This is escapism and self-

delusion. Differences are as significant and valuable as the sameness

we share. The specific business of spirituality is to enable us to

accept and, at the same time, transcend differences, which is the

opposite of glossing over them. Within a framework of spirituality,

differences cease to be stumbling blocks and become a source of

stimulation and enrichment. The problem is not in diversity or

differences; the problem is in being infected by the communal spirit

of negativity that disables us from relating to diversities

harmoniously. The ability to welcome and celebrate differences is a

sign of spiritual robustness. Unless this is achieved, the foundation

for religious harmony cannot be laid.

 

The task of paving the way for spiritual harmony has to address also

the need to regenerate our culture of governance. Communalism is the

alternative to good governance. It implies a reductive redefinition

of the political discourse in terms of communal loyalties in order to

deflect the attention of the people from their basic needs and to

make them turn against their own welfare. It is when a political

party fails in respect of good governance that it resorts to the

desperate remedy of playing the communal card. What is involved here

is the prostitution of bhakti (spiritual devotion), which is the most

sacred sentiment humans are capable of. Because of the decay in

religion, people mistake bhakti for blind devotion. Blind devotion

makes people vulnerable to manipulation by the religious and ruling

elite. This is the logic for the marriage between the political and

religious vested interests, and communal discord is the monstrous

birth from this marriage of convenience.

 

The more our culture of governance decays with the result of

aggravating human desperation, the more the people succumb to

manipulation by political and religious demagogues. What makes

communalism explosive is the psychology of mass-desperation that

creates the ideal climate for inventing scapegoats and hypothetical

enemies. It is in such an atmosphere that minorities are easily

portrayed as the enemies of the nation and of Hinduism. In this

respect, the Sangh Parivar is quite right in saying that facts do not

matter. It is a total culture of negativity and the anxiety contrived

within it that clinches the issue.

 

It is because of this that caricaturing the image of other religious

communities is basic to every communal agenda. In this, not only the

aggressive ideologues of majoritarian communalism but also the

propagators and salesmen of minority communities too are to blame.

Sweeping statements have been made in the past about other faiths,

especially Hinduism, without trying to understand them in depth and

in truth. The tendency to play up one's faith by playing down the

faiths of others must be resisted at all costs. This is not a

legitimate exercise of the right to propagate one's faith, but an

abuse of it. We must practise the basic courtesy of speaking the

truth about each other, without which the goal of spiritual harmony

shall never be attained. Truth is a pre-condition for harmony.

 

Quest For Harmony

By Valson Thampu