We Are All Hindus Now - By Lisa Miller | NEWSWEEK - # 6

[Guest guest]

We Are All Hindus Now

By Lisa Miller | NEWSWEEK

Published Aug 15, 2009

 

America is not a Christian nation. We are, it is true, a nation

founded by Christians, and according to a 2008 survey, 76 percent of

us continue to identify as Christian (still, that's the lowest

percentage in American history). Of course, we are not a Hindu—or

Muslim, or Jewish, or Wiccan—nation, either. A million-plus Hindus

live in the United States, a fraction of the billion who live on

Earth. But recent poll data show that conceptually, at least, we are

slowly becoming more like Hindus and less like traditional Christians

in the ways we think about God, our selves, each other, and eternity.

 

The Rig Veda, the most ancient Hindu scripture, says this: " Truth is

One, but the sages speak of it by many names. " A Hindu believes there

are many paths to God. Jesus is one way, the Qur'an is another, yoga

practice is a third. None is better than any other; all are equal.

The most traditional, conservative Christians have not been taught to

think like this. They learn in Sunday school that their religion is

true, and others are false. Jesus said, " I am the way, the truth, and

the life. No one comes to the father except through me. "

 

Americans are no longer buying it. According to a 2008 Pew Forum

survey, 65 percent of us believe that " many religions can lead to

eternal life " —including 37 percent of white evangelicals, the group

most likely to believe that salvation is theirs alone. Also, the

number of people who seek spiritual truth outside church is growing.

Thirty percent of Americans call themselves " spiritual, not

religious, " according to a 2009 NEWSWEEK Poll, up from 24 percent in

2005. Stephen Prothero, religion professor at Boston University, has

long framed the American propensity for " the divine-deli-cafeteria

religion " as " very much in the spirit of Hinduism. You're not picking

and choosing from different religions, because they're all the same, "

he says. " It isn't about orthodoxy. It's about whatever works. If

going to yoga works, great—and if going to Catholic mass works,

great. And if going to Catholic mass plus the yoga plus the Buddhist

retreat works, that's great, too. "

 

Then there's the question of what happens when you die. Christians

traditionally believe that bodies and souls are sacred, that together

they comprise the " self, " and that at the end of time they will be

reunited in the Resurrection. You need both, in other words, and you

need them forever. Hindus believe no such thing. At death, the body

burns on a pyre, while the spirit—where identity resides—escapes. In

reincarnation, central to Hinduism, selves come back to earth again

and again in different bodies. So here is another way in which

Americans are becoming more Hindu: 24 percent of Americans say they

believe in reincarnation, according to a 2008 Harris poll. So

agnostic are we about the ultimate fates of our bodies that we're

burning them—like Hindus—after death. More than a third of Americans

now choose cremation, according to the Cremation Association of North

America, up from 6 percent in 1975. " I do think the more spiritual

role of religion tends to deemphasize some of the more starkly

literal interpretations of the Resurrection, " agrees Diana Eck,

professor of comparative religion at Harvard. So let us all say " om. "

 

http://www.newsweek.com/id/212155

 

Publishers Note:

Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda observes in his Ashram not only the

festivals of Hindus but those of Christians and Muslims too: an

example for us to copy. In his eyes, there are no distinctions.

 

Sri Swami Sivananda

Devi, the Divine Mother

 

" Shakti is the omnipotent power of the Lord, or the Cosmic Energy.

The Divine Mother is represented as having ten different weapons in

Her hands. She sits on a lion. She keeps up the play of the Lord

through the three attributes of Nature, namely, Sattwa, Rajas and

Tamas. Knowledge, peace, lust, anger, greed, egoism and pride, are

all Her forms.

 

You will find in the Devi Sukta of the Rig Veda Samhita that Vak,

symbolising speech, the daughter of the sage Anbhirna, realised her

identity with the Divine Mother, the Power of the Supreme Lord, which

manifests throughout the universe among the gods, among men and

beasts and among the creatures of the deep ocean.

 

In the Kena Upanishad, you will find that the Divine Mother shed

wisdom on Indra and the gods and said that the gods were able to

defeat the demons only with the help of the power of the Supreme

Lord.

 

The worship of Devi, the universal Mother, leads to the attainment of

knowledge of the Self. The story in the Kena Upanishad known as

the " Yaksha Prasna " , supports this view. It tells how Uma, the Divine

Mother, taught the Truth to the gods. Goddess Shakti thus sheds

wisdom on Her devotees.

 

Devi worship is, therefore, worship of God's glory, of God's

greatness and supremacy. It is adoration of the Almighty. It is

unfortunate that Devi is ignorantly understood by many as a mere

blood-thirsty Hindu Goddess. No! Devi is not a vicious demoness nor

is She the property of the Hindus alone. Devi does not belong to any

religion. Devi is that conscious power of God. The words Devi,

Shakti, etc., and the ideas of different forms connected with these

names are concessions granted by the sages due to the limitations of

the human intellect; they are by no means the ultimate definitions of

Shakti.

 

The original or Adi Shakti is beyond human comprehension. Bhagavan

Krishna says in the Gita: " This is only My lower nature. Beyond this

is My higher nature, the life-principle which sustains the universe " .

 

The Upanishad also says: " The supreme power of God is manifested in

various ways. This power is of the nature of God, manifesting as

knowledge, strength and activity " .

 

Truly speaking, all beings in the universe are Shakti-worshippers,

whether they are aware of it or not, for there is no one who does not

love and long for power in some form or other. Physicists and

scientists have now proved that everything is pure, imperishable

energy. This energy is only a form of divine Shakti which exists in

every form.

 

A child is more familiar with the mother than with the father,

because the mother is very kind, loving, tender and affectionate and

looks after the needs of the child. In the spiritual field also, the

aspirant or the devotee—the spiritual child—has an intimate

relationship with the Mother Durga, more than with the Father Shiva.

Therefore, it behoves the aspirant to approach the Mother first, who

then introduces Her spiritual child to the Father for his

illumination.

 

The Mother's Grace is boundless. Her mercy is illimitable; Her

knowledge infinite; Her power immeasurable; Her glory ineffable; and

Her splendour indescribable. She gives you material prosperity as

well as spiritual freedom...

 

The central purpose of existence is to recognise your eternal

identity with the supreme Spirit. It is to grow into the image of the

Divine. The supreme One embodies the highest perfection. It is

spotless purity. To recognise your identity with That, to attain

union with That, is verily to grow into the very likeness of the

Divine. The aspirant, therefore, as his initial step, has to get rid

of all the countless impurities, and the demoniacal elements that

have come to cling to him in his embodied state. Then he has to

acquire lofty virtues and auspicious, divine qualities. Thus

purified, knowledge flashes upon him like the brilliant rays of the

sun upon the crystal waters of a perfectly calm lake.

 

This process demands a resolute will, determined effort, and arduous

struggle. In other words, strength and infinite power are the prime

necessity. Thus it is the Divine Mother who has to operate through

the aspirant. "

 

Sri Swami Sivananda

 

 

" According to the Hindu view, the entrance of God into the strife of

the universe is not a unique astounding entrance of the

transcendental essence into the welter of mundane affairs (as

Christianity, where the Incarnation is regarded as a singular and

supreme sacrifice, never to be repeated), but a rhythmical event,

conforming to the beat of the world ages. The savior descends as a

counterweight to the forces of evil during the course of every cyclic

decline of mundane affairs, and his work is accomplished in a spirit

of imperturbable indifference. The periodic incarnation of the Holy

Power is a sort of solemn leitmotiv in the interminable opera of the

cosmic process, resounding from time to time like a majestic flourish

of celestial trumpets, to silence the disharmonies and to state again

the triumphant themes of the moral order...

 

The descent is represented in Indian mythology as the sending forth

of a minute particle (amsa) of the infinite supramundane essence of

Godhead — that essence itself suffering thereby no diminution; for

the putting forth of a savior, the putting forth even of the mirage

of the universe, no more diminishes the plenitude of the transcendent

and finally unmanifested Brahman than the putting forth of a dream

diminishes the substance of our own unconsciousness.”

 

Heinrich Zimmer, Philosophies of India

 

 

" " The later patriarchal religions and mythologies, " wrote Erich

Neumann in a richly documented study, The Great Mother, " have

accustomed us to look upon the male god as a creator . . . But the

original, overlaid stratum knows of a female creative being. " Neumann

assumes for the whole region of the Mediterranean a universally

adopted religion of the Great Mother goddess around 4000 B.C.E.,

which was revived around 2000 B.C.E. and spread through the whole of

the then known world. In this religion the Great Goddess was

worshipped as creator, as Lady of men, beasts, and plants, as

liberator and as as symbol of transcendent spiritual transformation.

 

The Indus civilization also belongs to that tradition in which the

cult of the Great Goddess was prominent. Numerous terracotta

figurines have been found: images of the Mother Goddess of the same

kind that are still worshipped in Indian villages today...

 

The connections between Saktism, Mohenjo-Daro civilization, and

Mediterranean fertility cults seem to be preserved even in the name

of the Great Mother: " Uma for her peculiar name, her association with

a mountain and her mount, a lion, seems to be originally the same as

the Babylonian Ummu or Umma, the Arcadian Ummi, the Dravidian Umma,

and the Skythian Ommo, which are all mother goddesses. " The name

Durga seems to be traceable to Truqas, a diety mentioned in the

Lydian inscriptions of Asia Minor. There is a common mythology of

this Great Mother: she was the first being in existence, a Virgin.

Spontaneously she conceived a son, who became her consort in

divinity. With her son-consort she became mother of the gods and all

life. Therefore we find the Goddess being worshipped both as Virgin

and Mother.”

 

K. K. Klostermaier, Hinduism: A Short History,

Oneworld Pub., 2000, p. 188-9

 

 

 

" In the beginning was the Mother.

 

As far back as 30,000 years ago, the people of the earth worshipped a

female deity. In cultures around the world, the Goddess has been

revered in myriad forms, in temple and grove, cathedral and cave. She

has been celebrated and venerated through ritual, myth, and art.

These pages serve as introduction to some of the 10,000 names of the

Goddess, and offer links to other web pages and resources where you

can find more information about Goddess spirituality and mythology.

 

The path of Goddess is not defined or laid down in dogma. It is a

living, daily connection with sacredness. There is literally no end

to the ways in which you can find and honor Goddess. The Goddess is

Gaia, the earth … Ix Chel, the moon … Arianrhod, the stars. She is

Oya, who brings the storms, and she is Mary, who calms them. She is

Nut, who births creation, and Kali, who destroys it. She is maiden,

mother, queen and crone. She is lover and spinster, warrior and

sibyl, nurturer and judge.

 

Once She has called your name,

you are Hers forever.”

 

www.lunaea.com/

 

 

 

" The question remains as to whether some kind of spiritual evolution

is in progress, whether large amounts of people gradually taking up

meditation and other forms of inner practice will create a critical

mass of global enlightenment, or whether we will continue in what

could be called the Brazilian rain forest mode. In the past, this

theory goes, a small number of mystics, ascetics, monastics,

wandering mendicants, and other followers of the Perennial Philosophy

were capable of providing the spiritual oxygen that helped the rest

of the world to breathe and that sustained the mainstream practice of

religion with all its surface anomalies. These days it seems

increasingly questionable whether this approach will be sufficient to

redeem a crippled planet; on the whole, the evolutionary theory makes

more sense. But how long will it take? The Bolivian visionary Oscar

Ichazo said some years ago, " In the past eras the mystical trip was

an individual matter, or at least a matter of small groups, but no

longer. This is what is new in human history. Everybody can now

achieve a higher degree of consciousness. . . . The vision of

humanity as one enormous family, one objective tribe, may once have

been utopian. Now it is a practical necessity. "

 

Peter Occhiogrosso, The Joy of Sects

 

 

 

" She is not only the Power of God as the whirling wheel of life in

its birth-bringing and death-bringing totality; She is also the Force

of the Centre, which bestows Consciousness and Knowledge,

Transformation and Illumination. Thus Brahma prays to the Great

Goddess: " Thou art the pristine spirit, the nature of which is bliss;

thou art the ultimate nature and the clear light of heaven, which

illuminates and breaks the self-hypnotism of the terrible round of

rebirth, and thou art the one that muffles the universe, for all time

in thine own very darkness. "

 

Eric Neuman, The Great Mother

 

 

 

" The second aspect of the Goddess is that of Mother. As previously

stated among her names by which she is called are the Great Mother

and Mother Nature which signifies her worshippers believe her to be

the Mother, creator and life-giver to all of nature and to every

thing within.

 

This at first may seem confusing to many within the Christian Age

where the Father God is claimed to be the creator. What many are not

aware of, but more are becoming so, is that the world passed through

a matriarchal age before the present patriarchal one. There is amble

archaeological, historical and anthropological evidence of this. The

previously mentioned findings of numerous female figurines and

drawings in many locations supports the fact that during such ancient

times the female was very honored. The depictions self-fertilization

and women giving birth states the Goddess has been very honored for

motherhood...

 

In The Sacred Book one reads:

 

....(She is)...the image of the invisible, virginal, perfect spirit...

She became the Mother of everything, for she existed before them all,

the mother-father [matropater]...

 

In the Gospel to the Hebrews, Jesus speaks of " my Mother, the

Spirit. " Again, in the Gospel of Thomas " Jesus contrasts his earthly

parents, Mary and Joseph, with his divine Father--the Father of Truth-

-and his divine Mother, the Holy Spirit. " And, in the Gospel of

Philip, " whoever becomes a Christian gains 'both father and mother'

for the Spirit (rurah) is 'Mother of many.' . . .

 

Many men have expressed the need to return to the Goddess, indicating

that this is not only a woman's search or desire. " English therapist

John Rowan believes that every man in Western culture also needs this

vital connection to the vital female principle in nature and urges

men to turn to the Goddess. In this way men will be able to relate to

human women on more equal terms, not fearful of resentful of female

power. Perhaps this is how it was in prehistoric times when men and

women coexisted peacefully under the hegemony of the Goddess. "

 

To many men in Neo-paganism and witchcraft sexism seems absurd and

trifling. If all men were honest they would admit that they would not

be here if it were not for their biological mothers. Sexism

immediately disappears when this fact is agreed to. All human beings

are sexual, and sexuality propagated, although at times it would seem

the Christian Church would have liked to dismiss this fact

completely. But, the fact cannot be dismissed because, again,

according to Jung this biological fact is also imprinted as the

archetypes of anima and animus upon the human unconscious. They

represent the feminine side of man and the masculine side of woman.

As behavioral regulators they as most important; for with out them

men and women could not coexist. When the two unconscious elements

are balanced harmony exists, but when there is an unbalanced over

masculinity or femininity is exerted.”

 

www.themystica.com/