| Awaken Bharata |
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| Books By David Frawley |
| SARVA DHARMA SAMABHAVA : UNITY OR CONFUSION OF RELIGIONS | |
| The
unity of truth therefore cannot limit itself to monotheism of a
particular persuasion but must honor all spiritual aspiration
whatever form it takes. This means that not only monotheism of all
types (not only the Biblical), but polytheism, pantheism, monism and
other religious formulations are have their validity. In fact what
the monotheistic West calls polytheism is usually not a primitive
worship of many Gods but a genuine diversity of paths and a freedom
of approach to the One Truth, what is really a monistic
approach.
The idea that there are many names, forms, qualities and ideas of Divinity that can be represented by various Gods and Goddesses was the basis not only of so-called Hindu polytheism but also that of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Kelts, Native Americans and perhaps most so-called polytheists all over the world. The Vedic principle of Sarva Dharma Samabhava originally arose to show the unity of the Truth, Self or Atman behind the worship of all the different Gods and Goddesses of the Hindu pantheon. It was not meant to reduce that multiplicity of approaches or scale down its forms to something simpler or more uniform. Sarva Dharma Samabhava was a sanctioning of pluralism, not an attempt to reduce all paths to a single point of view. However the idea that all religions teach the same thing, accepting dominant forms of monotheism as the model of true religions, has not led to the acceptance of religions denigrated as polytheistic. |
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