| Awaken Bharata |
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| Books By David Frawley |
| THE DANGER OF HINDUS SPEAKING IN THE NAME OF OTHER RELIGIONS | |
| When
Hindus portray Vedantic and yogic elements in Christianity and Islam
these are frequently exaggerated and idealized. When Hindus find a
Western mystic that they have affinity with, they don't seem to
notice that such figures usually represent teachings most Christians
and Muslims don't accept. For example, the main Christian
philosopher with a Vedantic type view, Meister Eckhart, is
practically unknown to modern Christians, and his teachings are not
followed by any major Christian group in the world.
As a mystic of the Rhineland region of Germany from the twelfth century, which was then involved in an active trade with the Orient, it is possible that Eckhart's Christian mysticism had a Vedantic influence on it and isn't particularly Christian at all, certainly not in the orthodox sense. Similarly Hindus look to Sufis for showing the unity of Hinduism and Islam, not realizing that the Sufis are a controversial minority in Islam, which the great majority of orthodox Muslims consider to be heretical and have often tried to do away with.Hindus also fail to note that most Sufis historically have supported wars against Hindus and sought to convert them to Islam. Note the following chapter on Sufis and Militance. When Hindus praise the Sufis as a basis for Hindu-Muslim unity they only display their ignorance of Sufi activities and the history of Sufism in India. Much of the mysticism they praise in Sufism originally derived from Vedanta anyway, so it is not Islam that Hindus are finding harmony with by noting these remnants in Sufism. |
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