| Awaken Bharata |
 |
| Books By David Frawley |
| THE DANGER OF HINDUS SPEAKING IN THE NAME OF OTHER RELIGIONS | |
| There
is no reason to think that religious teachers and movements of
previous times had always to be spiritual or yogic, which is what
many Hindus proclaim. Religion historically has been filled with as
many strange cults as it is today, and as much political aggression,
only some of these cults gained power and became institutionalized
affording them an aura of respectability. In other instances genuine
spiritual teachings were distorted once they became
institutionalized and ended up on par with less evolved cults.
Some people think that the major religious of the world must have sprung from a deeply spiritual root in order to be able to influence as many people as they have. However to think that any religion that has gained political sanction or a mass following must have originally been deeply spiritual is absurd. What gains political or mass support is commonly what is simplistic, prejudiced or distorted. Certainly religion historically has been all of this and remains so today. Therefore there is no reason to turn every founder of a major religious movement into a saint or avatar. Rather we should look critically at their lives and teachings in the light of universal truth. This does not mean that a higher spiritual teaching can never become popular with the masses, but that such a mass following does not necessarily indicate anything higher. It can take a higher teaching and distort it, particularly if it seeks to impose it as a belief on everyone. |
|
|
|
