| Awaken Bharata |
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| Books By David Frawley |
| THE HINDU RENAISSANCE AT A TURNING POINT | |
| A
true Yogi and Vedantin realizes the Self of all creatures. He
becomes one with all beings. He sees the same Self in the saint and
the sinner, the righteous man and the criminal, the wise man and the
fool. He recognizes the same pursuit of Self-knowledge as the real
urge behind all human seekings for knowledge from science to
mysticism, including in both true and false religious teachings. He
speaks to all people in their own language and tries to aid them
with what is most accessible to them.
But this does not mean that everything human beings do can be regarded as of equal value for the spiritual life or that all religious teachings can provide the same impetus to Self-knowledge. It does not mean that the Yogi has no critical voice and no cultural message or that he is not seeking to promote any particular tradition. Yet this unitary knowledge became progressively reduced into a formula for accommodation, not an urge to transcendence which is its real impetus. In expressing themselves to the Western world, which was hardly open minded about religion, Hindu teachers tried to use the language of other religions, remaking Hinduism into a kind of yogic monotheism or mystical Christianity, with the guru or Self-realized sage as the new Christ or avatar. They tried the same approach in India to attract minority religious groups into their fold, portraying themselves as universalists first and Hindus second, as if Hinduism was merely a sect that they had no particular loyalty to. |
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