| Awaken Bharata |
 |
| Books By David Frawley |
| VEDIC DHARMA AND THE UNIVERSAL RELIGION | |
| This
occurs not only by the common, unenlightened person but also by the
intellectual, believing too much in the power of his rational mind,
by the religious leader seeking to propagate the faith, and even by
the mystic who may be caught in a one-sided experience of Divinity.
Our human species is not highly evolved in
consciousness as we can easily
observe by looking at the world around us. Greed,
ambition, lust, hatred and pride pervade our lives. Not surprisingly
these emotions enter into our religions, where they can be magnified
by collective urges.
Hence most religions, though they may call themselves universal and speak of the One God, do not aim to be universal but appeal only to a particular community as opposed to others. They work to sustain a certain human and social type, and to eliminate those of different inclinations, not to take us beyond creaturely limitations. Such creeds may pretend to be the true religion but they are caught in ego divisions and fail to comprehend many of the basic truths about life. One could argue, therefore, that no human religion can ever adequately manifest the universal religion of truth. Falsehood, after all, is at least half of our human nature and extends down into our deepest subconscious tendencies. Even if a totally true religion were to manifest it would be subject to misinterpretation and thereby become at least partially untrue. Moreover, the universal religion is neither static nor abstract. It cannot be achieved once and forever in manifestation but must be recreated in each individual at every moment. Hence the claim that any formed religion is itself the true religion is itself naive. Such a statement is more a matter of an egoistic or emotional assertion than the discovery of the supreme truth, which cannot be turned into a church or a dogma, or limited to any single book, however great. We must recognize the limitations of all human religions and not put any of these in the place of this Supreme One Truth. Yet we can compare the religions of humanity and see which religions and to what degree may perhaps better reflect this higher reality or help direct us toward it. We must do this churning of religions in order to arrive at a greater truth. In this way we can transcend the limitations of our human creeds. |
|
|
|
