RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY AND THE MODERN WORLD

In predominant Western religions the Divine is worshipped as Father but not as Mother. This heavenly Father is often portrayed as a stern, angry or jealous God - a strict judge and giver of punishment to those of his children who violate his seemingly arbitrary laws. Protestant Christianity and Islam have banished the Divine as Mother from their religions.

Catholic and Greek Orthodox Christianity have accepted the feminine only as the mother of Jesus, not as God in her own right - even though it appears that devotion to the Madonna has been the strongest living mystical tradition within Christianity and its greatest sustaining force.
Sanatana Dharma as a universal tradition has always recognized the importance of the Divine Mother.

According to Hinduism the deepest relationship that we can have with God is that of the Mother. No human relationship is closer than that of the mother and child. It best mirrors our relationship with God. India itself is looked upon as the Mother. The Hindu religion itself is seen regarded a mother and its teachings are her milk.

In the modern world wherein we are recognizing the equality of the sexes we can no longer reject the feminine aspect of Divinity. The rejection of the feminine aspect of the Divine - which is loving kindness, tolerance and caring nurturence - and the promotion of the stern male-only father-sky God, has led to the religious animosity and holy wars which have devastated humanity over the last two thousand years. 

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