SANATANA DHARMA AND THE MODERN WORLD

Should Not Westerners Follow a Western Religion?

Some people in the Western world believe that Eastern religions, like Hinduism and Buddhism, have no place in the West, which should follow Western religions like Christianity and Islam. Such people do not understand that Eastern dharmic traditions are not religious belief systems but universal ways of spiritual knowledge. We note a curious cultural prejudice. Those born in the West do not mind if Western religions like Christianity and Islam are adopted by peoples in Eastern countries. Westerners are not asking Christian missionaries to be recalled from Asia because the Western Christian religion is not appropriate for Eastern people.

Nor have Muslims limited the spread of their Western religion only to only the Western part of the world. Westerners do not think that it is wrong for Western religious or for Western art and science to go to the East. Yet they call their systems "Western" and want to maintain their geographical purity when so-called "Eastern" teachings gain recognition in regions where they have traditionally predominated.

If Western religions are going to be exported to the Eastern world, Eastern religions must be imported to the West, just as the movement of trade must go in both directions. What is important is to take the best in human culture whatever its origin. We don't refuse a peach because it comes from what was originally a Chinese tree. So too, we should not refuse meditation teachings because other cultures have developed them better than we have.

And why should it be a problem for us if anyone finds spiritual benefit from a teaching that arises outside of their given cultural context? After all spiritual knowledge transcends limitations of time and space. Western culture has not traditionally given emphasis to spiritual knowledge such as has occurred in the East. That many Westerners have found benefit from Eastern spiritual teachings is a fact which should be honored. It would be cultural chauvinism to deny it.

True religion, whether it predominates in the Eastern or Western parts of the world, is not a matter of geography. All the religions of the world are followed in areas far beyond the geographical locale of their origin. Religion speaks of the ultimate issues of life and death and should orient us to the Eternal and the Universal. In this respect Hinduism with its universal view has greater relevance for all human beings than any belief system which divides humanity into believers and non-believers.

[ Back ] [ David Frawley ] [ Up ] [ Next ]