Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals : 19-3. SWAMI KRISHNANANDA
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27/11/2019.
19. To Thine Own Self Be True-3.
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Many religions, rightly or wrongly, knowingly or unknowingly, have given the impression that they are teaching an otherworldly gospel, which has roused the wrath of many socially-oriented thinkers who do not feel that the world of nature is an unreality to the extent that it demands a religious abnegation.
I do not think that the very Sankalpam of religion, whether it is a Sri Raman or Sri Krishna or Mahadevan or devi sankalpam , were responsible for creating this difficulty in our religious thinking. Most followers, whether of the gospel of Krishna or ...., seem to be expressing the weakness that is characteristic of human nature and demonstrating that they cannot be up to the mark or the level of the prophet. While humility is a great virtue and it is quite obvious that no follower of the great prophet or the founder of a religion can be equal to that prophet, it would be unbecoming on the part of the followers of these great Gurus to interpret their teachings in a manner which could be tantamount to a reading of a quite different meaning of their original teachings.
If religion is the way of life that is commensurate with the existence of the omnipresent God, religious wars are unthinkable and should be regarded as an unimaginable tragedy in the psychological life of man. How would you reconcile the inner impulse in man to move towards the omnipresent Almighty with the need he feels, simultaneously, to keep a knife under his armpit to guard himself against his own brother?
How would a truly religious spirit try to reconcile this ambivalent attitude of the human being who guards himself against his own brother whom he is expected to love with all his heart, with all his soul! How would this reconciliation be effected?
Man cries hoarse that man should serve man, and humanity should work for humanity. Social service is the slogan of the modern day. But, it is man who is the source of fear for man. While we live apparently only to serve our brethren, as a necessary outcome of the true religious life, we seem to be working, at the same time, to be cautious of our brethren. We look at our neighbour with a wary eye and we are secretly prepared for any encounter with the very same humanity whom we are trying to serve as our own brothers. There is a psychological conflict in man's mind.
There is a double dealing in the so-called religious man. And we may say, perhaps, he is not true to his own self. "To thine own Self be true," perhaps sums up the gospel of religion. It is no use preaching and it is no use trying the implementation of a project which can succumb finally to a small weakness in man's mind, which he has been guarding from the eye of observation, lest it should spoil his career. An open-mindedness, which is hundred per cent in its expression, is a hard thing to find in the world.
To be continued .....
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27/11/2019.
19. To Thine Own Self Be True-3.
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Many religions, rightly or wrongly, knowingly or unknowingly, have given the impression that they are teaching an otherworldly gospel, which has roused the wrath of many socially-oriented thinkers who do not feel that the world of nature is an unreality to the extent that it demands a religious abnegation.
I do not think that the very Sankalpam of religion, whether it is a Sri Raman or Sri Krishna or Mahadevan or devi sankalpam , were responsible for creating this difficulty in our religious thinking. Most followers, whether of the gospel of Krishna or ...., seem to be expressing the weakness that is characteristic of human nature and demonstrating that they cannot be up to the mark or the level of the prophet. While humility is a great virtue and it is quite obvious that no follower of the great prophet or the founder of a religion can be equal to that prophet, it would be unbecoming on the part of the followers of these great Gurus to interpret their teachings in a manner which could be tantamount to a reading of a quite different meaning of their original teachings.
If religion is the way of life that is commensurate with the existence of the omnipresent God, religious wars are unthinkable and should be regarded as an unimaginable tragedy in the psychological life of man. How would you reconcile the inner impulse in man to move towards the omnipresent Almighty with the need he feels, simultaneously, to keep a knife under his armpit to guard himself against his own brother?
How would a truly religious spirit try to reconcile this ambivalent attitude of the human being who guards himself against his own brother whom he is expected to love with all his heart, with all his soul! How would this reconciliation be effected?
Man cries hoarse that man should serve man, and humanity should work for humanity. Social service is the slogan of the modern day. But, it is man who is the source of fear for man. While we live apparently only to serve our brethren, as a necessary outcome of the true religious life, we seem to be working, at the same time, to be cautious of our brethren. We look at our neighbour with a wary eye and we are secretly prepared for any encounter with the very same humanity whom we are trying to serve as our own brothers. There is a psychological conflict in man's mind.
There is a double dealing in the so-called religious man. And we may say, perhaps, he is not true to his own self. "To thine own Self be true," perhaps sums up the gospel of religion. It is no use preaching and it is no use trying the implementation of a project which can succumb finally to a small weakness in man's mind, which he has been guarding from the eye of observation, lest it should spoil his career. An open-mindedness, which is hundred per cent in its expression, is a hard thing to find in the world.
To be continued .....
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