Chapter 5 Your Religion, My Religion -- and Ours   Is Vedanta a religion?   Do I need to give up my religion to study Vedanta?   How does Vedanta relate to other religions?   Useful books   Introduction No one can find a typical American, but we do still do use the phrase, and no doubt you were brought up in either a religious or non-religious family. If the latter, you may have had no concern with religion and no faith in things spiritual. Perhaps, recently, when life has shown you things you did not suspect, you are taking a new look at these matters. If raised in one of the "American" faiths -- Jewish, Catholic or Protestant -- you very likely felt, and may now feel, that your brand is right and others either wrong or at least misguided. When you looked at friends and schoolmates of other faiths and persuasions their lives may have seemed just as good as yours, or better; yet you and they were unable to find common ground on which to share religious or spiritual ideas. "Politics and religion are not to be discussed" -- this is the common adage. The "unchurched" or irreligious may indeed be freer of prejudice; but that freedom is often bought at the cost of no commitment to spiritual values and adventure.   Is Vedanta a Religion? Vedanta is the simplest basic religious statement, found originally in the ancient culture of India. It provides a "live and let live" philosophy of life in which the various faiths of the world are seen as facets of a diamond. Or as one of the Sanskrit hymns intones, "Just as all the streams, having their origins in different places and traveling in various directions, all at last reach the sea, so, O Lord, do the paths men take, rising from the various scriptures and followed by men according to their different temperaments, crooked or straight, all lead at last to Thee."   Do I need to give up my religion to study Vedanta? No, you do not. Vedanta does not even suggest to you that you abandon your own faith. It does suggest that you deepen it; and it does ask you not to belittle the faiths (or lack of faith) of others. The Vedantic idea is that we should not only respect everyone's religion, but also inform ourselves better about it, and if possible, regard it appreciatively. Why, after all, should all the peoples of the world think alike? Why not celebrate our differences? In this matter difference is the sauce of life. Vedanta says to everyone, "Yes, your way is best for you." Generally speaking, a person finds fulfillment best in the faith which is most familiar. If no faith is familiar, you may study, and choose your own. But if you really penetrate to the core of your own, you will find that it opens into the heart of other faiths as well, for there is a science of religion behind the religions of the world. It is only the one who remains on the surface of a religious faith and spiritual experience who can be a bigot or fanatic.   How does Vedanta relate to other religions? To suppose that the revelation given to the Prophet Mohammed on the mountain in Arabia, or to the Aryans through the Veda, or for that matter to the Ashanti tribe in West Africa, is the revelation for all mankind, is naive to say the least. Racial religions are sometimes spread to other races, but all too often, alas, through bribe and sword. As long as there are among men vast differences in language, temperament, racial and cultural character, and climate, religions will have to differ. And this is good. Swami Vivekananda used to say that each of us should have his or her own particular faith, not just like that of anyone else. As Sri Ramakrishna put it, "So many views, so many paths, to the same summit." In the West we usually try to force people into a prescribed mold. The great religious traditions are sometimes described as exhibiting six aspects or panels: each has a philosophy, a mythology, a ritual/liturgy, an experiential dimension (i.e., the spiritual experiences achievable through this faith), an ethic, and a social practice. These facets vary widely: for example, the moral standard which might prescribe vegetarianism for a Hindu in the tropics will be inappropriate for an Eskimo who has to live on animal food. The ceremony of a eucharist in a Christian church may be repellent to a Buddhist regarding it as reminiscent of cannibalism. It is highly unlikely that adherents of the various religions will ever find much agreement on matters of this sort. It is only in the dimension of spiritual experience that we are carried beyond the limitations of all the other aspects. As a result of the Vedic experience, and that of sages down the ages, including Ramakrishna in our time, it is our conclusion that awareness of and communion with a Divine Reality is the same experience for all, regardless of the religious conditioning to which we have been exposed. Sri Ramakrishna demonstrated the human capacity to put oneself into any religious framework one chooses. Vedanta has been called a Rosetta Stone of religion. Just as many doors were opened to the Egyptologists by the discovery of that stone, which carried the same message in three scripts, so is the science of religion to the religions. Each great faith is like a language, and when we learn more than one we can absorb truth through more than one source and have a richer experience. As has been said of languages, unless you know more than your own, you cannot be said truly to know even your own. The Christian understands that the way Jesus looked is something no one now knows (nor is it important that we do). The widely differing sculptures in the many cathedrals and the paintings by different artists, are all accepted depictions or conceptions of the one Christ. Likewise, the artistic and cultural creations in each religion are a mixture of inspiration and conjecture. It is the inspirational we wish to draw out and celebrate. As Sri Ramakrishna said, "A wise ant can separate the grains of sugar from a heap of sand mixed with sugar." Based on all this, then, the following propositions: That human nature, fundamentally, is not other than divine. We are made in the image of God. Moreover, as the Divine Reality must be omnipresent, it is within everything, from the sub-atomic particles to the "gods." Human beings have the power to recognize it in themselves. Therefore the aim of our life on earth is to unfold and manifest this Godhead within, hidden but eternally present. Truth is universal, and not the exclusive possession of any one creed, race or epoch. All religions inspired by the highest ideals can lead to Ultimate Truth. All the great prophets, saints and teachers are to be revered. The guiding principle and spirit in all our thought processes is, as Swami Vivekananda observed, that we never travel from error to truth, but from truth to truth; it may be a lower to a higher truth. Thus we see that Vedanta is no new world-religion; no eclectic synthesis, borrowing something from all faiths; nor is it the all-embracing blueprint for a "universal" religion for the world of today or tomorrow. It proposes no grandiose scheme. But this spirit, this ideal of each of us having our own faith and simultaneously appreciating and even sharing in, the faiths of others, already exists in the hearts of many, throughout the world. We can hope it will spread from heart to heart.   Useful books: Jñana Yoga, by Swami Vivekananda (the last two chapters) The Perennial Philosophy, by Aldous Huxley The World's Religions, by Huston Smith Living Wisdom, by Swami Prabhavananda et al. Harmony in Chaos, by Barbara Foxe The Sermon on the Mount, by Swami Prabhavananda What We Can Learn from the East, by Beatrice Bruteau   Aum | About | Calendar | Articles | Stories | On-line books Bulletin board | Books & tapes | Links | Search | Contact