A little light
Thrown on Swadharma
and Religion
The term “religion” is only about 1000 years old and was used
first for the Church and later for Islam. It means “to bind”. If religion is
for the welfare of people, it must bind oneself to the Divine and not to one
book or doctrine.
Each of Islam and Christian religions makes a terrible, but untrue claim: all those who don’t belong to their own religion, will suffer for all eternity in hell-fire.
Anybody who is not indoctrinated can see immediately that there is something very dangerous and discriminative in these claims. Let’s analyze them:
Each of Islam and Christian religions makes a terrible, but untrue claim: all those who don’t belong to their own religion, will suffer for all eternity in hell-fire.
Anybody who is not indoctrinated can see immediately that there is something very dangerous and discriminative in these claims. Let’s analyze them:
First: The simple logic is that if we believe in creator, Eswar,
Allah or Esa, by whatever name we call should be one, and he is supreme. Then
his kingdom resembles a cone and he will be at the pinnacle and his staff
occupy circles of various diameters till the cone touches the base and we stand
at the base. If this is the crux of the point, what if, by whatever name he is
called.
Second: As against the existence of God everywhere that includes the nature (Ardhanariswara Tatva) as envisaged by the Vedas, the religions occupying first and second place in the world preach the creator to be different from it. Can that stand for any logical argument.
Third: the claim that those who don’t convert will burn in hell for all eternity needs to be dismissed outright. It is ridiculous, but unfortunately still widely believed by those who were indoctrinated into their fixed doctrines.
Second: As against the existence of God everywhere that includes the nature (Ardhanariswara Tatva) as envisaged by the Vedas, the religions occupying first and second place in the world preach the creator to be different from it. Can that stand for any logical argument.
Third: the claim that those who don’t convert will burn in hell for all eternity needs to be dismissed outright. It is ridiculous, but unfortunately still widely believed by those who were indoctrinated into their fixed doctrines.
The issue is serious. Today’s most pressing problem, Islamic
terrorism, has its roots in the claim that infidels are rejected by Allah. ISIS
and others don’t see them even as human beings, but rather as sub-human, and
therefore it is easy to kill them. Their foot soldiers consider it a sacred
duty to rid the earth of such sub-humans to please their God. Obviously they
are convinced that what they were taught is true and they will get paradise for
their acts. (ISIS stands for Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and is an
extremist militant group that is ruled by Wahhabi/Salafi law.)
Once it was the same case with Christians also. Now they are
playing mind games to appease the skeptical lot and making them gullible or
drag them into their religion by pelf, power or foul means.
But unfortunately the truth is that they may draw people, especially from Hinduism, for the time being but gradually when they analyze they, I mean the followers of respective faiths, lose faith in the religion and remain oscillating like a pendulum and when it attains rest they lose faith in God with their confused state of mind. Present day Europe is the best example for that.
But unfortunately the truth is that they may draw people, especially from Hinduism, for the time being but gradually when they analyze they, I mean the followers of respective faiths, lose faith in the religion and remain oscillating like a pendulum and when it attains rest they lose faith in God with their confused state of mind. Present day Europe is the best example for that.
Bhagavad Gita says, ‘Swadharme nidhanam shreyah paradharmo
bhayaavahah’ (3.35).
This can be explained to any extent but in a nutshell
"Swadharma is that action which is in accordance with your nature. It is acting in accordance with your skills and talents, your own nature (Svabhava), and that which you are responsible for (karma). Any action that does not make you feel afraid or restless is Swadharma. That action which you feel compelled to do, without which you feel restless is Swadharma. Let it not be misinterpreted, ‘I feel restless if I do not drink alcohol’. No! Not at all. Because it is not Swadharma, it is just your desire.
Therefore one should be able to distinguish clearly between 'To succumb to pleasure and pain or stand sturdy with all unflinching and unceasing adherence to his Swadharma.
"Swadharma is that action which is in accordance with your nature. It is acting in accordance with your skills and talents, your own nature (Svabhava), and that which you are responsible for (karma). Any action that does not make you feel afraid or restless is Swadharma. That action which you feel compelled to do, without which you feel restless is Swadharma. Let it not be misinterpreted, ‘I feel restless if I do not drink alcohol’. No! Not at all. Because it is not Swadharma, it is just your desire.
Therefore one should be able to distinguish clearly between 'To succumb to pleasure and pain or stand sturdy with all unflinching and unceasing adherence to his Swadharma.
Swasti.
The following are the important
comments subscribed by a few who read the article verbatim when I published on
June 2nd 2016 originally.
Murthy Srigiriraju: While our Sanathana Dharma is like
a perennial river always providing us fresh running water, the religions are
like stagnated water ponds, losing their utility gradually due to contamination
& drying up. Have ever seen, people of other faiths visiting/consulting
religious scholars of Islam, Christianity etc.,to seek solace & enrich
quality of spiritual life? But it is a routine phenomenon that people of all
faiths flocking to our religious scholars regularly. The popularity &
belief in our religious philosophy is so much & the solace seekers are so
large that there are hundreds of branches of Hindu Philosophical centers all
over the world who seek solace & solution besides acquiring spiritual
knowledge, which is not found in any other faith. One more interesting fact is
that, whatever may be the official religion of south & eastern nations like
Srilanka, Maldives, Mauritius, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand,
Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam etc., since ages are fallowing our traditions
& customs by suitably modifying to suit their needs including following
& worshipping our epic characters, though with variations due to the
universal acceptability of Sanathana Dharma, inspite of continuous onslaught by
intolerant fanatics of other faiths.
2Murthy Srigiriraju: 1. Jesus Christ & Mohammad are
not Gods, they are the messengers of God. The Bible & Quran are the life
& times of Jesus Christ & Mohammad, their historical documents.
So there is no sacred book before Bible/Quran or after
Bible/Quran.as they begin with Christ / Mohammad & end with Christ\
Mohammad. So only the customs, practices & the concepts & philosophy
preached by Christ/Mohammad are documented in the Bible/Quran.
During their
times, Christ /Mohammad, were moved by the living conditions & atrocities
on their tribes, the Jews/infidels etc., by the rulers & other tribes. So
in order to protect them, & bring orderliness in their society, they conceived
a cult, in the name of their perception of God, weaving around some miracles,
for the people to fear, worship & get solace from both natural & man
made calamities Thus succeeded & also brought unity among various tribes,
for a peaceful & harmonious coexistence. Similar is the case with Sikhism,
Guru Nanak & guru Granth Sahib, etc., which were all historical documents
of those messengers of God, without any spiritual philosophy.
In comparison,
Hinduism is a way of life, the Sanathana Dharma, God/Super natural force
centric. It is continuously, documented from times immemorial, by various,
saints, Gurus, scholars, through written scriptures of Vedas, Upanishads &
epics like Ramayana, Mahabharatha etc., experienced & heard through the
God, with a divine philosophy applicable for all ages including present &
future, & various of its concepts, proved & continuously under research
of even the innumerable mundane & spiritual concepts, by the eminent
western scientists, by learning sanskrit & stealing several of our ancient
scriptures. For example the various epic asthras are, atomic weapons, rockets,
missiles,the pushpak viman are today's aero planes, engineering marvels like, Rama
Sethu, Dasavataras are nothing but, origin & evolution of life,
subsequently postulated by Charles Darwin, . to name a few. Thus while we have
an ocean of scientifically established innumerable scriptures, the Christians
have just a Bible, the Muslims a Quran etc. That is the reason why Hinduism/
Sanathana Dharma is eternal, philosophy of God & creation.1
Vvs Sarma: Any religion which classifies people into
believers and nonbelievers, by whatever name they are called is a threat to
humanity. 2000 years of history are blood soaked on account of these closed
mind, brain-washed belief systems I feel it is the trait of Kaliyuga.
4
Vulapalli Hanumantha Rao: Very much impressed but needs
a number of readings to leave alone to assimilate basically to understand which
i try, sir.
No comments:
Post a Comment