Shirdi Sai Baba Stories,Leelas and Teachings.: Inner Voyage To Explore Sai-The Cream Of All Faiths-Chapter 6.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Inner Voyage To Explore Sai-The Cream Of All Faiths-Chapter 6.

Share Author: Manisha.Rautela.Bisht on 10:21 PM

Dear all,
Happy Thursday
Today I am uploading 6th chapter from the book "Inner Voyage To Explore Sai ".Devotees are requested to follow the link given at the end of this post if they miss on any part/chapter of the book .Jai Sai Ram

Chapter VI
THE CREAM OF ALL FAITHS
-By Saipadananda

The essentials of all religions are the same. And Vedanta embodies these essentials. It can free Hinduism from the apotheosized hereditary caste and plethora of rituals, in accordance with the taste of the modern people. It can supply a generalized background to other faiths, as an all encompassing system for an intellectual basis.

If the followers of dogmatic, doctrinaire theologies find the Vedantic theory of all paths leading to the same Godhead difficult to incorporate in their own systems, they can at least recognize that in a land of many faiths they can accept the theory of unity in variety. This recognition will change the mental climate and pave the way for better understanding.

After all, the days of dreaming of a world religious empire are gone and if the religions are to fight the onslaught of aggressive secularism and anti-religious systems, they must unite to preserve the faith, not for political or material advantages but for the deepening of spiritual sense itself.

What is the core of all religions? It is not the consciousness of oneself as Spirit and having faith in a Higher Reality and in higher values? Religions are worth the name when they foster faith in God and in the higher virtues. The true Muslims, the true Christians join the true Hindus in their faith in God, in devotion, wisdom, sacrifice and detachment.

It is not that a man can be a good follower of any of these systems without changing his life, remaining earth-bound. He must lift up his mind and attune it to the Divine. Every religion says that, Vedanta, of course, proclaims this more emphatically and unequivocally. That is why we like to invoke the name of Vedanta or essential Hinduism, instead of Hinduism in general which has a doctrinaire side also like other religions.

Vedanta represents the essence, the core, the cream of all faiths and it is free from the colors of the limitations of any country or society. It points out the truth lying in every religion, unnoticed, unexplored, undeveloped. Let the different religions take the clue from Vedanta, re-discover the truth in their own systems and express it in tune with their own genius.

Mutual understanding is the urgent necessity of the times. Let the best minds of every faith come forward and persuade the society to accept the conceptions of unity experience, of unity in variety, of the synthesis of religions.

Vedanta does not try to convert anyone, it seeks to make a Hindu a better Hindu, a Mussalman a better Mussalman and a Christian, a better Christian. Will not the leaders of religions hear this liberal message of Vedanta for deepening the spiritual lives of their followers, for the survival of religions in this age of materialism at least out of expediency, if not out of conviction? Politics alone cannot bring about this mutual understanding, for it seeks to acquire rights, whereas religion endeavors to sacrifice them for good to people. This spiritual principle of self-sacrifice is fortunately still the basic idea of our society.

Coming up in Next post :

UNITY IN DIVERSITY

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