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Here's a great article written by Ralph Waldo Trine, in 1897. Actually, it's chapter 11 from his very popular book, In Tune with the Infinite, which sold over two million copies. Queen Victoria read his book, as well as Henry Ford, who attributed his success to having read it. Trine was a philosopher, teacher, mystic, and authored many books. This article reinforces in a powerful way the importance of the wonderful God-given principles commonly held in all true religions. It makes some other terrific points as well. -- David
THE BASIC PRINCIPLE OF ALL RELIGIONS—THE UNIVERSAL RELIGION
The great truth we are considering is the fundamental principle running through all religions. We find it in every one. In regard to it all agree. It is, moreover, a great truth in regard to which all people can agree, whether they belong to the same or to different religions. People always quarrel about the trifles, about their personal views of minor insignificant points. They always come together in the presence of great fundamental truths, the threads of which run through all. The quarrels are in connection with the lower self, the agreements are in connection with the higher self.
A place may have its factions that quarrel and fight among themselves, but let a great calamity come upon the land, flood, famine, pestilence, and these little personal differences are entirely forgotten and all work shoulder to shoulder in the one great cause. The changing, the evolving self gives rise to quarrels; the permanent, the soul self unites all in the highest efforts of love and service.
Patriotism is a beautiful thing; it is well for me to love my country, but why should I love my own country more than I love all others? If I love my own and hate others, I then show my limitations, and my patriotism will stand the test not even for my own. If I love my own country and in the same way love all other countries, then I show the largeness of my nature, and a patriotism of this kind is noble and always to be relied upon.
The view of God in regard to which we are agreed, that He is the Infinite Spirit of Life and Power that is back of all, that is working in and through all. that is the life of all, is a matter in regard to which all men, all religions can agree. With this view there can be no infidels or atheists. There are atheists and infidels in connection with many views that are held concerning God, and thank God there are. Even devout and earnest people among us attribute things to God that no respectable men or women would permit to be attributed to themselves. This view is satisfying to those who cannot see how God can be angry with his children, jealous, vindictive. A display of these qualities always lessens our respect for men and women, and still we attribute them to God.
The earnest, sincere heretic is one of the greatest friends true religion can have. Heretics are among God's greatest servants. They are among the true servants of mankind. Christ was one of the greatest heretics the world has ever known. He allowed himself to be bound by no established or orthodox teachings or beliefs. Christ is preeminently a type of the universal. John the Baptist is a type of the personal. John dressed in a particular way, ate a particular kind of food, belonged to a particular order, lived and taught in a particular locality, and he himself recognized the fact that he must decrease while Christ must increase. Christ, on the other hand, gave himself absolutely no limitations. He allowed himself to be bound by nothing. He was absolutely universal and as a consequence taught not for his own particular day, but for all time.
This mighty truth which we have agreed upon as the great central fact of human life is the golden thread that runs through all religions. When we make it the paramount fact in our lives we will find that minor differences, narrow prejudices, and all these laughable absurdities will so fall away by virtue of their very insignificance, that a Jew can worship equally as well in a Catholic cathedral, a Catholic in a Jewish synagogue. a Buddhist in a Christian church, a Christian in a Buddhist temple. Or all can worship equally well about their own hearth-stones, or out on the hillside, or while pursuing the avocations of every-day life. For true worship, only God and the human soul are necessary. It does not depend upon times, or seasons, or occasions. Anywhere and at any time God and man in the bush may meet.
This is the great fundamental principle of the universal religion upon which all can agree. This is the great fact that is permanent. There are many things in regard to which all cannot agree. These are the things that are personal, non-essential, and so as time passes they gradually fall away. One who doesn't grasp this great truth, a Christian, for example, asks "But was not Christ inspired?" Yes, but he was not the only one inspired. Another who is a Buddhist asks, "Was not Buddha inspired?" Yes, but he was not the only one inspired. A Christian asks, "But is not our Christian Bible inspired?" Yes, but there are other inspired scriptures. A Brahmin or a Buddhist asks, "Are not the Vedas inspired?" Yes, but there are other inspired sacred books. Your error is not in believing that your particular scriptures are inspired, but your error is—and you show your absurdly laughable limitations by it—your inability to see that other scriptures are also inspired.
The sacred books, the inspired writings, all come from the same source,—God, God speaking through the souls of those who open themselves that He may thus speak. Some may be more inspired than others. It depends entirely on the relative degree that this one or that one opens himself to the Divine voice. Says one of the inspired writers in the Hebrew scriptures, Wisdom is the breath of the power of God, and in all ages entering into holy souls she maketh them friends of God and prophets.
Let us not be among the number so dwarfed, so limited, so bigoted as to think that the Infinite God has revealed Himself to one little handful of His children, in one little quarter of the globe, and at one particular period of time. This isn't the pattern by which God works. Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that revereth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of Him, says the Christian Bible.
When we fully realize this truth we will then see that it makes but little difference what particular form of religion one holds to, but it does make a tremendous difference how true he is to the vital principles of this one. In the degree that we love self less and love truth more, in that degree will we care less about converting people to our particular way of thinking, but all the more will we care to aid them in coming into the full realization of truth through the channels best adapted to them. The doctrine of our master, says the Chinese, consisted solely in integrity of heart. We will find as we search that this is the doctrine of every one who is at all worthy the name of master.
The great fundamental principles of all religions are the same. They differ only in their minor details according to the various degrees of enfoldment of different people. I am sometimes asked, "To what religion do you belong?" What religion? Why, bless you, there is only one religion,—the religion of the living God. There are, of course, the various creeds of the same religion arising from the various interpretations of different people, but they are all of minor importance. The more unfolded the soul the less important do these minor differences become. There are also, of course, the various so-called religions. There is in reality, however, but one religion.
The moment we lose sight of this great fact we depart from the real, vital spirit of true religion and allow ourselves to be limited and bound by form. In the degree that we do this we build fences around ourselves which keep others away from us, and which also prevent our coming into the realization of universal truth; there is nothing worthy the name of truth that is not universal.
There is only one religion. "Whatever road I take joins the highway that leads to Thee," says the inspired writer in the Persian scriptures. "Broad is the carpet God has spread, and beautiful the colors he has given it." "The pure man respects every form of faith," says the Buddhist. "My doctrine makes no difference between high and low, rich and poor; like the sky, it has room for all, and like the water, it washes all alike." "The broad minded see the truth in different religions; the narrow minded see only the differences," says the Chinese. The Hindu has said, "The narrow minded ask, 'Is this man a stranger, or is he of our tribe?' But to those in whom love dwells, the whole world is but one family." "Altar flowers are of many species, but all worship is one." "Heaven is a palace with many doors, and each may enter in his own way." "Are we not all children of one Father?" says the Christian. "God has made of one blood all nations, to dwell on the face of the earth." It was a latter-day seer who said, "That which was profitable to the soul of man the Father revealed to the ancients; that which is profitable to the soul of man today revealeth He this day."
It was Tennyson who said, "I dreamed that stone by stone I reared a sacred fane, a temple, neither pagoda, mosque, nor church, but loftier, simpler, always open-doored to every breath from heaven, and Truth and Peace and Love and Justice came and dwelt therein."
Religion in its true sense is the most joyous thing the human soul can know, and when the real religion is realized, we will find that it will be an agent of peace, of joy, and of happiness, and never an agent of gloomy, long-faced sadness. It will then be attractive to all and repulsive to none. Let our churches grasp these great truths, let them give their time and attention to bringing people into a knowledge of their true selves, into a knowledge of their relations, of their oneness, with the Infinite God, and such joy will be the result, and such crowds will flock to them, that their very walls will seem almost to burst, and such songs of joy will continually pour forth as will make all people in love with the religion that makes for every-day life, and hence the religion that is true and vital. Adequacy for life, adequacy for every-day life here and now, must be the test of all true religion. If it does not bear this test, then it simply is not religion. We need an everyday, a this-world religion. All time spent in connection with any other is worse than wasted. The eternal life that we are now living will be well lived if we take good care of each little period of time as it presents itself day after day. If we fail in doing this, we fail in everything.
Below is an article by Swami Agnivesh, Hindu scholar, President of Arya Samaj, and Chairman of The United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery. The article delves into the importance of spirituality to religion, especially as it pertains to the spiritual landscape in India, where Agnivesh feels religion has eroded, and the need to develop the social dimensions of spirituality has grown. Swami touches upon what humans can do to implement change, and addresses our oneness and universal truths. If you enjoy this article, you can read more of Swami Agnivesh's writings at his website - www.swamiagnivesh.com
The hallmark of spirituality is responsiveness to the given context. This is what distinguishes spirituality from religion in its common practice.
As a matter of fact, religion in itself is meant to be a source of empowerment for human beings in their effort to make sense of, and cope with, their life-world. This has four major spheres of search, struggle and growth.
Spirituality needs to be distinguished in the light of these observations from the practice of religion, though spirituality is subsumed in religion. Over a period of time, as religion gets institutionalized, there comes about a gap between the two, which thereafter tends to widen. This polarization between religion and spirituality results from the degradation of religion and further contributes to it. In the end a stage is reached in which religion becomes a contradiction of spirituality. So it happens that religious rituals and sacraments become an escape route from the challenges and responsibilities of the world around us. It even happens that religious concepts are employed in justifying and perpetuating the practice of injustice.
From this perspective, our Vaidic heritage presents two contrasting faces. On the one hand, we have a rich and commendable religious and philosophical tradition, unrivaled in its sophistication and subtlety. No other religious culture has scaled the heights and depths of subjective spirituality (the subtle understanding of the self) as we have done. On the other hand, the Indian religious outlook has progressively tended to close its eyes to social realities where gross aberrations continued to thrive.
Consider the idea of Dharma in the Vaidic tradition. Understood properly, Dharma is essentially a spiritual concept that pertains to the foundation and sustenance of the created order in its natural, social and political dimensions. Dharma is that which undergirds the wholeness of creation and social life. It is possible to understand this principle either in a "status quoist" or in a dynamic way. Seen only in a status quoist perspective, Dharma is that which rationalizes and preserves the existing order with all its strengths and weaknesses, beauties and blemishes, intact. Dharma in other words is a preservative. But in its dynamic paradigm, Dharma becomes a principle of transformation. It aims not only at supporting the existing scheme of things, but also to bring out the ideal potentials in the order of creation, which is not yet revealed in all its scope.
From such a dynamic perspective, two categories of spiritual tasks become clear. First, there is a need to reinforce what is good and righteous in the given context. Second, there is a need also to resist and reduce the aberrations and distortions in the given socio-economic order. It is because of this that Swami Dayanand Saraswati emphasized that a sense of mission is basic to the practice of religion when it is healthy and dynamic. But when the spiritual fire within a religion dies out, the first casualty will be this sense of mission, which embodies the dynamism of that religion.
The problem with us today is that we have too much of religion but little of spirituality. And our religions seem to be vying with each other in justifying Karl Marx's indictment of religion that it is "an opium of the people". (The sense in which Marx used this expression is, incidentally, different from what is popularly derived from it. But that is another matter.) It is important to take cognizance of the alarming signs of religious decay in our times. Our religiosity is not imbued with a passion to resist the forces of evil. It is not ablaze with compassion for our fellow human beings and for the rest of creation. We watch mutely the shameless abuse of religion for political profits, using it as a blanket in this process for all sorts of atrocities and frauds. If this lamentable trend is not arrested, religion will be seen by the coming generation only as a liability, reinforcing the current secular prejudice.
Those who subscribe to the Vaidic World View, as I do, have a lot to answer for themselves vis-à-vis the institutionalization of injustice and systemic oppression in the name of Hinduism. In one sense, our society has been a peaceful one. Different religious communities have been living, at least till recently, in remarkable amity and harmony with each other. But in another sense we are one of the most violent societies in the world. No other society has kept as many millions for as many centuries in a state of subhuman subjugation and exploitation as the low caste people in all religious communities have been in this country. Even today, fifty years after the attainment of freedom, millions continue to suffer under the yoke of caste oppression and bonded labour. Miuions exist like living ghosts under the epidemic of poverty and avoidable diseases. 46% of our people today are illiterate. They outnumber the total population of India at the time of our Independence.
The tragic thing is that what makes suffering, enslavement and exploitation so endemic in our context is also our basic strength: our resilience as a people. Ironically we have been weakened by our strength. People put up with a lot in this country. They have the patience of mountains. They endure mutely on the edges of extinction. For far too long we have romanticized this slow suicide only because it served the interests of the status quo, of those who had everything and did not want to share the available resources with their neighbours. All religions have done it. Christianity turned the fierce biblical ethics into a tame and toothless thing, understandably castigated by Nietzsche as too mild and humane to be useful. The Church has had no use for the Jesus who exploded with indignation at the site of exploitation and overturned the tables of vested interests in the Temple premises. Instead, all through, the Church has been preaching self-denial while practising
tyranny and opulence.
The point in making this reference is to emphasize the need to radically re-value our orthodox ethical dogmas and assumptions. To do this meaningfully, we need to strike a balance between our habitual otherworldliness and the need for dynamic this-worldliness. The dishonest practice of selling the hope for a better birth or heaven in lieu of minimum human dignity and personal fulfillment in this world needs to be questioned. Those who cannot extend a helping hand to those who suffer and wither in this world have no moral right to insult them with the mockery of "a pie in the sky when you die". This needs to be seen as the bottom-line for evolving the contours of social spirituality.
Fundamental to the question of social spirituality is the distortion of ethics effected by the religious establishment. As the religious establishment gets stronger and stronger and as class or caste vested interests supersedes the spiritual ideals of a religious tradition, we find the revolutionary aspects of religious ethics being diluted. Ethical principles begin to be re-oriented in the direction of preserving and propagating the status quo. Ironically, it is the establishment, both religious and secular, that is keen to preach ethics. The willingness to practice ethics in this connection is inversely proportionate to the eagerness to preach it.
This pro status quo nature that is imparted to religion is incompatible with its true vocation, which is to transform individuals and societies. Transformation is not just any change. It is, instead, change directed towards the maximum fulfillment of human beings as human beings. Fulfillment in the human context, in other words, is a great deal more than mere material possession, indulgence or consumption of pleasure. In its social context, transformation acquires a revolutionary character. It implies the 'spiritual' duty to engage and reform institutions, systems and practices that are subversive of our humanity. This is the essence of righteousness in its dynamic sense. Dharma is not merely a state of having some nice sentiments. It is an active orientation that refuses to compromise with forces of evil. It excludes indifference to the suffering of one's fellow human beings.
At this point we need to reckon with a basic aspect of spirituality. The spiritual is different from the material in this respect that to be authentic the spiritual needs to be embodied. The material object is there whether or not it is used or invoked. A man who has a million rupees in bank balance is rich, even if he maintains the lifestyle of a pauper. Not so in the case of things spiritual. If someone says he has love in his heart, but never cares to express it in his life time, is a liar. It is, hence, integral to the logic of spirituality that it needs to be embodied in the given context. In that sense, we do not have to say "social spirituality"; for spirituality is also 'social' by definition.
Rather than recognize and develop the transformative dimension of religion -that is, the spiritual dynamism of religion- the priestly class in all religions prefer to promote its escapist aspects. Religious obscurantism is born out of this outlook. 'Obscurantism, as the word implies, involves a disengagement with the world of realities. It obscures the element of human responsibility and the need to respond in practical terms. Rather than take policy decision, for example, to wipe out illiteracy from India and pursue it vigorously through administrative action, we could go on chanting Saraswati Vandana. We could go on worshipping the goddess of wealth, and yet not develop a healthy work culture or sense of disciplined management of our material resources. Instead, we could improvise all sorts of rituals and practices by which the gods could be coaxed and cajoled to overlook our lapses and continue to bless us in spite of ourselves!
It is because of this that we face an embarrassing contradiction today. India is a land of profound spirituality. It is also a land of extreme of inequality, injustice and dehumanization. The sublime philosophical reach of the Indic soul has not found its social expressions. Social realities have gone almost in the opposite direction from the flight of this Indic soul. The Indian religious traditions, more than the Semitic religions, recognized the spiritual value of the female principle. But the plight of our women, especially of the widows, has continued to be lamentable all through. Hospitality has been a great value with us, but the dalits have never found a place in the architecture of our social outlook. It is here that the seed of our all-round poverty lies.
There are at least three major reasons why we need to develop social dimensions of our spirituality.
The need to create a dynamic social order has become all the more compelling in the context of globalism. Egalitarianism and people's participation have been major factors in the socio-economic dynamism of the developed societies. Today they are in a position to derive the best out of the emerging global order. The Market is not a place of sentimentality, compassion or charity. We have to deliver the goods to be taken seriously. Gimmicks like exploding nuclear devices will not cover the nakedness of our social underdevelopment by which we shall continue to be judged and condemned.
Those who claim to be spiritually enlightened cannot any longer shut their eyes on the weeping wounds of our society. The situation today is such that we have to launch a new "Liberation Movement" in India. For vast segments in our country, the attainment of political freedom has not meant much. Millions await to be liberated from bonded labour, child labour, illiteracy, poverty, ill-health, exploitation and conspiratorial neglect at the hands of the State. Millions more need to be liberated from superstition, religious obscurantism and fundamentalism. Above all our society needs to be liberated from the prison house of communal hatred and hostilities and the inevitable dissipation of energies and resources this involves. The rise of religious fundamentalism is made possible only by the dilution of our commitment to social justice.
One of the foremost needs in the Indian context today is to reform the very idea of religion. Our tragedy is that we have too much of religion and little of spirituality. Religion without spirituality, especially in its social dimension, tends to be a system of oppression and exploitation. It was against Christianity without a commitment to social justice that Karl Marx issued his informed indictment. Human history, including the Church, has been the richer for that. It is time that a similar spiritual ferment took place in our context too. But that will not happen as long as this is left in the hands of professional clergy and the hangers-on of the religious establishment. People whose hearts are set ablaze with compassion and truth need to devote themselves to the task of impacting our society from a spiritual perspective and produce the fruits of the resultant transformation so that the religious establishment is forced to take note of it. While religion can be the exclusive preserve of the religious, spirituality is under nobody's monopoly. He who gives a glass of water to quench the thirst of another is spiritually more evolved than those who chant their scriptures with their eyes closed on the giant agony of our world.