By Consul B. John Zavrel
A book review of the new publication by Swami VedaBharati.
The genius of ordinary people - religioushierarchy against the spiritual teachers - sacred places remain overthe centuries - learn the truth about other faiths - peace andprogress that religions brought to mankind - teach the children thepeace within first - a universal meditation method forall
'In which inter-religious council of the world wasit agreed that Hindus, Buddhists, and Christians of all denominationswould join the hands before the heart in worship?
Who decreed that people of all faiths should kneelor bow in one form or another to the presence of Divinity?
When was it agreed that prayers should be countedon rosary, mala, or tasbeeh by the Christian,Hindu-Buddhist-Taoist, and the Muslim?
Who determined that sacred and holy water, whetherfrom Jordan, Ganga, or Zamzam, should be an important component ofreligious observance for the Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, andthe Muslim?
Which master architect planned all edifices forworship to point upwards into the sky?
When was the agreement signed that incense beburned in sacred places of the Hindu, Buddhist, American Indian,Muslim and Catholic?
How is it that ringing a bell has been part of aritual among so many different forms of worship in differentreligions?
Who determined that meatless days be observed bythe adherents of all religions?
Is it strange that what the Asian religions(Hinduism and Buddhism) refer to as dashansha (tenth part of one'sincome to be donated) is equally considered a bounden duty as tithingin Western religions?
Who determined that people of all faiths shouldsay grace before meals?
Who taught to all that an immersion in a holyriver would constitute a spiritual rebirth?
Who developed the idea that the followers of eachreligion should have a sacred book, in written or oralform?
Who instituted the tradition of song as anoffering to Divinity in all religions?
How is it that as part of 'a floating mass ofwisdom' the people of all religions tell parables and stories thatparallel each other, one claiming it to be Hindu, another calling itSufi, or Buddhist, or Christian?
How is it that we find some almost identicalpassages in Popul Vuh, the Bible, the Koran, Mahabharata,Dhammapada, Avesta, and the Upanishads?
How did the Druids, the Brahmins, and thefollowers of Pythagoras (see Ovid's Metamorphoses, Ch. 15) alldevelop a faith in reincarnation, in lands so distant from eachother?
Where shall we look for the common source, if any,of the Vestal Virgins, the Virgin Mother of Jesus, the VirginSaraswati, the Virgin Wise Woman of the Oneida, and the Kumariinstitutions of contemporary Nepal?
So, one more rhetorical question here: What givesthe right to followers of some religions to condemn as 'primitive'(whatever that means!) such uniformly agreed ways of wisdom? Why notsimply acknowledge that the unifying streams among religions havealways flowed in freedom, irrespective or repression, and that all weneed to do is to look at the power of these streams to chart thecourse for the flow of our own river of history into thefuture.'
These are thoughts and words of Swami VedaBharati, a prominent spiritual teacher and guide to many in Europe,Asia and America. One of the top 30 swamis (monks) in all of India,Swami Veda is a disciple of Swami Rama of the Himalayas.
His booklet titled Unifying Streams inReligion was written on the occasion of the "2000 World PeaceSummit" of leaders in religion and spirituality at the UnitedNations, which took place on August 28-31, 2000.
The thought-provoking ideas contain the energyneeded to push our thinking in a new direction, in a directionleading toward peace for mankind.
According the Swami Veda, there are forces besidehuman ones that are the fountainhead from which all urge to worshipproceeds, and which further teach all 'chosen peoples' in allcenturies and all nations even the way to worship. It is theirpresence that is the unifying stream among all our religions. It isbecause of this common source in the Divine Forces that so manysymbols, forms, rituals, and verbal or art forms are shared amongreligions.
He examines the widely scattered events in which(a) the mystics and philosophers, (b) the common people, and (c) evensome personages powerful in polity have maintained the sharedexperience of religion as a force for harmony.
It is well known that in pluralistic societies thecommon people, being exposed to the experience of each other's beliefsystem and practices, often manage to merge them. People beginsharing experiences and practices out of neighborly courtesy. Thisthey manage to do without infringing their own basic belief systems.They accommodate the divergent only to the extent that no majorinfringement of their own faith might occur. The songs sung inrituals may be adapted from one religion to fill a need in another.The Hindu folk singer sings:
Oh, under what tree might Rama and Lakshamana,both brothers in exile,
be sheltering and getting alldrenched?
The Shia Muslim folk singer, whose ancestors mighthave converted from Hinduism to Islam, sings at Muharramm:
Oh, under what tree Hasan and Husain, bothbrothers in exile,
be sheltering and getting alldrenched?
And often an accommodation is found to insert thetraditions and forms of an older religion into the new religion of aconqueror, or of one who evangelizes a local population. An exampleis the continuity of the Christmas tree tradition in Christianity,even though Odin and Thor have been abandoned and Jesus has replacedthem. The two divergent streams are unified and one cannot say whereone ends and the other begins.
And Swami Veda continues: 'Often the religionchanges but the sacred is retained. The shrines of indigenous peopletaken over by theologically more sophisticated religions continue tobe sacred. Among the more tolerant lands even the icons are notreplaced. An example is the Jagannatha shrine at Puri in Orissa.Elsewhere, the site of the religion of the conquered or the convertedmay be altered into the church, mosque, or temple of the conqueror orthe evangelist, but the site itself remains sacred, reserved forworship, now in a new form. The Sun temple of the Incas in Cusco isan example.'
'One of the major experiments in flowing with theunifying stream in religions has been going on in India for manythousands of years. Here Hindu, Buddhist, and Jaina have constantlyinteracted. It is said that Buddhism disappeared from India. Not so.Its tenets were absorbed into the Hindu view of life and practices,just as the Hindu forms of the deity were included in MahayanaBuddhism in mainland India, its maritime regions, and in Tibet. InIndia, the Jainas and the Zarathushtrians both study theBhagavad-gita with the same diligence as the Hindus. TheJainas offer prayers to the Hindu forms. The shrine in Bodh-gaya,where the Buddha attained enlightenment, is sacred to both Hinduismand Buddhism, for different reasons, and the people of both religionshave worshipped there together for a thousand years, notwithstandingthe sad situation that political forces, ignorant of the people'sgenius, today are causing a division.'
Although divisive political forces bear much ofthe responsibility for separation among religions, it must be alsosaid that in the course of history there have been many kings whosearched for the meaning of truth in all religions, or in one way oranother tried to reconcile the concept of non-violence with theirstatecraft.
Akhenaton in the thirteen century B.C., because ofhis religious conviction, chose not to resort to armed force. Theemperor Khusro of Iran, a follower of Zarathushtra, liberated 40,000Jews from Babylonian captivity and helped them to rebuild the Templeof Solomon. He also encouraged the Egyptian priests to revivediligently their own forms of worship under his patronage. His sonDara followed in his footsteps. Ashoka in the third century B.C.disbanded his armies and ruled an entire empire by the power ofvirtue (dharma). He also provided patronage to the followersof different religions while he himself remained and adherent ofBuddhism.
Thus, the coming together of religions is neithera novel idea nor something difficult to obtain. In our modern timesguides like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Bishop Desmond Tutu, allapostles of non-violence, have been religiously inspired. Often theascetic inspired by spirituality conquers the emperor by strength ofhis faith.
According to Swami Veda, the realization of aSupreme Reality as One Self, atman, ever remaining that oneindivisible Self and yet taking multifarious forms, could be thebasis of a universal doctrine that would unite all religions in aview of "one in many and many in one", accepting the variety ofmanifestations revealed to different people at differenttimes.
He explains: 'Here we are not talking oftolerance, co-existence and such, but a realization on the parts ofall to recognize the many ways of God and honor, venerate and reverethem all. Those seeking a way to find mutual accommodation amongreligions need to study in depth both the Vedic vishu-rupaphilosophy as well as the anekanta doctrine and make it a partof personal realization. This is not merely a tolerance for anotherforced out of fear of violence and destruction, not a mere responseto difficult situations created by humanity's ignorance. This is thecredo that millions, nay billions, uphold. All they need on this pathis encouragement granted to them by their guides. It is not to 'givethem freedom', for that is not anyone's to grant, but it is torecognize and respect freedom in law and in love, and it is toeducate future generations into remaining true to these perennialtruths.
And Swami Veda concludes his offering with thesewords: 'Such an education will not be possible, nor will theredevelop the state of mind that leads to choice of non-violentinclinations, unless the contemplative heritage of all religions andspiritual traditions is revived.
The methods of contemplation to retrain the mind,the ways of meditation, also seem to be divergent, but there arecertain procedures common to all systems of meditation. The advantageof this core component of divergent meditation systems is that it canbe practiced within the context of all religious traditions withoutviolating any of their tenets. Its practice would strengthen thefaith of each through the purification and clarification of thespiritual mind. May we propose that all councils that govern theworld begin their deliberations with such a meditation, so that acalm state of spiritual mind may be established before undertakingthe decision-making process.
May we further suggest that such a meditation beintroduced into educational institutions so that there would developthe states of a spiritual mind that preclude and prevent tendenciesto violence, aggression, and mutual intolerance; that such tendenciesmay be thus washed off right at the outset; that children might growninto adults who are confirmed in peace, first in inner peace, andthrough that, in the exterior one.'
BLESSING OF INTERIOR PEACE:
Without interior peace the exterior environmentof peace cannot be established. This Blessing is a collectiveexperience of interior peace and silence to be guided for three tofive minutes according to a universal system of the contemplativepath. This can also be a participatory demonstration of how allreligions equally share a certain essence in the contemplative paththat leads to interior peace, stillness, and silence.
WORDS OF THE INTERIOR BLESSING OF PEACE ANDSTILLNESS
(Time: three to five minutes. Spaces betweenparagraphs represent the moments of silentcontemplation.)
Let us bring our awareness to ourbeing.
Let us know ourselves to be the Temple ofGod.
Let the seat of our thought, the forehead,relax.
Observe the gift of Divinity granted to us in theform of our very life, manifest in each breath.
Feel the flow and the touch of the breath in thenostrils.
This is a gift of grace being granted to us everymoment.
Breathe gently, slowly, moothly;
without a jerk, without a pause between thebreaths.
Now, bring to mind your preferred Name fordivinity according ot your own religion and language.
Exhaling, think that one Name.
Inhaling, think that one Name.
No break in the feel of the flow ofbreath.
No break between the contemplation of the Name andthe Name.
Observe how the mind, breath, and the Name flowtogether as a single stream.
The entire mind has become a quiet stream flowingtowards the infinite Divinity within.
Continue to obseve the flow; gently open youreyes.
May this peace prevailing in our minds radiate asa blessing and pervade the consciousness of all beings in theuniverse.
Om Shantih, Shantih, Shantih.
Peace. Peace. Peace.
(The booklet 'Unifying Streams in Religion' bySwami Veda Bharati can be ordered from: The Rishikesh Foundation,10545 Main Street, Clarence, New York 14031.
Price $ 5 including postage.)