We are fortunate to be living in a time when an old era is ending and a new one is about to begin. The past millennium has been most violent in mankind’s history. Unprecedented genocides were committed during the past thousand years. Wars during the millennium were more devastating than ever before. Slavery, inquisitions, witch-hunting, ethnic cleansing, colonialism, imperialism, carpet bombing, nuclear weapons – are some words that illustrate the character of the past one thousand years.

 

Rising beyond the past thousand years, today when humanity is looking with hope for the next thousand years there is growing realization that some fundamental changes are needed in today’s paradigm of human thought, which has been shaped during the past thousand years by increasing influence of one-book religions. As the world looks to redefine the paradigm of human ideas, relationships and organizations, there is growing interest in the religions that existed prior to the rise of one-book religions.

 

Hinduism is a global religion with no foes except the forces who seek to enslave mankind. The mindset of all one-book religions is the only enemy that Hinduism must fight. Every single thinker who has contributed to liberation of human mind from the clutches of one-bookisms has to be respected. Hindus must respect Voltaire and Nietzsche along with all those who have stood up for free thought anywhere in the world. Let us remember the words that Voltaire wrote in February 1778, a few months before his death - "I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition". These are words by a true Hindu.

 

Thanks to great thinkers like Voltaire, the iron-grip of Christian Churches on European and American mind has considerably weakened. Most of the so-called Christians in Europe and America may go to a Church for special occasions but they do not let key decisions of their life to be governed by any Church.

 

Hinduism needs to address these so-called Christians. Hindus must tell them that Hinduism is not opposed to Jesus Christ. Most of them have already liberated themselves from the Church and the Bible. Hinduism provides them the freedom to continue worshipping Jesus and God the way they have always done while adopting Hindu philosophical framework for taking key decisions of their life. Recall the guidance in this respect given by Swami Vivekananda at the World Parliament of Religions, Chicago, 1893.

 

 

According to him, the Hindu religion does not consist in struggling and attempts to believe a certain doctrine or dogma, but in realising- not in believing but in being and becoming. He also dwelt briefly with the Hindu philosophy about “body and soul”, ”the law of Karma” and the law of reincarnation. He also informed the audience that Hindus have received their religion through revelation, the Vedas. Vedas mean the accumulated treasury of spiritual laws discovered by different persons in different times. The discoverers of the laws are called Rishis, and we honour them as perfected beings. Defining his view on ‘universal religion’, he said: “If there is ever to be a universal religion, it must be one which will have no location in place or time; which will be infinite, like the God it will preach, and whose sun will shine upon the followers of Krishna and of Christ, on saints and sinners alike, which will not be Brahminic or Buddhistic, Christian or Mohammedan, but the sum total of all… It will be a religion which will have no place for persecution or intolerance in its polity, which will recognise divinity in every man and woman, and whose whole scope, whose whole force, will be centred in aiding humanity to realise its own true divine nature. Offer such a religion and all the nations will follow you.”

 

In his final address, the Swami made a grand appeal for the harmony of religious faiths. To achieve this, he said: “The Christian is not to become a Hindu or Buddhist, nor is a Buddhist or a Hindu to become Christian. But each must assimilate the spirit of the others and yet preserve his individuality and grow according to his own law of growth.”

 

It is important to assert that Hindus do not seek to convert or impose. There is no attempt to even liberate. Each individual must walk the path of liberation oneself. Hinduism and learned men and women of Hindu thought should only be glad to offer assistance and guidance on the path of liberation seeking nothing in return.

 

While Hindus must counter and oppose one-bookisms, it is necessary to not lose the message of love and compassion for one and all. Let us aspire to make friends, to make brothers, to make sisters and to love even those who do not think like the way we do. We do not wish to change anyone unless one wishes to do so. We do not wish to impose our rituals and practices on anyone. Of course, if one wishes to seek and understand one’s own religious practices – lost and buried by hundreds of years of oppression of some one-bookism – we shall be glad to act as a friend. Hinduism sees itself as a friend of all “pagan” religions.

 

The journey of Global Hindu Renaissance is not a political movement. It is not an attempt to gain power over some individuals or communities or nations. Hindu Renaissance is a major transition point in history. It is the end of kali-yug – the thousand year period of human history when machines become supreme and dharm weakens. We are fortunate to be living at a time when the change of epoch has just begun. However, there is also a challenge for all of us living through this transition phase of human history. We must be the flag-bearers of the change. We must start the spark that will brighten up the whole world. The sun that will illuminate the world has to first rise in our hearts.

 

Hindu Renaissance is first an individual journey. While Christianity has its Church, Islam has its mosques and Jews have their synagogues, Hinduism lives in the hearts of Hindus. Let each one of us discover the Muni who lives in one’s heart and appears when all the negativities of anger, greed, conceit etc. are removed. Let us be guided by the learned ones while we keep listening and obeying the voice of the Muni in our hearts.

 

This is a long journey that will be as much internal as external. The path is clear – get over the negativities, become a dev and follow the path of dharm, arth and kaam. Anyone who walks on this path will surely be rewarded with peace, love, prosperity and happiness. The person who walks this path will have the support of the Cosmic Being and all the forces of the Cosmic Being in all their manifestations. Let there be no doubt about this.

 

                            ***DHARMO RAKSHATI RAKSHITAHA***

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