Multiplicity & Oneness of Religions.
MULTIPLICITY of Faiths and Religions
exist only at the periphery.
As one gains understanding and moves towards the center, differences
that exist at the
Periphery gradually reduces like distance between the radii
of a circle, and vanishes at the
center, where truth of ONENESS alone prevails.
As long as one stays at the periphery, the differences
continue to exist.
Differences are caused by the relative expressions of the
absolute.
Expressing the Absolute is like expressing an alimentary TASTE,
which is not present in any of the known food.
So, it is relatively expressed in comparison with the known tastes.
When it comes to ‘Religious Experience’ of oneness, it
becomes much more complicated.
Because, realized souls not only try to express and explain the
‘Experience’ but also
formulate a system to enable others to attain that state of consciousness.
These systems are naturally anchored in the society of that particular
period,
culture and social mores.
And, the respective religions have come a long way from the founders to the
contemporary followers,
covering centuries, going through divisions and changes in
their structure and form.
So, differences bound to exist not only among religions but
also within a religion.
Secondly,
Religion also became an identity of a person or a group.
Together,
Religious expressions and identities have become sources of
disagreement and conflict.
The point is,
The religious Knowledge and Identity has very little to do with
religiosity as such.
In fact, kernel of the religion is out of focus, obscure and
left for the chosen ones.
This trend is
unavoidable and inevitable as long as one remains at the periphery.
That is maintaining oneself in the plane of Dogmas, Concepts,
Ideas and Ideals.
Staying at the
surface level may give identity, belonging, solace, security and
esoteric knowledge of
the faith.
All this can only add up to one’s psychological identity and
knowledge.
And, we know,
‘Knowledge’ is not ‘Knowing’,
Just as,
Self-Discovery is not
'knowledge of one self ' but knowing one self.
It is imperative that one has to move from Plane of
Knowledge to Plane of Knowing.
For that to happen, one has to go deeper towards the center
irrespective of the faith.
One has to move from,
‘Conception’ to ‘Perception’
‘Idea’ to ‘Fact’
‘Belief’ to ‘Realization’
In other words, one has to move from Religious identity (Ego-Self)
to Religious Truth (True-Self).
Then alone religion become a meaningful human endeavor,
otherwise it will remain a
divisive factor like any other collective identity.
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