The main aim of life

[dattaswami]

The main aim of life

 

You are admitted in the college and your main aim is to get the degree. If you fail in the exams your main aim is upset, therefore, you should not get tension. Similarly you should have tension if the main aim of the human life i.e., to achieve the grace of God, fails. Except that, all this family life and relationships are only extra curricular activities. In your college life, a game is conducted as an extra curricular activity. Suppose you are defeated in it. You should take it sportively and not seriously, because that is not the main aim. Therefore take everything in life sportively, because, this life is not the ultimate aim. If family life only is the goal, even animals and birds have their family lives. The speciality of human life is to think and achieve the grace of God.

 

At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness Sri Dattaswami

 

Anil Antony

 

www.universal-spirituality.org

Universal Spirituality for World Peace

antonyanil@universal-spirituality.org

[Luke_Wilbur]

Anil,

What is your opinion of the current state of the world?

[dattaswami]

Anil,

What is your opinion of the current state of the world?

World Peace & Removal Of Terrorism

 

There are two route causes for the entire chaos and terrorism in this world. One is the thirst for earning money and the other is the religious fanatic. Due to money, people are quarreling. Whereas due to religion, countries are quarreling. Unless these two route causes are eradicated we cannot achieve world peace. The tree will not die by cutting leaves and branches. It dies only by cutting its roots. There is no use in earning the extra money. Due to excess money, quarrels, mental worries and several other problems arise. Finally, it ends in loss only and not in any profit. You have to leave all this extra money here only and quit this world alone. Your issues may lose that money given by you. Such sinful extra money brings problems not only to you but also to your children. Neither yourself nor your children will be happy and peaceful. This entire world is the property of God and take whatever is required from it. This is said in Gita, (“Yavanartha….”).

 

In these days, buffet system is followed during feasts. In this system, large vessels contain various food items and people take food from these vessels according to their requirement. Similarly, God created this entire world and you can take the wealth from it according to your requirement. People are not following the same system when they are taking wealth from this world. The peculiarity is that most rich people follow this buffet system in the feasts but do not follow the same when it comes to earning the money. ‘Esavasya Upanishad’ says that one should return back this extra money to the Lord. Otherwise, the Lord will give the troubles.

 

In buffet system, if one takes extra food in his plate by over ambition and ignorance for a moment, he returns back immediately before starting eating. Veda says that you must return back the extra money for the God’s work if taken by ignorance. In the buffet system if you eat the extra food, you will suffer from diseases. Similarly, if you enjoy the extra money, God will punish you in several ways.

 

In this world, people belonging to any religion think that their religion only is the true religion. They think that the God of their religion can alone give the salvation and the worship of that God should be according to their religion only. They also condemn other religions and invite people to convert people into their religion. They do lot of work to establish their religion only in the entire world which shows their ambition. It is just like Alexander’s ambition to make the entire world his kingdom. Alexander wanted to extend his kingdom. But, even he returned back after fighting with Porus (Purushotama) on seeing the loss of life in the battle. But, the ambition of religious fanatics is not subsided on seeing any amount of loss of life. Religion is considered to be backed with spiritual knowledge and the religious people are expected to be free from ambition. We can excuse ambition of any ignorant person like Alexander.

 

The heart of a religious fanatic will not change by any amount of kindness or love expressed in the appeals. Such appeals can change only the heart and the change in the heart is always temporary. Change in the intelligence brought by knowledge based on logic is always real and permanent. Intelligence (Buddhi) is considered to be the driver of this body, which is like a chariot running by the senses, which are like the horses. If the driver is convinced, the entire chariot along with the horses is in the correct path. The terrorist will not change by love or kindness shown to him. He becomes the terrorist due to the wrong knowledge that enters his brain. He was convinced by that knowledge. That knowledge can be changed only by the right knowledge. A diamond can only be cut by another diamond. Similarly, one type of knowledge can only be replaced by another type of knowledge. Then only, he will be convinced and changed forever.

 

So far, the trials made to change the terrorist were beating around the bush and therefore, they did not have much effect. Today, SRI GURU DATTA is giving the right knowledge to remove the religious conservatism.

[Guest human_*]

Oh!!!! so are you going to join the Peace Corps??????

 

In my world the "WORD" is all very well and Good, but you also got to back it up with action "whether it be online , or offline". :)

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The main aim of life

 

You are admitted in the college and your main aim is to get the degree. If you fail in the exams your main aim is upset, therefore, you should not get tension. Similarly you should have tension if the main aim of the human life i.e., to achieve the grace of God, fails. Except that, all this family life and relationships are only extra curricular activities. In your college life, a game is conducted as an extra curricular activity. Suppose you are defeated in it. You should take it sportively and not seriously, because that is not the main aim. Therefore take everything in life sportively, because, this life is not the ultimate aim. If family life only is the goal, even animals and birds have their family lives. The speciality of human life is to think and achieve the grace of God.

 

At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness Sri Dattaswami

 

Anil Antony

 

www.universal-spirituality.org

Universal Spirituality for World Peace

antonyanil@universal-spirituality.org

[Guest Soldier of God]

I think both of you are right. My father taught me to think before I act and turn the other cheek if possible. But, there are times when there is only one course to follow. The current becomes way to strong to stop or go in another direction.

[dattaswami]

Oh!!!! so are you going to join the Peace Corps??????

 

In my world the "WORD" is all very well and Good, but you also got to back it up with action "whether it be online , or offline". :)

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Guest_human_, Soldier of God;

Purpose of human life

 

In the materialistic plane one person says that the aim of his life is to achieve a particular post and then help his family members. Some other person says that the aim of his life is to serve the mankind. We appreciate the second aim as higher than the first one. The highest aim of the human life can be known only in the spiritual plane. The sole aim of this creation is pleasing God through the entertainment. Every human being is a part of the creation and so the same aim applies to every human being also. The human being becomes fruitful if it serves the Lord and pleases the Lord through the service. Service means the sacrifice of work and sacrifice of the fruit of the work. Service is the proof of the real love.

 

The mother serves her child by sacrificing lot of work like giving bath, dressing etc., for years together continuously. The father serves the child by sacrificing the fruit of all his hard work to the child. It is a clear practical point that the proof of the real love is only service. If you serve your family you love your family. If you serve the entire world you love the creation. If you serve the creator, you love the creator. It is a very simple point.

 

Love is the attraction of mind towards anybody or anything. When the illness attacks the body you take so much care to serve your body. You love your body. Similarly you serve your father, mother, wife and children because your mind is attracted towards them. What is the first pre-requisite for this love? When you love your child, you are aware that a particular small living being is your child and you have the differentiating knowledge of your child from other children who are similar. Similarly, when you love God you must be aware of the form of God, who must be differentiated from other forms as your child is differentiated from other children. You are identifying your child by certain special characteristics like shape of the face, voice etc; you are not recognizing your child by the clothes, which it puts on. Other children put on such clothes also. Similarly, you must distinguish the Creator from the creation and then only love the creator. You cannot love the entire creation as the creator. Do you love all the children as your own children?

 

Therefore, the pre-requisite of love is the true knowledge and the inseparable identifying characteristics of an object by which you get attracted towards it. Therefore, what is the real form of God? And how it differs from other forms? What are the inseparable identifying characteristics of God? The answers for these questions constitute the detailed true knowledge of God. Only such true knowledge generates attraction and love. When you know the separate special details of Bombay, which are not seen in any other city, then only you are attracted to Bombay and like to see it.

 

Before proceeding to the identifying true knowledge of God, you must also know the purpose of your attraction towards an object. You love your child, and there is no purpose in it. You also love a doctor when you are ill. But that love is not real. It is not love at all. It is only artificial apparent love exhibited for a purpose. You want the doctor to help you. Therefore, true love is that when there is no purpose in it. False love is that in which purpose is present. Generally almost all the people love God because God is omni-potent. He has miraculous powers to do anything, which is impossible for any body on this earth. When a problem comes and when one fails to solve it by all the means existing in this world, one starts loving God to solve that unique problem. Therefore, you love the position or power of God and not the God. A poet shows lot of love and appreciation on a king in his spontaneous poetry because the poet loves the power and the wealth of the king. He expects the king to donate some land or to give him some money after being pleased with his poems. The poet does not love the person who is the king. He loves the king only. Will he write the same poems if the king looses his kingdom and becomes a beggar? In his poetry the poet praised that the king is very beautiful with sweet voice and infinite wisdom. These qualities still remain with the king even if he has become the beggar. But the poet does not praise the same qualities of that beggar because the beggar cannot donate anything to him. The post of the king and the kingdom are separable characteristics, whereas the qualities are inseparable characteristics.

 

You can easily identify the person by these inseparable characteristics and if your love on Him is real, you will love him whether he is a king or a beggar. Are you not loving your son and praise him whether he serves you or not? Sita garlanded and married Rama who will be the future king of Ayodhya. The love of Sita may be on Rama only or may be on the kingdom of Ayodhya for which she can become queen or may be both put together. Rama tested her love by discarding the kingdom and by going to the forest. Sita followed Rama to the forest. Her love was only on Rama and not on the kingdom. Ravana further tested this. Ravana offered her to become the queen. But she refused. Therefore, the love on God should be analyzed and should be decided whether God is loved or His omni-potent miraculous power is loved for our advantage. Some people want to take advantage in this world and some others want to take the advantage in the upper world so that they can be protected from the hell. In both cases the love on God is not true. It is only the love on his associated power. Sankara says that the true love on God should not have any desire related to this world or to the upper world (Ihaamutra Phala Viragah). If the love is on the power of the God only what is the use of the real form of God or the inseparable characteristics of the God?

 

The poet loves anybody as the king. For him anybody on the thrown is beautiful and is very wise. In such case if the king donates the desired land or cash by seeing the poem written by a poet, the poet does not bother to see or talk with the king. Therefore, when we love God’s power for some advantage, we need not worry about His form or in seeing or talking with God. You can just chant the prayers. He responds to your prayers and your desire is fulfilled. In such case one need not see the God and the God also does not want to see his or her bloody face.

 

When a mother wants to see her child, she is not thinking about any advantage out of it. In fact the mother presents some cash to the son as a gift and if the son needs, she will even sell all her jewels and sacrifice for the sake of her son. Similarly, if the person is having true love on God, that person wants to see God not for any advantage, but even at the cost of disadvantage. For such person only God appears and such person only can see, talk, touch and can even live along with the God. For such persons only there is need of the enquiry of the real form of God.

 

The real form of God is unimaginable as said in Vedas and there is no question of seeing or talking or touching the God. Gita also says that nobody can know God (Mam tu Veda Na..). Such unimaginable God cannot be said to have a form or formless. The Creator is beyond the creation, which is a four-dimensional network of space and time along with matter and energy. The creation contains both formless items like space, energy and air and also formful items like water, earth etc. If you say God as formful or formless, then God becomes a part of the creation and not beyond the creation. Veda says that no item in the creation including the pure awareness or life energy is God (Neti, Neti…). But there are real devotees who have real love towards God and want to see, touch, talk and live along with God for no selfish advantage either in this or in the upper world. The God who has infinite kindness and infinite love cannot reject such real love.

 

The God is omni-potent and can satisfy the desire of such real devotees and the real devotees are crying for such fortune of vision etc. The God is capable and the devotee deserves. Nobody can put his finger between these two. To satisfy the real devotees God comes in human form and all these four fortunes are blessed upon the real devotees. If God comes in the form of space or energy, which is formless or in the form of statues, He cannot grant these fortunes. He can talk, touch and live with the devotees when He comes in the human form only. Only the human body can do such things as per laws of nature. The nature is His creation and the laws of nature are the rules of His own administration. He will not violate these rules except in the case of inevitable emergency. Why should He use His special power (Maya) and talk or touch or live with you in the form of space or energy or statues? When the purpose is served through the normal routine, why are you so rigid about the abnormal way? God need not heed to the foolish rigid behaviour of some human beings. Infact they want to pray the formless God or God in the form of a statue for the sake of their selfish convenience only. You can offer food to formless God or statue and then you can eat the entire food. You are satisfied as if you have given meals to God and at the same time not even a grain of rice is lost. There are many inconvenient losses and troubles with the human form of God. But the real devotees are not worried about such loss and infact they are happy to loose if God can enjoy by that. They feel happy when God eats that food. The mother visits her son and pays him some cash. When the son is happy with that she derives infinite happiness and does not feel it as a loss or trouble.

 

The mother will stay with her son and serve him day and night if necessary and feels very happy about it. Similarly, these real devotees feel happy to serve the Lord and they are happy about the loss incurred in it.

Lord came to the human form as Krishna for the sake of Gopikas only and not for others. Only Gopikas could recognize Him and served the Lord by offering butter and they felt happy in such sacrifice. They did not feel such sacrifice as loss. Krishna was not their child. But they loved Him more than their children. They did not give butter even to their own children and offered it to the Lord. Their love to God crossed even their love to their children. When such real love exists, God comes in human form and reveals His identity to you. Your love must be real and must be practically proved by the sacrifice of work (Karma Sanyasa) and sacrifice of fruit of work (Karma Phala Tyaga) as emphasized in Gita. Sacrifice of words, mind and intelligence, which are freely supplied to you by God is like offering drinking water to the guest, which was freely supplied by the municipality.

 

But sacrifice of work and fruit of work are like offering the meals to the guest and it is sacrifice of your hard-earned money. Of-course the meals must be associated with drinking water also and at the same time mere drinking water is almost nothing. Sacrifice becomes complete, which is the complete proof of your real love only, when you sacrifice mind, words, intelligence, work and fruit of work. Sacrifice of words is prayer and sacrifice of mind is meditation, sacrifice of intelligence is the spiritual discussion. Therefore, meditation alone is the sacrifice of the mind i.e., supplied freely by God. Sacrifice of anything, which is hard earned by your work, is the real main sacrifice.

When the Lord exposes Himself as the source of all infinite super natural powers, all the people will run to Him with same speed and will sacrifice to their maximum. In such case you cannot differentiate the real devotee from a fraud devotee. The reason is that the super natural power attracts all the people with equal force. When acids are dissolved in water they show equal strengths because water being high polar solvent attracts the hydrogen ions from all acids equally so that their extent of ionization becomes same.

 

The strong acid cannot be differentiated from a weak acid. This is called as leveling effect. When the same acids are dissolved in glacial acetic acid, which is a weak solvent, the acids will ionize to different extent as per their inherent nature. When an official asks for some amount of money, all the merchants will run to him with equal speed and give that amount. In this case you cannot differentiate the real donor from the real greedy merchant. But when a beggar begs for some money, a real donor donates whereas a greedy person refuses. The real nature of the individuals comes out in the case of the beggar only. Similarly, when God comes in human form and exhibits the super natural powers all the people rush to Him with equal speeds and show equal love on God. Even if God recognizes the real devotee by His power and rewards him, the other devotees will find fault with the God. They will argue that even though the extent of devotion is equal, the Lord showed partiality. Therefore, God in human form will not exhibit miracles and will exhibit only His inseparable special knowledge, which projects Him as Guru only and not Bhagavan. Datta means God donated to the devotees in human form. His right half is Guru and the left half is Bhagavan. The right half is only projected and the left half is hidden. In such case only the real devotees can be filtered.

 

It is easy to approach the human incarnation and praise Him as God. But the most important part is to retain the same faith through out the life. When Datta becomes inconvenient in practical way the faith should persist. The faith should be practical and permanent. The recognition of human incarnation must be done with the help of the sacred scriptures like Vedas, Brahma sutras and Gita. You must take a long time to decide the human incarnation. Once you have decided you must stick to that in spite of all the troubles and inconvenience, which you face practically. There is no use of catching somebody in haste and then withdraw by the next day. You will continue like this through out your life. Therefore, you must study all the scriptures and be thorough with the divine knowledge, which generates the devotion or love. If your devotion is real you must prove it by your service. The real love is only one-way traffic. Attaining the God, seeing Him and talking with Him are useless. Demons have seen and talked with God by doing long penance. What is the use of it? They were finally destroyed. Even if you don’t see or talk with God, if you please Him through your proven real love, you are blessed. Rama never saw Lord Siva.

 

But He was blessed. Ravana saw and talked with Siva, but was destroyed. Therefore, pleasing the Lord should be our final aim and not mere vision or conversation. If your aim is only to solve your problem in this world or in the upper world or in both, you have nothing to do with the formless God or form of God. Your work is done when you pray for it sincerely. But mind that your sincerity is not on God but it is on the solution of your problem. God in a temporary way only does the solution for your problems, which is not good for you in the long run. He postpones your bad results and brings your good results from the future births. By this, you have to enjoy the results of the deeds, which you have done and you cannot enjoy the results of the deeds, which you have not done. It is like sending your application to the officer through a peon paying the necessary amount and getting back the application with the signature of the officer.

 

You have nothing to do with the personality or qualities of the officer. But when a girl loves the officer, she likes to see the personality and know about his qualities. His position as an officer is only one of the several aspects. Often, she neglects this aspect of the post, when the personality and qualities attracted her. Similarly, a real devotee feels happy by knowing the details of God and he is not worried about the benefit from the God. In such case, the Lord enjoys the bad results of that real devotee and gives him eternal happiness. Some people are not bothered about God and go on doing the worldly works continuously. They believe in themselves only. Such people are either athiests or just neglect the God. But the so-called devotees also do not love the God really. They show false love on God and all their real love is only in the solutions of their problems. They want to visit the Lord and try to show their anxiety about the personality of the Lord. All that is only to please the Lord who may be helpful in the future problems. These devotees are also not better than those atheists in any way. But the Lord allows these devotees because there is a hope of change in their attitude and become the real devotees. Prahlada was always absorbed in the personality of the Lord and did not ask for any help even in the torture.

 

He was only remembering the Lord in such situation. Hanuman served the Lord Rama not for any gift in return. In fact when Sita gave the chain of pearls, He broke those pearls to see Rama in those pearls. Rama never announced the gift given to Hanuman and Hanuman never aspired for any gift. Rama gave the post of creator of this world and the matter was not revealed to anybody. By revealing that, Rama never wanted to pose Himself as the Lord. Hanuman was not even aware of that post because His mind was only on the personality of Rama. Similarly, Radha never aspired for any thing and she was given a special top most world (Goloka). Arjuna had partial devotion and therefore, the final fruit was partly happiness and partly misery. Duryodhana invited Lord Krishna for a big feast in His honour. Krishna never attended it and finally destroyed them. All the respect and love shown by Duryodhana were only to exploit Lord Krishna in the war. When Krishna was found useless for him, he was angry with Krishna and tried to chain Him. This shows that he did not even recognize Krishna as the Lord. Therefore, the Lord gives vision, conversation and co-living etc., only for the real devotees who do not aspire anything in return.

 

The worst devotees want practical fruits from the Lord by serving Him through words, feelings and intellectual discussions. The middle class devotees sacrifice practically for the Lord and aspire practical results in return. These types of devotees are businessmen and the above type of devotees are **nerds**. A businessman invests some amount and tries to get back more amounts in return. A prostitute tries to earn the amount from a person without investing any amount and investing only sweet words, sweet feelings and artificial discussions. The last type of devotees serves the Lord practically and do not aspire any result from the Lord either theoretically or practically. For such devotees only the Lord comes in human form and gives His experience to them and save them in this and as well as in the upper world.

[Luke_Wilbur]

Anil,

I think there is logic to your statement, but how do we know that war is not God's entertainment? How do we know that the words in all religious books are not divinely motivated. Benjamin Franklin impersonated or fabricated people and stories all the time to persuade the masses to follow his arguments.

 

Machiavelli believed religion as a social force to be studied and manipulated by the astute prince, not as a genuine spiritual force. Today, the message really has not changed. Although, in some cases the reference to God has been replaced with Freedom.

[dattaswami]

Anil,

I think there is logic to your statement, but how do we know that war is not God's entertainment? How do we know that the words in all religious books are not divinely motivated. Benjamin Franklin impersonated or fabricated people and stories all the time to persuade the masses to follow his arguments.

 

Machiavelli believed religion as a social force to be studied and manipulated by the astute prince, not as a genuine spiritual force. Today, the message really has not changed. Although, in some cases the reference to God has been replaced with Freedom.

 

Resolving contradictions between different scriptures

 

The same Lord came to different parts of the world in different age to preach the same Divine Knowledge. All the scriptures of the world are the records of the knowledge given by the same Lord and hence cannot contradict each other. Yet we find sometimes that there are some glaring contradictions between different scriptures of the world. This is in part due to fact that the Lord taught the same truth in different ages and places in a slightly different way, so as to suit the culture and language of the people. This is only an extraneous difference. The essential knowledge is the same. Correct interpretation will remove the contradiction.Sometimes there may be an apparent difference even in the essential meaning.

 

In such as case the inconsistency is probably caused by corruption of the scripture over generations. Comparison with other scriptures of the world will help in removing the corrupted portions in each scripture. Here it becomes essential to bring in experience as a prama?a or a valid means of knowledge. While comparing contradictory views in different scriptures, the view which agrees with experience or anubhuti should be taken as correct.

 

At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness Sri Dattaswami

 

Anil Antony

 

www.universal-spirituality.org

Universal Spirituality for World Peace

antonyanil@universal-spirituality.org

 

 

Anil,

I think there is logic to your statement, but how do we know that war is not God's entertainment? How do we know that the words in all religious books are not divinely motivated. Benjamin Franklin impersonated or fabricated people and stories all the time to persuade the masses to follow his arguments.

 

Machiavelli believed religion as a social force to be studied and manipulated by the astute prince, not as a genuine spiritual force. Today, the message really has not changed. Although, in some cases the reference to God has been replaced with Freedom.

 

Dear Luke_Wilbur';

 

veda as reference

 

There are several religions and there are several scriptures corresponding to these religions. We must fix a scripture as the primary standard so that other scriptures can be standardized with reference to that. The other scripture also becomes standard with reference to which some other scripture can be also standardized. This is called as the process of standardization in Science.

 

Such a primary standard can be the Veda. I know immediately the colours of your faces will change. Immediately you will blame Me that I am not the preacher of Universal Religion. You will misunderstand Me as the preacher of Hinduism in guise. This situation will arise even if I take the scripture of some other religion also as the primary standard. The misunderstanding is inevitable and unavoidable.

 

I have to take one scripture of some religion and I have to be subjected to the criticism. Therefore, I ignore the criticism. I know what I am in My inner consciousness. My inner self is the real witness as long as I am the preacher of Universal Religion to My inner self, I need not fear for any external criticism from any angle.

 

The reason for selecting Veda as the primary standard is that even today the Veda is being preserved by oral recitation with the help of thousands of families. If you go to older and older times millions of families were reciting Veda just to preserve it from any type of intrusions or deletions. In Indian spiritual field there are several branches of philosophy who fight with each other orally.

 

For all these branches, Veda is the standard text. Such situation never existed in any religion in this world and does not exist even today. Even today different schools of philosophy in Hinduism fight with each other and all of them quote the same Veda. Such competition was and is unique in Hinduism. In such competitive atmosphere pollution of Veda is impossible.

 

If any word is added or deleted, immediately the other schools will shout because they fear that in such case Veda may support a particular branch of philosophy due to the possibility of a new interpretation for a new sentence. Leave the past. Tell Me frankly whether such situation exists in any religion in this world even today. This is the main reason why I have selected Veda as the primary standard. The diversity in Hinduism has done lot of good in this direction.

 

The sanctity of the scripture is well protected. In the olden days the books were in the form of written scripts of palm leaves. Printing was not there. Therefore, a very few scripts were only present. In such case it was very easy to introduce a new palm leaf or to remove an older palm leaf because hardly one or two scripts were present in a very large region.

 

Except this one reason there is no any other reason for Me to favour Veda but you need not worry that the scriptures of other religions have to be judged with reference to Veda only. Fortunately, all the scriptures of all the religions agree with Veda. The primary standard is useful in very few places where there is disagreement. Even that disagreement arises only from the misinterpretation of the statement. If the correct interpretation is given all the statements are perfectly coinciding with Veda.

 

Moreover, one can decide the final version of any concept based on the logical analysis. If the logical analysis fails, then mere Veda need not be taken as authority. If the logic disagrees you can reject any scripture including Veda. Therefore, Veda along with the logical analysis only stands as a primary standard. When you are convinced logically about a concept and when such concept is found in Veda, then only the concept is authorised.

 

Therefore, I am not rubbing Veda on any head without the logical analysis. Therefore, one need not doubt about the fanatic. The primary standard means the original word of God heard directly. But when other scriptures are perfectly in agreement with such word where is the question of fanatic? Every scripture becomes the word of God.

 

This point supports the Universal Religion, which says that the single God delivered the scriptures of all the religions. When the author is one and the same how can there be difference between the scriptures? If there is any difference it is only by your misinterpretation. Therefore, primary standard is only for convenience but not for fanatic.

[Luke_Wilbur]

Resolving contradictions between different scriptures

 

The same Lord came to different parts of the world in different age to preach the same Divine Knowledge. All the scriptures of the world are the records of the knowledge given by the same Lord and hence cannot contradict each other. Yet we find sometimes that there are some glaring contradictions between different scriptures of the world. This is in part due to fact that the Lord taught the same truth in different ages and places in a slightly different way, so as to suit the culture and language of the people. This is only an extraneous difference. The essential knowledge is the same. Correct interpretation will remove the contradiction.Sometimes there may be an apparent difference even in the essential meaning.

 

In such as case the inconsistency is probably caused by corruption of the scripture over generations. Comparison with other scriptures of the world will help in removing the corrupted portions in each scripture. Here it becomes essential to bring in experience as a prama?a or a valid means of knowledge. While comparing contradictory views in different scriptures, the view which agrees with experience or anubhuti should be taken as correct.

 

I am thankful for learning about so many cultures travelling this big blue marble. I still remember Hampi during the Indian New Year celebration. It was quite a mystical experience.

 

I read that Mircea Eliade studied under Surendranath Dasgupta. He later wrote The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion. His premise was the existance of both sacred and profane space. Do you believe this? If so, how do you define your thoughts on this? He wrote of the commonality of all rituals. Do you believe that a place of worship is reflection of the cosmos? Do you believe that our spirits originate in chaos? I believe that we are not corrupting, but rather gaining knowledge on real truth. The internet is a wonderful place that allows us to share space together and dissolve real world barriers. But, there are still cultural differences that still seperate the meaning of our words. Our quest is to define what is universal community first. Until we do that, there will be bloodshed that affects everyone.

 

The United States seperated its governance from one religion based partly on reasons that you state. The idea of a Republic has been around since Plato's time. It is realized today. Our government is based on the idea that we all have differences, so we need to vote on what is the greater good. Some votes are selfish, some votes selfless. The pendulum of people's trust changes when corruption gets out of hand. There has been 200 years of transfer of power with little blood shed. It really quite amazing. By God's grace we must be doing something right.

In God I trust. America I Love