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|| Satyameva Jayate || » . » Are all religions equal?
- This view resounds in the echo chamber of popular culture…Even the Dalai Lama, who should know better, has gotten into the act, claiming
- This view resounds in the echo chamber of popular culture…Even the Dalai Lama, who should know better, has gotten into the act, claiming that “all major religious traditions carry basically the same message.”
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…To claim that all religions are basically the same…is not to deny the differences between a Buddhist who believes in no god, a Jew who believes in one God, and a Hindu who believes in many gods. It is to deny that those differences matter, however. From this perspective, whether God has a body (yes, say Mormons; no, say Muslims) or whether human beings have souls (yes, say Hindus; no, say Buddhists) is of no account because, as Hindu teacher Swami Sivananda writes, “The fundamentals or essentials of all religions are the same. There is difference only in the nonessentials.”
This is a lovely sentiment but it is untrue, disrespectful, and dangerous.
- There is a long tradition of Christian thinkers who assume that salvation is the goal of all religions and then argue that only Christians can achieve this goal. Philosopher of religion Huston Smith, who grew up in China as a child of Methodist missionaries, rejected this argument but not its guiding assumption. “To claim salvation as the monopoly of any one religion,” he wrote, “is like claiming that God can be found in this room and not the next.” It might seem to be an admirable act of empathy to assert that Confucians and Buddhists can be saved. But this statement is confused to the core, since salvation is not something that either Confucians or Buddhists seek. Salvation is a Christian goal, and when Christians speak of it, they are speaking of being saved from sin. But Confucians and Buddhists do not believe in sin, so it makes no sense for them to try to be saved from it. And while Muslims and Jews do speak of sin of a sort, neither Islam nor Judaism describes salvation from sin as its aim. When a jailer asks the apostle Paul, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30), he is asking not a generic human question but a specifically Christian one. So while it may seem to be an act of generosity to state that Confucians and Buddhists and Muslims and Jews can also be saved, this statement is actually an act of obfuscation.
- Comments
- 1. Suresh Vyas said:
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Those who say all religions are same are mostly the so called Hindus, and they say it to the Hindus only. They do not take the responsibility to convince it to the Christians or the Muslims. And they do not give up Hindu dharma. If all religions are same, then there should not be any denial to give up one religion and accept another.
No Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Jain, or Jew etc says all religions are same. So, then why the Hindus show should say it when it is not true? To say it is sheer foolishness. They sing asato maa sat gamaya, but they lie when they say all religions are same, and they do not know it is a lie.
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Dalai Lama cannot do anything. He the Buddha cannot stop China (the communist) from killing and occupying Tibet. He cannot do it with ahimsaa. He requests the “international community” to help stop China. So, note that ahimsa cannot solve the problem against China, Russia, Saddam Husain’s, Ben Ladins, or Hitlers. It works against the Hindus and Paarsis (Zoroastrians). So, ahimsa is not paramo dharma, not an absolute principle. If it were, it should be able to solve the problem of Dalai Lama. In contrast Hindu dharma includes kshatriya dharma. Therefore, Krishna recommends Arjun to fight, even when Arjun says (in Gita) he does not want to fight.
Jainism is perverted version of the dharma given by the Rishabh Dev incarnation of Vishnu. Srimad Bhagavatam talks about it in detail. The Jains originally were Hindus who were vaishyas (traders, baniyas). Trading or business is not possible when there is fighting and fear or anarchy in the society. They chose not to fight, and want to avoid himsa at all costs.
- Jains choose to live in the Vedic land and with the Vedic people. No Jain opens his shop or business in a Muslim country like Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan. They say there is no god, just follow and live like arihantas (the great personalities.) They say the particles of bad karma stick with the soul permanently and there is no way out except following ahimsa and fasting. They do believe in re-incarnation like Buddhists. Because there is no god for them, their sins cannot be washed out. They need to suffer the reactions of their sins. In contrast, the Vedic dharma has god. God or His advanced devotees can wipe out sins of one who surrenders to them completely. Now a days I see that Jains tend to accept Krishna as one of their arihantas. This is good, going back to the roots.
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Where as the merchants who had no ability to fight became Jains, the farmers of Punjab chose to fight with the invading Muslims. Sikh dharma was born thus. Guru Nanak was a great saint. The Hindus of Punjab had to fight constantly against the invading Muslims coming from northwest. Guru Nanak created a dharma that he thought will be more palatable to the Muslims. Muslims say Allah has no form. So, Nanak accepted advaita siddhanta from the Vedas. And he accepted the kshatriya dharma from the Varnaasrama dharma. So, the Sikhs believe that God has no form, but god is all merciful in contrast to Allah that is not merciful to non-believers. They will fight with any one who does asuric things or tries to take away others’ rights or property. So, they are armed farmers. Now, Jains are unarmed traders. They rely on the Hindus for their protection. They donate to the fighters. Bhaamaashaa is an example.
This is all about knowing and understanding the truth. Truth is one, so it could unite when understood. Please see the videos (a pravachan by a swami) at these links:
Hindus : STOP preaching all religions are equal 1/2
http://youtube.com/watch?v=aM4GOARP6Mk&feature=relatedHindus : STOP preaching all religions are equal 2/2
http://youtube.com/watch?v=aQao9-e3qxU&feature=related
== - 9. Bhagwat Shah said:
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- 11. Suresh Vyas said:
- The Vedic scriptures say, ahimsaa paramo dharma, dharma himsaa tathaiva cha.
The second part of the message (which the Gandians never mention) says that it is also dharma to fight when necessary to check or kill adharmis. - 15. Suresh Vyas said:
Lord Buddha is predicted in Srimand Bhagavatam 11th canto,4th Chapter 22nd verse:
bhümer bharävataraëäya yaduñv ajanmä
jätaù kariñyati surair api duñkaräëi
vädair vimohayati yajïa-kåto ‘tad-arhän
çüdrän kalau kñiti-bhujo nyahaniñyad anteTranslation by Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad:
“To diminish the burden of the earth, the unborn Lord will take birth in the Yadu dynasty and perform feats impossible even for the demigods. Propounding speculative philosophy, the Lord, as Buddha, will bewilder the unworthy performers of Vedic sacrifices. And as Kalki the Lord will kill all the low-class men posing as rulers at the end of the age of Kali.”
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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Hindus need to realise that they are the only ones who believe in this non-existent “sarva dharma samabhava”. Other religions laugh at us for our glib acceptance of this non-existent ideal ! Jihadis keep coming to India from its “neighbours” to convert us by force. Money keeps pouring in from the Middle East, Europe and USA to convert us by coersion. Yet, our leaders keep exhorting us to believe in “equality of religions”, time after time, bomb after bomb, murder after murder.
Read the rest of the article on http://www.pushti-marg.net/bhagwat/equality-r.htm