Sir,it seems religion (any religion to date) asks for faith or blind belief and then seeks to explain everything to you. in other words, it gives an axiom that someone's up there and then convinces you there is one, you could even feel it, believe it. the problem is you lose your critical faculties in the process and come to a stage where you do not even dare to look at other philosophies. you are told what your problem is, you are told you are sinner, guilty or that your goal is to attain an unseen, unfelt, unperceived state. I get this so called state of existence even when I am studying. But I am sure this is not the ANSWER.hope you study other philosophies of the world before you believe yours is the eternal truth.Warm regards,ravi.
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What you say hits the nail right on the head. The trouble is most of us are thoroughly conditioned by the time we are out of our teens and then when we finally have the opportunity to find out things for ourselves we prefer to rather float along. Yet the perspicacious ones see that it is our conditioning that is the cause of our problems. Of course we can have a lot of successes in the world by virtue of our conditioning but we would before long feel the hollowness of it all. That is when we are instinctly drawn towards spiritual teachings (which is more than religious teachings, which unfortunately tend to trap us in organizations). Our reversion to the natural state of our spirit would end our pilgrimage - the pilgrimage which began with Tat Tvam Asi ends with Aham Brahmasmi.
Sir,I see what you are saying.Spirituality for me has always been polluted (no offense intended) by religion and hence I wouldn't buy into it.Science (including maths, biology, philosophy,etc) on the other hand, for me, was always honest in its deficiencies and successes in revealing the TRUTH.I accept 'reasoning' is not the best 'instrument' but that is the nearest bet for my conception. And all religions fail reason thus cursing me to become an atheist. Now, 'spirituality' I decided I would come to through 'reason'. Keeping my fingers crossed...!!thank you.
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Dear Raviji,What we come across always are expressions of science or religion. The scientist or guru understands something and he express it and that expression is called a scientific treatise/theory or scripture/ritual. Expressions of the external world we classify as scientific and expressions of the internal world we classify as religious/spiritual. But in reality both types of expressions are subjective experiences. The validity of the expressions would of course depend on the person who is expressing it. If the understanding or expression is faulty or incomplete, we have results that are not satisfactory. It would be noteworthy to mark that the most ancient of expressions, the Vedas and particularly the Vedanta, have expressions in it that have stood the test of time, whereas modern science (largely Western science) is still in the process of evolution.
maleIndia
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DearLet the dead bury the dead..In this the first dead refers to those who are spiritually dead, means people whose intellengence is asleep or for whom rider of the chariot of life is not God.The second dead refers to physicall dead body..Jesus is telling him to spend time on illumiating souls or being a light to others so that they may also awake .And for those who are physically dead , we can not help them , so let that be done by those are in spirital sleep .
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Venu:
Dear Jance,
Thank you for your response. May I ask you on a particular point that I was wondering about for some time? While Hindu scriptures specifiy many techniques towards God realisation, like japa, pranayamam, yoga, dhyan, tapas, yagna etc., would I be right if I say that the Bible does not specify any techniques for progressing towards God except to ask that we believe in Jesus and lead a moral life?
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God exits in self sacrifice . For we also there is no other way to reach him. Means salvation to soul comes when we overcome selfish thoughts .And seeing the almighty in our brothers, and forsaking our selfish desires , for well being of all .Even when Christ is about to die he produced a big sound out of Great internal happiness seeing that that his death will purify many.In original Greek Bible the word for his last cry ( a big sound) is ,the same word , used for who died for saving people of Greece form enemies. With wounds all over reached Athens running .seeing his people waiting for return of their Army his heart overflowed with joy and died on the same spot producing a big sound out of Joy.
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Venu:
Who is this God we are talking about? He is none other than the truth, the truth of what we are. Even as we live, if we live in bliss there is no problem. But when we feel things are not OK, we need a solution. It is this need for a solution that has created a God for us - the idealization of the bliss we aspire to. But somewhere along the line, instead of realizing the ideal, we have become slaves to the ideal, externalizing the ideal or God.
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Japa, pranayamam, yoga, dhyan, tapas etc will surely help in controlling mind. Bhakthi yoga ,Samkhiya Yoga both tell of seeing the same God in all and seeing no discrimination to any and dedicate our self for well being of all.What is left after the sacrifice will purify those who participate in Yajnga .Christ before his death traveled beyond time took his blood and body which he is going sacrifice gave to his disciples and said , This my blood and body which I sacrificed for all of You.Eat this , for eternal life, for this will purify You, from sin.Remember Krishna said of a Dog which drank water left after Yodhitira’s Yagjna . ChristianityIs is short doing Yajgna with Christ , May be in doing service people with no selfish thought. Eating his body and blood for purification and receiving the spirit of God and becoming like him after death.
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Venu:
The biblical verse about Christ asking his disciples to partake of his flesh and blood is surely mystical, metaphorical, symbolical, rite-oriented and all that. Isn't this rite today called Eucharist? What happens to the Christian who takes part in the rite today?
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Remember the last teaching of JesusIn the last day of Judgment, to all those who are to enter to God’s kingdom, God will say , I was thirsty You gave me water ,I was hunger You gave me food, I was a foreigner You gave me shelter, I was sick You came to see me etc.And to to those who for eternal punishment he will say I was thirsty You did not give me water ,I was hunger You did not give me food, I was a foreigner You did not give me shelter, I was sick You did not come to see me etc.According to Christ This is the only way to God
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Venu:
Jesus’ last teaching would seem to indicate that if you wish to book your seat in heaven you got to be a good fella. Otherwise you would be booted down to hell, where you would roast for eternity. That is, are we being taught to be good for the sake of a reward? I think a truer spiritual teaching, more in the nature of a Jesus who taught, 'Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you' and 'Say not Lo here! or Lo there! for behold the Kingdom of God is within you' would be about realizing our true nature and attaining moksha. The Church appears to have turned Jesus into a mere moral-studies teacher with a cane by his side to terrify children. Jesus was a spiritual entity. Jesus, without the Church, would have become a Shankaracharya of Jerusalam surpassing the Shankaracharya of Kaladi.
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Those who receive Eucharist with pure heart will get power to over come evil.But those receive it with inpure hear will get power to do more evil.Yudas has recevied Eucharist with impure heart , immediately he acquired more power to deceve Christ.All Christian saints, even mother theresa has said she got power from Eucharist to do service ,seeing Jesus in all. Personally I hate the church with set up of huge company more wealthy than microsoft. But I belive in the mystical body of Christ hidden , which leads thousands to heaven and at least 5% of the preast are also serving with pure heart.
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Venu:
Are you actually talking about Jesus, the historical person, when you are talking about "mystical body of Christ hidden"? That person is well and truly dead, just like Adi Shankaracharya is dead. But their teachings remain and they are guides to our own spiritual path. If Jesus is taken as a metaphor for the spiritual power within us and if heaven is also taken a metaphor for the highest state of our bliss or awareness, then certainly the concept of heaven is valid. But if we mean it as a place where we might go after our just this one lifetime, I feel it is an immature concept. I am afraid I have not understood your explanation of Eucharist.
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Dear I agree with You.But personally I am not a saint or a self realized Yogi.Fear of punishment has surely helped me in abstaining from some evils.Surely he do do Nishkama karmayogam exceds he who do good for reward or fear of punishment
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Venu:
Of course we are not self-realized souls to be always in a state of perfection. It is more the law of the land and fear of social reprisals that prevent us from doing much mischief and not any fear of an unseen God. The fear of a God up in the heavens keeping track of our doings is something that only a naive mind would hold on to. Because if there is such a God, then certainly that God is responsible for all our mistakes - for why did he create us wrong? The arbitrator of our actions can only be the force of our own evolution. That is to say, we live and we learn. And for this learning to be complete, many life-times are required. The concept of Judgement Day is a myth, for given only one life time, we would all be too innocent to withstand the Judgement of a so-called absolute God.
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God is not responsible for our mistakes as we are given an independent mind, Which necessary for Love to exists.
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Venu:
Venu: God is responsible for everything and if God is responsible for everything, then everything can only be perfect. Therefore the mistakes we make are made so that we can understand what life is. Our mind is not independent of God because our basis or essence is God. We attain freedom when we discover our essence.
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nasir:
hi sir!!sir i read ur scrap which was posted in responce to a qurstion about MUHAMMAD(PBUH). sir i wanted to know that why is it so that HINDUS genrely abuse ALLAH and his PROPHETS alot ... imean if we study in depth ur religious books so we perhaps will know that their is a concept of ONE GOD that may be with a diffrent identity but there is this concept of ONE GOD and who sent HIS MESSANGERS to diliver HIS message to people and at one point of time he stoped sending HIS messengers and for continuation HE gave us HOLLY BOOK like (GITTA, QURAN, BIBLE) so i mean the concept is the same for all the religions then why to abuse others relegion and consequently abusing own GOD?
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Venu:
Dear Nasir, I do not know which scrap you are referring to. Please quote the same so that I can apologise if I have written something which I should not have. Normally I am careful about what I write but all of us can make mistakes. So please quote the said scrap. Meanwhile, I do not think the vast majority of Hindus tend to abuse other religions. As a matter of fact, Hinduism believes that all the religions are various paths to one goal - God realisation.
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Venu:
However, I have a difference of opinion about the Islamic teaching of One God. Just as life is the same thing whether it is in you or me, and yet we, when alive, are two different beings and without life we are the same. Likewise, there is only one reality but that reality takes on many forms in the drama of creation and the One God takes on many forms. And when the drama of creation ends, everything resolves to the oneness without separation. The fault in the Islamic teaching of One God is that it says that God is separate from his creation. This, according to me, is not true. The creator and the created are one, just as the dancer and the dance is one. I hope you will not see the presentation of my views as abusing Islam. It is just a question of having a difference of opinion.
nasir:
SIR its is a pleasure to have conversation with you sir and insees your point of view will be diffrent from tat of ours and it is not abussing and i hope nether were mine. but sir the conceot of creator and creation is inded diffrent( what i feel) and it is very simple to understand. once one of my profesoors told us to ask a question WHY AND HOW? now if we look at our own creation then we wil able to understand ALLAH(or GOD). now sir, if we study our own creation we would know that we were all born throgh one process. now if the process is the same why is it so that each and every indevedual is having diffrent identity from others, his face structure is diffrent, is DNA is diffren his fingure prints are diffrent even fron is own ones. who is managing all this. who is managing our solar system, who is managing the whole data base of ours, who will decide that who will enter the HAVEN and who will suffer HEEL, its THE ONE who have created us all.ALLAH (THE GOD). we might have diffrent ways to worship HIM but
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Venu:
Dear Nasir,The key to resolving religious differences lie in recognising what you said, "we might have different ways to worship HIM". Whether there is God or many Gods, whether God is black or white, male or female are all only of academic interest. We have to accept that however we conceive God, all forms of worship are legitimate. When this is done, there shall be unity of religions and all mankind will be one big family. We have to recognise the rights of others, the sacred spaces of others. The first and the last step in this direction is for each individual to make his restless mind restful. All the other things, as I said, are only academic.
nasir:
now this is wot it wanted to say sir that untill and unlees we wont understand each others true pint of view it wont be podible for us to cater our diffrencies with each other but againg the botoom line to it is that atleast we can stop abusing the diffrent regelions
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Venu:
Dear Nasir,I fully agree with you. About abusing of religions, there may be people who do it. We can't change everybody's nature. There is a proverb which says, "Let the dogs bark, the caravan will go on." This is the best position to adopt on abuses.
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M Jayadevan:
Wishing you and family a very happy diwali
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Dear Jayadevan,Happy Deepavali to all of you too. To tell you the truth, neither I nor my immediate family celebrate any festivals, birthdays whatsoever. As for myself, I tend to see all days as alike and hence life as one non-stop continuous celebration without the necessity of externalizing it. For my family, the non-celebration is largely a fallout of living with me. It is likely they will return to civilization when they become independent of me! However, this does not make me unable to appreciate celebrations. To each his own sacred space. Incidentally, when you find time, please visit my blog at www.kaikulath.blogspot.com. I’ve written a lot of crap there.
hi venuno news is good news. celebrations - may be just for get togethers and meetings - without celebrations and festivals what is life ?? these are part of our culture - we are lucky to have so many of them off and on which keeps life alive .... bst rgdsrgds
Dear Jayadevan,
You are right. Celebrations do give pep to life. And of course, we are lucky in that through our festivals we can still keep the link to an ancient culture that is a storehouse of much wisdom. I believe life, in the living of it through the flow of moments, is the greatest celebration we can afford. This too is the wisdom of our ancient culture. We are indeed lucky.
Cheers and bye for now.
M Jayadevan:
yes that is the point. In life we should enjoy all theseand make it grant as long as u can. good goingsee u sometimes. cheers
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Venu:
On thing, though. Seeking happiness from the external world is illusory because circumstances always change and we have to strive to keep abreast. But if we take to the inner world we enter a realm of peace which cannot be shaken whatever the circumstances.
M Jayadevan:
Hi venuThat is right. However, we are more immersed in the exernal world and have to adjust with it right now.Not too easy to explore the inner world - and how many of us try to enjoy that peace. One has to take alot of time and dedicatioon to explore it and understand. Good morning best rgds
M Jayadevan:
Wishing you and all in your family a very happy new year filled with joy and prosperity.
Venu:
Same to you and your family, Jayadevanji. May we, as the years pass by, be freer from the dictates of time and touch eternity more and more.
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NITHESH SHARMA:
hi venu garu am glad 2 meet u on this communuty. may make friendship with u?
Venu:
Hi, Nithesh, Let's be friends. You’re my son's age. Happily, my son is my best friend. What are you studying? I am working in Mumbai but my village is in Kerala. I've come to AP - to Tirupati and to Guntur for my exams when I was in school.
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Roopesh:
namasthe.. venuetta ariyumoo?
Venu:
Of course I remember you, Roopesh. I was in Cherpalcherry in May after 10 years (I am in Mumbai now) and I met Kumar. He got me Sanjay on the mobile. Sanjay had just got married. I wonder what Sumit is doing now. What are you doing in Coimbetore? How's your dad? Arjun and Ambika are both studying for LLB. Let's keep in touch. Happy that you contacted me.
