I would be keen to know how religion complicates the journey to self discovery ? I could not find points subtantiating this in the earlier posts - maybe I just scanned through it.
Cheers,
Dear Jaykay,
I had written some points earlier but anyway here it is.
Note: This is my personal view on why religion complicates self discovery.
I am not finding fault with Vedas and God..so please read this with an open mind.
1)The word Religion actually is an English word.
In Sanskrit we use the word 'Mata/Matam' meaning "thought/opinion"
Many a times we read the word Mama Mata in religious text denoting "My opinion"
Ancients were never creating new religions but they were just Ekam Sat Viprah Bahuda Vadantifying their understanding of Sanathana Dharma and this was done to suit the time,place and the understanding of the people of that time.
If we see even Vedic Hymns..it starts off as praising nature..forces of nature and later on deifying these forces of nature and giving them a name and elevating them to a status of a deva.
Then we can see that many hymns are for securing grains, cattle, progeny etc..later on we have hymns requesting fame,power and higher place in heavens etc..then we have the Jnaana portion that deals with Brahman and the concept of Realizing Brahman.
Ok ..what I am trying to say is at no one point there arose a need for religion..Vedic lifestyle seemed to be self discovery in action.
It was never meant to be static as you can see from the evolution of thought of the seers and sages.
Even the Shad Darshanas at times contradicted each other.
It did not mean that one seer was right and the other was wrong.
It is just that each one of them was penning their thoughts to aid mankind progress and understanding.
Like I wrote in my earlier posts that when a scientist discovers a new drug and later on after a while the drug becomes resistant to bacteria he has to move on to discover a new drug or how like a caterpillar moves from one blade of grass to another.
But what we have today is static thinking and the search for God is still going on in circles and only outward focus is stressed upon.
Very few Gurus actually encourage people to look within.
Everyone gives excuses that "you are not ready..you need to do this and that to purify your mind etc"
Further more each one holds on to their Teachings as tight as the grip of death.
When we travel in a boat to go across the river..we get into the boat and sail across the river and finally get down and go to the other side of the river...so same way with Teachings of Religion..it is meant to be raft to take us across the ocean of Samsara and we are supposed to get down and leave the raft of religion behind and not hold on to it..by holding on to a raft no one gets across anywhere.
Religion is fine up to a certain level but if one holds on to it an refuses to get down from it that is when the person becomes infected with complicatedism.
This is what I mean by "To realize God one needs to give up Religion"
Just to add...we can not be too sure that the journey ends after we cross the ocean of Samsara..for all we know that is when the journey actually begins.
ray2:
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