OH! AT WHAT A COST! AT WHAT A COST! AT WHAT A COST!

We should, after careful analysis and investigation, accept only what is brightest in the scriptures and not give in to each and every statement enshrined there simply out of reverence, suspending our reason and the faculty for critical thinking. Past revelation is great but present reasoning ought to be no less important in determining our course of action and choice if we are to lead meaningful lives. Mere adherence to ancient prescriptions, blindly and without discrimination, does not make a person a sage but rather it is clearly stated in the Hindu scriptures that we should first hear, then reflect and finally meditate on the principles we have accepted as true and worthy of higher pursuit. Rationality is not be abandoned at any stage of the process of enquiry and this is the crowning glory of Hindu traditional thinking. Which is why, of course, the ancient Hindus had made such significant progress even in the material sciences before changing course to specialize in the discovery of the laws of the inner world. Even then, the spiritual laws discovered by the Hindus were based on a strict adherence to rational rigour, experimentation, investigation and analysis, not by one sage but by generations of sages who independently carried out their research to confirm or reject past results, and the common mass of verified and verifiable truths were accepted as valid before they were recorded as laws of the spiritual world in ancient texts with a clause appended that future generations were welcome to test these affirmations before accepting them as true. No other scripture of the world of any religion other than the Vedas of the Hindus states thus that the sannyasi (realized renunciate) stands on the head of the Vedas. This is a supreme affirmation of the glory of man and the upholding of the fact that the book is secondary, that realization is primary and that revelation is not a dated institution unique to any specific person chosen by an arbitrary God but is in the very organic capacity of man embedded as his highest state of being. This decentralization of realization has in essence democratized the Hindu culture and raised it above petty sectarianism and bigotry as many of the other world religions are plagued by where dogma holds unassailable status and historically unique personal revelations are held indisputably sacrosanct. The result is that these religions with world-wide following are stagnating in a world of rapid forward movement and are dragging vast sections of humanity backward with their concomitant consequences. In a world dominated by science and reason, these archaic articles of faith are doing more harm than good by their rigid insistence on adherence to outdated principles, submission of man's most prized possession of the critical faculty to scriptural absolutes and reposing faith in what a privileged personality has been, so-to-say, privy to by his own admission into the secret mansions of divine revelation. Such blind acceptance of dogmatic assertions, however noble, cannot conduce to human well-being as it limits human freedom to challenge and reject age-old superstition and reduces a religious movement to a political one where empire-building in the name of nefarious conversion degenerates the human species to a regressive outfit fit for the forest and not the highway of civilized life. Thus, cultivation of the scientific temper is critical, the honing of the critical faculty vital and the right to scepticism an inviolable aspect of human dignity to be assuredly given to the citizen by law if our future is to be secured as an evolving species inching towards higher realizations. We must be allowed the privilege to challenge any concept or principle, however sacrosanct, put them to the test of reason, scientific scrutiny, debate, deliberation and disputation without being held culpable to any blasphemy law, for in so ensuring freedom of expression and enquiry may we advance through the portal of higher knowledge.

Billions are held hostage today to terrible traditional binds of irrational, dogmatic religions, generations are being systematically brainwashed into acceptance of archaic articles of faith having no basis in reason or sanity and billions are being set up in opposition to the progressive culture of the human species whereby we may emerge enlightened citizenry of futurity. A great tussle is on between the progressive powers of the world seeking to liberate humanity from the bondage of dogma through scientific enlightenment and the guaranteeing of human rights, and the regressive forces trying to hold humanity down with force, cultural brainwashing and unverifiable assurances of eternal beatitude in a heaven post-death when life on earth they have made into a veritable hell for their adherents through sectarian violence, scriptural impositions and denial of essential human rights. But the soul of man grows and in the fullness of time throws off the yoke of ages but, to quote Vivekananda,"Oh! At what a cost! At what a cost! At what a cost!"