THE VEDANTA ... 1

THE VEDANTA ... 1

Any religion that divides humanity into believers and non-believers cannot in the ultimate sense be true for it lacks insight into the depth-unity of things, that integral vision of the solidarity of life and existence. In this regard the three Abrahamic religions, namely, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, fall woefully short of the highest spiritual ideal which is apprehended in full only by the Vedanta. Future man must, therefore, in his questioning rationality come to rejecting the archaic and absolutist principles of these religions and embracing the universal principles of the Vedanta. It may be millenia before the world en masse is thus rationalised but it sure will come to pass if even at such a distant date. The Hindu Rishis discovered these spiritual principles five thousand years ago and they have hardly as yet penetrated the masses here in India. A further five thousand years, perhaps, we shall not have to wait for its fruition but a protracted period of time we shall have to yet endure dualistic delusion before the masses come to their senses.

Christianity has historically undergone a radical reformation and Christians have gone through a revolution of rational ideas dubbed the Enlightenment. Thus, Christians and Jews have revised their relations with God, man, religion and society. But Islam, intransigent as it is scripturally, has not gone through such a modernisation, its tenets having been derived directly from God as it arbitrarily affirms. Here lies the problem and it is affecting the whole world today as countless acts of terrorism are being perpetrated across the globe in its name, the number of such acts since 9/11 having mounted to over 37,000 and counting. The Vedanta must be made accessible to Muslims the world over as they try to grapple with this pernicious problem that is of all people afflicting them the most. Here we, Hindus, have work to do.

Written by Sugata Bose