FAITH, FANTASY AND FANATICISM

FAITH, FANTASY AND FANATICISM 

Overmuch of adulation of a person brings in its wake fanaticism, the corrosive consequence of dualism. Emotional excess, unregulated by reason and allowed unhindered free play, often turns toxic as the lower instincts take control and turn its course towards superstition and concomitant evils. Devotion devoid of reason either becomes silly sentimentality or violent emotional propensity that is unwholesome. Cold calculating reason devoid of love as pure materialistic philosophising often results in is equally dangerous as history bears testimony to. Thus, a balance of heart and head is necessary, each holding the other in check and preventing the system from going berserk when circumstances are propitious for such a foul flow. Which is why Sri Ramakrishna so stressed on 'jnanmishra bhakti' (devotion tempered by knowledge) as opposed to free-flowing unrestrained devotion as some of the dualistic schools allow. The Semitic religions, Christianity and Islam, and the materialistic philosophy of Marxism have each in consequence of such unbalanced emotion or reason unleashed inhuman violence on humanity. The forces harmonised, such a harm is avoided. This is where dualism must be balanced by non-dualism and vice-versa, and strict monotheism replaced by the system of the 'Ishta', that is, the worship of the Chosen Deity.

Devotion democratised does not degenerate to demonic culture. The Sanatan Dharma is just the system that democratises devotion by raising man and every living creature to the status of godhead. Here the Impersonal Principle comes in and replaces the Personal God even as the science of consciousness supplants the cult of the tribal God or the godless cult of the animal man. This is a point to ponder as this has to be the focal point of all future considerations of world peace. Balance, harmony -- this has to be the key for all future progress. Tilted devotion, godless science and materialistic living based purely on necessity and supply cannot be the cure for the enduring maladies of mankind. The Sanatan Dharma in all its multifarious balancing mode is the way. Om!

Written by Sugata Bose 

Photo: Swami Virajananda