Exploring the Depth of History and Spirituality Through Yoga
Dive into the intersection of history, spirituality, and self-discovery as explored in Chapter 2 of the Being Different Book Club 2024. Discover contrasting perspectives of Western and dharmic traditions on the pursuit of truth, liberation, and the role of historical records in attaining spiritual enlightenment.
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Chapter 2 Yoga Freedom from History Exitential Questions Who are we Why are we here What happens when we die Can we transcend death, if so, how What is the ultimate reality or truth and how can we reach it These questions will now be seen through Purva-Paksha
Chapter 2 Yoga Freedom from History In the Judeo-Christian traditions, revelation comes from above The bedrock of such religions is the historical event This leads to an obsession with compiling and studying the historical details (History-centric) Dharmic faiths do not depend on historical events Dharmic traditions say that the truth is not located out there in heaven Truth resides as the indivisible Self within each person Embodied Knowing Humankind is divine
Chapter 2 Yoga Freedom from History Meditative practices remove the layers of conditioning that obscure one s true nature and the higher truth West lacks such techniques Even if all historical records were lost, historical memories erased and holy sites destroyed, the ultimate truth could be recovered through spiritual practices Judeo-Christian religions man is born with original sin and therefore lacks the potential to achieve union with God through Yoga It is only through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross that a path to the divine got opened Organized religion is thus a sort of history club which aims to arrive at the right interpretation of prophetic teachings and instructions
Chapter 2 Yoga Freedom from History This collective and historical approach to salvation is quite unlike the individual approach to liberation through Dharma Serious problems with relying solely on historical records to deliver the truth: 1. Unscientific and irrational critical claims are not verifiable or reproducible empirically 2. Produce conflicts both within religions and among rival ones Example Christians believe that Jesus will return (second coming) only when Jewish Temple of David is restored to its original site. But the ground where this temple once stood is now the site of one of the holiest mosques of Islam Each claim is non-negotiable by its respective side
CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS ExplainingDharma to Westerners Rajiv Ji put forth these questions to a Western audience: 1. What would happen to your religious lives if all history became inaccessible or falsified 2. What would you do if you had to live your lives without the knowledge from God through historical events 3. By what authority would you be able to live a religious life, if at all In other words, could you discover the spiritual truth for you yourselves without dependence on historical sources The educated audience got stumped. Many said it would be impossible to be religious under such circumstances They said that humankind lacks the ability to know God s will without the historical prophets
CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS Some said that only Jesus very specific personal sacrifice had made it possible for humanity to be redeemed One man suggested that Rajiv Ji did not have the authority to deny them their history in this way! The exodus of Israelites from Egypt is central to the Jewish belief in collective salvation Passover God freed them from slavery Christian Salvation incarnation, cruxification, resurrection Easter Bondage to History Dharma would survive even without historical records Example Practices of tantra do not rely on the lives of Hindu saints Major Difference Christians Top Down (God Initiated); Dharma Bottom up (Human initiated)
History vs Myth Westerners treat religious narratives of other cultures as Myth whereas they regard their own narratives as true. Ithihaas Not myth nor history Truth, and not mere history, is the concern of Itihaas Truth is not dependent on history, rather history is a manifestation of it Ithihaas is pluralistic, a new version of a narrative does not nullify all others There is no burning of old books to erase past versions Hence, in Bharat, ancient customs coexist with those from later periods An open past serves as a creative resource for future generations to explore Western history does not have room for parallel streams, finding them threatening, and put them in museum as dead ones
History vs Myth Western scholars, unable to deal with the multiple versions of Itihaas, tend to categorize it all as myth Dharmic traditions do not rely on prophets, saints, or a single incarnation of the divine A personal preference of a particular incarnation has never implied the rejection of other incarnations Embodied knowing is considered superior to mere intellectualism This is why rishis and yogis are considered superior to priests Mantas are taught to children even before they understand their meaning Through their vibrations, mantras exert an impact directly on the body down to the cellular levels Embodiment is also experienced collectively, e.g., Ramlila
How History Centrism Works Western thought acknowledges that there are human limits to knowing But it has failed to develop techniques to overcome these limits In Bible, God imposes limits on human knowing by divine injunction not to eat from the tree of knowledge The continuous success of Dharma traditions has been their ability to produce living masters Since the prophets in Christian tradition are the only channel for knowing God s Will, human beings would live in darkness if they don t study the history of prophets Christian authorities don t want people to become Jesus like, because this would undermine Church s exclusivity Pope is not known to have attained embodied enlightenment Truth never depends on the life of a person. Newtonian physics is not history-centric because gravitation would not be falsified even if Newton never existed like a CEO
How History Centrism Works Jewish and Christian religions cannot afford to compromise on their history-centric beliefs, because to do so would be tantamount to surrendering their claims to unique access to knowledge of God s Will Since such knowledge can only come as an intervention from above , the entire connection of humans to the divine would be forfeited In Catholicism, a spiritual teacher is formally recognized as a saint only after he or she is dead to avoid threat to institutional authority Yoga s self-centering silence is seen as resisting the submission to God So Yogic association of the body with divinity is held to be dangerous Conservatives and evangelists fear that supernatural influences tied to Satan may enter the silence mind God is not immanent; it s removed from the cosmos Hence the notion that manta invokes divinity is considered suspicious. Mantra is considered a violation of the commandment to not worship any other gods
