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HVK Archives: Hinduism & Semitic faiths

Hinduism & Semitic faiths - The Observer

Posted By Krishnakant Udavant (krishnakant@vsnl.com)
February 2, 1999

Title: Hinduism & Semitic faiths
Author:
Publication: The Observer
Date: February 2, 1999

The fellows excerpt has been taken from Shri Ram Swarup's
chapter, 'Hinduism vis-a-vis Christianity and Islam', in
Politics of Conversion edited by Devendra Swarup (Deendayal
Research Institute, New Delhi: 1986)

In a world suffering from so much unnecessary conflict, the
truth of unity and harmony has to be emphasised. If a man is
the same in his more common sensibilities, he must also be the
same in his spiritual ones. If he laughs when he is tickled and
pained when he is pricked, he must also be filled with a sense
of awe, wonder and holiness in the presence of the profundities
and, mysteries of life.

Mile this truth comes naturally to a Hindu or Buddhist, it is
denied both in theory as well as in practice by Christianity and
Islam. They believe that not only are they different, but they
are also superior. From the start, they believed that the god
they worshipped was superior to the gods of their neighbours and
their religion was invested with truth while others wallowed in
falsities.

The scriptures of Semitic inspiration are hortative, admonitory;
they urge, they re. prove, they enjoin, they warn, they even
enforce. There is a note of feverishness in them. But the
atmosphere of the Hindu scriptures is unhurried, relaxed and
expositional. The first variety seem to goad you; the second
one to lead you step by step.

The first one is passionate, zealous, the second one calm and
detached. The first one plays on your hopes and fears; it
threatens you with a hell and promises you a paradise; while the
second one aims at opening up your understanding.

There are other differences as well. Christianity and Is. lam
are religions of faith; Hinduism and Its powerful offshoot,
Buddhism, are religions of Prajna, wisdom. The former deal with
Intensifies of feelings, the latter aim at awakening the mind.
The former have been religions of piety with a strong tendency
to deny reason. The latter are religions of 'understanding',
giving due place to reason though it will have to be purified
and separated from the dross of desire before It becomes an
instrument of a higher life. In Hinduism, faith is rendered by
the world shradha, that which lies hidden in the recession of
the heart; so, faith means faith in the hidden truths of the
soul, faith in the unrealised possibilities of the mind.

In Christianity and Islam, faith means belief in the established
dogmas of the Church, or belief in the external authority of a
particular book, or a prophet. Similarly, the word 'reason',
too, has different connotations here.

In Islam, reason was overpowered by faith from the very start;
In Christianity when eventually it earned some kind of uneasy
place, it had to become the handmaid of faith. It was
apologetics.

In the West, people had to wage a grim battle against
Christianity in order to liberate reason from its shackles.

The Islamic world has yet to learn to evaluate its religious
dogmas, its history, its book, its Prophet, his personality and
his revelation in the light of reason, both secular as well as
spiritual.

There are other very important differences. Christianity and
Islam are built round historical personalities; Hinduism round
the truths of man's own higher nature.

So if there was no Jesus or no Mohammed, there would have been
no Christianity and no Islam. But according to the Hindu
approach, man's religion does not depend on any such exigency.
There is a dharma for all times, sanatan dharma, because it lies
there always in the soul.

According to Christianity and Islam, God has given his truths
finally and once for all through his favourite, intermediary and
these are now deposited in a book.

The other revelations and books are either denied or they are
considered as merely preparatory: They exist merely to confirm
the truths of the new revelation. Subsequent revelations become
false or redundant.

Hinduism also does not teach a God who reveals himself only to a
chosen individual, letting others receive their truths from this
exclusive channel. It speaks of truths which are revealed
wherever there is seeking, purity of aspirations and motives,
necessary preparation.

It believes that all nations share God's grace. It does not
believe that there are pagans and infidels waiting to be
converted to a particular system of beliefs and ideas or a race
of the damned waiting to be saved. Hinduism respects
differences and seeks God's working in different races and
peoples.

One can see for oneself that in this kind of approach, there is
no place for 'conversion'. True religion can neither be
borrowed nor lent. A man carries his religion with. in himself
wherever he goes and he has to be his own lamp. The conversion
one experiences at this level is inner and it is very different
from the conversions that the countries have known under the
aegis of Christianity and Islam. These conversions are
political and military acts, acts of aggressive hard sale.


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