The religious institutions, masses and fanatics must be confronted to embrace the most ridiculous and defy/deny the most revered

"People have an emotional attachment to dogmas. Everyone can move freely in the open sky, but the sky enclosed within a room becomes something like a private property. The owner of the room can prohibit anybody's entry into it. Sectarian religion implies a closed society. Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam are such closed religions because they have been institutionalized. They have caused division between men. They have taken heretics as aliens and have denied them the status of human beings. Institutionalized religion has neither done nor is it likely to do any good to humanity. It is in the light of the evils of institutionalized religions that some people have denounced religion itself. Such people have come to feel strongly that religion has deluded mankind and has denied them their legitimate claim to the primary necessities of life. As religion came to be viewed as a hindrance to the fulfillment of the basic needs of man, it came to be totally rejected." - Acharya Shri Mahaprajna

Dear Jagbir and All,

i remember your saying that we need to find out where religions have gone wrong. Most of us are familiar with the term: "the only begotten Son of God". As you know, it is a Christian terminology whose interpretation has caused much division between Christian and Jew, Christian and Muslim and probably Christian and Sikh, and others as well.

In the Bible, Jesus is quoted as saying:

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son..." (John 3:16a)

What did Jesus mean by "only begotten Son?"

Dear Violet and all,

Let me start by quoting Acharya Shri Mahaprajna:

"Some people believe that religion is based on eternal truth, and therefore, it will always be useful for mankind. Others believe religion to be useless because it has grown old and rusted, and so there is no sense in sticking to it. Who shall we believe? There are two forms of religion: religion as such and institutionalized religion. Religion in its essence is limitless and open, but when it assumes the form of a sect it becomes institutionalized and closed. Religion is like the open sky. Institutionalized religion is like the sky bound within a building and its rooms; it becomes sectarian, and therefore dogmatic.

People have an emotional attachment to dogmas. Everyone can move freely in the open sky, but the sky enclosed within a room becomes something like a private property. The owner of the room can prohibit anybody's entry into it. Sectarian religion implies a closed society. Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam are such closed religions because they have been institutionalized. They have caused division between men. They have taken heretics as aliens and have denied them the status of human beings. Institutionalized religion has neither done nor is it likely to do any good to humanity. It is in the light of the evils of institutionalized religions that some people have denounced religion itself. Such people have come to feel strongly that religion has deluded mankind and has denied them their legitimate claim to the primary necessities of life. As religion came to be viewed as a hindrance to the fulfillment of the basic needs of man, it came to be totally rejected.

I would not enter into the controversy about the desirability of religion, but I would like to remind the reader that although food, clothing and shelter are the basic needs of man, manliness cannot be confined to these necessities only. It commands a much wider field of operation. Manliness consists in the search for and practice of truth. It is also true that we are governed by faith in matters of religion, but faith alone is not enough. We must also exercise our critical faculty and examine things for ourselves. Religion has got to be enlivened by the combined operation of faith and reason.

It is natural for us to ask why religion has lost its essence and why its body has become deceased. The answer to this question is that the scriptures have belied our faith and that an irrational attitude towards religion has vitiated its form. Followers of all religions swear by the scriptures. We have come to treat Gita, the AGAMs, the PITAKAs, the Koran and the Bible as the first and the last words of truth. Nobody asks whether the scriptures from thousands of years ago still hold good. Moreover, do we understand the scriptures correctly? Have we ourselves perceived the truths enunciated in them?" (end)

This "begotten son" is just one of the many points of revulsion/ contradiction found in religious doctrines and scriptures. Just the day before yesterday i bought "In Defense of Atheism: The Case Against Christianity, Judaism and Islam" by Michel Onfray, an excellent book that is both brutally honest and devastating logical. i will let all of you have a peek at a random page (91 out of 242):

"Lamarck, followed by Darwin, published their discoveries. The former proposed that species change, the latter that they evolve according to the so-called laws of natural selection. The readers of the only book shook their heads: God created the dog and the wolf from whole cloth, the city rat and the country rat, the cat, the weasel, and the bunny rabbit. No likelihood whatsoever that a comparison of their bones might prove evolution or transformation. And then there was that notion that men descended from monkeys! An unbearable narcissistic wound, Freud suggested. The pope cousin to a baboon? Horrors ... Transformation of species? Evolution? Absolutely not!

In the industrious atmosphere of their laboratories scientists advanced the idea of humans at different geographical locations. A contradiction, thundered the church: Adam and Eve were indeed, factually and really, the first man and the first woman. Before them no one existed. The existence of the primordial couple, the couple who brought us original sin, buttresses the biblical logic of error, guilt, and redemption. What can we do with men and women existing before sin, and thus spared by sin? Pre-Adamites? Absolutely not!

Brushing dirt from stones and poring over fossils, geologists proposed a scientific dating of the world. Seashells found on mountaintops, strata and layers all attest to an immanent chronology. But there is a problem; their dating does not correspond to the sacred numerology supplied by the Bible. Christians insist that the world is four thousand years old, no more, no less. Scientists prove the existence of a world before that Christian world. Science is wrong ... Is geology a science to be relied on? Absolutely not!" (end)

i have now a book backlog* that needs to be synthesized so that the external gates and walls of religious institutions can be battered down, and their prisoners freed to the direct, inner and personal experience of the Divine and the Resurrection. The religious institutions, masses and fanatics must be challenged to defend the indefensible (primordial couple, 4000-year-old earth etc.) and flee the multi-pronged charge against their most prized, sacred and protected bastion (Eschatology of the Last Judgment and Resurrection)! They must be confronted to embrace the most ridiculous, and defy/deny their most revered i.e., the Great News and Sure Signs of the Resurrection, the heart and soul of their religion.

"In Defense of Atheism: The Case Against Christianity, Judaism and Islam" is one gigantic battering ram, a most welcome means to accelerate that process. The religious elite should begin to realize that the sun is now setting on their evening empires which are crumbling into sand, and from those ruins is breaking the Dawn of the Divine Feminine (Holy Spirit) that will awaken the human race from their long spiritual slumber.

"The People of the "poor"87 — those who, humble and meek, rely solely on their God's mysterious plans, who await the justice, not of men but of a Messiah — are in the end the great achievement of the Holy Spirit's hidden mission during the time of the promises that prepare for Christ's coming. It is this quality of heart, purified and enlightened by the Spirit, which is expressed in the Psalms. In these poor, the Spirit is making ready "a people prepared for the Lord." "88

(87. Cf. Zeph 2:3; Pss 22:27; 34:3; Isa 49:13; 61:1; etc. 88. Lk 1:17.)

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Interdicasterial Commission),
Catechism of the Catholic Church, U.S.C.C. Inc.,
Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1994, p. 189.

"The Paraclete is to be sent by God the Father in response to the prayer of Christ (14:16), by Christ Himself (16:7), by the Father in Christ's name (14:26), or by Christ from the Father (15:26.)"

Dictionary of the Bible, [Edited by James Hastings],
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1963

The Great Paraclete Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi
Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi “Normally I don’t tell about Myself but today he exposed me. As soon as I came I had to tell because it’s not tactful. It’s not tactful to say anything. It’s better that you discover Me than I tell you because Christ was crucified, everybody was tortured. I do not want to hamper My work because it makes no difference by telling you anything before Realization. It’s better to tell you after Realization that I am the Holy Ghost – no doubt. I am the one about which Christ has talked.

I have told them. I had never said this on from a platform and I told. They have been telling Me, “Mother, You must say that once.” I said, "In America I’ll declare it.” So today I declare that I am the Holy Ghost. I am the Holy Spirit who has incarnated on this Earth for your realization.”

Shri Mataji, New York, USA 30 September 1980

The religious institutions, masses and fanatics must be confronted to embrace the most ridiculous, and defy/deny their most revered ... and that includes the challenge that the Spirit is making ready "a people prepared for the Lord", and that the Paraclete has been "sent by God the Father in response to the prayer of Christ (14:16), by Christ Himself (16:7), by the Father in Christ's name (14:26), or by Christ from the Father (15:26.)"

As i have said before, everything is being worked out. It will only get better over time. That's a promise!

regards to all,

jagbir

* Hindu Spirituality: Postclassical And Modern
* The Sikhs: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices
* The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore
* Life After Death: The Burden of Proof
* Yogic Secrets of the Dark Goddess
* Lalita-Sahasranama: A Comprehensive Study of One Thousand Names of Lalita Maha-Tripurasundari
* The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist's Case For The Existence Of The Soul
* I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

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