Ja Ja Mata- Ta ta Pata !!

[Guest guest]

Respected Spiritualists, I haven't written the below mail to consciously advise somebody. but it has been written after a long deliberation within my own mind. pl. take it in a right spirit. my intentions are pure & genuine. -------------------------- I have seen people indulging in hot arguments, fights, cursing others when it comes to their own faiths, beliefs in Dharmic path. It happens, every now & then, in our society. Even on Astrology and other Religious/Spiritual lists on the net (probably there it happens more

severely as many have the vanity of knowledge) Just leave aside other popular Religions and take our own Sanaatan Dharma. I’ve come across following statements in my own experience. 1) “Shiva is himself the Vaishnava” 2) “Upon whom Shiva always Meditate as shown in his majority of Pictures?” 3) “Hanumaan is a Shiva Avataar” 4) “Ramakrishna was a Vishnu avataar whereas His Shishya Swami Vivekananda was a Shiva Avataar” 5) An old lady doesn’t partake Prasad if it is from Shiva Temple because she is a devotee of ‘Bal Gopal’. 6) In some article, it was written that in the whole of India, it is the Lord Shiva family which is being worshipped the most i.e. Lord Shiva, Bhagavati, Ganapati & Kartik Swami. 7) There are some

people who call themselves Shaivaites, doesn’t like the statement of Lord Krushna when HE says “Through worshiping different deities they are worshiping ME only” 8) One of my friends who is an ardent follower of ISCON used to tell me & everybody else that Lord Krishna is the supreme God and all others are DEMI Gods. Hence it is foolish to worship other small Gods when THE God is available. 9) There are some Acharyas of Modern days, even criticize Adi Shankaracharya. When one of my colleagues told me this, I was really pained. I told him few peerless poems of Shankara such as Bhaj Govindam, Nirvaanashtakam and he was interested. He is a great devotee of Krishna. When I told him about ‘Krishnashtakam’ compiled by the Jagadguru, he was overwhelmed. He now has great love & respect for Adi Shankara. At least, false understanding of his was dispelled. 10) Some ‘Vedantist’ openly criticizes ‘Murti Poojan’ and they take the example of Sage Kabeer. One person met me during a train journey, was so fond of Kabeer’s ‘Doha’ that he was convinced that Murti Pujan and worship of different forms of Gods are simply foolish acts. He was delightedly quoting (misquoting) Kabeer that he was the worshipper of Rama which is not The Son of Dashratha. Needless to say that I had a good verbal fight with him in year 2004. 11) A devotee of

some Yoga school founded by a well-known Spiritual Lady says that Hanumaan & Ganapati are ONLY the ‘Ganas’ of Maataaji (?). He meant that they have just the status of lowly Servants. 12) Our so & so guru, he is Avataar, God Incarnate, is the greatest and others are ‘OK’ kind of ones. The above points, one way or the other, are directed to show the superiority of one

faith over the other. Be it Vaishnava/Shaiva vaad or Dwait / Adwait Vaad or whatever vaad. The list will become endless if we take Jainism and other religion in to account. It is not only during the full fledge discussions but even a passing remarks, which also shows of subtle attitude of superiority complex. When discussing such things, we forget that we are becoming supremely foolish intellectuals, whose hair splitting-sword like arguments are mere blabbering without any direct experience of the divine. I have written harsh words because we, by our, arrows of arguments hardly realize how much pain has been inflicted in the hearts of

believers of other faiths and worst, in the process, we pull down our own self by thickening the layer of delusion. I myself might have caused such heart-burns to others in the past. I pray with folded hands that pl. don’t indulge in such activities. That alone is not sufficient in my opinion. We must respect the other’s belief. I think that is also not complete. We must develop the feeling in the deepest corner of our heart that all the beliefs are correct without any propertied of superiority/inferiority and finally leads to the divine. It must not be mere words from mouth but feeling within. The apt example is of Shri Vaishnavacharan,

who once was asked by two groups of fighting intellectuals about who is the Superior GOD between Vishnu & Shiva. He said something like this “I don’t know who the superior is. Neither have I seen them nor has anybody from my ancestors known about them” The above is a fitting, sincere & honest reply from a ‘Great Scholar of Shastras’. It gives a lot of food for thought and tries to show us the Viveka. It triggers us to dive deep in search of our own heart before indulging in to such discussion or making such remarks. once again i beg forgiveness if my freewheeling thoughts have caused any pain to anybody. It is not intended to any

person or any group. The matter was for a long time haunting me, which finally was written. Yours, Utpal

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