Guest guest Posted August 31, 2009 Report Share Posted August 31, 2009 Friends,Every religion, especially every one of the highly developed religions of the world have two dimensions. These are (1)religion as a path to the experience of God or any 'value 'equivalent to it and (2)religion as a socio-political expression. The first dimension consists of the truly spiritual part,with its emphasis on personal morality,worship and adoration, and the disciplines designed to ensure the spiritual growth of man. These constitute the essential and the invariable and the universal core of religion. Indian tradition calls this dimension as Sruti. The second consists of the do`s and don`ts of religion and the rules and regulations about food, dress, marriage, and other social disciplines, besides myths and legends and cosmological theories. It can not constitute the science of religion but only a historically conditioned socio-political expression of religion. Though they constitute the non-essential part, which is also relevant, but only when it does not choke the spirit of the former. These are called Smruti. While Sruti is considered as eternal, and universal in validity, Smruti is considered as local, parochial and temporary in application.For the reasons stated above, Sruti represents the Sanatana Dharma, eternal religion, which remains, while the Smruti represents the yuga Dharma, the religion for a particular yuga or age, which changes. It is held by many people that yuga Dharma constituent of religion is not not only applicable for all people universally, but even irrelevant to its own people of a later age, due to changes in conditions of life of the people concerned. The Indian tradition provides for appropriate changes in Smritis and the Yuga Dharma with a view to make them relevant for the changed social circumstances which render them obsolete. Human and social distortions are the product of the dominance of these obsolete elements of a socio-religious tradition; they sustain the rigidities of social customs and practices, inter-religious and intra-religious frictions, disharmonies, and persecutions, and the stagnation and immobility of human attitudes.(to be continued)G.Balasubramanian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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