Gurudeva Speaks on Ethical Conversion
HE FOLLOWING IS A QUESTION-AND-ANSWER SESSION, known in Sanskrit as an upadeśa, in which we respond to devotees’ queries on ethical conversion, sectarianism, paths of attainment, spiritual unfoldment and more.§
Devotee: How do you view the practices of religious persons who embrace all at once Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and all the religions in a kind of universal ecumenism?
Gurudeva: This is a perfectly understandable phase of spiritual evolution, but it is not the true or final path for sincere seekers. It is certainly not what Śrī Rāmakṛishṇa was trying to tell people, nor was it what our own beloved satguru, Śiva Yogaswāmī, stood for. They were both staunch Hindus, one a Śākta and the other a Śaivite, who understood their religion deeply. Śrī Rāmakṛishṇa did not cease being a Śakti devotee, but so fully embraced Her worship that he came to know Her vastness in embracing everything. Nor did Śiva Yogaswāmī abandon God Śiva to become everything to everyone, but was everything in being the perfectly devout Śaivite.§
They were simply indicating, as I do, that religions are one in their movement toward God, some offering knowledge, others service, others love, attainment and direct experience. At the same time, they are different in their practices and attainments, and most assuredly distinct in their beliefs, the foundation of the attitudes of their members. It is good to love and respect all religions; it is a necessary condition of spiritual unfoldment. But it is necessary to keep firmly to a single path toward God. Our Śiva Yogaswāmī taught that a train can only run on the tracks. Following the path given by our religion leads one onward through religious practices and sādhana into divine realization. Otherwise, there is no longer a path, but a trackless plane where each wanders totally on his own, as his own guide, often without experience, in a desert of ignorance seeking solace in a mirage, an imaginary enlightenment he can see just on the horizon but which, in reality, does not exist. §
Devotee: Some Hindus, particularly in the West, embrace all religions as if they were one, feeling that sectarianism is too narrow, too prone to conflicts. Why do you disagree with that view and prefer instead to promote sectarianism?
Gurudeva: Religious people do not cause conflicts. They resolve them and bring peace into the world. The Anglican British in India played upon sectarianism to create strife among the members of the sects toward one another to fulfill their own divide-and-rule policy, hoping the sects would destroy each other. They did the same with the caste and sub-caste positions, as well as with money exchange between the provinces. Much strife was created through communalism, stirring dissension between Hindus and Muslims, which was exactly what the British were attempting to do.§
I argue against nonsectarianism because it doesn’t work. It may have been good for a time, but proved to be a dead-end street, leading well-intentioned followers into an abyss of mental confusion, divorce, abortion and suicide, leading its followers to the question, “Where is the true path of Hinduism?” Our final answer to that question is the path of Hinduism is Śaivism; it is Vaishṇavism; it is Śāktism; it is Smārtism. It is not in a Hinduism that is divorced from sectarianism, because Hinduism does not exist without its four major sects or denominations. It is a four-fold religion, the sum of its four sects. If you destroy the parts, you destroy the whole. If you eliminate the four denominations, you also eliminate Hinduism.§
In theory, the idea that all religions are one, or that all religions are the same, is a convincing notion. But the great experiment to abandon one’s religion to embrace all others or to relinquish one’s sect to become nonsectarian has not worked. Nor was this the first effort to create an eclectic, man-made religion, one that took a little of this and a little of that and a few ideas from its founder and a few improvements by its successors, and so on into an idealistic emptiness. This is always true of religious efforts which do not uphold dharma. Throughout history utopian movements have risen and fallen, bright and promising in their birth, neglected and forgotten in their demise.§
Devotee: What about the principle of Ishṭa Devatā? Isn’t every Hindu free to choose the form of the Deity he or she wants to worship?
Gurudeva: Of course, within each denomination the idea of Ishṭa Devatā—that one may choose the form of the Deity he is naturally drawn to worship—is most proper and traditional. A Śaivite, for example, is free to choose Gaṇeśa as his Deity, or to become a devotee of Lord Murugan or Śiva. But the modern Smārta trend of accepting a Devatā outside of one’s sect is not good. I believe that this was begun in an effort to break down sectarianism. We are proud to be Śaivites, and Vaishṇavites are proud of their religion, too. But there are those who sought to be free from their father’s religion, even to embrace Christianity or Buddhism. Even a statue of Jesus and Mother Mary are seen today as valid Ishṭa Devatās, and they stand next to a statue of Lord Gaṇeśa on a liberal, nonsectarian Hindu’s home altar. On the positive side this is a sign of the broadness of our religion, which embraces all. But on the negative side it is a dilution of that same religion, which can lead to its destruction. Out of this comes a diluted religion, its strength sapped, its Gods exiled while foreign Gods hold sway. From my experience and inner findings, this idea of the Ishṭa Devatā chosen from any of the Gods or Goddesses, or none of them, should be closely looked at, as it can bring about a distortion of the traditional continuity of our religion.§
Devotee: There are those who teach a path to Truth through yoga and sādhana alone, without the temples, without the Gods. Would their followers succeed on such a spiritual path?
Gurudeva: The first initiation that a traditional guru would give before sādhana is assigned and yoga is taught is to bring the truth-seeker fully into his religion. Then he would give his devotees sādhana to perform, basic religious practices to observe—such as japa and pilgrimage—and he would teach those devotees religious protocol and culture. Only after these matters were settled could experience of the deeper realizations be sought for. Of course, there could be peace of mind and a genuine devotion within those following yoga disciplines alone. But the deepest realizations of the yoga mārga and the sādhana mārga come when these are coupled with the rich traditions, with temple worship and so on. At this juncture, yoga can be taught and the disciple given permission to practice it. This is the magic. Then it will really work. Otherwise, it simply does not have the power that comes from the backing of the three worlds.§
Therefore, those who seek Truth through yoga must enter the arena of sādhana—in our case, must fully embrace Śaivism in its entirety. Only then will sādhana bear the fruits of yogas well performed, as pūjā bears the fruits of śakti power, and tapas bears the fruits of sānnidhya. Only then will the fruit of sādhana ripen in the radiance of yoga, drawing its sustenance through the roots of the ṛishis’ revelations in the Vedic-Āgamic way.§
Devotee: So often we have been told that Vedānta and yoga make a Christian a better Christian. How does that relate to your insights on sectarianism?
Gurudeva: A strong religion births from within itself its own spiritual lights. You are correct. Christianity needs all the help that it can get, and yes, Vedānta and yoga have been a solace for millions of Christians. From personal experience in teaching Vedānta and yoga to Christians and Jews in the Western world, I assure you that it does not make them better Christians or Jews.§
Those steeped in Christian/Judaic emotions and dogma in early years studied diligently with me later in life, striving for Self Realization. The more they strove in their yogic practices and philosophical understandings, the farther they moved from their goal. The Biblical theologies perpetuate a one-lifetime belief, inspiring a sense of hurried religious attainment. This very urgency of attaining a spiritual goal keeps the aspirant from the goal, keeps the mind agitated, the emotions frustrated, knowing that attainment has not yet been reached, knowing the time is shorter each day, and subconsciously believing that the soul has only one opportunity on this Earth to realize God.§
Does the fruit upon the tree ripen because we wish it to? Is the energy in the sap, the kuṇḍalinī force, of the tree that ripens the fruit answerable to the demands of the fruit which is impatient to become ripe? No. It happens in its own good time. The ripening of the fruit depends on the roots of the tree, upon the soil and the season and the sun. Similarly, the ripening of the soul into its ultimate states of maturity depends on the roots of the religion, upon the season of the soul and upon the radiant light of the satguru. Thus, the wise hold firmly to the strong trunk of sectarianism, to traditionalism, to the principles lived from the time of the ṛishis who brought forth the Vedas and the Āgamas, the revealed scriptures of the timeless Sanātana Dharma.§
Devotee: It is sometimes taught that advanced souls need only follow the path of yoga to realize God. Are Vedānta philosophy and yoga disciplines sufficient to know God in this life, or are all the increments of religion needed?
Gurudeva: Man has an instinctive, an intellectual and a superconscious phase of mind. Śaiva Siddhānta theology postulates the progressive path of charyā, kriyā, yoga and jñāna. Charyā is virtuous and moral living. Kriyā is temple worship and devotion. Yoga is internalized devotion and union with God Śiva. And jñāna is the awakened state of the matured yogī. The charyā mārga harnesses and controls the instinctive mind. The kriyā mārga harnesses and controls the intellectual mind. The yoga mārga releases man’s individual awareness so that he is able to function superconsciously. And the jñāna mārga, after union with God, maintains that superconsciousness, as knowing bursts forth from within. It is from here that śruti, our great and lasting revealed scriptures, have come.§
All of the increments of a religion control and culture the instinctive and intellectual mind. When a devotee sits in meditation and is plagued with instinctive desire through thoughts, feelings and fantasies, it is only because the instinctive mind has not been harnessed. He should first perform charyā more diligently, later to earn the right to practice yoga. When the devotee sits in meditation and the intellect plagues him, he has one thought dancing into another, ideas magnifying into images in an unstilled mind, it is kriyā that must be better performed as a divine antidote which harnesses the rash intellect through a deeply mystical process. Needless to say, Vedānta is the outgrowth and product of jñāna, and yoga is the result of charyā and kriyā, the great disciplinarians of the instinctive-intellectual mind. All of this is Śaiva Siddhānta. Similarly, each sect within the Hindu religion has its specific traditions, goals and path of attainment.§
Why hide our religion under the cloak of an intellectual explanation of Vedānta and certain simple practices of yoga when they are the earned outgrowth of a truly religious life? It was fine to do so in the early days in North America, for it helped to break up Western thinking with the truths of reincarnation and karma and physical yoga practices; but those days are over. The Catholic and Protestant churches declare these ideas a threat to their very existence, especially the concept that God is everywhere and in all things. Thus they naturally rise up in a unified force against the swāmīs who entice members of Abrahamic congregations away, and I rise up when these same swāmīs refuse these sincere aspirants formal entrance into their sect of the Hindu religion. We deplore what has resulted in the lives of many in the Western world this last century who live in a state of limbo, apostate to their former religion but not accepted into their new faith by the Indian Hindu congregation of their community. §
In conclusion, Vedānta is a profound and intriguing philosophy. It complements existentialism as an opposite point of view. Haṭha yoga is beneficial to the physical body of the peoples of all religions. But when those simple beginnings inevitably extend to the preaching of reincarnation and karma, it leads Christian-Judaic followers astray. On the other hand, Vedānta for the nonreligious intellectual is reduced to simply another subject to be processed through the mental gridwork. This is fine. The same applies to the physical culturist who stresses only yoga āsanas. It is only when the individual begins to believe the swāmī’s own philosophy and slowly relinquishes the Christian-Judaic-Islamic faith by accepting Hindu beliefs that he becomes apostate to his religion. It then becomes the swāmī’s moral obligation to help the devotee complete the conversion into the Hindu religion.§
I myself listened to swāmīs from India in early years, even before I met my satguru, and believed most of what they were postulating about religion: that all religions lead to the same goal, that Vedānta will make Christians better Christians and Jews better Jews, that sectarianism is narrow-minded and divisive. Then a number of years later I discovered that I had been misled.§
Westerners are wiser now as to who comes from Asia and what he has to offer. And the Catholic and Protestant churches are better informed now, too. This is why we call for established Hindu religionists, well-schooled in the Śaivite, Vaishṇavite, Smārta or Śākta sect, to come forward and work with and work for a new generation of half-converted Westerners and immigrant Indians and their foreign-born offspring living far from their religious homeland and thus prone to stray from the religion of their grandparents.§
Devotee: Do you have to be a Hindu to realize God?
Gurudeva: The Christian-Judaic-Islamic religions, also known as the Abrahamic faiths, do not hold to the doctrine that God is everywhere and in all things. Their belief is that God is eternally separate from the world He created. The first samādhi of Satchidānanda, experiencing God in and through all things, postulated by Sanātana Dharma and other Eastern faiths, believed in and then attained by their followers, is in most cases unattainable through those religious paths that block the conscious and subconscious states of mind of their followers by negating and denying this mystical experience as apostasy. Extraterrestrial channels encased in the sushumṇā current in the spine of man are inherent in the fiber of the religions that know of and lead man’s consciousness to God Realization. These inner channels of consciousness are available to its members, guiding them to their ultimate destiny on this planet. Still, there are rare souls who dive deeply into themselves despite their faith’s beliefs, and penetrate into the states of Satchidānanda, sometimes becoming heretical members of the faith that claimed no such mystical experience was possible. But once Satchidānanda is even briefly experienced, the inner knowledge of reincarnation, the subtle forces of the law of karma and the presence of God in all things are intuitively understood. Actually, one of the major problems of the Abrahamic religions is having within them undeclared apostates who have had these universal inner experiences and who, in turn, silently sway the minds of other followers, not by preaching alien philosophies but by sharing their own compelling mystical encounters.§
Devotee: Is it true that Hindu leaders sometimes make overt efforts to proselytize and convert Jews, Muslims and Christians?
Gurudeva: Yes, this is true. Overt efforts are made to convert Jews, Christians and Muslims into one of the denominations of Hinduism, but only if they previously had a forced conversion from Hinduism through bribery, coercion or financial and educational rewards. Through ignorance and dire need, born Hindus have accepted “new religions” in order to have food on the table at the end of the day, to gain access to schools for their children or to a hospital for health care, to qualify for employment or a promotion, to protect their lands from confiscation or their families from harm. All this is a part of conversions brought about by political power or sheer cunning. This is not just a matter of history. It continues today, in the year 2000, and beyond. It is something all Hindus are concerned about.§
It is the child of such force-converted families who will become a member of the religion through birth and belief; but it is only that child’s child, the third generation, who can be regarded as a settled, born member of the new religion. It takes three generations for this process to be completed. Therefore, our proselytizing is focused on the first two generations, with a view to bringing them back to the Hindu religion. If we neglect them, we are not caring for our brothers and sisters. This kind of proselytizing among our own we consider our duty, for it is educating the young and re-educating their parents, and it is not infringing on the other faiths who imposed these unethical conversions.§
Devotee: Why do other religions sometimes use unscrupulous tactics to convert people away from Hinduism?
Gurudeva: Conversion has often been a point of contention between religions. This need not be so, if only all the spiritual leaders would respect the other religions. Historically, the Christians and Muslims have sought to convert members away from Hinduism, away from all the sects—Śaivism, Vaishṇavism, Smārtism and Śaktism. The Jews, however, have never infringed in this way, and have shown a deep affinity and support for the Hindu faith. Christians and Muslims seek converts because they genuinely believe that theirs is the only true religion on the planet.§
In November of 1999 Catholic Pope John Paul II dispelled all doubt as to his Church’s dedication to world domination in New Delhi, India, on Dīpāvalī Day. Closing a three-year Asian Synod of Bishops, he issued the voluminious “Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Asia of the Holy Father John Paul II to the Bishops, Priests and Deacons, Men and Women in the Consecrated Life and All the Lay Faithful on Jesus Christ the Saviour and His Mission of Love and Service in Asia.” §
Many Hindus who believe that Catholics are friendly to their religion may be surprised upon reading excerpts from John Paul II’s message to his missionaries in Asia: “Just as in the first millennium the Cross was planted on the soil of Europe, and in the second on that of the Americas and Africa, we can pray that in the Third Christian Millennium a great harvest of faith will be reaped in this vast and vital continent [of Asia]....If the Church in Asia is to fulfill its providential destiny, evangelization must be your absolute priority.... Christ is the one Mediator between God and man and the sole Redeemer of the world, to be clearly distinguished from the founders of other great religions....I pray to the Lord to send many more committed laborers to reap the harvest of souls which I see as ready and plentiful [in Asia]....The universal presence of the Holy Spirit cannot serve as an excuse for a failure to proclaim Jesus Christ explicitly as the one and only Saviour....Vatican II taught clearly that the entire Church is missionary, and that the work of evangelization is the duty of the whole People of God....Jesus Christ [is] the fulfillment of the yearnings expressed in the mythologies and folklore of the Asian peoples....The Synod therefore renewed the commitment of the Church in Asia to the task of improving both ecumenical relations and interreligious dialogue [as] essential to the Church’s evangelizing mission on the continent....From the Christian point of view, interreligious dialogue is more than a way of fostering mutual knowledge and enrichment; it is a part of the Church’s evangelizing mission....In many countries, Catholic schools play an important role in evangelization.”§
Asiaweek magazine, out of Hong Kong, commented in an editorial, “The pope’s message threatens to alienate liberal Indians who previously dismissed the warnings of Hindu chauvinists as fanatical paranoia. But the pope’s statements make clear the Vatican’s expansionist agenda. And they lend credence to the longstanding complaint that Christianity’s many good works in India are meant to give it a foothold on the nation’s soul” (HINDUISM TODAY, Feb., 2000).§
Hindus do not become angry at the Christians or the Muslims who seek out converts, knowing that predators always take the weakest prey. United Hindus of the world concur that religious education of the harijan, the śūdra, the truant youth and the adult gone astray is the dynamic key for moving Hinduism out of an agricultural era into the technological age. We feel our battle is not with the other religions. The battle and the challenge lie within Hinduism itself. What can one lose by learning the Sanātana Dharma? Ignorance. Only ignorance can be lost and personal realization of God gained. Those who are educated and think for themselves can only become strong and secure, well able to make the proper choice in their personal dharma. §
Devotee: What are the unscrupulous tactics used to convert Hindus away from their God and Gods?
Gurudeva: Hindus who are still in the agricultural era are often simple, virtuous people, uneducated and believing. They work on the farms. They grow the crops and tend the herds. They are vulnerable to many tactics, and many are used. It’s very sad, but true. One of the Śaiva swāmīs of our order visited India recently, and I will ask him to relate what was told to him. “During a pilgrimage to India years ago, we were approached by many devout Hindus who were deeply disturbed about the way their children and neighbors were being converted to Christianity. Of course, this is nothing new. It has been going on for centuries, but it is shocking to hear from those who are suffering that it is still happening. We were told, for instance, that a Christian feeding hall was opened in Chennai for undernourished and impoverished children. The children came for a few days, delighted to have a warm and healthy meal. Then they were told that it was getting difficult to keep track and that it would be necessary to identify which children were part of the program. The identification was completed on hundreds of young and hungry Hindu children. It was in the form of a small Christian cross tattooed on their chest!”§
Another Chennai incident was related. A Catholic convent began a program of taking six-to eight-year-old Hindu children to a popular snake farm on weekends, including free snacks. About three or four buses were full each week. On the way to the snake farm at a given signal the driver would disengage the electrical wires and the engine would sputter to a stop on the roadside. He would try and try to start it, but of course could not. After some waiting, the nuns would say, “Well, we all want to get to the snake farm. The driver is having problems. Let’s all pray for help. Now, how many of you worship Lord Gaṇeśa?” Several children would raise their hands. “Fine. Let’s pray to Lord Gaṇeśa to help the bus driver.” And all would pray for a few minutes. The driver would try again, and nothing would happen. Then the nuns would ask, “How many of you worship Lord Murugan?” This would go on as devotees of Śiva, Rāma, Kṛishṇa and others all failed.§
Finally the nuns would say, “All your Gods have been unable to help. Let’s try something new. Let’s all pray to Jesus Christ. Get on your knees and pray to Jesus to start the bus.” The children prayed, the bus driver reconnected the wiring, and the bus started. The children were told, “You see, Jesus is more powerful than all the Hindu Gods. Aren’t you glad we prayed to Jesus? Now we can enjoy a day at the snake farm. Everyone say with me, ‘Thank you, Jesus.’” The innocent children, only six or seven years old, did enjoy the day and were deeply impressed with the apparent helplessness of their Hindu Gods. These are two examples of what we were told by reliable elders.§
Devotee: Are Hindus who have entered the technological age equally affected by these deceptive means of conversion?
Gurudeva: No, they are not. They are more profoundly influenced by a more sophisticated brand of conversion—not to Christianity or Islam, but to modern Western thought, Freudian psychology, Marxist Communism and the postulations of the existentialist Frenchman, Jean Paul Sartre, who declared that God does not exist. Existentialist thought has poisoned the minds of many good Hindus, turned them away from belief toward nonbelief. Existentialism offers—in the place of devotion and yoga and inner attainment—a dark view of man and of the universe. It postulates that there is no inherent meaning in life, nor is there immortality of the soul. It tells its follower that he cannot know order or harmony, for he is essentially a troubled being who must rely only on himself. It is a self-centered system, whereas Hinduism is a selfless, evolutionary, God-centric system.§
Devotee: Are there ethics and scruples controlling conversion from one religion to another, such as corporations have in moving a top executive from one company to another?
Gurudeva: Doctors and lawyers have ethical guidelines concerning their patients and clients. Corporate officers have codes of conduct, too. The best among them have a cultured protocol and respect for one another. This is not always true among religionists. They can and often do disdain one another. In the technological age, ethics exist among the white-collar workers, and disdain exists among blue-collar workers toward management. There is a stratum of humanity that will always work outside the boundaries of educated protocol, propelled by greed and by fear.§
The religions and their leaders should not and must not be unscrupulous, for that will be harmful to their constituency in the future. Religious leaders should rise at least to the level of corporate managers. For our part, we can suggest this as a solution to the problems of conversion.§
Why should someone be ripped away from his born and raised religion to another and “better one” like a piece of merchandise snatched from the supermarket shelf, sold, redistributed and wholesaled to a foreign market? In India today the problems of forced or deceitful conversions are so prevalent that the government is trying to pass a law to prohibit such tactics, like the laws that already exist in Nepal. We hope such legislation is passed, not only in India but wherever similar problems exist.§
Ethics must be established among all the religionists of the world. They must nurture an appreciation for each other, not merely a tolerance. Religious leaders, above all, must remain fair, despite their enthusiasm. We are not marketing a product. We are not competing for customers. The values and tenets we are offering must go into knowledgeable and willing hands. They cannot be forced upon the weak or foisted upon the unwary. A doctor would hate and then undermine another who stole his patients and slandered his name to effect the deed. An advocate would feel justifiably injured if clients were bribed to leave him for the services of a fellow attorney. The king of a country is riled at the loss of his lands, and religionists become antagonistic one to another when their fences are cut and their flocks taken elsewhere. Yes, a certain protocol must be established. Permission must be granted from one’s religious leaders, making for a graceful exit from one and entrance into another, just as a citizen formally changes his loyalty from one nation to another, legally and ethically. When war commences, warlords gather, and their nations decide on the ethics of torture, cruelty and needless slaughter. How much more essential is it, then, for religious leaders to come to fair agreements and rules of conduct in their handling of souls?§
All religions are not the same. There are eleven major ones, and a multitude of faiths form a twelfth. A oneness of ethics must exist among the religionists, priests, ministers, pandits, aadheenakartars, Śaṅkarāchāryas and others in the higher echelons, at the corporate level, for religion today is not unlike the great corporations which produce and distribute their products and services, supplying the world with food and plenty. Ethics must be established among the presidents and chairmen and executive directors of the religions. Then these holy personages will command the members to reach out and seek new members in a most enlightened way.§