Hi, As a Hindu I have had the privilege (perhaps more so since I was born in the so-called priestly caste) of dabbling with various spiritual disciplines - thanks mainly to my father's eclectic tastes in books and groups or communities.
Today, for the first time since I left India I felt I had been talking to one of my uncles on some aspects of spirituality. Only this uncle was a white Korean War veteran who had left college (temporarily) trying to explore various spiritual traditions - reading books starting with Bhagwad Gita of Hindus , then Quoran, Jewish Torah and ofcourse the Bible of Christians , Dao and Confucios texts from China and found all of them had the light of spiritual knowledge. he still calls himself a student in the University of Life -at age 73. We were talking at the local Bahai center in DC. Despite various social drawbacks in Hinduism -like caste system and untouchability and male dominance - there was always one aspect which set it apart from all other faiths -- the spiritual discipline - the relationship between the Guru and the Shishya - teacher and disciple - open to any member of any community , any caste, any religion , any sex. Leading to supreme knowledge - or Moksha or Nirvana (as in Buddhists). The Pope and many other Christian leaders have ofcourse from time to time said that this Nirvana etc cannot be achieved - it is mere hallucination (as supported by modern psychologists - why believe in God anyway then) you just start going bonkers. Western faiths for long have seemed silent on God Realization. So I debated with the war veteran taking of world peace. Ultimately after a discussion of over an hour (all standing) he mentioned this book called The Seven Valleys and The Four Valleys - by Baha u llah - the founder of Bahai faith. He said that only the first three valleys (or rooms or paths) are to be understood by us other four cannot be explained in words. The book was written after the author visited Sufi dervishes in Suleiman mountains in modern Iraq and found (Yogi-like) dervishes practicing esoteric spiritual disciplines whose stages of development he codified in the book. He only mentioned those stages which could be understood by the local common populace. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Valleys I just turned to the final, Seventh Valley chapter of the book -and it is straight out of Hindu and Buddhist traditions. The Valley of True Poverty and Absolute Nothingness -- Talking of God realization " For when the true lover and devoted friend reacheth to the presence of the Beloved, the sparkling beauty of the Loved One and the fire of the lover's heart will kindle a blaze an burn away all viels and wrappngs ............. He who hath attained this station (muqaam - in persian or phaarsi) is sanctified from all that pertaineth to the world........This is the plane whereon the vestiges of all things are destroyed in the traveler, and on the horizon of eternity the Divine Face riseth out of darkness, and the meaning of 'All on the earth shall pass away, but the face of thy Lord...' (Quran 55:26, 27) is manifest." I do not know how much sufi dervishes are respected in Islam but since he also quotes - a lot - from the Quran in this chapter - I assume that Islam also believes in spiritual paths leading to seeing God face to face. While reading Autobiography of a Yogi by Yoganand -after grade 10 high school exams - who tried to reconcile Hindu and Christian texts I did not see any quotes from Quoran. I think this book by Bahaullah seems to bridge the gap. Ofcourse he had to create a new faith since (unlike Hindu faith which accepted Buddha as a divine messenger/incarnation) Islam (or the majority of its believers) did not tolerate/support a new Messiah even though he quoted from Quran. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bah%C3%A1%27u%27ll%C3%A1h His teaching about World Peace thru spiritual development has great significance nowadays, do they? Umesh PS: I just found that the entire book Autobiography of a Yogi - by Yoganand - can be read online for FREE chapter by chapter - see linkages between Hindu and Christian texts/faiths http://www.crystalclarity.com/yogananda/ Umesh Sharma Washington D.C. 1-202-215-4328 [Cell] Ed.M. - International Education Policy Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Class of 2005 http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/index.html (Edu info) http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ (Management Info) www.gse.harvard.edu/iep (where the above 2 are used ) http://harvardscience.harvard.edu/ http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/ --------------------------------- Support the World Aids Awareness campaign this month with Yahoo! for Good _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
