Dear Jeyamohan,
I came to know that you are conducting religious classes through your videos. Saiva or Vaishnava are not just intellectual exercises; they are religious practices. Without practice they are nothing but a set of ideas and images. You are trying to reduce religion to a simple ideology, like Marxism. Religion is not an ism; actually, using the suffix ism with Saivism or Vaishnavism is a crime. Without sampradaya, religion is a dead corpse.
Shree
Dear Shree,
I usually never indulge in these kinds of discussions; arguing with faith is a useless exercise.
You can never understand that you are actually doing a big reduction; you are making religion as a simple set of practices, which are called ‘Acharas.’ Through this, you’re making religion a fossil. The core of religion is spiritual fulfillment or liberation. It is not a fixed way of everyday life.
Religion has proposed various ways to achieve salvation or fulfillment, dividing them into two groups. One is the way of wisdom, ‘Gnana,’ and the other is the way of practice, ‘Karma’. In the karma marga, there are two ways. One is rituals and practices (Achara), and the other is devotion (bhakti).
The first step in all four ways is to understand religion, then choose a path that fits your personality. One must intellectually convince themselves of the idea of liberation or fulfilment prescribed by a religion; only then can they practice anything.
Practicing something without knowing it leads to only blind faith. It makes a man a dumb follower. They naturally become adamant and eventually hateful toward other ways.
We are not teaching religion; we are teaching the philosophy of religions. It is another philosophy, nothing more. If one is convinced of a religious philosophy and wants to learn more, he can proceed. If he feels his way is ‘Achara,’ he can continue.
Jeyamohan
