I Want to Believe #10

Chapter 10: "Many Religions, One River?"

Summary

This chapter on Hinduism follows logically from the previous chapter on new age religion, as many new-agers find Hindu philosophy attractive in many ways.

The word "Hindu" is derived from the Sanskrit word sindu which is translated "river." A foundational affirmation of Hinduism is that all religions are tributaries that lead into the same river of devotion.

Hinduism embraces the contradiction that there are many gods and yet only one God. God, called Brahman is "eternal being, ultimate reality" (141). The notion of Brahman is pantheistic in nature. "Everything that exists in is part of Brahman, and Brahman infuses everything that exists" (141). The Eastern outlook expressed in Hinduism is very attractive to many in the West as it embraces a relativistic philosophy in reference to religion.

"The spiritual goal of Hinduism is for the limited inner self (atman) to realize that it is part of a great universal being, which is God. What we know as personhood or self gradually fades away as we go through successive reincarnations in life until we finally are merged with God, when atman has become Brahman" (142).

The long process by which atman becomes Brahman is reincarnation. Meditation is also significant in which one focuses on a word or phrase (a mantra) in order "to abandon normal human consciousness so that the self fades away into the eternal being" (143).

Western versions (or revisions) of Hinduism have included Transcendental Meditation and Krishnaism (Krishna being the eighth incarnation of the god Vishnu).

Lawrenz highlights several reasons why individuals in the West are attracted to Hinduism:

First, Hinduism claims to be a universal religion, not in the sense that Christianity proclaims Jesus as the only universal Savior, but in the affirmation that "all religions are moving toward the same goal and can thus be true at the same time" (147).

Second, the mystical elements of Hinduism are very attractive as an alternative to the sterile "bondage of scientific materialism and naturalism" (147). In addition, such mysticism insists that not everything in life and faith needs to be explained and understood.

Third, many find compelling the idea that this world is ultimately only an illusion, which appears to make sense in a world of "contradictions, so full of pain and pleasure" (148).

Reflections

Lawrenz' summary of Hindu beliefs and the Westernization of them is quite helpful to those of us who know little about Hinduism. His critique is also helpful, though probably more directed at Western revisions.

Lawrenz highlights well the differences between Hinduism and Christianity, which clearly demonstrate that it is impossible for the two to be separate tributaries leading to one river. As Lawrenz states while telling a story of listening to a Hindu High School student discuss his faith, "there was something of a spiritual clash in all this" (145).

Lawrenz notes that Christianity too has a sense of the universal, but it is not to be found in the idea that all religions are traveling in the same river, but that Jesus is the universal Savior who offers the Gospel to all.

Second, unlike Hinduism where the gods "preside stoically over death and decay" (148), the God of the Bible offers grace and forgiveness, compassion and relationship.

Christian meditation is not about emptying one's mind, but rather filling it "by the conscious ponderings of biblical truth and significant imagery" (143).

Christianity as well has a rich mystical tradition, which too many Christians have unfortunately muted my taking the mystery out of Christian faith. "We know that that there is a great spiritual universe out there that includes mysteries beyond our imaginings (147).

Finally, Lawrenz rightly notes that western forms of Hinduism are often nothing more than a hodge-podge of picking-and-choosing personally attractive ideas and concepts that offer little challenge. "Some people in the West go shopping at the Hindu supermarket, picking and choosing ideas that amount to a religion that has the least amount of obligations-- and if there are no obligations, all the better" (151).

Lawrenz ends his chapter with wise counsel, "Don't be allured by invented gods. Don't invent your beliefs. Faith is only as good and true as it is received. If, among so many gods, there is a true God, then our search for that God is the most important thing we will ever do in life. It is, in fact, a matter of life or death" (156).