Daily Meditation: Thursday, August 1, 2013

Tradition, Spiritual - why it is not advisable to change your own

08/01/2013

All religions stem from the same source. Their differences reflect the fact that they appeared at different eras in cultures with different mentalities. And so you should think long and hard before deciding to change religion; people do not adapt very easily to other ways of thinking. The Hindu tradition, for example, is extraordinarily profound, rich and poetic, but apart from a few exceptions, westerners who venture into it will more than likely lose their way. Or else, they will fail to see beneath appearances, beneath the form and the superficial, exotic details. This is disrespectful to all the great minds of the past who spent so long working and searching before passing on the fruit of their experience to their people. Do not think that sages and spiritual Masters in India feel so very honoured when they see all these Christians neglecting their own religion and dressing up as yogis. I have had opportunities to see how wise some Hindu Masters are. They ask westerners, ‘Are you Christian?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Then remain Christian.’ They know that a culture, a tradition, is like the soil to a tree. When a tree has been uprooted from the soil, how long does it take for its roots to become established elsewhere?