But the most important point is this: the idea that states or governments can recognise or derecognise a religion is past its sell-by date. This is regardless of whether the Lingayats consider themselves a part of Hinduism or not. Just as religions sprang up in the past, religions could spring up in the future too. A new religion may emerge from an older one (like Sikhism separated itself from Hinduism), and reform movements can make the same religion look different from what it was earlier.
This suggests two realities: that the state, including the courts, should not be in the business of protecting, defining or recognising religion, for it is not possible to define what a religion is when the ideas keep changing and evolving depending on social circumstances. This is particularly true for Hinduism, which should be seen as an evolving framework of ideas, and not limited to a historical founder or one holy book. It is perfectly all right if Lingayats want to think of themselves as non-Hindu, and it needs no government or court to say this is really so.
The more fundamental problem relates to the idea that only minority religions have the right to run their own religious and cultural institutions. This lies at the root of the general preference for declaring yourself non-Hindu. Clearly, the Constitution has been mangled out of shape in terms of its intent. The idea was to ensure that minorities were protected, but what we have ended up achieving is making Hinduism fair game for deconstruction and disembowelment. https://swarajyamag.com/politics/not-islam-not-christianity-it-is-the-left-that-is-inimical-to-hinduism
Scrolling hatchet job on Siva refuted, reading the sources right. https://t.co/tbztaEVN5t via @swarajyamag
Omens, Dreams, Astrology and the Interpretation of Past and Future- Thoughtful individuals tend to dismiss the role of omens, dreams, astrology, tea-leaf reading, palmistry, and other “psychic” methods of interpreting past and future, yet these methods continually arise and are given credence by large numbers of people. Is there a truth then that underlies these “sciences” and provides sufficient evidence to assert that there is some value in them? We know that people are hungry for knowledge of the future, and they seek whatever ways they can find that promise them some glimpse of what to expect in their lives; or they seek to learn about something in the past that impacts them, but which remains occult and hidden. It is clear that there is much that is unreal and fantastical about the way many of these methods are applied in today’s world, and for the most part, they do not pass the test of the rational intelligence. However, we cannot dismiss all such methods out of hand just because the vast majority of them turn out to be a combination of sham, wishful thinking and suggestion.
Sri Aurobindo explores these things, and describes both the basis upon which there can be some real information elicited, as well as the limitations that cause so much misinformation to be obtained and disseminated:
The Sense of The Bhagavad Gītā - *Vidyā or Education* Education has a purpose other than merely reflecting the tendencies of the present age or the past, from which it largely draws its im...
Resurgence of the East or the Triumph of Western Capitalism ? – M.S. Srinivasan - (What is the significance of the emerging economic resurgence of the East? This article examines this question from a deeper perspective) The well-known co...
A Primer of Integral Yoga – VI – M.P. Pandit - The Way of Purification The central aim of our endeavour is the divini-sation of our nature. That implies a process or processes for the gradual change and...
The India Trip - A 1971 documentary by Bill Davis. It is a rare treat - includes a glimpse of a Darshan of The Mother, footage of Udar Pinto and Amal Kiran, Ananta and Au...
A Seer was born, a shining Guest of Time - *His was a spirit that stooped from larger spheres Into our province of ephemeral sight, A colonist from immortality.* *The universal strengths were lin...
Pitfalls of resisting Sri Aurobindo - [I have ignored the vast literature—Roland Barthes, Michael Foucault, Richard Rorty, Jacques Derrida, and others—that propagates the second option. Moreove...
July 2017 Issue - Download Complete Issue
Life and Mind - Life, a field for progress. An actual, real, throbbing, vibrant, pulsating, living field for putting to real, outward test whatever little progress there m...
taradidi_birthday_05jul2017 - *Tara Didi’s birthday, 5 July 2017* [image: taradidi birthday card] Like every year, this year also Tara Didi’s birthday saw spontaneous outpouring o...
Publication of Shrimat Anirvan’s anthology of unpublished writings “Rachana-Vichitra” - Dear Friends and Well-wishers of Overman Foundation, Shrimat Anirvan (8 July 1896—31 May 1978) had mastered the Astādhyayi of Pānini at a very early age. A...
Yoga Psychology in the Schools - Yoga Psychology In The Schools: Some Insights from the Indian Tradition By Don Salmon, PhD Introduction I am presently co-authoring, with Jan Maslow, a boo...
Science fails to tell anything about coming of new qualities - My reflection on Sri Aurobindo and The Mother's technique of meditation https://t.co/P1RdIehV9q Sri Aurobindo and the Mother elucidated a different way of o...
Human Worker and the Machine Intelligence - A new trend which is debated and discussed intensely and extensively in the media is the increasing influx of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robots Read M...
The Conquest of Fear — Part 3 of 3 - We have spoken of the triune nature of man and of the Psychic in relation to the play of forces in the lower existence, and while it seems that the conqu...
In Search of Organisational Soul–II (Part 1) - This is the second article in the series, In Search of Organisational Soul. Readers may access the first article at the links below, presented in four part...
La Filosofia della Coscienza: Hegel e Sri Aurobindo (Italian) - Una ricerca nella natura ed evoluzione della coscienza attraverso le lenti di vari filosofi, culminante con la filosofia sperimentale di Sri Aurobindo.
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The first decade of the 21st Century is drawing to a close, but the Left/Right debate is far from over. The Indian scene during the last 50 years has seen a complex intertwining of both the streams, the outcome of which is difficult to evaluate because of the size and diversity. The future, however, is likely to be identical with a probable variation in the degree of momentum. Linguistic sub-national sentiments, on the other hand, are a critical area, but religion might prove to be the knight in shining armour. Savitri Era Religion has a crucial role to play in such an eventuality. [TNM]
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