HINDU GOOD NEWSTM
The world is in a time of transition. Globalization, increasing
movement of people across national boundaries, environmental challenges,
religious conflict, emerging economies and a multi-polar world all
demand shifts in thinking to resolve age-old human dilemmas and
problems.
Many of the solutions offered for resolving today’s challenges,
seem tired, dated and inadequate. They and the institutions created to
propagate them stem primarily from the worldview of the West, which has
been dominant in world affairs for almost half a millennium. This
worldview in turn has been profoundly shaped by the history, myths,
intellectual traditions and religious beliefs particular to Europe and
America.
As the pendulum swings once again towards Asia and emerging
economies and powers stir and find their cultural voices, we stand at a
moment of opportunity. Many of us could be dismissive of the world’s
diverse voices as we are used to - especially when they challenge
long-held beliefs. Or we could admit new paradigms, disruptive as they
may be to the privileged position of the West, yet promising in their
ability to shape the world anew not only for the benefit of Westerners,
but for all humanity.
One of the old paradigms which we have all heard is presupposed in
the phrase "good news" used by Christians. (The phrase “good news” is a
literal translation of the word gospel, which refers to the accounts of
Jesus’s life in the bible.) The Christian Good News is usually
associated with the saving acts of God through the sacrifice on the
cross of his only son, Jesus Christ, for the atonement of the sins of
humanity. Yet Hindus find such atonement unnecessary. For man is not
sinful at all, but divine. And we, every one of us, is endowed with the
same potential as Jesus, to uncover this divinity within ourselves in
here and now - without the need for someone else's past sacrifice. To
explain this empowering idea we have coined the term, “Hindu Good News”™
Such glad tidings are only a glimpse into the Hindu Good News™,
which exalts man’s own potentialities, emphasizes the essential unity of
God, man and the cosmos, and insists that diversity rather than
uniformity are the truest understanding of reality. Some of the key
promises of such a worldview include the following:
- There is no such thing as Original Sin in the typical Christian
sense. We are all originally divine as described by the Sanskrit term,
sat-chit-ananda
- Historical prophets and messiahs do not control access to
spiritual truth, as in Christianity and most Abrahamic religions. Yoga
and related spiritual practices allow us to achieve a state of freedom
from history - including historically shaped communal identities, races,
bloodlines, and claims of religious exclusivity based on some unique
historical event. In other words, we are not dependent on historical
prophets, or the institutions of power that evolved after them.
- There is no fundamental conflict between dharma and science, nor has there been any in the past.
- There need be no fear of "chaos" as in much Western cosmology
and myth. What is often considered chaotic in the negative sense is
merely the natural and normal manifestation of reality. It is only the
limits of human cognition that misinterpret nature’s complexity, viewing
it as fearful and evil, and worthy of annihilation.
- A blissful human life is possible while remaining respectful of
nature. Nature need not be ravaged in order to "advance" and "progress" –
indeed our own evolution would be hastened without the violation of the
web of interconnectivity that sustains us.
- There is no need for any centralized religious authority
whatsoever to advance us to our ultimate potential. One may experiment
and discover one’s own path using the discoveries and tools of past
exemplars as guidelines.
- Mutual respect among all faiths and traditions is a matter of
principle in Hinduism, not a bow to “political correctness” or a
grudging necessity imposed from without. It goes far beyond mere
"tolerance" for others who follow different paths. We reject claims of
exclusiveness and mandates to convert others to one's own religion.
This website https://beingdifferentbook.com
offers essays and discussions on a wide range of such ideas,
assumptions and practices, all under the umbrella of Hindu Good News™.
These postings include and reflect the philosophical and metaphysical
views of all of India’s dharmic traditions – Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism
and Jainism. With the above as our guideposts and through ongoing
discussions and debates, we hope to usher a new era of interfaith
relations, relations between faith and science, and relations between
humanity and nature.
The recent book, BEING DIFFERENT: An Indian Challenge to Western Universalism
(Harpercollins, 2011), examines how this worldview is different than
mainstream Western thought, including the Judeo-Christian variety, the
secular variety based on the European Enlightenment, and the
postmodernist thought.
Hindu Good News is a registered trademark of Infinity Foundation