Page 113 - Hinduism

must remain secular, not taking sides with religions which have different loyalties. Herein comes a distinction, which it is necessary to draw, between religion and religions. Mankind is yearning for Religion but not for religions. Institutional religions serve religion but slightly. The goal is the religious spirit. No religion does this so well as Hinduism. It has institutions but not an institution which can speak for Hinduism. Hinduism lives in its members, in and through the practice and tradition of its saints and seekers. The grand catholicism of Hinduism is evidenced by the living interest in the cultivation of all sādhanās and yogas among its people. Śrī Vaiṣṇavism of Śrī Rāmānuja has absorbed the religious and mystic traditions of all the best so that the individuals may grow through the inner tradition of religion and mysticism. It too tried to leaven the life of the society by the eternal assurance of divine presence among men, in the form of the Arcāvatāra of Śrī Veṅkateśvara. All great thinkers and saints have accepted this fact that the world must be made fit for the residence of God, and the Kingdom of God on earth. Reform of the earth life, and the social life of its individuals, if need be a revolution in the ways of social life, were envisaged by St. Śaţhakopa in his divine Hymns, the Tiruvāymoḷi. The goal of religion is the transformation of man from the seeker of wealth and desire without restraint into a man who is the knower of law, liberty or true freedom, and secondly to make the society which is at present
competitive and restrictive, into a divine society 113