A friend confided that she was glad to see my change of mind in that I was at last writing about a generic spirituality. She was afraid that she’d have to learn Eastern religion to understand where I was going.
I do understand the concern but I have to ask for tolerance from readers if you’d be so kind. In the course of discussing a global and cross-cultural spirituality, I can’t leave Eastern readers out.
Occasionally I need to write an article intended only for Eastern readers. An example is the articles demonstrating that Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are the same as the Creation, Preservation and Transformation activities of the Divine Mother, which are the same as the cosmic forces Rajas, Sattwa, and Thamas. (1)
Very few Westerners would understand what I just said, but Indian readers would. And it would be a matter of some great importance to a large number of the spiritually aware in India. This would be especially the case among devotees or bhaktas who worship Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, their consorts Saraswati, Lakshmi, and Parvati, or their incarnations, like Rama, Krishna and Chaitanya.
They’ve just been told that beings they worship as gods are not gods or even beings, but the personification of forces that operate in the universe to create, preserve and transform.
Never mind the notions that we’ll be asked to entertain that will shock some of the Western religious. Indians are being asked to possibly watch the demise of their gods and some dearly-loved traditions.
If we’re to achieve a global spirituality, we have to speak to and reach the Indian as well as the Western religious.
I’ll try to make better use of footnotes in the future to explain more of the terms unfamiliar to Westerners.
I do appreciate your willingness to reach out to other religions and join them with tolerance in extracting truth from non-truth.
Footnotes
(1) The Divine Mother verified the connection:
Steve Beckow: [I’d like] to know if the gunas, the cosmic forces which are called rajas, sattwa, and tamas, are the same as the Trimurthy [Triad] of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.
DM: Yes. We are the same as that triad.
SB: All right. And the Trimurthy of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva is a subset of the Universal Creative Vibration that you are at your essence. Is that correct?
DM: That is correct. [The Trimurthy] is much the same as we have been speaking of. It is a way in which my beloved children can come to know me and to have that experience. It is formless and yet it is form. It is a way of connection, and it is a way of understanding and entering into a higher vibration of being. So it helps the emergence into my energy.
SB: Sort of like stair steps?
DM: That is correct. (“The Divine Mother: Come to Me as I Come to You – Part 1/2,” Oct. 17, 2012, at https://goldenageofgaia.com/2012/10/17/the-divine-mother-come-to-me-as-i-come-to-you-part-12/.