Essay on Real vs pretentious religion – Bhakti Vaibhav SB Chapter’s 1 – 8: Essay by Hanuman dasa

Defining Religion:

What does the term Religion stand for? In the vedic language samskrtam, the word to define Religion is
"Dharma". Dharma means essential nature. For example, the dharma of sugar is sweetness, the dharma of
fire is light and heat. The insentient objects such as earth has the nature of smell, fire has the nature of
shape, wind of touch, in the same way there are also inherent natures of sentient beings like us. If this body
is made of the 5 material elements, the individual soul also is made essentially of spirit or consciousness.
Since each and every soul is made of the same element spirit, the innate nature of every individual nature
also must be the same. This innate nature of every sentient being is called Dharma or Religion of the soul of
Jaiva Dharma.

The Soul Seeks eternity and its ultimate cause:

In today's world there is incessant seeking of pleasure. Everyone is seeking pleasure in variety of ways. The
fever of this searching has increased so much so that, huge enterprises have sprung up to resolve the
seeking. For example, vast amounts of data is collected so that it made available at the finger-tips of
humans so that we can get what we want. Yet on behalf of such gigantic technological advancements and
information at our disposal, the fact remains that we do not know why there is dissatisfaction in each and
every individual. The seeking never stops nor satiates but ends up in bitterness and hopelessness. It is
apparent that this yearning to know everything is an innate nature of the soul. A soul being a sentient
object cannot be satisfied by any amount of solutions from the insentient nature. They two are
incompatible. Then we can come to the conclusion that the solution to this must a sentient object itself. But
if that was the case, all of us must have been satisfied by our co-living beings, but that is not the case.
Hence it is safe to conclude that this sentient being is the source of all that we seek and is object of our
entire seeking. He is called in the scriptures as Krishna and Govinda. From this perspective, the dharma of
the Jiva or the soul is to seek this primeval lord and to serve him with love.

Religion as commonly understood:

The concept of religion or Dharma is a prerogative of the human race. There are so many religions that we
hear of Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and Judaism and so on. It is for sure that all these religions profess to
seek something that is supramundane. But all these religions have an inherent defect in the approach, that
they are most times laced with promising the seeker with mundane profits in return. Most religions
practiced or professed are under the garb of getting something material in return for the pursuer to reap

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Essay on Real vs pretentious religion – Bhakti Vaibhav SB Chapter’s 1 – 8: Essay by Hanuman dasa

the benefits, the returns need not be physical, and it could be even psychological. It is in this way most
religions allure the seekers to take to spirituality.

Economic prosperity and Religion:

Again Civilization and Transcendence should be seen as two opposite ends of the same stick. Modern
civilization seeks economic prosperity and artificially seeks to bring commonality among its citizens and
create an atmosphere of co-operation and equality. It also seeks to use religion to a large extent to reach this
goal, because most religions promises righteous civilization which will supposedly aid the economy to
prosper. But can this goal even be achieved, since prosperity brings competition which in turn breeds envy.
It seems genuinely co-operative civilization is unreachable goal by this process. Hence if the goal of a
religion is Transcendence, the means cannot be inferior such as economic prosperity.

Caveats of the Vedic path:

Generally the Vedas are the topmost books of wisdom which professes four possible human ends. Pious
activities, economic development, sense satisfaction and finally emancipation. Vedas outlay processes to
meet these human ends in a way that the seeker if follows the diktats earnestly will gradually, possibly
over lifetimes, will elevate to a higher level of consciousness where one will start coming to the human end
of Liberation which is considered the uppermost among the four. There are two possibilities of following
this process. One can be that there is a vast chance that the diktats are not followed and the pursuer gets
waylaid by his senses and falls down by his compromise or the pursuer attains liberation from this material
realm towards an impersonal conception of God. But this impersonal liberation also is a very dangerous
proposition again since it does not completely satisfy the soul of its seeking and then from there one can go
ahead towards seeking a personal destination or fall back (patanti adah) into the material realm.

Srimad Bhagavatam which is the essence and ultimatum of all religions and religious scriptures, declare
this type of religion as Kaitava or Pretentious religion. Pretentious religions takes the long winded
approach of material motivation and gradually elevating one towards the supreme truth.

Real religion:

The Srimad Bhagavatam hits the point straight that the supreme occupation or dharma for all humanity is
to attain the loving devotional service of the Supreme Lord, Sri Krishna. Now in the case of civilization,

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Essay on Real vs pretentious religion – Bhakti Vaibhav SB Chapter’s 1 – 8: Essay by Hanuman dasa

where one is aiming for a complete co-operative atmosphere, it is only possible if we keep the Root and the
Cause of all causes in the centre of every endeavour which is GOD, Sri Krishna. Unless this is done, there
will be mutual envy and hatred and there will be no harmony. The real religion aims in suggesting that
such as society can only be established by purified souls who are non-envious who make sure that God is
the at the centre of all their activities. While the provisions in the pretentious religion cheats the pursuer in
indulging him in pursuits that he is meant to get away from, the Srimad Bhagavatam rejects it straight
away and takes one directly to the transcendental platform beyond material realm.

Hence the real religion is the means to even avoid such worthless pursuits of impersonal liberation which is
painstakingly long winded and imbued with a very high chances of falling down. Further, Real religion
means to seek the personal feature of the Lord and to offer our love and devotion to him. Srimad
Bhagavatam gives information about that Absolute Truth from which the impersonal feature emanates. It
reveals the ultimate goal of any seeking which is Lord Krishna in his personal feature.

Generally the vedas propose three paths to achieve the four human ends. Karma-kanda, Jnana-kanda and
upasanakanda. Whereas Srimad Bhagavatam reveals even higher truths than all these put together or at
least it reveals it straight away without any covertness. This religion or dharma is called Parama dharma or
Supreme Occupation. It is called Para which means 'Transcendental', which frees one from the clutches of
the three modes of material nature which when performed without material motivation and without
interruption completely satisfies the atma or the soul which it always seeks and which is in essence the
soul's original nature or dharma.

END OF ESSAY

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