Transforming our interpretations of holy books and scriptures

No human #knowledge is #perfect, #absolute or #ultimate, except the fact that change is the only constant. Yet, we see so much of #hate, #rancour, #resentments, #animosity, #remorse and #genocides across the world arising out of #bigotry, #supremacy and #intolerance.

If we had held on to some information as absolute and #changeless, then we would be going against the God-gifted faculty of #CriticalThinking and #rationality. In order to continue in the divine path of #evolution, we need to be forever willing to change our minds and accept facts in the face of new, reliable #evidence or sound reasons.

This is the basis of #scientific thinking too. The scientific way of seeing things, based on the three divine pillars of #empiricism, #rationalism and #skepticism, can help us further our #spiritual understanding and in evolving spiritually by questioning #outdated #rituals and #traditions and replacing them with practices that are more #universal, more #inclusive and more #humane.

Going by this, should we then consider the contents of scriptures and holy books to be absolute? Can we apply today all portions of the ancient literature consistently in all situations? Do we need to pick and choose relevant portions and reject or adapt #irrelevant, #divisive or #prejudiced portions?

While most people think highly about the positive aspects of their religions, there are always sections of people who are at the receiving end of disparaging words and acts from the powerful majority. The influential majority, usually holding a typical view about the Almighty, victimises the minority for holding a different view about our Creator, calling them #infidels, #kafirs or #blasphemers. Such display of intolerance is seen not just between two different religions but within the same religion as well in the form of #sectarianism, #casteism or #untouchability.

What are the root causes behind such intra-religious and inter-religious conflicts?

• Our false notion that human #knowledge, including that in the ancient scriptures, is #perfect, #absolute or #ultimate
• Our incorrect habit of #AdoptionWithoutAdaptation
• Our running away from #InterfaithHarmony
• Our not considering all humans as creations of the same religion-neutral Supreme Consciousness
• Our inertia to accept change
• Our hesitation to #transform

When some people thrust age-old #customs and #rituals upon others without adjusting them to the current times, resentment arises within the religions as well as outside them. Religions have #RuleBooks, such as Manusmriti and Hadith, listing the dos and don’ts. They served best with respect to the then standards of morality and geographical and climatic conditions. Adopting them today without adapting may create conflicts and fail them.

Stagnant water, even if pure and life-giving today, can turn toxic and pathogenic tomorrow. Similarly, the most outstanding age-old rituals, if not adapted to current times, can turn lethal. Like stagnant water, knowledge storehouses like #scriptures and #HolyBooks, without the openness and dynamism for expansion and revision, may become divisive and detrimental to the God-gifted process of evolution.

Let me help you understand this with a few examples. I have tried to accommodate diversity by including cases from two of the world religions — Hinduism and Islam.

Hinduism

Let us talk about one of the traditional prayers that is heard commonly in most Hindu households in northern and central India. This prayer invokes Lord Ganesha, the God of Beginnings, and it has been in circulation for several centuries.

The unadapted version of the Ganesha prayer includes the following line:

Baanjhan ko putra de (O, Lord! Bless the childless with sons.)

Don’t you think that this portion is quite archaic and requires a slight revision to accommodate the girl child? Why should our prayers show preference for sons only?

I think the above line in the prayer needs to be rewritten as:

Baanjhan ko santaan de (O, Lord! Bless the childless with children).

The above revision is in my opinion more progressive, evolved and divine.

So, we just saw how traditional prayers cannot remain relevant and meaningful without retrospection.

Now, let us talk about three of the prescriptions from Manusmriti, the ancient law book with over two thousand verses. These particular laws along with a few others are unfortunately derogatory to women and shudras (people belonging to the lowest caste). Let us have a look:

Chapter 3, Verse 17: A brahman who marries a shudra woman, degrades himself and his whole family, becomes morally degenerate, loses brahman status and his children too attain status of shudra.

Chapter 4, Verse 99: He must never read the Vedas in the presence of the shudras.

Chapter 4, Verses 78 to 81: A shudra is unfit to receive education. The upper varnas should not impart education or give advice to a shudra.

Do you think our Creator would love such discrimination being meted out to some of His own creations? No.

This is because both the shudras and the women have been created by the same Highest Power who created everyone else. Therefore, the above verses may be entirely deleted or rewritten to include all sections of the society and to encourage non-discrimination.

Islam

Here is a verse from Shariya, an important law book in Islam:

H8.24: It is not permissible to give zakat (charity) to a kafir (infedel).

Do you think our Creator would love such discrimination being meted out to some of His own creations? No.

This is because both the kafirs have been created by the same Highest Power who created everyone else. Therefore, the above line may be rewritten to provide the benefits of zakat to the underprivileged people from every walk of society and be more accommodating.

Going by the above, we now know that we should not consider the contents of scriptures and holy books to be absolute. We cannot apply today all portions of the ancient literature consistently in all situations. We need use common sense and critical thinking to pick and choose relevant portions and reject or adapt #irrelevant, #divisive or #prejudiced portions.

There is nothing in the spiritual world that has not already been said. Our forefathers from across the world and across cultures have created great wealth of spiritual wisdom. So, we do not need another new religion or order in the world today. What we need is to take a dip into the vast ocean of knowledge already available with us.

If we have read the Hindu Vedas, we need to look into the Muslim Koran too. If we have delved into the Christian Bible, we need to study the Jewish Torah as well. If we have interpreted the Sikh Guru Granth Sahib, we need to comprehend the Buddhist Pitakas also. If we have understood the Zoroastrian Avesta, we need to peruse the Jain Purvas too. Similarly, we also need to read what the ancient saints, mediaeval reformers and modern spiritualists have already written.

Without a thorough and objective study on the various treatises, nobody can form a holistic opinion on religions and their teachings. Intolerance, supremacism and bigotry are the by-products of spiritual ignorance.

Hence, what I suggest is that we need to rewrite the scriptures to adapt the rituals to broaden and accommodate the human needs and compulsions of today, yet preserve the original philosophies of our religions.

The greatest favour we can do to humanity today is to treat our holy books as great ancient portals of knowledge that need the renovative power of broader interpretations, aimed at making our religions more #inclusive and more #evolved. #AdoptingAfterAdapting is spiritually important.

Broadly speaking, topics included in scriptures and holy books can be divided into spiritual and #material. For example, the portions on who God is or how to realise God can be spiritual, while the portions on how the world was formed, how humans came into being or how the society is divided can be material or #physical. While the spiritual part is mostly timeless, the material part needs constant revisits to remain relevant to the current times. Let us adapt before adopting the antiquated portions of scriptures to the current human needs.

In order to continue in the divine path of #evolution, we need to be forever willing to change our minds and accept facts in the face of new, reliable #evidence or sound reasons. Having said that, we need to accept recent areas such as #ClimateChange as a reality today.

The #primordial #environment and the climatic conditions, provided by our Creator for our #sustenance, have undergone tremendous changes over thousands of years. But the changes in nature after the advent of the industrial age have been more rapid. The rate of change too has been on an increasing trajectory. While #industrialisation — a product of the God-gifted faculties of critical thinking — has given us many comforts and a longer life expectancy, it is also responsible for tampering with the delicate balance of nature.

It is now high time to restore nature’s balance using the same divine power of scientific thinking and rationalism. A true tribute to our Creator can be by our giving back to nature its lost glory. This can be done by accepting #science as a friend of #humanity and by bringing in changes in our lifestyle accordingly. For example, we need to rethink on how we consume #energy, especially, from the #nonrenewable sources or how we treat our #wastes.

On this #WorldTransformationDay, let us take a pledge to move towards the establishment of a frictionless, egalitarian world society by creating awareness among people to do the following to contribute towards world peace and to make the world a better place to live in.

• To treat all religions as equal and see them as means to realise the religion-neutral, gender-neutral, geography-neutral Supreme Power
• To resolve conflicts and bellicose tendencies in the name of religion or caste
• To revisit existing traditional beliefs and rituals and adapt them to the current times, respecting universal human values
• To regard science and scientific understanding as an ally in helping people understand the Supreme Power
• To contribute towards environmental conservation, resisting pollution, climate change and global warming

About this blogger

Ranjit K Sharma is the founder of #SpiritualitywithRanjit, India’s first #interfaith community promoting #spiritualevolution, #worldpeace, and a #greenerplanet through science and religion neutrality. Ranjit has also been an editorial and content professional, grammar book author, UN-award-winning social entrepreneur, spiritual thought leader, blogger, voice artiste, and YouTuber. He can be reached at spiritualitywithranjit@gmail.com on specific queries related to spirituality, relationships, life changes, and parenting. Follow #SpiritualitywithRanjit on social media for daily religion-neutral spiritual posts.