Maha Periavah message to All on – RELIGION

Maha Periavah message to All on – RELIGION

 

NAME OF OUR RELIGION

 

If an English-educated youth belonging to our religion is asked what his religion is, he would reply that he professes the ‘Hindu’ religion. Go to a  village and ask a peasant what his religion is. He will not be able to give a name to his religion. The name 'Hinduism' which is used now to denote our religion was unknown to our ancestors and is also unknown to the common man among us.

 

ENTERNAL RELIGION

 

We have no evidence as to when our religion began.  Obviously, it did not  ‘begin’ at a particular time.  It must be said to be beginningless. It has been existing always. It is Sanaatana. The nearest Sanskrit word for religion is dharma, though dharma signifies much more than religion. Our religion, cannot be named after a founder; for there was no founder for it.  So, if at all it is necessary to give a name to our religion it can only  be called Sanaatana dharma or the eternal religion.

 

VEDAS - SOURCE OF OUR RELIGION

 

The Vedas are the source of our religion. They are spoken of as the breath of God. In the Vedas, there  is an  identity of sound and sense, of the word and its meaning. The meaning resides in the sound. The fullness of the meaning depends on the fullness and correctness of the utterance of the sound. The Vedic sentences are called Mantras which embody  sound and meaning in one. Any fau1t or  deviation in their utterance will detract from the meaning or distort it

 

OURS - A UNIVERSAL RELIGION

 

We said that the Vedic religion was the earliest religion of mankind. All other religions arose only after lit. There are evidences to conclude that it was prevalent all over the globe. We shal mention a few of them.

 

An inscription  unearthed in Egypt and dated 1280 B.C., contains the terms of a treaty between Rameses II and  the Hittites. In this treaty,  Maitravaruna,  a  Vedic  dual deity has been cited as a witness. (Vide: H.R. Hall's "Ancient History of  Near East" pp.364 et seq)

 

In the island of Madagascar off the eastern coast of  South Africa, most of the place names have affinities with that of Rama.

 

In far off Mexico, they celebrate a festival caled  Rama sita. The time of the festival corresponds to our Dussara or Navaraatri period.

 

Excavations made in that country have brought to light a number of Ganesa idols. The ancient inhabitants of those parts were Aastikas,  (i.e.  those who believed in the Vedas), a term which still lingers in its corruption as Aztecs, as the people there are now called.

 

In the Eastern Archipelago, evidences of our religion are to be found. In Java, there are numerous relics of Hindu cult and worship.

 

All these evidences serve to show that our religion was once prevalent throughout the globe. It may have been that for causes which we are not able to ascertain, the tenets and practices of our religion began to decline in other parts and their prevalence came to be confined to the land of their origin  originally known as Bhaarata Varsha, India. When it lapsed into oblivion In other  countries, and when due to lack of any religious consciousness, the people became godless and unethical, there arose in those lands great prophets who brought to light one aspect or another of this forgotten religion. They declared themselves to be founders of new religions and came to be revered as such. But it must be noted that the fundamental moral principles underlying these new religions only emphasised some feature or other of the universal Vedic religion with certain theological variations.