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There are four main lines which Nature has followed in her attempt to open up the inner being,—religion, occultism, spiritual thought and an inner spiritual realisation and experience: the three first are approaches, the last is the decisive avenue of entry. All these four powers have worked by a simultaneous action, connected, sometimes in a variable collaboration, sometimes in dispute with each other, sometimes in a separate independence.
All these variations were necessary; the evolutionary endeavor of Nature has experimented on all lines to find her true way and her whole way towards the supreme consciousness and the integral knowledge. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/18-june-1958#p1</ref>
==What is Religion?==<center>God gives Himself to His whole creation; no one religion holds the monopoly of His Grace. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/15/religion#p1</ref></center>
Sri Aurobindo defines religion as the seeking after the spiritual, that is, the Supermind, of what is beyond the ordinary human consciousness, and what ought to influence life from a higher realm. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/25-may-1955#p8</ref>
=What is Religion ?= Religion belongs to the higher mind of humanity. It is the spiritual and ethical life effort of the individualman's higher mind to approach, as far as lies in its power, something beyond it, something to which humanity gives the relations of his soul with name God and or Spirit or Truth or Faith or Knowledge or the intimate dealings Infinite, some kind of Absolute, which the human mind cannot reach and yet tries to reach. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/9-june-1929#p1</ref> To seek Truth freely and to approach it freely along his will own lines is a man’s right. But each one should know that his discovery is good for him alone and character with other individualsit is not to be imposed on others.<ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2513/theaims-drive-towards-legislativeand-principles#p237,p244,p245</ref> Sri Aurobindo defines religion as the seeking after the spiritual, that is, the Supermind, of what is beyond the ordinary human consciousness, andwhat ought to influence life from a higher realm. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/25-social-centralisationmay-and-uniformity1955#p10p8</ref> =Why Religion is Important?= ==Purpose of Religion==
The aim of religion is to link the human with the Divine and in so doing sublimate the thought and life and flesh so that they may admit the rule of the soul and spirit. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/18-june-1958#p2</ref>
The very deepest heart, the inmost essence of religion , apart from its outward machinery of creed, cult, ceremony and symbol, is the discovery search for God and the finding of God. Its aspiration is to discover the Infinite, the Absolute, the One, the immaterial Spirit Divine, who is all these things and the play of yet no abstraction but a supraphysical consciousness. <ref>http://incarnatewordBeing.in/cwsa/25/reason-and-religion#p8</ref>
The knowledge of God gives Himself is not to His whole creation; no one religion holds be gained by weighing the monopoly feeble arguments of His Gracereason for or against his existence: it is to be gained only by a self-transcending and absolute consecration, aspiration and experience. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/1525/reason-and-religion#p1p9</ref>
Gods are those who are turned to the Light, who live in the Power and the Knowledge; that is what the Buddha means, he does not mean the gods ==Drawbacks of religion. They are beings who have the divine nature, who may live in human bodies, but free from ignorance and falsehood. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/happiness#p16</ref>Religion==
==Misconception The first and principal article of Religion==these established and formal religions runs always, "Mine is the supreme, the only truth, all others are in falsehood or inferior."
Religious consciousness which is limited & enslaved by its creeds The articles and to which its way dogmas of worship is a master religion are mind-made things and , if you cling to them and shut yourself up in a code of life made out for you, you do not know and cannot know the truth of the Spirit that lies beyond all codes and dogmas, wide and large and free. When you stop at a servantreligious creed and tie yourself in it, because taking it leaves no room for a "Personal" Godthe only truth in the world, you stop the advance and widening of your inner soul. <ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2503/religion-as-the-law9-ofjune-life1929#p6p1,p2,p3,p4</ref>
Religious thought cannot It may be used unless said that the need to adopt or follow or participate in a religion as it is liberated found all ready-made, arises rather from the influence "herd instinct" in human beings. The true thing would be for each one to find that form of religionsadoration or cult which is his own and expresses spontaneously and individually his own special relation with the Divine; that would be the ideal condition.<ref>httpshttp://incarnateword.in/cwm/1508/religion1-august-1956#p33,p34,p37p20</ref>
If you want to find one teachingReligion itself has been imposed on men; it is often supported by a suggestion of religious fear or by some spiritual or other menace. There can be no such imposition in your relation with the Divine; it must be free, one doctrine upon which to base your progressown mind's and heart's choice, you will never find anythingtaken up with enthusiasm and joy. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0403/89-januaryjune-19511929#p14p13</ref>
=How to Ascend Beyond Religion is always a limitation for the spirit.?=
Instead of taking these The attitude to be taken towards religionsA benevolent goodwill towards all worshippers.An enlightened indifference towards all religions.All religions in their outward forms which are precisely dogmas and intellectual conceptions, if we take them in their spirit, in partial approximations of the principle they represent, there one sole Truth that is no difficulty far above them. <ref>https://incarnateword.in unifying them… that last "spiritual revolution" Sri Aurobindo speaks about/cwm/15/religion#p21, which will open a new agep22, that isp23, the supramental revolution.p24</ref>
"All would change if man could once consent to be spiritualized; but his nature, mental and vital and physical, Religion is rebellious to always a limitation for the higher lawspirit. He loves his imperfection."<ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/3-april-1957#p10,p12,p13,p14,p15,p16,p17,p18,p19</ref>
= Why Religion If a man has a spiritual life independently of his mental formations and the set limits in which he lives, then this spiritual life makes him, so to say, cross the religious principles and enter something higher. But his consecration must come from within and not be formal. If it comes exclusively from the form, then the limitation is Important?=so great that he cannot go farther.<ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/2-september-1953#p5,p6,p7,p8</ref>
==Purpose The idea of Religion==To see your Self in all creatures and all creatures in your Self—that a Personal God is the unshakeable foundation of all religion, lovehowever, patriotisma contradiction in terms. This all religions confess, philanthropybut the next moment they nullify their confession by assuming in Him a Personality. The Universal cannot be personal, humanitythe Omnipresent cannot be excluded from anything or creature in the world He universally pervades and possesses. The moment we attribute certain qualities to God, of everything which rises above selfishness we limit Him and gross utilitycreate a double principle in the world.<ref>httpshttp://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0918/16an-incomplete-work-julyof-1958vedantic-exegesis#p3,p4,p5p1</ref>
The Spirit is the truth of our being; mind and life and body in their imperfection are its masksAn omnipresent God cannot be separate from His world, but an infinite God cannot be limited in their perfection should be its mouldsTime or Space or qualities. Intellectually the whole concept becomes incredible. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0918/3an-aprilincomplete-work-1957#p5</ref>Religions are forms, much too human, of spiritual life. Each one expresses one aspect of the single and eternal Truth, but in expressing it exclusive of the other aspects, it deforms and diminishes it. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/15/religion-vedantic-exegesis#p10p24</ref>
The truth of Sri Aurobindo But to postpone the problem to another life is a truth of love not to solve it; and light to desire God apart from life and mercy. He not in life is good and great and compassionate and Divine. And it is He who will have to divide the final victoryunity of His being.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/15/3-april-1962#p4</ref>
Spiritual religion of humanity And the truth is always this that man is the hope of the future. spiritual life insists on freedom universal being seeking an universal bliss and variation in its self-expression realisation and means of developmentcannot repose permanently on the wayside, in hedged gardens, or in any imperfect prison whatsoever or bounded resting place.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2517/summarychapter-iii-the-golden-rule-of-life-desire-egoism-and-conclusionpossession#p11p20</ref>
==Why People Follow Religion?==For the Divine is in everything, but we are not conscious of it. This is the immense progress that man must make.<ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwm/13/sri-aurobindo-ashram#p48</ref>
People cling to A religion of humanity means the growing realisation that there is a religionsecret Spirit, because that religion has helped them in one way or anothera divine Reality, it has helped in them precisely something which wanted to have a certitudewe are all one, not to have to search but to be able to rest that humanity is its highest present vehicle on something solid without earth, that the human race and the human being responsible for are the soliditymeans by which it will progressively reveal itself here. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/15/7-september-1963#p19</ref>
===Why Morality?===But if it is at all a truth of our being, then it must be the truth to which all is moving and in it must be found the means of a fundamental, an inner, a complete, a real human unity which would be the one secure base of a unification of human life. A spiritual oneness which would create a psychological oneness not dependent upon any intellectual or outward uniformity and compel a oneness of life not bound up with its mechanical means of unification, but ready always to enrich its secure unity by a free inner variation and a freely varied outer self-expression, this would be the basis for a higher type of human existence.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/25/summary-and-conclusion#p11</ref>
Its true aim is a preparation and purification of the soul to fit it for the presence of God. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/18/an-incomplete-work-of-vedantic-exegesis#p7</ref>=The Way Forward=
=How Imagine someone who, in some way or other, has heard of something like the Divine or has a personal feeling that something of the kind exists, and begins to Embrace God?==make all sorts of efforts: efforts of will, of discipline, efforts of concentration, all sorts of efforts to find this Divine, to discover what He is, to become acquainted with Him and unite with Him. Then this person is doing yoga. If all that is written down, organised, arranged into fixed laws and ceremonies, it becomes a religion.<ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/23-may-1956#p1,p2,p4,p5</ref>
Karmamarga, the Way of WorksReligions are based on creeds which are spiritual experiences brought down to a level where they become more easy to grasp, one of but at the three ways by which the spirit cost of man may see, embrace & become Godtheir integral purity and truth.
Give up the natural desire for the fruits The time of our works and surrender all we do, think, feel and are into the keeping of the Eternal, To identify ourself with all creatures in the Universe both individually and collectively, realising our larger Self in othersreligions is over. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/18/an-incomplete-work-of-vedantic-exegesis#p7</ref>
In every religion there are some who We have evolved a high spiritual life. But it is not entered the religion that gave them their age of universal spirituality; it is they who have put their spirituality into the religion, of spiritual experience in its initial purity. <ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwm/0315/9-june-1929religion#p5p29,p30,p31,p32</ref>
The time Religions are forms, much too human, of religions is overspiritual life. We have entered Each one expresses one aspect of the age single and eternal Truth, but in expressing it exclusive of universal spiritualitythe other aspects, it deforms and diminishes it. None has the right to call itself the only true one, any more than it has the right to deny the truth contained in the others. And all of spiritual experience them together would not suffice to express the Supreme Truth which is beyond all expression, even whilst being present in its initial purityeach one.<ref>httpshttp://incarnateword.in/cwm/15/religion#p29,p30,p31,p32p10</ref>
The children of Auroville should replace Those who carry within themselves a spiritual destiny and are born to realise the exclusiveness of one religion by the wide faith of knowledgeDivine, to become conscious in Him and live Him, will arrive, no matter what path, what way they follow. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/1308/aims23-andmay-principles1956#p412p7</ref>
Religion And as soon as man comes to know his spiritual self, he does by that discovery, often even by the very seeking for it, as ancient thought and philosophy seek to rescue man religion saw, escape from his ego; then the kingdom outer law and enter into the law of heaven within will be spontaneously reflected in an external divine cityfreedom.If one has faith in the god of a religion, how can one have faith in the incarnate Divine? <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/1725/1conditions-for-the-coming-of-a-junespiritual-1934age#p2p15</ref>
==Why Religion Failed?==The unity of spiritual existence is the basis of all true religion and true morality. We know indeed that as God is not contained in His universe, but the universe is in Him, so also God is not contained within a man. The apparent man exists in & by the real, not the real in the apparent; the body is in the soul, not the soul in the body. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/17/the-law-of-renunciation#p12</ref>
Religion too by putting God far above in distant heavens made man too much and Yoga do not belong to the same plane of a worm of the earth little being and vile before his Creator and admitted spiritual life can exist in all its purity only by a caprice of his favour to a doubtful salvation in superhuman worldswhen it is free from all mental dogma.<ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/1810/taittiriyaaphorism-upanishad59#p92p7,p8,p10,p11</ref>
False socialisation To the Karmayogin there should be nothing common or unclean. There is nothing from which he has the right to shrink; there is none whom he can dare to loathe. For God is within us all; as the Self pure, calm and eternal, and as the Antaryamin or Watcher within, the Knower with all thought, action and existence for His field of observation, the Will behind every movement, every emotion, every deed, the Enjoyer whose presence makes the pain and pleasure of the world. Mind, Life and all our subjective consciousness and the elements of religion has been always our personal existence and activity, depend on His presence for the chief cause motive-force of its failure to regenerate mankindtheir existence. And He is not only within us, but within all that is. What we value within ourselves, we must not belittle in others; what we cherish within ourselves, we must not hurt in others; what we love in ourselves, we must not hate in others. For that which is within us, is the Divine Presence, and that which is in others, is the same Divine Presence. To remember this is worth all the moral teachings and ethical doctrines in the world.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2517/the-spiritualeternal-aimin-andhis-lifeuniverse#p5,p6p67</ref>
People follow religion by social habit, in order not to get into the bad books of others. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/23-may-1956#p12</ref>One of the greatest comforts of religion Religion is that you can get hold of God sometimes and give him always a satisfactory beating. People mock at the folly of savages who beat their gods when their prayers are not answered; but it is limitation for the mockers who are the fools and the savages.<ref>http://incarnatewordspirit.in/cwm/10/aphorism-59#p1</ref>
==The Way Forward==Instead of taking these religions in their outward forms which are precisely dogmas and intellectual conceptions, if we take them in their spirit, in the principle they represent, there is no difficulty in unifying them… that last "spiritual revolution" Sri Aurobindo speaks about, which will open a new age, that is, the supramental revolution.
A revolutionary reconstruction of religion"All would change if man could once consent to be spiritualized; but his nature, philosophy, science, art mental and society is the last inevitable outcome. It proceeds at first by the light of the individual mind vital and reasonphysical, by its demand on life and its experience of life; but it must go from the individual is rebellious to the universalhigher law. <ref>http://incarnatewordHe loves his imperfection.in/cwsa/25/the-coming-of-the-subjective-age#p3</ref>" What is farther needed is the awakening of a certain vision, an insight and an intuitive response in the soul. <ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2509/the3-suprarationalapril-beauty1957#p7p10,p12,p13,p14,p15,p16,p17,p18,p19</ref>
'''Curated by Mohan'''
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