Atheism Dressed Up in Drag

Religion

Why Are There So Many Religions? by Hansadutta das

Throughout time, as society becomes either progressive or regressive, various incarnations appear to give stress to one aspect of religious understanding or another. Just like children going to school. Sometimes the child does not make progress. He has to repeat the class. Sometimes he goes backward. He is demoted. He's such a nonsense that he has to repeat a different lesson. Similarly, we have different religious communities, which were apparently inaugurated or initiated by different religious teachers, reformers, incarnations, prophets or son of God (Lord Jesus).... If we see the different religious communities in this way, their common aim becomes clear. more

To: "Ron Epstein" dharmapeace@adelphia.net
Subject: Dalai Lama urges Peace and Vegetarianism
Date: Sun, 29 Oct 2006 13:02:44 -0800

Thanks for the article on the Dalai Lama (Hare Rama). I happened to see an article on him in your Smithsonian Institute Magazine. I read it and made comments in the margin. The problem with Buddhist teachings is they are disguised ATHEISTS, so their talks of peace, vegetarianism and happiness is an appealing draw, particularly for the western mind. There is no acceptance of a supreme controller (God, or in our case, Krishna). They also do not accept the existance of THE SOUL as an eternal (never created, never destroyed, sat-chit-ananda) part and parcel of the supreme soul. The result is those who embrace Buddhist teachings become perpetually bound to the cycle of birth and death until they are fortunate enough to meet a pure devotee of the Lord (Srila Prabhupada, or his books, or his sincere disciple) and recieve from him the HOLY NAME, thus opening the doors of real liberation in the shape of going back to home, back to Godhead.

Prabhupada said "Because he is the incarnation of Lord Krishna, we also WORSHIP Lord Buddha [as in The Das Avatar Prayers by Jayadev Goswami], but we do not follow him." When I heard this I was puzzled and asked, "How is that—worship him, but not follow him?" He said, "It is like the college and post graduate students, they respect the kindergarten and grammar school teacher, but they do not follow the kindergarten or grammar school teachers' instructions because they have already passed through these preliminary stages of education and are now in the final, mature stages of education." This was very illuminating for me.

The problem with Buddhists and almost all other communities of religious people is the tendency to think their leader ( Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed etc...) is the end all and be all conclusion of spiritual life. Bhaktivinode said, "Spiritual life is PROGRESSIVE. Like education, it develops gradually over many lifetimes, from the most basic (nonviolence, peacefulness, cleanliness, truthfulness etc...) to the highest stages of Prema Bhakti, or pure Love of God.

I am not being negative, I am illuminating (as I heard it from Prabhupada) on the general misunderstandings that people tend to have about spiritual life, particularly about Buddha's teachings. Factually, or technically, Buddhism is ATHEISM, and for devotees it is very dangerous, because it kills the natural inclination to worship and adore God (Radha and Krishna) as a person, and denies the individual soul as an eternal person eternally subordinate to God as a person, or in short, devotional service. Anyway, I hope this was illuminating or may be illuminating for some of your friends. Hare Krishna.