Religious pluralism/respect for alternative beleif systems?Namaste!
I know the topic of Universalism is hotly contested on HDF, and I do not want to open that whole can of worms. But perhaps we can find a way to add to the list the concept that Truth can be expressed and sādhana practiced in many ways, and that no one is going to be damned for all eternity for following their chosen spiritual path? Ekaṃ sat viprā bahudhā vadanti, again, not necessarily with the implications that cause angry exchanges to erupt on HDF, but as a distinguishing mark of Hindu Dharma, that it does not require everyone to be exactly the same as everyone else? This has always been one of the central attractions of this tradition for me, and an idea which, were it to be adopted by all communities globally, would do much to mitigate and reduce the overall amount of violence and hatred in the world (or at least remove one of the most frequently cited justifications for such violence and hatred).
The trick is coming up with a term for it that does not make people's heads explode. Something like unity-in-diversity? Appreciation for the multiplicity of paths (and setting aside the question of which paths we are willing to include and which we are not)? Hindu traditions alone run the whole gamut from atheistic to monotheistic to polytheistic to pantheistic to panentheistic, and that's just on the level of philosophy. This is what I have in mind.
Also the related idea that it is not necessary to proselytize, to violently threaten people with eternal damnation in order to get them to follow a particular spiritual practice. Respect for the integrity of the Other?
Maybe the simplest Hindu term that encompasses all of this with the least controversy is the concept of Iṣṭa-devatā.
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