Wednesday, September 24, 2014

NEW AGE MOVEMENT IN AMERICA AND NEO-PAGANISM OF EUROPE ARE WELCOME SIGNS OF AWAKENING OF RATIONAL SENSIBILITIES AND BREAKING AWAY FROM THE CHAINS OF "ONE GODISM" AND "ONE BOOKISM" THAT HAS CRIPPLED THE MINDS OF THE HUMAN RACE AND CAUSED UNTOLD MISERY, WARS, AND VIOLENCE

Hindu Human Rights Online News Magazine

Return of the Pagans

Vamadev ShastriJune 3, 2013Indigenous/Pagan VoiceNo Comments
Return of the Pagans
Share
Once human beings communed freely with the forces of nature. They felt a spirit in every hill or vale. They saw a Divine face in the Sun and the Moon. They felt a consciousness in the mountains, trees and clouds. They recited poetry, performed rituals, and had  profound meditations on the sacred world order, which they discovered allied with their own inner Self. Those who possessed such insight were the sages, seers, druids or rishis that guided the culture.
The advent of the One God and his one book banished the nature spirits from the Earth, disconnected us from our ancestors, and removed us from the grace of the great Gods and Goddesses. Our human god like a superego came to rule over our psyche and alienate us from life. Pagan learning that included natural healing, astrology, the occult and yoga was dismissed as dangerous, if not demonic.This One God was not a universal formation (though one may argue that he originally might have been). He represented not a unity of truth, but a single God opposed to all others. He demands, like a jealous husband, an exclusive loyalty. He brought his people not to the Oneness but to a duality of the true believer and the infidel that ushered in a reign of mistrust, hatred and eventually terror upon the world in the name of religion.
But the One God could only rule over a dark age of the oppression. He had to banish the light of reason and freedom of inquiry, maintaining his rule with force and propaganda. His rule, though lasting for some centuries, had to be transient. With the return of reason, observation and open communication in the modern world, his domination must come to an end. The great Gods and Goddesses are again returning as our natural interest in higher consciousness reawakens. May their beautiful and friendly grace come forth once more!
Hinduism and Native Traditions
Hinduism reflects the religion of nature and the earth. It is present externally in the clouds and the stars, the hills and the rivers. We can see Hinduism in all native traditions and in all ancient religions, particularly where the Sun, the symbol of the Atman or higher Self, is worshipped. Hindu Dharma is the very religion of life and of the individual expressing himself or herself in many different forms.
Encountering Hinduism is particularly difficult because it means facing our pagan roots. Were the pagans really that bad? Were they merely bloodthirsty savages as we generally portray them to be? Did only Christianity bring civilization and compassion to the world? Were the pagans, even if great, doomed to hell or at least to inadequacy because of not accepting Jesus, though most of them never heard of him?I cannot believe that our ancient ancestors were so inferior or that we are so much more advanced. I don’t think that merely embracing a religious belief really changes people or makes them better. Our pagan ancestors were human beings with a profound sense of the sacred.
Could they not also feel the full range of emotions up to communion with God? Our words God and Divine, after all, are pagan in origin. Certainly the pagans knew of a higher power and had methods to connect with it. They had deep spiritual traditions abounding with holy places, myths, philosophy, magic and insight.
pagans-path:Pan and SeleneChristianity reduced these practices, not by understanding them but by summarily rejecting them, because they were too diverse for its monotonous creed. Have those of you who came from Christian or Islamic religious backgrounds ever asked what the religion of your ancestors was before they converted?
Was their religion mere idolatry, superstition, and eroticism as paganism is portrayed to be? Or did it have its own nobility and spirituality, its own sense of the Divine and a great history and ancestry? We can better understand these older beliefs because their counterpart exists in native traditions throughout the world, above all in India.
Native religions are not credal beliefs based upon a church, scripture or prophet. They are rooted in the land and in the sky, not in a book or in an institution. They are part of a people, culture and way of life. While some of their beliefs may appear primitive or crude to our casual glance, we can find great meaning in them if we would but look upon them with sensitivity and openness.
They herded the natives like cattle, split  up their families, tore them off the land that was their soul, and placed them in reservations that were little better than prisons. And, most  strangely, they thought in this cruel  process that they were actually civilizing the natives and giving them the chance to become good Christians!
The pre-Christian Greeks gave us Plato and Aristotle or Western philosophy, on which mooring later Christian theology, without much appreciation, built its foundations. They gave us a great mythology full of deep and complex meanings with their great Gods and Goddesses from Zeus to Apollo, from Aphrodite to Hera.
Great ancient European mystics like Plotinus or Apollonius of Tyana were not Christians and didn’t require a church or a book to mediate between themselves and the Infinite. And they looked to India for inspiration not to the Bible. The Celts had their bards and seers; the famous Druids that even the inimical Romans looked to as wise and noble. The Druids had an oral tradition of poetry, along with rituals or yajnas much like the Vedas.
They knew the land and its spirits, the mists and the hills. They had their medicine, astrology and philosophy. The Egyptians gave us great pyramids and a monumental artwork that reflects cosmic consciousness and a profound knowledge of the occult. Even today we are in awe of their accomplishments and cannot reduplicate them. It is the very nature of credal religions to denigrate, if not demonize different beliefs. For example, the Muslims of the Middle Ages prided themselves in destroying the idols of the evil pagans. Their word for idol was Bud for Buddha. The people they vilified as the terrible and hedonistic pagans were often merely pacifistic Buddhist monks!
Christian Oppression of Pagans
In my studies of history I learned that the pagan oppression of the Christians was minor compared to the Christian oppression of pagans. Pagan Rome was generally tolerant about religion and accepted the  existence of many cults and sects. Its clash with Christianity was because the Christians refused to  afford homage to the Roman State. No doubt the Romans, who were harsh rulers of a vast empire, did oppress the early Christians. But  the many religions in the Roman Empire had great depths and cannot be rejected for this political action. In the early centuries of Christian rule numerous pagan temples were destroyed or replaced by churches.
Their beautiful statues were broken and trampled upon as unholy idols. Their wonderful rituals and philosophies were rejected as superstition. The great university and library of Alexandria was only one of the many centers of learning  in the ancient world that was destroyed. Eventually the Platonic Academy in Athens was closed down as well. Early Christianity was against learning and burned books and schools, a model that early Islam also followed.
Some pagan beliefs were taken over by the church like Christmas, which was originally a Mithraic winter solstice festival, or the Christmas tree, which was a pagan German custom. The Madonna was adopted from the old pagan Goddesses. Some of the most charming and mystical aspects of Christianity were originally pagan!
Note how negative in connotation the term pagan is today, even though so much was taken from them. This reflects deep-seated religious prejudices. The name negative meanings are given to the term Hinduism as well, which connotes the worst of paganism to the modern mind. This authoritarianism of credal beliefs caused them to suppress their own mystics as well. The church oppressed Christian mystics and orthodox Mullahs oppressed Islamic Sufis.
A Christian mystic like St. Francis of Assisi is at least half a pagan. His Brother Sun and Sister Moon is but an echo of the pagan Father Sun and Mother Moon or Divine Father and Divine Mother! His song needs to be finished. Clearly native beliefs are not unspiritual. There is more of real mysticism in them than in the credal beliefs that have so long been seeking to displace them. Mainstream Christianity and Islam are afraid of mysticism and against the occult. They don’t like gurus and are wary of anyone who thinks that he can have a direct experience of God apart from their one savior or final prophet.
What the Christians did in the Americas continued a policy of oppression that began centuries before in Europe. It was not being Western or European that created this religious intolerance but the kind of exclusive belief system that mainstream Christianity and Islam  followed. Pre-Christian Europeans like the Celts had more in common with the Native Americans than with the Europeans colonists who conquered them. The Celts themselves were earlier victims of the same aggression that the Native Americans had to face.Hindu Dharma never sought to displace native traditions but has honored them and tried to harmonise with them.
It is a natural friend of pagan and native traditions everywhere. One does not have to give up one’s ancestry or deny one’s native culture in order to embrace Hindu dharma. One simply has to be willing to honor all spiritual approaches, along with freedom and diversity in the spiritual realm.
The Hindu tradition honors the Goddess, who is important in all pagan traditions and was generally rejected by the Biblical traditions. It has preserved all the forms of the Great Goddess from the Earth Mother to the Sky Goddess, from the Great Mother to the woman  warrior. All those seeking to restore the Goddess religion will find much of value in Hinduism, which has preserved the full range of human spiritual aspiration.
Becoming a Pagan
This pursuit of finding one’s own dharma drew me to examine the pre-Christian traditions of Europe, notably the Celtic traditions from which my Irish ancestors derived. I  don’t see any contradiction between their traditions and Hinduism. Fortunately, the core of their traditions has survived the  many centuries of oppression and is flowering anew.
With time and help from other native traditions, they may yet reclaim their full glory and splendor.Starting in 1996 I came into a contact with Celtic groups and began to discuss issues of history and religion with them. Most of them honor Hinduism and feel a kinship with it.
They are looking to  Hindu India as a new model of resurgent paganism in the world. They are discovering in the Hindu  tradition for what has been lost in their own traditions.In contact with my Celtic friends and by their advice this year (1999) I reclaimed my Irish family line for the Celtic religion and its Vedic connections. While I am not specifically doing Celtic practices, I have added a Celtic slant on my Hindu practices. One can see Lord Shiva in the Celtic God Cernunos, who is also the Lord of the Animals. The Celtic Green Man shows the Purusha or Divine Spirit in nature, which in plants is the Vedic God Soma. In time I hope to incorporate a greater understanding the Celtic  ways into my work and into my communion with nature
This revival of native religions is gaining ground worldwide and is bound to become much more significant in the future. Major conferences of pagan, native or ethnic religions are occurring to coordinate this interest. The  Catholic Church in Europe now sees neo-paganism as a real threat to its survival. It has tried for two thousand years to eliminate paganism and has not succeeded. This is because the pagan traditions reflect integral aspects of our eternal spirituality that can never be eliminated, any more than we can live without breathing. Such neo-pagan movements exist throughout Europe and America.
They are complemented by a revived interest in Native American, Native African,Hawaiian, and Australian traditions. All these groups are discovering an affinity with Hinduism. Hinduism as the best surviving of the pagan or native traditions gives a sense of their great depth and power. Hindu Dharma can be an excellent friend and ally in reclaiming and reuniting all native traditions, which still suffer much oppression and remain under siege by missionary influences.
May the pagans return, along with their many Gods and Goddesses, free to reintegrate the Earth once more with the Divine, without any church or dogma to prevent them!


(Read 4,803 times, 4,804 Visits )

THE MOST DANGEROUS CORRUPT BRIBE OFFICIALLY OFFERED BY THE MOST JEALOUS PSYCHOTIC "GOD" OR HIS NAMESAKE "ALLAH" TO HIS FAITHFUL OBEDIENT BELIEVERS WHO REVELS IN SADISTIC PLEASURES OF TORMENTING AND TORTURING "NON-BELIEVERS" IN THEIR AFTERLIFE OBLIGATING FAITHFUL BELIEVERS TO SPREAD HIS "WORD" WHICH WAS "HEARD" IN THEIR HALLUCINATIONS BY THE PROPHETS OBVIOUSLY LIVING IN A PSYCHOTIC WORLD (SEE HARVARD NEUROLOGISTS AND NEUROSCIENTIST'S ARTICLES) IS THE MAIN CULPRIT BEHIND TWO MILLENNIA OF VIOLENCE BY CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES AND EVANGELISTS, FOURTEEN HUNDRED YEARS OF MAYHEM BY THE JIHADIST ISLAMISTS YET IT HAS NOT DAWNED ON RATIONAL HUMAN MINDS THAT THIS IS A PRIMITIVE MIND AT WORK THAT HAS NO CAPACITY TO THINK RATIONALLY

#6. Differences - Dharma and Religion: - Promised Land

To understand the roots of religious conflicts throughout the world we must first begin by comprehending how Dharmic traditions (so called "pagans," a derogatory term used by the "One Godism" fanatics) are fundamentally different from Religious traditions (Abrahamic Religion)? India Inspires Foundation would like to share a series of central concepts of these traditions which are responsible for their distinct world-views. To get better understanding of these two opposite tradition, like https://www.facebook.com/indiainspires.org
 — with Bjp Uttar Pradesh and 15 others.

Photo: #6. Differences - Dharma and Religion: - Promised Land

To understand the roots of religious conflicts throughout the world we must first begin by comprehending how Dharmic traditions (pagans) are fundamentally different from Religious traditions (Abrahamic Religion)? India Inspires Foundation would like to share a series of central concepts of these traditions which are responsible for their distinct world-views. To get better understanding of these two opposite tradition, like https://www.facebook.com/indiainspires.org

INDIA FOURTH SPACE POWER WITH ONE TENTH OF THE COST OF NASA SATELLITE MAVEN THAT REACHED MARS ON MONDAY, TWO DAYS BEFORE MANGALYAAN (MARS CRAFT) REACHED THE MARTIAN ORBIT

India's Mars satellite successfully enters orbit, bringing country into space elite

Prime minister Narendra Modi exultant as India’s landmark achievement puts China in the shade
India has become the first nation to send a satellite into orbit around Mars on its first attempt, and the first Asian nation to do so.

Mission control in the southern Indian city of Bangalore received confirmation of the success at 7.41am Wednesday, local time. The satellite Mangalyaan had entered the orbit of the red planet 12 minutes earlier, but the message needed to traverse the 400m miles (650m km) to Earth.
India now joins an elite club of nations who have successfully carried out interplanetary space missions, and has scored a significant point in its rivalry with China.

The prime minister, Narendra Modi, who won power in May in a landslide victory, was in Bangalore with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) watching the operation.

“We have gone beyond the boundaries of human enterprise and innovation,” Modi said, as scientists celebrated.
“We have navigated our craft through a route known to very few,” Modi said, congratulating the ISRO team and “all my fellow Indians on this historic occasion”.
Modi, who travels to the US to address the United Nations later this week, called for further efforts “for challenging, the next frontier”.

The mission has led TV bulletins and filled front pages. It has been mentioned in the prayers of temple priests and even on special emails sent out to parents of exclusive nursery schools in Delhi. Tens of millions of people across the country followed the progress of the craft live.

There was a a significant chance of failure. Of 51 previous attempts to reach Mars, more than half failed.

“Just getting there is a big, bold statement. Succeeding would be a giant one about India’s place in the region and in the world,” said Pallava Bagla, a high-profile science commentator, on Tuesday.


Mangalyaan, which means “Mars craft” in Hindi, took off from the island of Shriharikota, off India’s eastern coast, 10 months ago. The 3,000lb (1,350kg) device first headed for an elliptical orbit around Earth, after which a series of manoeuvres and short burns of its rocket engines sent it on towards Mars.

ISRO scientists successfully tested the main engine on Monday and performed a course correction that put the low-cost project on track to enter the red planet’s orbit. Reducing the craft’s speed from 13.7 miles per second was the key challenge.

“It has covered 98% of the distance but the last 2% is the tricky bit,” Bagla said before the successful entry. “If it is too fast it will fly by Mars and be lost in space. If it is too slow it will crash into the planet.”

The insertion exercise began shortly after 4am local time with the critical moment coming just over three hours later when rocket engines were ignited. 

Some have questioned the $70m (£43m) price tag for a country still dealing with widespread hunger and poverty. But India defended the Mars mission by noting its importance in providing hi-tech jobs for scientists and engineers and practical applications in solving problems on Earth.

Last year the UK allotted £80m to developing joint space missions with China and India. Modi aims to establish India as a bigger player in the £200bn space technology market, even as neighbouring China gives stiff competition with its bigger launchers.

Commentators said India could go further. “We have a threshold capability but we don’t go beyond that for the simple reasons that our economy is not doing well,” said Manoj Joshi, a Delhi-based analyst. “The model is very successful, the space guys have done outstanding work but we are just not investing enough.”
Success makes India the fourth space power after the US, Europe and Russia to orbit or land on the red planet. The cost of the Indian effort is a tenth of that of the Nasa mission that put a satellite into the orbit of Mars on Monday.

Nasa’s much bigger Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (Maven) mission aims to help scientists understand what happened to the water on Mars and the carbon dioxide in its atmosphere several billion years ago. How Mars lost its atmosphere is one of science’s biggest mysteries.

The Indian project aims to study the surface and mineral composition of Mars, and scan its atmosphere for methane, a chemical strongly tied to life on Earth.

The United States had its first successful Mars mission with a 1964 flyby by the spacecraft Mariner 4, returning 21 images of the surface of the planet. The former Soviet Union reached the planet in 1971, and the European Space Agency in 2003.

On Sunday, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a hardline affiliate group of Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party, offered ritual prayers in Delhi for the mission. The leader of the group said success would prove that India “has regained its status of superpower of the world”.
Indian Space Research Organisation scientists celebrate as the Mars mission successfully enters orbit.
Indian Space Research Organisation scientists celebrate as the Mars mission successfully enters orbit. Photograph: Aijaz Rahi/AP