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Section: Religions and cults
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Christianity, the
Cults and Other Religions:
Eastern
imports
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New Age religion
This is not an organisation or formal set of teachings, but
a loose collection of views about life and the universe that
have become increasingly popular in the West since the 1960s.
Some of these views can be traced back to Eastern religions,
brought to the West particularly since around 1970.
New Agers are disillusioned with life and culture as it is and
believe we stand at the threshold of a new age where all differences
of religion, culture and politics will gradually disappear, to
be replaced by a worldwide spirit of unity and love. Meanwhile,
all religions—and even non-religious philosophy—lead
eventually to God. But New Age teaching is superior to them all
and, if embraced, will help reach the goal more quickly.
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New Age symbols |
As part of this
process, humanity is now moving out of the Age of Pisces (2000
years long and the period of Christianity) and into the Age
of Aquarius. While this is happening, 'power points' exist
at places like Glastonbury and Iona where individuals can make
contact with a higher energy. New Agers believe that these energies
are strongest at times like equinoxes, solstices and the full
moon, and meditation is the key to tapping into them.
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| Nature is to be given great respect because
God is in everything, and everything is God-the view known as
pantheism. God is thus not a person, just power. Jesus was just
a man, but a Master in that he was the first to recognise the Godness within him, as we all can now do.
Because man is not a sinner, there is no need for a Saviour
or any act of atonement. We need to become aware of our divinity
by developing our psychic powers or 'higher consciousness'. Means
to this end include hypnotism, meditation, martial arts, drugs,
yoga and occult practices.
Most New Agers believe in reincarnation, though not in the
sense of punishment. Each reincarnation is a step along the pathway
to awareness of one's own divinity. The time will come when the
whole of humanity embraces this way of life and all people will
live in harmony with each other and with the world around them.
This movement, properly called The International Society
for Krishna Consciousness, began in 1965 when a 70-year-old
Indian 'holy man' arrived in New York to propound the teachings
of his Hindu guru. The arrival was A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Prabhupada. Young people quickly responded—many of them
disillusioned with life and addicted to drugs—and the movement
spread rapidly in both America and Europe. Prabhupada died in
1977 and leadership of the movement was taken on by an international
group of twelve.
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Devotees of the cult wear saffron robes and
shave their heads. They live in idol-filled 'temples', following
an austere regime, beginning with rising in the small hours for
chanting, worship and the study of the Hindu holy book, the Bhagavad
Gita. Their diet is vegetarian, with no tea, coffee or alcohol
allowed. During the day they spend up to eight hours asking the
public for donations before returning to their temples for further
study, worship and housework.
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Bhaktivedanta Swami
Prabhupada |
| According to this religion, which is Hindu
in basis, Krishna (or Vishnu) is the highest deity,
remote and inaccessible, and beyond good and evil. He calls upon
humans simply to surrender to him. Christ was a pure devotee
of Krishna, sent to earth from another planet whose inhabitants
pitied the people of earth. The world is an illusion, as is man's body,
and as are good and evil. Our problem is that we have become
preoccupied with temporal things and forgotten Krishna. Salvation
lies is dealing with that problem. This is done through chanting
the divine name—Hare Krishna—aided by a string of beads
and repudiating the material world. Devotees thus seek to attain
'Krishna consciousness'. A 'Spiritual Master' is provided to
help them.
Transcendental
Meditation
A widespread movement, TM owes its current success to Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi, born in India in 1918. This guru came to London
with the aim of popularising in the West some of the Hindu meditation
techniques of his native land. He met with little success until
1967, when the Beatles became his disciples. He later returned
to India feeling that his mission had failed, but came back to
Europe with a new plan for the worldwide development of the group.
Since then the movement has grown steadily.
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Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi |
TM is marketed in the West chiefly as a
system of non-religious meditation techniques with a scientific basis. The
group have worked hard to try and provide scientific proof that the
techniques reduce stress and bring inner peace. But it remains essentially
religious, using Hindu mantras (phrases to be repeated), leaning on the
Hindu holy book the Bhagavad Gita and speaking of making a conscious
connection with the fact that we are truly divine-and the initiation
ceremony invokes Hindu gods.
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| With such a background, TM is pantheistic.
There is no personal God; instead, God and creation are the same
thing. Jesus is no more than one of the world's great teachers,
whose death was unnecessary. Salvation lies in self-realisation:
becoming aware of one's deity. Right and wrong do not exist.
The purpose of life is to become bliss-conscious, that is,
totally absorbed in the divine. This way, the devotee can escape
the cycle of reincarnation and enter the eternal liberation known
as nirvana.
For many in the West, Yoga is simply a form of exercise aimed
at enhancing both fitness and relaxation. They accord it no religious
significance and it probably does them no harm. But in the East
it is a deeply religious activity, and those who practise Yoga
in the West should take care, because it is easy to cross the
line into non-Christian religion without realising it.
Yoga finds expression in both Hinduism and Buddhism. It is
a complete way of life designed to achieve 'union' (the meaning
of 'Yoga') with the divine consciousness. This is achieved through
up to eight yogic practices. Of these, Hatha Yoga is the one
that uses bodily control to help achieve it, and it is this that
lies behind the Yoga exercises common in the West.
Yoga is a pantheistic religion, believing God to be everything
and everything to be God. Jesus was just a good teacher but not
a Saviour. Salvation lies in enlightenment in this life and escaping
from the ties of the material world at death. But several reincarnations
may be necessary before true freedom is realised.
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