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way.
Spirituality simply means that you have gone beyond the mind, and in that transcendence all ideas are transcended -- Hindu, Mohammedan, Christian, communist -- all ideas. Ideas as such are transcended. There is only silence, and two silences can never be different. They are like two zeros. What difference can there be?
Buddha in his deep meditation is not different from Mahavira. Mahavira in his deep meditation is not different from Zarathustra. Zarathustra in his deep silence is not different from Lao Tzu. And I call THIS the Sanatan Dharma.
The word SANATAN means eternal, and DHARMA means Tao -- the law, the ultimate law. Ais DHAMMO SANANTANO, Buddha repeats again and again: This is the eternal law of life. But by Sanatan Dharma the Shankaracharya means Hindu religion. Hindus think that their religion is the eternal religion; that is sheer nonsense.
Religiousness is eternal, but no religion is eternal. Every religion is born and dies in its own time. No religion is beginningless and no religion is endless. Everything that is born in time is bound to die sooner or later, and it is good that it dies because it creates space for something new to arise. Sanatan Dharma -- eternal religion -- cannot be identified with any religion in particular.
Jainas believe that their religion is far older than the religion of the Hindus, and it may be far older because their first TEERTHANKARA, Adinath, is remembered in the Rig Veda, the first Hindu scripture, with great respect. That shows two things: that Adinath must have been already an established, accepted spiritual leader; he must have preceded the Rig Veda, and the Rig Veda is the ancientmost scripture of the Hindus. Jainas say their religion is far older, but older does not mean eternal.
Thousands of religions have existed on the earth and have died, and when they were alive they had millions of followers, but now they have completely disappeared. The followers have disappeared, the priests have disappeared, their gods have disappeared. When they were alive they also used to think they were eternal. But whatsoever happens in time always dies; nothing can be eternal in time.
My
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