I'm Bahai so I believe in progressive revelation

Abraham, Krishna, Zoroaster, Moses, Buddha, Jesus Christ, Muḥammad, and most recently the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh are the divine Manifestations of God sent to prescribe the remedy for humanities ailments according to the time

Each of which have exerted an incomparable influence on the evolution of human society, each of Them has a distinct individuality and a definite mission...

That mission being a divinely ordained purpose to “educate the souls of men, and refine the character of every living man…"

While the guidance is necessary for our education, what you say about being the protagonist of your own life is true

Karma is something which is very misunderstood in western thinking, it literally means action.

Taking charge of our own spiritual and intellectual development and contributing to the transformation of society is how we manage our Karma

Bahá’u’lláh wrote, “The Purpose of the one true God, exalted be His glory, in revealing Himself unto men is to lay bare those gems that lie hidden within the mine of their true and inmost selves.”

The standard that Bahá’u’lláh envisages for the individual who can effectively play his or her part in actively assisting society to achieve lasting material and spiritual prosperity is a very high bar for this age

Yet perfection is not a requirement, what is required of us is a sincere daily effort to move towards this high standard. We are asked to tread a common path of service, supporting each other and advancing together, with sufficient humility to value the contribution of each person and avoid the pitfalls of self-righteousness

Imagine that each person is born with a certain measure of capacity. Though someone may be born with the capacity of a thimbel while another may be born with the capacity of a bucket... the one who fills 3/4 of their thimbel has accomplished more in their life than someone who fills 1/2 of their bucket

kinda funny thats what christians do

Very well said namaste my friend

Very few people see life through such a lens!

&&& you couldn't be more right about Western views of such philosophies especially the word "karma" which like you said in Sanskrit translates as "work". Just like "guru" translates as "darkness cutter".

Western people will say "I'm balancing my karma" "I'm doing this (+) or (-) to negate the other or vice versa" when in reality the work never stops and all your asked is to "try and do good in the world".

Western people think they can just meditate for 10 minutes and reach some form of enlightenment and that's a lie. Meditation(mind) is one of the highest forms of Yoga and should only be done once one has mastered the other yogas.

That's the point of a guru. Shows you the path but you have to walk it.

I have met some Bahaians and though are philosphy is named different. Our actions are more or less the same. That's the beauty of it.

Every religion preaches that to be done but 90% think just showing up to their "place of worship" and "writing a check" is "enough".

Hindus do the same thing. Muslims do the same thing. Jews do the same thing. Catholics do the same thing.

Religion makes most people lazy because they put all their power in an invisible entity instead of going into the world and doing the "work".

Vivekananda was one of the first to say things like

“So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every person a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them!”

“The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him - that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free.”

“Blessed are they whose bodies get destroyed in the service of others.”

“Are you unselfish? That is the question. If you are, you will be perfect without reading a single religious book, without going into a single church or temple.”

“Truth can be stated in a thousand different ways, yet each one can be true.”

“It is a very hard thing to understand, but you will come to learn in time that nothing in the universe has power over you until you allow it to exercise such a power.”

The Buddhists or the Jains do not depend upon God; but the whole force of their religion is directed to the great central truth in every religion, to evolve a God out of man. They have not seen the Father, but they have seen the Son. And he that hath seen the Son hath seen the Father also.”

Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or philosophy - by one, or more, or all of these - and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms, are but secondary details.
Swami Vivekananda

This post was edited by SwamiVivekananda on Feb 6 2024 12:14pm

my wife and I were married on Bali island, then lived there for a couple years, where Buddhist and Hindu culture is well preserved. I appreciated the daily offerings as an expression of gratitude and devotion, many Balinese people have very little in life but still very joyful, loving, and peaceful people.

I also have an appreciation for Sanskrit in my study of language and history, India and Indonesia have a lot of fascinating history.

My favorite guru to listen to podcasts is Sadhguru

Wow must've been absolutely beautiful there I've been to the Andaman Islands which is Northwest of Bali and it's stunning. Definitely gives the Bahamas a run for their money!

I studied Sanskrit for quite some time and the language itself(one of the root human languages) is so far advanced for being over 5,000+ years old not to mention it was passed down orally and we've only translated a small percentage of the text yet reap so many benefits from the small amount we have!

Reading Sanskrit to English translations you will immediately come to the conclusion that Sanskrit is FAR more advanced then any other language and deserves much more study.

I enjoy listening to some of Sadhguru mainly because he tries to put "spiritual philosophy" into a "western perspective" the same way my Swami Ishatmanada does. As you know it's so hard to bridge that gap. Not to mention these "gurus/swami's" learn English and then have to sort of "translate" "water it down" for western people to understand. It takes an immense amount of effort so I have a profound appreciation for that.

This post was edited by SwamiVivekananda on Feb 6 2024 01:07pm

you dont consider catholics christians?

I lump all followers of Jesus Christ into one box despite the hundreds of denominations they more or less preach the same gospel(good news).

Most people will say I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. They won't say they are an Essene, Catholic, Lutheran, Christian, etc.

You are much more likely to talk about Jesus Christ then the "differences in denomination" though I will admit the differences are interesting.

but you just excluded cathloics as christians in a previous post?

Where are you going with this? Are you talking about when I said....

Hindus do the same thing. Muslims do the same thing. Jews do the same thing. Catholics do the same thing.

Because I was talking about all religious faiths I just didn't list all 2,000+

edit: The point I was making is really simple. If you don't spend years studying all religions/philosophies how can you have a truly informed opinion or have a genuine experience/connection with the "God" you worship?

This is across all careers and life paths. It takes a LONG time for a lot of people to "master" something. Any discipline you can think of.

But when it comes to religion and "God" people seem to think all they need to do is put faith/hope in "Allah" or "Yahweh" or "Christ" or "Krishna" or "Buddha".

Vedanta which is the philosophy I practice simply admit the odds of you "realizing God" in this lifetime/incarnation is EXTREMELY RARE which is proven by the small number of "Master teachers" most religious people follow.

When was the last time you heard about a new "Master Teacher"??? You didn't because basically since Jesus Christ there hasn't been one. Of course many gurus/swamis/imams/rabbi's/priests who "interpret the word of God" can become well known and respected but they don't actually become that "Master teacher".

This is why more then half the worlds population follows teachers who died 2,000 years ago because the message they spread transcends time and is considered an "eternal truth".

For me personally it wasn't enough for me to truly "realize God" in my own way. For me to actually "feel" a connection with God. For me to even be able to contemplate this thing/persona we call "God".

By studying the Eastern religions/philosophies that I knew NOTHING about I was able to bridge the gap and see that all religions preach the same "truth" just in different ways.

That's why I said people are "lazy spiritualist" or non-spiritual because they don't want to do the work.

When people on this forum or in real life try and tell me what/who God is I know by their answer if they studied religion/theology or if they just "stuck with the religion they were born into" and there's nothing wrong with that just don't get mad at someone who sees God everywhere and in all religions.

This post was edited by SwamiVivekananda on Feb 7 2024 10:19am