Why Young People Run Away from Religion?

Anupam Srivastava

Description

Anupam Srivastava decodes spirituality, religion, and ritualism, offering clarity to what each of these terms means on a journey toward the truth.
Anupam Srivastava decodes spirituality, religion, and ritualism, offering clarity to what each of these terms means on a journey toward the truth.
Written especially for young people, this book introduces the logical, rational, and scientific nature of spirituality, religion, and ritualistic practices, within the context of Hinduism.
Find out how to:
• bring logical, rational, and scientific traits back into ritualistic practices and the observance of religion.
• imbibe religion into daily life for personal development—and help others do the same.
• recognize your true sense of self and your innate strength and potential, which is the real purpose of spirituality, religion, and prescribed ritualistic performances.
Young people must gain more insight into spiritual, religious, and ritualistic concepts. To help them do so, this book highlights etymology and epithets, nomenclature, symbolism, iconography, and attributes of some commonly worshiped gods and goddesses.
The ancient Rishis prescribed various scientific methods and procedures to help us prepare the equipment of our body, mind, and intellect to comprehend our own supreme nature. Discover how their wisdom can help you find your path.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Religión
• Spirituality
• Hinduism
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: AuthorHouse UK
• Date de parution: 28 septembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781728375328
• Langue: English

Extrait

WHY YOUNG PEOPLE RUN AWAY FROM RELIGION?






Anupam Srivastava













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© 2022 Anupam Srivastava. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 09/28/2022

ISBN: 978-1-7283-7533-5 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-7283-7534-2 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-7283-7532-8 (e)






Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.



Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.



Contents
Preface

Chapter 1 My Story So Far
Chapter 2 Cat In The Cage
Chapter 3 Spirituality, Religion, And Ritualism
Chapter 4 The Attribute Of Lord Ganesh, The Sincere Seeker
Chapter 5 The Attribute Of Bhagwan Vishnu, The Pure And Perfect Antahkaran
Chapter 6 The Attribute Of Lord Ram, The Blueprint Of Purification
Chapter 7 The Attribute Of Devotee Hanuman, The Instrument Of Purification
Chapter 8 The Attribute Of Lord Shiv, The Adi Yogi, The Competence
Chapter 9 The Attributes Of Tridevi, The Spiritual Energy
Chapter 10 The Attribute Of The Sound Symbol ( ऊँ ) Aum, The Emblem
Chapter 11 Why Do Young People Run Away From Religion?

Appendix 1
Appendix 2
About The Author
About The Editor
References



PREFACE
This book doesn’t intend to define spirituality, religion and/or ritualism. However, it most certainly intends to demystify these terms. It intends to remove confusion and make these terms more palatable and interesting, particularly for young people and the seekers of truth. It intends to introduce them to the logical, rational, and scientific nature of spirituality, religion, and ritualistic practices, within the context of sanatan tradition (Hinduism), as contained within scriptures, studied, and reviewed by the author.
The author sincerely wishes and hopes to not only bring logical, rational, and scientific nature back into our ritualistic practices and observance of religion but to help young people and the new seekers to imbibe religion into their daily lives for their personal development. To recognise and realise their true sense of self and the innate strengths and potentials they are born with, which, in fact, is the real purpose of spirituality (the Subjective Science), religion and prescribed ritualistic performances.
The intention of our ancient subjective scientists - our revered rishis - was to transform the youth of this land called Bharat, into highly competent Master Archers like Arjun. They were absolutely aware that even the most competent professional archer like him, who had never lost a war in his entire life, would struggle to face a war within, let alone waging it. Therefore, Lord Krishna had to counsel him through 18 chapters of the Bhagavad Gita to help realise his real Self. The moment he realised and became aware of his real self, his real identity and nature, all his confusions dropped. He got his courage back and declared his readiness to fight.
The silent witness of the entire Bhagavad Gita discourse, Sanjay, declared his burning faith, the profound message, and the gist of his understanding, in the concluding stanza of Bhagavad Gita:

Wherever is Krishna, the Lord of Yoga, and Partha, the master archer, there are happiness, victory and prosperity, and firm (steady or sound) policy, this is my conviction.
-Bhagavad Gita ।। 18:78 ।।
Sri Swami Chinmayananda Sarasvati makes a most beautiful interpretation of this verse and says, “The Lord Krishna representing the Self , the Atman , can be invoked within the bosom of each one of us through any of the yog techniques expounded in the Bhagavad Gita. When Arjun, who was a confused, limited, ordinary mortal, has thrown down his ‘instrument’ of effort and achievement, ( his bow ), and has reclined to impotent idleness, no doubt, there cannot be hope for any success or prosperity. But when he is ready with his bow, when he is no more idle but has a willing readiness, in that man, we recognise a Partha ready with his bow .” A man with such a state of mind, cannot be stopped from success. In short, the creed of Bhagavad Gita is that ‘Spirituality can be lived in life, and true spiritual understanding is an asset to a man engaged in the battle-of-life.’
The method of super-imposing a meaning upon an object is the secret technique called IDOL-WORSHIP. On a round piece of stone we superimpose the idea of Shiv and later, a devotee in his faithful adoration reaches that particular stone feels divinity inspired as though he is in the presence of Lord Shiv. Upon the instrument of torture, the Cross, Christians see the Divine Aura of Christ and, thus, wherever they see a Cross small or big, to them it is an occasion to feel inspired and blessed by the Lord.
The forms and images of gods and goddesses are, in fact, the embodiments of subtle philosophical ideas, ideal, thoughts, values and principles that are beyond the purview of our sense organs. To help young people and new seekers of spirituality whose intellect has not yet developed enough to reach the depths of suggestive and indicative nature of these subtle concepts and ideas, our subjective scientists or ancient rishis created symbolic images and forms to help bring these subtle ideas and concepts within the purview of their senses.
Hence, if young people and new seekers pay attention and deliberate upon the attributes indicated through the images and forms through regular and sincere efforts, it would be much easier for them to reach to the Ideals behind the Idols . The ancient rishis had prescribed various scientific methods and procedures to help us prepare the equipment of our body, mind, and intellect to comprehend our own supreme nature. The rituals, ritualistic methods, and practices are indeed designed to be symbolic, suggestive, and indicative in nature. The idea behind the symbolic practices (symbolic poojas ) is to prepare the seeker to develop their physical and mental capacities and capabilities and to help them transit from symbolism into real life practices (real pooja ) and to enjoy their lives to the fullest.
It is wonderous to witness people remaining confined to religious and ritualistic (symbolic) poojas throughout their lives and never seeming to transit over to the real pooja . Despite lifetime practice of daily and regular ritualistic worships and apparently living a religious life, when people display endless desires, anger, lust, greed, clinging attachments, deceit, fear, and anxieties, no other conclusion can be drawn except for the fact that these religious practices seem to have been ineffective to bring about any change or shift in their experiences.
To confirm, you may ask them a question or two and there would seldom be any logical, rational, or scientific explanation or understanding coming forth. For example, here is a question: Why do we celebrate Diwali or what is the relevance of Diwali in our lives?
Their answers would contain only two reasons. (1) Lord Ram returned to Ayodhya after killing Ravana. (2) It is a celebration of victory of good over evil. There would be no other reason that one would be able to think beyond these two.
I have asked this question to thousands of young people in various secondary schools and a lot of apparently religious and ritualistic adults in India. So far, I haven’t received any other reason except these two.
Everyone seems to have devised their own personal reasons, mainly to win arguments or to justify their mindless religious practices and ritualistic performances which they follow blindly. If 10 people are asked the same question, you will get 10 different answers. When asked to think harder, their comes out a galaxy of answers, which would include (1) it’s a Hindu festival and we are Hindus, (2) every Hindu celebrates, so we celebrate it as well, (3) it gives happiness, (4) it encourages love and brotherhood etc. One of the common answers, you will get, is that Diwali lamps help killing mosquitoes.
What does it mean to be a Hindu ( sanatani )? Except being born into a lineage that has been declaring themselves to be Hindu, what makes me a Hindu? What do I know about sanatan knowledge or dharma or anything pertaining to sanatan ? We seldom pose these questions to ourselves.
Did Maharishi Valmiki, having given up his lucrative and satisfying material life, assumingly spent 10-15 years in the forest in contemplation to find a solution for the menace of mosquitoes that India would be facing in the Kali-Yug ? If the story of Lord Ram’s life (Ramayana) has been celebrated by generations for thousands of years, there must be without a doubt a bigger, better, and profound reason or purpose. It is painful to see that we have bereft our generations of the spiritual wealth. They have been denied of the knowledge, so profound that modern science will take a few thousand years more to come anywhere close to it.
The cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) model helps us to understand the relationship between e