Fanaticism and Death of Religion

The Harmonist

Sree Sajjanatoshani

"Of every religion the followers are divided into two classes, esoteric and exoteric. The esoteric section are sufficiently spiritualized to understand the prophet or the guru; and their number is very small. As time rolls on, their number becomes still smaller and smaller till it comes to nil. And as the number decreases, spiritual adulteration increases till at last the truth is entirely lost sight of, and the religion becomes irreligious. The followers now fight more for the sake of the name of the religion than for the truth it teaches; they fight more for the shadow than for the substance. They begin to twist and torture the sacred injunctions laid down in the holy scriptures and to serve their selfish ends, try to bring out a meaning that these do not and cannot mean.

"The most astounding and inappropriate rites that are now associated with our own religion are but results of flagrant violation of shastric injunctions; and for this none but the present so-called gurus or rather the spiritual babblers are mostly responsible."