Ancient holy books give the messages of different or former times, cultures, and people. These sacred messages found in the ancient holy books are universal to all times. The secular messages are appropriate during a different age or culture. For example, our morning routines or practices may be appropriate when we get up in the morning, but are not the same as for when we are preparing to go to bed at night. Our morning and nighttime routines are both true, but not necessarily appropriate when interchanged.
There is a struggle in the both the East and West to incorporate the old traditions and the new. Many people do not feel that the old religious teachings apply any longer, and so they reject religion, formal theology, or spiritual based education. This leaves them with no hope for a better day. It leaves them without an ideal or an ideology to strive after. It is a trying time for humanity because the eleven major religions have not yet built a bridge to a new day, the new yuga. The Realized Souls have come back to build that bridge. Paramahansa Yogananda talks about the harmony between East and West, between Hinduism and Christianity. Swami Rama brings the message of the Himalayas, the teachings of the saints and sages. Swami Satchidananda brings messages of wholisticness, and Sai Baba brings messages of harmony. Gurudev Chitrabhanu brings the message of Jainism–non-violence, non-acquisition, relativity, and the law of karma. Hazrat Inayat Khan brings a message of Sufism for East and West. And this names just a few. They are all building the bridges from the past to the current age. The East has the tradition of teacher and student, and when the teachers from the East come with their messages, they bring their tradition with them. The West also has as its teachings of teacher and student. The Judaic scriptures mention prophets with students, like Moses and Aaron, Elijah and Elisha, also Christ and his students. So the idea of a Realized Soul passing on information directly to students comes from both the East and West.
In both the East and West societies are rejecting traditional religions, and are also beginning to reject anything that uses religious terminology. Some people are blaming religion for their problems, for the wars, for all the ignorance and suffering. We need to realize that coming into a new day or new age, the bridge that is being built will need to be wholistic. We don’t need to condemn the traditional religions; rather we need to build a vision to a new age, one that helps us live in harmony with our Wholistic nature and with life around us.
