Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Sant Mat...

So I came across the biography of Shania Twain and as I was reading it it mentioned that herself and her husband practice a religion known as Sant Mat, now I personally have never heard of this religion, and so I curiously decided to surf over to my good friend wikipedia and google and started to look up more information about it. Well the premise of the religion or atleast what I sort of came across after surfing through a few pages was it's focus on the few principles of the Hindu faith mainly that of dietary practices as well as meditation, to help develop a sense of self or an understanding of your existence in this world, ok so that last statement is probably the basis for all religions that are currently practiced in the world today; all religions are there to help one find meaning for existence other then fulfilling routine or common duties but from a metaphysical aspect of what our existence means for you and the relation of our existence in the harmony of the world around you. And the idea of Sant Mat is to practice a way of life where you find a path to realize yourself and eventually find God. So Sant Mat's current spiritual master is Sant Baljit Singh, which I guess he would be the equivalent of the Dalai Lama in Tibetan Buddhism, but the way in which the current Dalai Lama was selected is probably different then how Baljit Singh came to be the spiritual master, since there is no mention of reincarnation amongst the belief of the Sant Mat faith, however more contemporary movements of Sant Mat, do believe in the idea of karma and reincarnation. Well I should say that on the Sant Mat site they mention Karma but not reincarnation... Regardless, the selection of the spiritual leader in the Sant Mat faith is not through principles of selection for some of the other Dharmic faiths (correct me if I'm wrong here). The Sant Mat movement has a very egalitarianistic belief. Which is nice in that they view everyone as equal no matter their social status of religious affiliations, regardless of their belief or their way of life. Which is the one thing that I do find a bit disconcerting in many religions, I feel that equality should be the core of all religions and placing distinctions on groups of individuals, because of their upbringings or their way of life, devoids the idea of religion as a way to discover ones place in their metaphysical existence and understanding of God. But we don't live in a perfect world, but perhaps one day we will find equality amongst all living creatures. I end this post with a quote by Mohandas Gandhi, "All the religions of the world, while they may differ in other respects, unitedly proclaim that nothing lives in this world but Truth."

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