The word religion comes from the Latin “rilegare” which means “to link”. Religion is therefore what links man to his Creator, and it is “revealed” to mankind by God Himself, since a religion is also a“Revelation”
In today’s world, there are three main religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and three oriental doctrines: Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism. These doctrines cannot be called religions because they are metaphysical in nature and their goal is “metaphysical liberation”, whereas the goal of religions is “salvation”.
Religions are destined to the mass and, for this reason, are presented as “dogmas” not to be discussed but accepted in “faith”, because the common human does not have the intellectual qualifications to grasp metaphysical concepts. Therefore, the “form”, or the exterior of a tradition will be emphasized in a religion. This also explains why these forms are different from one another, each form being “adapted” to the mentality of the people to whom it is addressed.
A new “revelation” does not imply that the old one was wrong, but rather that is has lost its spiritual power on the people to whom the new revelation is destined. For instance, Christianity was directed to the Roman world whose religious practices had become mere superstitions at the end of their civilization. It was not destined to the Jewish people whose tradition was alive and well, or to other parts of the world which were unknown to the people of those days.
Because of these geographical, historical and human requirements, a religion has limitations and its exterior cannot be “universal”. It appeals to the emotional side of human beings, faith, love, passion, which can easily become “fanaticism”. The reason is that religions are only concerned with the individual, and their goal is “salvation”.
The human who obtains “salvation” through observance of his religious faith during his lifetime, is “saved” from returning to another life in a form lower than human (an animal, for instance), thus guaranteeing the possibility to reach higher states of consciousness.
Therefore, a religion is necessary to give the common man a spiritual vehicle to ascertain his progression on the vertical plane of the cross, or, in other words, to be able to continue climbing the ladder of universal existence as a “central being”, i.e., the equivalent of human being with free will. This is why the Tantra says that “the one who has obtained the human state and does not try to transcend it is like one who commits suicide”. Because “death” is really “stagnation, i.e., the impossibility of reaching the higher states of the being.
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