How can we go beyond being exclusivist and pluralist to becoming inclusivist?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, when we are practicing a particular religious practice, we tend to be either exclusivist or pluralist. How can we become more inclusivist? It depends on many factors. First is what is the kind of background you came from, what is the kind of people who we are associating with and what are particular inspirations.
So, to be focused is not to be exclusivist. Tomorrow I will be talking about the, I mean tomorrow I have to talk about the difference between absolutism and dogmatism. They are not the same.
And similarly, there is an open-mindedness and relativism. They are different. So, there is, we need to be committed to the path that we are following.
It is like if I am taking a treatment, now I cannot be dabbling in 10 different treatments. I have to be committed to the treatment that I will take. That is when I will be cured.
So, we definitely have to be committed to the path that we are following. Now, this, if this commitment to our path becomes a, becomes a condemnation of other paths, that is where it is exclusivism, that is where it is intolerance. But if you understand that, no, then the same God, whom I worship, is manifesting in different ways.
So, then we can avoid the pitfall of exclusivism. If we understand that God can manifest and treat people in different ways. Now, the difference between pluralism and inclusivism primarily is in terms of the capacity to see the connection.
So, in pluralism, basically, the overall attitude is of indifference. You do your thing, I will do my thing. And you do not interfere with me, I will not interfere with you.
It is like that. In some situations, that may be the best way we practice. So, the defining principle in bhakti is anukulyas santalu patipulyas savarjana.
We accept that which is favorable and we avoid that which is unfavorable. So, sometimes, trying to understand other people’s faith, trying to share our faith with others, that unnecessarily leads to conflict. If that is what you are doing, you do that, I will do my thing.
So, that might be the way we might be able to best negotiate in our present situation. But if there are, if there are broad-minded practitioners of other religions or other paths, and if there is, there is a secure connection of oneself with one’s own path. See, when we are ourselves uncertain about our path, then interacting with people of other paths, that simply creates insecurity.
Maybe they are right, maybe I am wrong. But if we are well-rooted in our path, then sometimes interacting with people of other paths can actually help us to see the commonality, see the specificity, what is common between us, what is specifically different among us, that can deepen our understanding. So, if that is a particular need, or there is a particular situation where we feel inspired to do that, then we can do that under proper guidance, with the proper mature understanding.
And then that can also deepen our faith. So, Srila Prabhupada, he said that, once we have discovered, once there is one professor who was asking a lot of questions about the relationship between different religions. And Prabhupada said that once you are fixed on your path, then all, all intervals of exploration can also be just another form of sense-getting.
So, why is that? It is like, I have my path to climb up the mountain. But instead of climbing up the mountain, I am going around. What is this path? I am going, I am just circling around the bottom of the mountain, just seeing this path, seeing that path, seeing that path.
No, we have to make sure that we are climbing up the path. So, while climbing up the path, if we can interact with other people, and see the commonalities, especially if we can meet committed practice, committed followers of other religions, who are also broad-minded, then, then we can develop a more inclusivistic understanding. So, I have an online Muslim friend who told me that, he says, I can, it is easier for me to communicate with moderates of other traditions than extremists of my own tradition.
Why? Because there may be other people who are Muslims, but if they are extremists, you just cannot connect with them. So, there are moderates in all traditions, and there are extremists in all traditions. So, if there are people who are moderates, then by interacting with them, then we can deepen our appreciation for the grace of God that is manifesting in different ways.
Now, whether our situation requires that, whether our inclination requires that, whether that is helping us to go spiritually, that is something which we will have to individually see. So, sometimes we suppress the emotion,