If dharma meaning to love and serve God is so simple and universal why do so many religions focus on such aggressive conversion?
Transcript
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Hare Krishna. Question from Panchpande Prabhu If dharma is so easy to understand, that it means to love and serve and it is universal, then why do we see so many religions having such aggressive conversion agendas and even their founders and their initial followers also exhibit a great zeal for converting others. Why is that? Answer that is because conversion itself is not wrong.
If you look at the teachings of Jesus or if you look even in the teachings of Krishna, the focus is on raising people from material level to the spiritual level. That is the primary focus. Vertical conversion.
If we look at Krishna what does he say that? You share my essential message. That this message of love. Share this.
And those who share this, they are very dear to me. So, now that is the message that is to be shared. But the general human tendency because we human beings are at the materialistic level, the general human tendency is to see everything at the level of material consciousness.
And because of seeing things at the level of material consciousness, so, people try to think that making others materially like us is success. So, when we see things materially because of our material consciousness, then we mistake the external aspects of dharma to be its essence. And when we mistake the external aspects of dharma to be its essence, then we start thinking that propagating those external aspects is the propagation of dharma.
But unfortunately, that is not true. So, that’s why, whenever dharma is being practiced or dharma is being shared, very carefully, the difference between its external aspects and its inner universal aspects, the difference has to be very carefully explained and it has to be very carefully taught. And only then will people be able to keep the difference clear and focus on the universal essence.
So, if that is not done, then it can happen, not just in different religions of the world, it can happen even with the Vedic tradition, where people can become intolerant thinking that our way is the only way. So, this is a danger which is ever present in all the religious traditions of the world because the external aspect of dharma becomes mistaken with its inner universal aspect and whereas the external expressions can be many and the inner universal essence is one. But when what is internally one, it is externally tried to be by fiat made to be one at external level, then that leads to conversions which are very disruptive and which actually far from raising people to a higher level of consciousness, raising them from immaterialist to spiritualist, often keep them at the same level or even drag them downwards.
Thank you.