| Our spiritual
boyhood |
 severino_1988
(M/Poznań, Poland) |
8/28/00 7:20
am |
Pankaj, your interest for my message enjoyed me very much.
Thanks! Unfortunately, I cannot write in English well enough yet. Therefore,
I prefer to write in Polish. In order to write this message in English
I asked my parents for help. And there it is.
Inspiration for that message I found in two messages of our host. First
he insisted that we are greatly influenced by other people, especially
by our own parents (Zycie bez wizji lepszego zycia 8/24/00 8:19 pm, korzon12),
second he suggested that information about Hinduism given by me ('Ostateczna
rzeczywisto¶ć duchowa' 8/24/00 4:09 am, severino_1988) meant that I was
nearly a Hindu (Bycie 8/24/00 8:26 pm, korzon12). Here I must add that
like my mother, father, and sister I am an atheist.
When I was puzzling over that, trying to find the answer to a question,
my dad reminded me of Gandhi whom we had talked over more than once. We
have the autobiography of Gandhi among our books. Hence, I easily found
a suitable fragment. After I had read yesterday's message of yours I went
to Internet in order to find the English original of that book. Fortunately,
I found it almost immediately on the Web page "Mahatma Gandhi -- An Autobiography"
(http://web.mahatma.org.in/books/autobio/amain.htm).
The fragment quoted by me in the message in which you are interested is
entitled "GLIMPSES OF RELIGION" (http://web.mahatma.org.in/books/autobio/achap110.htm).
Gandhi was born in Hindu family, namely in the Vaishnava faith. At
that time he had been in contact with the great Hindu books and he expressed
the opinion "impressions formed at that age strike roots deep down into
one's nature." However, I think that those impressions were chiefly esthetical
and didn't "evoke religious fervour" just in him. Why do I think so? I
have in mind his statement: "But the fact that I had learnt to be tolerant
to other religions did not mean that I had any living faith in God. I happened,
about this time, to come across Manusmriti which was amongst my father's
collection. The story of the creation and similar things in it did not
impress me very much, but on the contrary made me incline somewhat towards
atheism." Nonetheless, I'd like to emphasize this mention on toleration.
In my case as well, my parents' ways of behaving observed by me "inculcate
in me a toleration for all faiths."
How did it happen in your case? Are your experiences similar to Gandhi's
ones? Do you think that Hindu Gods are real and the other gods are invention?
Do you think that all people living on the planet Earth ought to be converted
to Hindu and ought to believe in Hindu Gods, "ones and only Gods"?
Seweryn |
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