New Age is a world-wide movement that takes aspects of various beliefs in the hope of coming up with a mix that is effective. Effective in what? Personal spiritual development.
New Age is a free-for-all assimilation of what’s available ‘out there’. To many, it is not a religion at all – Christianity calls it paganism, as does Islam, Judaism and Buddhism. But it should be differentiated from Satanism, Wicca and other Neo-pagan religions. In 1995, New Age practitioners made up 20 percent of the population of USA.
While many Hindus may not be aware of it, Hindus are considered the greatest pagans and heathens there are by the three Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Putting it mildly, I am rather proud of that. We even take other religions deities and gods and make them our own, or set up a new worship when we are moved to do so by our feelings (like Santoshi Maa whose devotees number in the thousands now). This is an essential element of Hinduism, one that is its peculiar strength, in fact.
When the basis of a religion is that everyone is a God (either a spark of the divine (Vishishta Advaita), a separate element of God (Dvaita) or god itself on the premises that everything is God (Advaita)), then why should there be a shortage of gods? Also, the practice of having a god for the clan (Kul Devta) and a god for one’s own personal worship (Isht Devta) is accepted throughout India, and among Hindus all over the world. It has always been a matter of choice for practitioners of Hinduism. And that is the way we like it.
Now Hinduism plays a major role in the New Age religion that is catching on so quickly around the world. Take any element of New Age and you will find a corresponding element in Hinduism. In fact, take any religion and you will find its corresponding element in Hinduism.
The passage below on Universal Religion, taken from a New Age document, will be very familiar to practitioners of Hinduism:
“Since all is God, then only one reality exists, and all religions are simply different paths to that ultimate reality. The universal religion can be visualized as a mountain, with many sadhanas (spiritual paths) to the summit. Some are hard; others easy. There is no one correct path. All paths eventually reach the top. (We) anticipate that a new universal religion which contains elements of all current faiths will evolve and become generally accepted worldwide.” From http://www.religioustolerance.org/
Let us look at some aspects of the New Age movement and see whether we have an evolving belief that is Hinduism in another guise.
The New Age beliefs and their corresponding element in Hinduism
1. The Earth as a living entity. The Hindu belief of the Earth as Bhoo Devi/Bhoomi Devi/Bhoo Mata has been a sustained practice for millennia. The worship of Mother Earth is integral to almost every Hindu doctrine. Ecological responsibility is important in New Age beliefs where preserving the health of the planet is a major movement. New Agers often look upon the Earth as Gaia (Greek for goddess Earth) - a living entity with full awareness.
2. Eclecticism – where people should follow their own individual path to spirituality instead of dogma. Many of our rishis spent years doing their own penance. In modern times, Paramhansa Ramakrishna and Ramana Maharishi (whose practice was based on the question “Who am I?”) and many others followed no fixed dogma or creed to attain enlightenment. Both Ramakrishna and Ramana Maharishi pushed for and demonstrated individual effort towards enlightenment. This has been and continues to be an essential part of Hinduism. There are some New Agers who believe that each person is God – based on the Upanishad mahavakayas of Aham Brahmasmi (I am Brahman) and That Twam Asi (That Thou Art).
3. God as female – this was started by New Agers to counter patriarchal religions. In Hinduism, goddesses are not only an essential part of worship but many worship cannot be concluded if the female deity is not invoked. The Sakta/Shakti movement places goddesses over and above their male counterparts. The worship of the one Goddess Tara across India, to China, to the Ireland (Celtic practices) to the South Americas shows that goddess worship had been in existence, on and off, in many cultures for the past thousands of years.
4. Psychic perceptions – ESP abilities, including psychokinetic abilities, telepathy, apportion, translocation. There are people in India who do this on a regular basis. Our mythology is replete with incidences of great abilities demonstrated by rishis and sadhus. Such ‘miracles’ continue even in modern India though it is much harder now to track down the people who can do this.
5. Meditation – meditation is an element of all religions. Some use meditation as a calming device, bringing down their stress levels and working towards enjoying a more fulfilling life. Hindu meditation, especially of the chakras (energy centres) is fast catching on as an effective way towards raising your consciousness levels and of contemplating on godhead. Other meditations – light, breathing, with chanting and yogic/Raj Yoga. A large percentage of New Agers believe that God is "a state of higher consciousness that a person may reach" – a philosophy soundly entrenched in Hinduism.
6. Yoga – (Union with God). In New Age, yoga is seen as refining the body as a temple for god (as it should be). Others see it as an effective exercise (which it is physically). Can be combined with meditation and other practices.
7. Healing – whether it is Reiki, faith healing or laying of hands, the principle remains the same. The aura and/or subtle body is utilised to cure the physical or gross body. The concept of a subtle body is a very Hindu one. An aura is believed to be an energy field radiated by the body. Invisible to most people, it can be detected by some as a shimmering, multi-coloured field surrounding the body. Those skilled in detecting and interpreting auras can diagnose an individual's state of mind, and their spiritual and physical health. One can also use one’s Will to cure. Ayurveda, on the other hand, is very body-bound and holistic in its approach.
8. Astrology – is an integral part of Indian culture though not so integral in its religious and spiritual aspects.
9. Fasting and vegetarianism – while fasting is part of other religious creeds, vegetarianism is very much a Hindu and Buddhist practice. It emanates from the precept of not causing harm to any living thing through the creed of ahimsa (non-violence).
10. Karma - the good and bad deeds that we do adds and subtracts from our accumulated record, our karma. At the end of our life, we are rewarded or punished according to our karma by being reincarnated into either a painful or good new life. This belief is linked to that of reincarnation and is also derived from Hinduism.
Truly New Age Religion is not a religion at all, but a vast syncretism (or mixing) of numerous religious and philosophical ideas. Unlike most formal religions, it has no single holy text, central organisation, membership, formal clergy, geographic centre, dogma, creed, etc. Hinduism also does not rely on a single religious text, is all-enfolding and does away with dogmas and creeds, fixing on only what one can achieve through Karma, Bhakti or Jnana. Our ritual practices are based on one or more of these three aspects.
It is said that there as many ways to God as there are practitioners of Hinduism. In fact, there are enough gods to satisfy any practitioner of Hinduism. The only way ungodly is used in Hinduism is when someone goes against the moral law, the Sanatana Dharma.
This moral law has been the mainstay of Indian life for millennia and continues to be so even now for millions. Every aspect of life for the practitioner of Sanatana Dharma is permeated with this moral law – be it work, leisure, community/social work or interaction with others. And this despite our Bollywood/Hollywood culture or the western influence of our education supposedly taking over the culture of India.
When we take way the caste, jaat, varna and other cultural aspects of Hinduism, we will find a Hindu brother or sister in many a New Age practitioner.
Note:
Some other aspects of Hinduism also feature in New Age ‘doctrine’ including channeling and belief in the powers of crystals or other objects with specialised powers (jantras), mantra chanting (which can be either from Hinduism or Buddhism) and the concept of vibration as a healing, enervating or conscious-raising practice. The sounding of OM is a most effective use of this vibratory method.
New Age also gets its ideas from Buddhism, Confucism, Shintoism, the Celtic practices, Theosophy and the Druidic religion. Some Christians have also incorporated New Age practice as part of their worship. Fortune-telling through tarot cards, astrology and the I-Ching are some of the apparent practices of New Agers but not necessarily its mainstay. There are thousands of people who officially note their religion as Jedi Knights (from Star Wars) and are lumped together with New Age.
Channeling is a method similar to that used by Spiritists in which a spirit of a long dead individual is conjured up. Hmmm.
* Nalinesh Arun is a former Fiji journalist who lived in India for many years, and is now based in Christchurch