The Non-Traditional Approach to Religion

So in the very beginning when I go home and I would like to be a pilgrim, launching upon the pilgrimage to Truth and Reality, let me find out, exactly where I stand. This is necessary in the initial stage so that the fear of the unknown, the fear of infinity, the unknowableness of the immeasurableness of life does not block our path, obstruct our exploration or frustrate us in any way.

So the fearlessness, psychic fearlessness, intellectual fearlessness, emotional fearlessness is necessary, at the very first step of inquiry, not freedom at the end of the journey but freedom at the very first step of inquiry and exploration.

I wonder if you realize the penetrating nature of the non-authoratative approach to Reality or religion. It implies, does it not, that the last word about the nature of Reality, Divinity, Godhood has not been said.

It is a very daring thing to see the implications and to find out if one recognizes that truth and one stands by it. The last word in science has not been said. Theories about physics entertained in the first half of the nineteenth century were brushed aside in the second half. Theories of physics in the first half of the twentieth century have also been brushed aside. A scientist does not feel that he is violating the dignity of Einstein when he questions the validity of the theory of the atomic nature of time and reality, replacing those theories with new postulates. There is an approach of tentativeness in science, physics, chemistry, biology, psychology and so on. It seems to me necessary that we introduce that approach of tentativeness in the field of religion and spirituality, [and no longer] accept the theory, try to conform to it, repeat or follow it.

Manushyanam Sahastreshu Kashchit Yatati. One among thousands, very few among thousands, dare to love life. Most of us are afraid of life [as if] it is something to be afraid of, collect safeguards, find out methods, techniques, formulas about how to live, how to inquire.

—Vimala Thakar in Living a Truly Religious Life (Vimal Parivar, Mumbai, 1998)

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