The Death of Religion and the Birth of Agamism
Dr K.Loganathan, 2005
This post was inspired by the call for papers for a conference on the end of religion :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bcn_2004/message/718
It is observed here:
<social scientists and intellectuals in the West have been promising
the end of religion for some three centuries. In 1822 Thomas
Jefferson echoed what had by then become a truism, when he claimed
that "there is not a young man now living in the United States who
will not die a Unitarian." The fact that Unitarianism actually
declined in the 19th century while more traditional and conservative
religions flourished did nothing to alter the perception among
intellectual elites that secularization was the dominant
characteristic of modernity, an unstoppable force that would
ultimately prevail.>
I don’t think that the West can ever end religion given its dominant physicalism and positivism. These attitudes remain BLIND towards the religious phenomena and hence can remain only forces that decry it impotent to recast the religious impulses in the direction of a more inclusive science. Religion as we know is a misadventure, a distortion of what can be called AGAMISM and which is not religion in the ordinary sense but something deeply metaphysical and DEEPER than religion. Only when the real metaphysical depths are disclosed and articulated, can there be an end to religion as we know it today
Here I use the word “Agamism’ ( for lack of a better term) to capture the metaphysical way of life of the Nubian-Kemetian-Sumerian-Dravidian cultural complex where it was represented physically as the Pyramid of the Nubians and Kemetians, the Ziggurat of the Sumerians and Akkadians and the Temple Gopurams of the Dravidians. The metaphysical life was a CLIMB of UNDERSTANDING where one ascends step by step and reaches the peak, the Njaanam that brings about a closure to this climb and the soul is then delivered or led to enjoy Moksa – a state of being free from the cycle of births and deaths.
This view goes along with the notion of Disclosive Evolution, the evolution of creatures as resulting because of BEING disclosing Himself more and more remaining Himself ABOVE all so that He remains the SAME and unaffected by the historical and phenomenal.
1. What is Religion?
The way the word ‘religion’ is used I believe the following are the essential characteristics.
a. There is a Supreme AUTHORITY in the form of a scripture like the Bible for Christians, Al Koran for the Muslims and Vedas for Brahmanists. When it comes to metaphysical matters, it is presupposed that these scriptures contain all the relevant information and therefore what is necessary is NOT free thinking and metaphysical explorations but rather the exegetics of these scriptures and their proper understanding.
b. This also leads to seeking converts by whatever means so that the souls are saved. Thus we have as the communicative strategies, propaganda and proselytism where Free Thinking is not promoted and the individuals are brainwashed into an unthinking acceptance of the authority. The mind is opened up only to fill it up the Bible and so forth and then closed forever (as one missionary would put it). Here there is a difference between Brahmanists and other religionists. While the Christians and Muslims allow free access to their scripture for all the converts, this is NOT done by the Brahmanists. What they want is the unquestioning acceptance of the authority of Vedas even without hearing a word of it and along with it, the authority of Brahmans who uphold the tradition of the Vedas. The people are led to believe that the Vedic doctrines as expounded by the Brahmanahs is the only way for salvation which consists in enjoying Brahmanjaanam and which is contained only in the Vedas and nothing else.
c. Now I must also include that this picture I am drawing may be too one-sided though not false. For within each of these religions there are also other developments that are more germane to Agamism. We can site the Mystic Christianity of St Nicholas of Loyola, St. Theresa and so forth and the Sufi traditions of the Muslims. Even within Vedism we have the mystical or philosophic tradition of the Upanishads where free inquiry was the norm and a Brahmin was understood simply as one who seeks truth.
d. This leads to an INTOLERANCE of the other religions for without this intolerance and hatred, converting others into one’s own religion is impossible. A person must not be allowed to practice his own native religion, he must drawn out of it by whatever means into one’s own flock so that he is saved
2. Agamism and Camayatiitam
Now one of the most important concepts to arise among the Dravidian folks is that of Camayaatittam- though implicit for millenniums but came to be articulated as such only in the 18th cent AD by the famous (among the Tamils) Tayumaanavar. This concept set the tone for the most spiritual outpourings of VaLLalaar in the 19th cent AD. It can be translated as ‘Transcending all religions” and where you see all the religions not to be avoided and ridiculed but rather to be understood and transcended. This notion contains the following metaphysical understanding.
a. The genuine spiritual life is an a travel , a pilgrimage, a Haj where the soul MOVES in the metaphysical realms where it encounters the gods and with their assistance move further up and up and towards BEING on reaching whom the climb ceases and comes to a natural close. The climb is evolutionary both at the biological level and the hermeneutic level. Having become human through biological evolutions, then one can evolve into higher kinds of human beings through the hermeneutic evolution of UNDERSTANDING the limit of which Njaanam, the Supreme Illumination that lights up all so that there is Absolute Understanding and with apodictic certainty.
b. Now this brings us to TRUTH as that which ought to be sought and hence hermeneutic scientific bent of mind. The mind must NOT be imprisoned but must be allowed to LEARN every bit of truth from whatever corner, tradition, religion, cult, metaphysical systems, ideologies and so forth. Even learning about an ideology (cult. Religion etc) and then seeing how it is inconstant with TRUTH, is a very useful kind learning for it tells us what not a truth. Thus we have an inherent OPENNESS of the mind and which we see in the Temple Hymns of the Sumerian En Hudu Anna (c. 2300 BC) where she sings the glories of ALL gods and where in each hymn she also brings out the TRUTH pertaining to that deity. The mind was not closed at all to a particular deity.
c. The MOVEMENT of Mind is most important in Agamism for without this movement, the climb will not be possible and hence also reaching the Peak, the Kailash. Now since this movement is guided by TRUTH and where no authorities are accepted, the mind must be destructive-productive – it must self-destroy what it is and regenerate itself from within itself into a new self. So what is emphasized and called for is SELF-CONVERSION so that one takes responsibility for what one is and freely interrogates whatever is presented to him by others. Such an attitude to existence will NOT allow the mind to be frozen into a tradition or cult or religion but will battle fiercely to remain OPEN for self-renewal that would keep the metaphysical movement alive.
It appears to me that the world including the West is moving in this direction and hence my believe that with death of religion we will have the birth of Agamism