assignement 2 four pages needed second draft

Religion: a means of integral liberation (moksha) through dharma sadhanas.
For Rev Fr Cyriac Kanichari CMI
by Desmond M Coutinho
I am sorely tempted by the aphorism of Rev Dr Ian Paisley former First Minister of Ulster on whether he would consider power sharing with Sinn Fein/ IRA, Never Never Never was his battlecry but in the course of time he became the First Minister sharing power with them in the Northern Irish Assembly. This is clearly a trick question. The course distinguished between the artful particulars of Faith and the general call of Religion. Since the dharma sadhanas are the fons et culmen of the Sanatana Dharma known today as Hindutva to which some unkindly add Fascism then it clearly cannot be a means of integral liberation unless the Lecturer is referring to the occasional attempts at genocide by this movement. However just as Sinn Fein IRA could reform and work in a modern democratic world with its adversaries so can we the people of God work with those who would rape and murder us.
The example of Nicholas of Cusa is relevant. He began his legal career as a member of the Conciliar Party at the Council of Basel. The Conciliar movement was democratic, God working from within rather than from on High, Cusa defended it because he wanted a more just world. He believed in Religion that derived from God's call in the human heart applied equally to all although interpreted better by the more intelligent. But in order to preserve this vision Cusa switched sides and supported the minority party with the Pope. A counter-intuitive result occurred then just as the freedom for the lecturer to think and break free from Western Thinking models was provided by his sound basis in Western Thinking.
The Dharma Sadhanas are primarily techniques for individual liberation via a guru-Brahmachari mediation. Indeed it was Western Orientalism that provided India with a sense of History. History belongs to a people and Indians are only now becoming a people once more. Aside from one noted Tamil Historian of the twelfth century India has produced only purana and Itihasa. As a first requirement for genuine Religious as opposed to personal spiritual Liberation there needs must be a sense of History. Judaism offers this in the story of the Exodus, which Christianity took as transformed in the Paschal Mystery and prefigured in the sacrifice of Abel. The second requirement is Liturgy, a prayer of a community as opposed to personal mystagogical practices.
Given these stumbling blocks it is possible to see some basic principles common to all true Religion in the techniques of Dharma Sadhanas. The Children of the Covenant from East Syriac Tradition do emulate many of the techniques of the Brahmachari except their place within the community is far more obvious. Neither do the Bane Qyame derive from a caste. The Ihidaya are closer to the elitist model of Hindutva and the Modern Christian Church but these can be treated as part of the invincible illusion of Inviduality.
Before dismissing completely the insights of Western Philosophy as colonial predators who merely wish to steal the exotic wisdom of the Other in the East by redressing them in Latin and with no regard for the particular regional truth, there is a problem with the first principle of Individuation as defined by Aquinas. For if as Scotus suggests Matter is prime before form or any other accident then the fundamental differentiator between individuals is quantitative. Scotus invents the term Thisness, Haecitas to provide a mystical differentiator.
This seems to be more fruitful to intellect. Inviduation is the key to understanding Maya. Individuation is the key to Modernism. Both Hindutva and those of any true Religion are opposed to the evils caused by the invincible illusion of separating individuality. The true foundation of liberation lies not in the particularities of Faith but in how examining these particularities can reveal a way out from Individuality to Personhood.