Christianity Explained by Rajiv Malhotra

Christianity Explained by Rajiv Malhotra

Lakshmi Narayan Mandir
25th May, 2012

Embodied Knowing versus History-centrism
Dharma and Judeo-Christian traditions differ fundamentally in their approaches to knowing
the divine. The dharma family (including Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism) has
developed an extensive range of inner sciences and experiential technologies called
‘adhyatmavidya’ to access divinity and higher states of consciousness. Adhyatmavidya is a body of
wisdom and techniques culled from centuries of first-person empirical inquiry into the nature of
consciousness and undertaken by advanced practitioners. These accounts and the individuals who
have embarked on these quests are highly regarded, but they are not reified into canons, messiahs
or absolute statements of an exclusive nature. They are neither a code of laws nor a history of past
revelations but guides for replicating and retransmitting the experience and its transformational
powers. Their truth must be rediscovered and directly experienced by each person. I have coined
the term embodied knowing to refer to inner sciences and adhyatma-vidya.

I looked at the various examples of religious tension that were listed in the paper and
wondered whether it was perhaps too simplistic to identify the ‘victims’ and the ‘culprits’ as they
had done. I noticed that Islam was listed as a victim in one country but not as an aggressor in
others. The same was true of Christianity: its representatives had lodged complaints against other
religious groups in places such as East Timor, but there was silence concerning Christianity’s own
aggressive campaigns elsewhere. Later I realized that such asymmetrical representations are not
uncommon in the academy, so I proposed to Prof. Law that we do some pre-conference
preparation and research the deep-rooted causes of religious violence. My feeling was that all
religious ideologies, without exception, should be open to serious investigation.

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