All religions, all beliefs, play their part in this world.
They are all quite different in a sense, But they all play a role in the current global, political and moral crisis.
Whether Vedic, Egyptian, Zend, Chaldean, Jewish, Buddhist, Hinduist, Christian, Islamic, all religions have something essential in common: they all have some kind of responsibility for the misfortune of the world.
Whether they say they are « outside » the world, or « inside » the world, they are responsible for what they say or let say, for what they do or let do on their behalf.
They are part of the world, taking on the most eminent place, that of judge, master and sage.
How could they not be linked to the actions and speeches of their followers?
How can we not judge them as much on what they say as on what they don’t say?
How can we not bring their great witnesses to the public arena and ask their opinion on the state of the world, as we would on election night or on a day of disaster?
We don’t really know where the chain of prophets began or when it will end.
Is the seal of the word sealed for eternity? Who will tell?
Will the Messiah return? Who will see that day?
Will eschatology come to an end? Who will hear the final Word?
If ten thousand years is not enough to lower the pride of the presumptuous, let us give ourselves a hundred centuries or a million millennia, just to see what will remain of the dust of words once tables, once stones, once laws.
Lists of names can be listed, to stimulate memories. How far back do we go?
Agni, Osiris, Melchizedek, Zoroaster, Moses, Hermes, Buddha, Pythagoras, Isaiah, Jesus, Muhammad…
In a few million years, we will see that they all shared their differences, their aspirations, their visions, their breaths, their ends.
What does the « religion » of these prophets have to do with « entities » now called Palestine, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United States, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Egypt, India, Greece, China, France, Germany?
Will History teach us some day the essence of the difference between the « religion » of the Khârijites, the Zaydites, the Imâmites, the Ismaili Shi’ites and the Sunni ‘majority’ of Islam?
What was really the origin of the « religion » of the Nizarrians, and that of Hassan ibn al-Sabbah’s Assassiyoun?
What is the « religion » of the Taliban?
These questions are pointless, useless, apparently. There are better things to do, as it seems, such as fighting, killing people, bombing cities, beheading bodies, murdering children.
The religions of the past illuminate the wanderings of the present and those of the future with a special light, a premonitory aura.
Their slow epigenesis must be observed.
Their (implicit, slow) convergence must not be excluded, in the long run, beyond their differences.
Memory is necessary for understanding the present, as time takes its time.
But who still has time to remember?
Religions highlight, with words, curses and targeted blessings, much of the world’s misfortune.
They reveal the fragility, weakness, instability, irreducible fracture of Man.
They encourage us to take a long and global perspective, to observe the events of the day, to understand them, to anticipate their consequences, and to overcome pain, anxiety, fatigue and the desire for revenge, the drive for hatred.
For more than fifty-five centuries, several religions have been born and deployed in a limited geographical area, it is worth noting.
This privileged area, this node of beliefs and passions, extends from the Nile Valley to the Ganges basin, via the Tigris and Euphrates, the Oxus, and the Indus.
Geography changes more slowly than the hearts of mortals….
Between the Indus and the Oxus, which country best reflects today the past millennia, the erased glories?
Pakistan? Afghanistan?
How can we forget that Iran and Iraq (like Ireland) take their names from the ancient Aryas, attesting to the ancient Indo-European ties of Persia, Elam and Europe?
The Aryas, long before they even received their « Aryan » name, founded two major religions, the Veda in India, and the Zend Avesta in Iran.
Colossal forces! Immaculate memories!
Antoine Fabre d’Olivet reports that Diagoras de Melos (5th century BC), nicknamed « the atheist », a mocking and irreverent character, discredited the Mysteries by disclosing and ‘explaining’ them. He even went so far as to imitate them in public. He recited the Orphic Logos, he shamelessly revealed the Mysteries of Eleusis and those of the Cabires.
Who will dare to unveil today, like Diagoras, the actual mysteries of the world to the amazed crowds?
« Religion » is a prism, a magnifying glass, a telescope and a microscope at the same time.
« Religion » is above all an anthropological phenomenon.
Dogma bring nothing to this debate, or rather ignite it without benefit to the heart or the mind.
A global anthropology of « religion » could possibly reveal some constants of the human mind.
These constants do exist. Thus, the latent, impalpable or fleeting feeling of « mystery ».
This « mystery » is not defined. It escapes any categorization. But implicitly, indirectly, by multiplying approaches, by varying angles, by accumulating references, by evoking the memory of peoples, their sacredness, perhaps we sometimes manage to see the shadow of its trace, its attenuated effluvium.
There is also the idea of a unique, principal, creative divinity. It is found in various forms, in ancient times, long before Abraham’s time, before the Zend, even before the Veda.
Constant again is the question of origin and death, the question of knowledge of what we cannot know.
What breath then goes through the pages of the Book of the Dead, the manuscripts of Nag Hammadi, the hymns of Ṛg Véda or the Gāthās of Zend Avesta? What breath, even today, runs through the world, in a time so different from the origins?
This breath, it is still possible to perceive it, to breathe its smell.
A world of ideas and beliefs, distant, astonishing, serves as a foundation for today’s world, filled with violence and lies, populated by « saints » and murderers, wise men and prophets, fools and crooks, death cries and « divine winds » (kami-kaze).
Who, today, thinks the world’s destiny?
When reading the Upaniṣad, let us also think of the « masters of the world », the « gnomes » enslaved to the banks, the political « dwarves » governing the peoples, perched on the shoulders of centuries?
« Those who are agitated in ignorance consider themselves wise. They run wildly around like blind people, led by a blind man. »i
It is a fact that we often observe, at the highest level, hypocrisy, lies, baseness, cowardice, and much more rarely wisdom, courage, truth.
But it is also a fact that anything can happen, always., at any time.
Anything is possible, on principle. The worst. The best. The mediocre. The unspeakable. The unheard of.
The world is saturated with ideas from all ages. Sometimes, from nowhere, new forms are born, shimmering above the rubble and catacombs, relics and hypogoria, crypts and hidden treasures.
Who will see these incredible visions, yet to appear?
Those who will be able to « meditate on what is difficult to perceive, penetrate the secret that is deposited in the hidden place, that resides in the ancient abyss ».
Those who « leave aside the joy and sorrow. »ii
i KU. 2.5
iiKU. 2.12
Metaxu. Le blog de Philippe Quéau 