Religious Conversion Is Conscious Violence - Q & A with Nithyananda

TALKS FROM MORNING SATSANG ON JULY 17 2012 IN MADURAI, INDIA In today's morning satsang, Paramahamsa Nithyananda (Swamiji) answers a question regarding religious conversion. Paramahamsa declares that conversion is actually intentional, applied violence. When a person encounters a spiritual truth through direct experience, his inner space evolves and undergoes transformation. At that point he may choose to adopt the formal religion associated with the truth he has discovered and embrace it as a devotional practice. This is the only legitimate form of conversion. All other avenues -- outside pressure or bribery (feeding the poor in order to convert them) - are simply a veil for aggression. TRANSCRIPTIONS:- Today is, as per the solar calendar, new month in the Vedic tradition. So from today, the Indian villages, in Bengal, in UP, many of the Indian states, even in Madhya Pradesh, all the states which follow the solar calendar, all those states, this whole month they will drink Neem juice and cleaning the stomach. They will live on liquid diet and our Nirahar Samyama is matching with it. We have not planned. Automatically it has happened. All the states which follow the solar calendar - See Andhra and Karnataka follow Lunar calendar. Tamilnadu, Kerala, UP, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat -- all these states follow Solar calendar. So as per the Solar calendar, today is the new month beginning. In the whole 12 months, this one month they will be with the liquid diet. It is almost like a Ramzan. From this tradition only they started the Ramzan. One thing in Ramzan is they eat after sunset. Here they don't eat even after sunset. The whole month they live on liquid diet. Drinking Neem juice in the morning. They worship mother. The whole West Bengal, this is the only month they eat less sweet, because they don't eat. Indian villages these traditions were there. I don't know whether now in the cities it is not there . But still in the Indian villages these 5-6 states which follow the solar calendar they all do this observation. They go to the local deity of that village. So this is the offering given to the deities. Let's start the Satsang. Q: How does one stay faithful to his/her religion assuming they feel a deep connection and find truth in their religion, while currently maintaining a connection with the Guru. I will say the prayer in Hebrew before bed and then chant for the morning Pooja. Is there a contradiction here? Does the subtle sense of guilt only exist in the mind? A: Don't worry. There is no such thing as contradiction. Have everything. You will see automatically whatever needs to be dropped by itself. See, there should not be conversion. Conversion is a violence. I wanted to tell you all religious conversion is violence. Never ever anybody in my Sampradaya will practice religious conversion. No. No conversion! In transformation you never have pain. Suddenly you will see some of your old faiths and beliefs have completely left you due to your new discovery. Then it is not conversion. It is transformation. So after transformation, you may / may not choose legally to adopt that new religion you discovered. Please understand, it is a very subtle issue. This has to be handled with lot of sensitivity. Because I see so much of psychological violence, cultural invasion. As a Indian, born and brought-up in a village, I know the sufferings of religious conversion. Our poverty is being exploited. For the sake of bread and butter, people converting to different religion, I have seen. I have seen villages getting converted. I have seen the cultural invasion happening and the psychological violence being done. So I tell you as a sufferer, victim of religious conversion, with tremendous sensitivity and love and compassion for humanity, I make this as a law for Nithyananda Sampradaya and all my devotees and disciples -- "Thy shall not convert". We will only spread, radiate transformation. Understand I can tell you millions of stories, painful stories, where conversion is nothing to do with the religion. It is more to do with politics. It became a power-centric action not spiritual-centric action. I tell you a small example. I used to have a Shiva deity from the young age. May be from the age of 8~9 till 22. And after I realized my Avataric mission, I stopped doing morning Pooja. I used to worship with a small deity which I used to carry wherever I go. Now after I became the successor of Madurai Adheenam, I have to start my every day morning with the worship. So from the Madurai Adheenam I have been given a Shiva Linga , which is a hereditary, traditional. Even to shift from my old Shiva Linga to new Shiva Linga, it was such a big difficult.I tell you when you relate and live with a deity, that deity has become part of your inner space. So now if you see, I will keep both Shiva Lingas. I am not able to give-up that old one. For an incarnation after realizing incarnation-hood,