Scientology versus Hinduism?

The Cruise-Holmes Scientology wedding last week has fascinating resonances with ancient Hinduism .

The Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes wedding last Saturday begs a look at the very curious similarities between Cruise’s ‘religion’, Scientology and the arguably the oldest living faith on earth, Hinduism (Zoroastrianism and Judaism are the other contenders).

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Consider the basic tenets of Scientology and judge for yourself if they do not seem directly inspired by Sanatana Dharma for its founder, American author L. Ron Hubbard. He developed it as a body of teachings and related techniques from 1952, as an offshoot of his earlier self-help philosophy, ‘Dianetics’.

Some basic tenets of Scientology:

- A person is an immortal spiritual being called a thetan who possesses a mind and a body.

- The thetan (atma?) has lived through many past lives and will continue to live beyond the death of the body.

- Through the Scientology process of ‘auditing’ (tapasya/shraddha/dhyana?), a thetan can free itself of ‘engrams’ and ‘implants’ (karma?) to reach the state of Clear (moksha?) and become an Operating Thetan (jnani/jivan mukta — realised being?). Each state is said to represent recovering the inborn spiritual abilities of the individual, and achieving high-level mental and physical benefits.

Eerily familiar, so far? Further refinements that also sound Indian, by Hubbard:

- A person is basically good, but becomes ‘aberrated’ by moments of pain and unconsciousness in his or her life.

- What is true for you is what you have observed yourself. No beliefs should be forced as ‘true’ on anyone.

An extra, original point from Hubbard:

- Psychiatry and psychology are evil and abusive practices.

Scientology also refers to the rather controversial Church of Scientology, the largest organisation promoting Hubbard’s belief system. It is described as part of a network of affiliated corporations that claim ownership and sole authority to disseminate Dianetics and Scientology.

The goal of Scientology is to ‘rehabilitate’ the thetan to its original state of ‘total freedom’ through its practices, called Technology or Tech. Believers like Tom Cruise swear by it. But American journalists, law-makers and the governments of several countries have reportedly alleged that the ‘church’ is a commercial venture that exploits its members (a believer apparently has to hand over his worldly wealth to the church, for instance).

While the United Nations and several scholars accept Scientology as a bonafide religion, others call it a ‘pseudo-religion’ and a ‘trans-national corporation’.

To return to the resonances with Hinduism, there are eight kinds of marriage in Sanatana Dharma including elopement and forcible abduction of the bride, though Kanyadaan is the generally preferred option. The Scientology marriage ceremony has five options.

Cruise and Holmes reportedly opted for the Double Ring service. This has a ‘Triangle ritual’ where the wedding rings are held up to the guests, who are asked to imagine that inside each ring is the ‘ARC Triangle’. This stands for Hubbard’s formula, ‘affinity, reality and communication.’ The couple is asked never to go to sleep on a ‘broken triangle’ of disagreement or quarrel, but to reconcile their differences before closing their eyes, like in the Christian saying, “Never let the sun go down on your anger.”

In a Scientology wedding, the rings are lauded as symbols of permanency. They serve as a reminder to the bride and groom to not expect their relationship to run on automatic but to actively keep creating the love and understanding they have for one another if they want to succeed as a couple.

One part of the service refers to providing everything for a bride: “Girls need clothes and food and tender happiness and frills, a pan, a comb, perhaps a cat.” This is meant to instruct the groom in being a good nurturer of a woman’s emotional as well as material needs.

Meanwhile, in the Saptapadi or Saat Phere of a Hindu marriage ceremony, the following vows are exchanged between the bride and groom with the purifying fire as witness:

- With the first phera, the couple invokes God to always give them pure, nourishing food and a life of respect and noble deeds.

- With the second phera the couple prays for physical and mental strength and a healthy, peaceful life.

- The third phera is for the fulfilment of spiritual obligations. God is invoked to give the couple spiritual strength.

- The fourth phera is for happiness and harmony through mutual love and trust and a long, good life together.

-The fifth phera is to pray for the welfare of all living entities in the entire universe and for begetting noble children.

- The sixth phera is for bountiful seasons all over the world. The couple prays for this and asks that they may go through these seasons together in both joy and sorrow.

- With the last phera they pray for a life of understanding, loyalty, unity and companionship for themselves and especially for peace in the universe.

Having exchanged these vows of love, duty, respect and fidelity, the couple agrees to be companions for the rest of their lives. The process of saat phere goes beyond coupledom in praying for the well-being of the whole world, for the Hindu religion in theory believes that all souls (jivatma) emanate from the Great Soul (Paramatma).

At the end of the day, whether Hubbard was inspired by Hindu concepts or not, couples in the world’s most ancient belief system and in its newest one seem to want the same things.