Orthodoxy and Heresy

No one form of religion will do for all. Each is a pearl on a string. We must be particular above all else to find individuality in each. No man is born to any religion; he has a religion in his own soul. Any system which seeks to destroy individuality is in the long run disastrous. Each life has a current running through it, and this current will eventually take it to God. The end and aim of all religions is to realise God. The greatest of all training is to worship God alone. If each man chose his own ideal and stuck to it, all religious controversy would vanish.

-- Swami Vivekananda

Vivekananda is not simply arguing that each person should be its own religion. Vivekananda himself remained a Vedantan, while at the same time creatively constructing his own vision of what Vedanta means, drawing deep inspiration from his Guru, Ramakrishna. More orthodox Hindus criticized Vivekananda, and understandably so, but one might argue that orthodox Hinduism's very survival was strengthened as a result of the work of Vivekananda and Ramakrishna. Creating one's own spiritual path, choosing one's ideal, I would suggest, can be done, and is best done, within a framework that includes orthodox. It's the mutation that allows for evolution to occur, for the species' survival. The mutation occurs in the context of stability, and stability occurs in the context of mutation.

Every statement of orthodoxy contains implicit within it, the existence of heresy as its pre-condition and reason for being. The complementarianism of opposites is the source of life. Adam and Eve. Yin and Yang. Yahweh and Shekhinah. Linga and Yoni.

The orthodox need the heretic. And the heretic would do well to recognize its need for the orthodox.