24 Dec 2005
This address was given to a gathering of Hindus and Christians] You are the cream of Christianity and Hinduism. In course of time the devotees of other religions will also join you and make this group a complete representative of Universal Spirituality. I wish that all of you retain the identification of your individual religions. Let this group be a chain of gems of different colours. Let not the other gems be coloured by white paint so that the whole chain can become a garland of only white gems. Let the pearls remain in the garland, which are white in colour. Let them not insist that the other gems also be coloured by white paint. A chain with different coloured gems looks more beautiful than a chain of mere pearls. The thread running through all these gems is Universal Spirituality. Religion is a gem with a particular colour. Spirituality is the thread that is holding all the different gems in the garland.
Christians are the followers of Christ. Buddhists are followers of Buddha. Jains are followers of Mahaveer Jain. Hindus are the followers of various forms of God. Muslims were the followers of all the prophets up to Mohammad. Thus, the word ‘Muslims’ is general just like the word Hindus. You cannot say that only the followers of Krishna are Hindus. Followers of Shiva are also Hindus. Later on the word Muslims was used specifically for the followers of Mohammad. Before the arrival of Christ and Mohammad all the non-Hindus were called as Muslims. In Sanskrit the word Muslims is represented by the word ‘Mlechcha’ which means all non-Hindus. Thus, in ancient times there were only two religions. One was Hinduism in India and the other was Mlechcha or Muslim out of India. Sage Vyasa wrote a scripture called the ‘Bhavishyat Purana’ which mentions about the arrival of Christ to India after His crucifixion and His conversation with King Salivahana. Therefore, this point has the validity from scripture. The historical proof exists for the burial tomb of the Christ in Kashmir (India) even today. We cannot help if some conservative people like the well-frogs, deny this [a frog in a well thinks that his own well alone is the mighty ocean].
The word Brahman means the greatest. Any item, which is the greatest in a category, can be called as Brahman. An officer in a department is Brahman. The president of the country is Brahman. The officer is the greatest among the staff of the department. The president is greatest among all the citizens of the country. The word greatest or Brahman is common to both the officer and president. This does not mean that the officer and president are equal. You have to take the sense of the same word according to the context. Similarly the soul is greatest among all the items of creation. The soul can be called as Brahman. But God is greater than the soul. Therefore, God is the greatest among all the items whereas the soul is the greatest among the items of creation. Both God and soul can be called as Brahman. This does not mean that God is the soul. Similarly, a non-Hindu is called as a Muslim. The follower of Mohammad can be also called as Muslim. This does not mean that all the non-Hindus are followers of Mohammad.
When the body of Jesus was pierced by a spear, blood came out. This means that life was retained by the body of Jesus even after the crucifixion. This shows the yogic power of Lord Jesus. Jesus was in the Himalayas from 16th to 30th year of age. He did severe penance and was in the association of great sages in the caves of Himalayas. He attained all the yogic powers. He used the yogic power and retained His life. This is only the praise of Jesus and should not be misunderstood as a false crucifixion.
The word Brahman refers to Parabrahman or God pervading all the pure awareness. A very little part of the pure awareness in which God has not entered is like the mud used to prepare the pot. The rest of pure awareness pervaded by God is like the pot-maker. The pot is this universe. The Veda says that the pure awareness used for the creation is just like a ray of the sun (Padosya Visvaa Bhutaani). Sage Vidyaranya in his famous philosophical book called ‘Vedanta Panchadasi’ also mentions this same point. The part of the mind or the nervous energy, which is used for the conversion into a dream, is very very little. This spectator-part of the mental energy is huge compared to the mental energy that is converted into the dream. Due to the vast quantative difference between the spectator energy and the modified energy, the modification is almost nil compared to spectator. Thus, the spectator is real and the modification is almost unreal. This is the concept of Shankara of the unreality of the world. The word ‘Mithya’, used by Shankara does not mean completely unreal. It means almost unreal. A dream is almost unreal compared to the dreamer. A daydreamer will control the dream like God controlling the universe. A night-dreamer is controlled by the dream like the soul which is controlled by creation. This difference is made clear through these two examples.
If you see the difference between God and the soul, the word God indicates the Parabrahman or God associated with pure awareness. The word soul means only the pure awareness without Parabrahman. The quantity of pure awareness that is associated with Parabrahman is like the ocean. The quantity of pure awareness which is the soul is like a tiny water drop. The ocean is Mula Prakriti. The soul is the drop of the ocean. Even without the reference to God, there is a lot of quantitative difference between the Mula Prakriti (Ocean) and the soul (drop). Both these are qualitatively same. But once the Mula Prakriti is pervaded by Parabrahman, there will be a qualitative difference also. The ocean and the drop are quantitatively different but are qualitatively similar. Suppose the ocean is illuminated by a lot of energy and the drop is not at all illuminated. Now, the illuminated ocean is different quantitatively as well as qualitatively from the non-illuminated drop. There is no difference between Brahman and Ishwara. Brahman is the non-spectator. Ishwara is the spectator. When you sit in the house peacefully you are like Brahman. Suppose you are watching a movie on TV, you are like Ishwara. Brahman and Ishwara are essentially one and the same. The work of watching the creation is the only differential point, which is not an essential difference. Therefore, Ishwara and Jeeva (soul) are qualitatively and quantitatively different. This is the theory of Ramanuja and Madhva. If you take the water item alone [not considering the illumination aspect, given in the above example], the ocean and drop are qualitatively one and the same. This is the monism of Shankara. The dualism of Ramanuja and Madhva arises only when the illuminating energy of the ocean and the quantity of water in the ocean are both considered.
The human incarnation is the illuminated drop of water [other souls are non-illuminated drops of water]. The energy that illuminates the ocean as well as the drop is beyond the spatial dimensions. Therefore, from the point of the energy, the quantitative difference between the ocean and the drop disappears. This means that the God present in the universe and the God present in the human incarnation are one and the same; both qualitatively and quantitatively. Due to the unimaginable power of this energy, even the quantative difference in terms of water between ocean and drop also disappears. Thus the Cosmic Ishwara and Lord Krishna are one and the same qualitatively and quantitatively in terms of God as well as in terms of the pure awareness. Therefore, the entire cosmos is present in the small body of Krishna. In every aspect the cosmic Ishwara and the human incarnation are exactly one and the same.
Common Philosophical Framework
I repeatedly say that Hinduism and Christianity have the same basic structure of spiritual knowledge. When God comes down as the human incarnation, He is viewed in three ways:
Monism
Some people view the human incarnation as God in-toto. When the electricity enters the wire it pervades all over the wire. Wherever you touch the wire you will experience the electricity. The Veda says “Antar Bahischa Tat Sarvam…”, which means that God pervaded all over the human body and is present inside as well as outside the human body of the human incarnation. This view is called as monism (Advaita) of Shankara. This exactly coincides with the statement of Jesus “I and My Father are one and the same”. The human incarnation is convenient for the sake of human beings. The vision, touch, conversation and co-living are quite possible with the human incarnation. The human body is exactly the similar medium in which the soul of a human being also exists. For any transaction or interaction, a common medium is the best. Trying to see God in the medium of an energetic form is totally unnecessary and is wastage of time and effort. A lot of severe penance has to be done for getting such a divine vision. All you are doing is seeing the same God in another medium called as energy. Is it not wastage of time and effort to try to see a person in a silk shirt, when the same person is appearing before you in a cotton shirt? The person is important and not the shirt. It is like catching a small rat after digging a big hill.
Some people try to imagine God embedded in the pure awareness, which is the finest form of energy. Such form of energy is very very subtle and can be perceived only by imagination. The pure awareness is like the costliest shirt; but it is still only a shirt. Therefore, the time and effort you have concentrated on the meditation to perceive God in this costliest shirt through your mind is the climax of wastage of your time and effort. The penance to see the energetic form and the meditation to imagine God in pure awareness are both unnecessary efforts because you can see the same God in the human body of the human incarnation. Moreover, the human body is very very clear for vision [everyone can see it without difficulty]. The energetic form cannot be seen by the naked eyes. Only by a special energy granted by the Lord, can the eyes see this energetic form. The pure awareness can only be imagined by the internal eye, which is the mind. Moreover, touch is not possible in the case of the forms of energy or awareness. Conversation with the form of pure awareness is very much subtle and unclear. The conversation with the energetic form can take place but that is also limited to just a few seconds. The energetic form is highly unstable and is subject to diffusion. The entropy of the energetic form is very low and the spontaneity is towards the increase in entropy. Therefore, a long conversation is not possible with energetic forms. The energetic form appears for a few seconds, grants the boons for the penance of the devotee and disappears immediately by the process of diffusion. Such energetic form is not at all convenient for co-living [living with God]. If you see a human incarnation like Lord Krishna, the devotees could see the Lord for a long time. They could embrace Him for a long time. They could talk with Him for any length of time till their doubts were cleared. They could even hear the sweet songs from the mouth of the Lord. They lived with the Lord closely for years together. Such fortune is unimaginable and thus the human form of God is the best. Only very very few fortunate devotees can recognize God in human form and receive all the benefits fully. Some devotees doubt the Lord in human form due to over logic and loose the golden chance. Therefore, a human being can approach God completely only through the human form. This is stated by Jesus “One can reach My Father only through Me”. Thus very fortunate devotees believe the monism of the wire and the electricity and get the complete benefit.
Qualified monism
The second view is to see God and the human body as separate items. The monism [in accepting the human incarnation as identical with God] gets diluted in this view. This is advantageous since the natural ego and jealousy of humans do not allow the human being to accept a particular human being as God. For acceptance of God in human form, complete eradication of ego and jealousy is needed which is highly impossible. [Therefore it is easier to accept that] God is present in the heart of the human incarnation. The Lord is wrapped by the human body like a chocolate is wrapped by the outer wrapper. The inner Lord is the main component and the external human body is only a minor component. The human body is recognized as part and parcel of the Lord but it is of least importance. One cannot experience the Lord just by seeing or touching the covering sheath. The main component is called as ‘Seshi’ and the minor component is called as ‘Sesha’. This is the philosophy of Ramanuja. Jesus also gave this concept. Jesus said that God is His Father and that He is the beloved Son of the Lord. The Son is always together with the Father and is not an outsider. The blood of the Father and the Son is one and the same. Thus both are essentially one and the same but God has major importance and the son has minor importance. Whenever Jesus said that He is the Son of God this philosophy appears, which is called as ‘Vishishta Advaita’ or a special type of monism. The Father and His son are physically separate but both are one and the same in essence. The Father is like the ocean and the Son is like a wave. The human beings cannot worship God. For their convenience, a small part of God came down to give the divine experience.
Dualism
The third view is ‘Dvaita’ or Dualism. This view is given when the ego and jealousy of human beings is at the climax. They cannot accept any human being greater than themselves in any way. God is the Master and the human incarnation is accepted only as His dear servant. The servant is an outsider and has no blood relationship with the Father. God sends His messenger to pass on His message to the earth. Every human being is a servant of God and thus all human beings are spiritually equal. God chooses a particular servant as a messenger on the earth. This choosing of the messenger is only a chance. This philosophy was preached by Madhva. According to it, God never enters any human body and will not come down to earth. Only a little of His power and His grace enter the messenger. Whenever Jesus claimed Himself as the messenger from God, this dualistic philosophy is seen. Islam believes this concept. Mohammed is only a messenger from God. They do not accept the concept of the human incarnation. But they respect the messenger and worship Him as the representative of God. Thus this type of worship started the representative worship.
Representative Worship Ended Atheism
A representative of God can be any object in the world. Not only the human body but any non-living inert object can also stand as the representative of God. Based on this idea, Persians started worshipping fire as God. Some devotees feel that God is the all-pervading cosmic energy, which is also inert. Some meditate upon God as the all-pervading pure awareness, which is only another special form of energy. Life or awareness is a special form of nervous energy. Some have started worshipping every human being or even every living being as God. Some have expanded the concept to every living and non-living object and thus treated the entire cosmos as God. Scientists believe that the ultimate is only this world. Thus this concept of representative worship finally ended with atheism.
The dualist philosophy has good sides too. Since it denies the human incarnation, false human incarnations are prevented. Otherwise several preachers have started cheating the public by exploiting this concept. In this way, the dualistic philosophy is no doubt good.
Common trunk
Thus, Christianity and Hinduism have the same structure of philosophy and can be treated as the two branches of the same tree. Only the language, culture, food habits etc., differ in these two religions. But the internal spiritual essence is one and the same. Only these two religions accept the concept of human incarnation and treat the human form as God. I do not understand why there is a quarrel between Hindus and Christians when such a wonderful homogeneity exists. History also showed the mutual love and respect in these two religions as you can see the honour of Jesus in India and the honour of Hindu saints like Swami Vivekananda in Christian countries. No other two religions have such fusion as Christianity and Hinduism. When such homogenous religions quarrel with each other, how can you stop the quarrels between heterogeneous religions. Never was a church attacked in India and never was a Hindu temple attacked in America. Christianity is spreading in India very easily. Similarly, Hinduism is also spreading very fast in Christian countries. Therefore, I wish the fusion of these two religions in the beginning to stand as an example for other religions also to fuse with each other. This will be the first step for Universal Spirituality.
Practical Spiritual Effort
The spiritual message of Jesus and Krishna are always one and the same in every aspect. Jesus always preached about detachment from the blind worldly bonds like bonds with family members. He stated that unless one is prepared to leave parents children, money and even life for His sake, one couldn’t be His dearest disciple. He always preached about eradication of ego. Whenever a supernatural act was done by Him, He always claimed that it was due to His Father whose glory was to be propagated. He never claimed doership of any supernatural act. He always preached that His Father alone grants the boons and all the facilities on this earth. Krishna also preached the same concepts in the Gita about detachment (Nirmamah…), removal of ego (Yadahamkaramasritya…) and sanction of boons by God only (Mayaiva Vihitan…). These three aspects are very important steps to achieve the grace of the Lord.
Sublimate love
You love your family members and such love gives you some pleasure in your heart. Therefore, your love is only for your self-satisfaction and such love is only selfishness. You are overpowered by the emotions of love but you are not analysing by controlling your emotions. If you analyse, you can clearly understand that your love cannot protect either yourself or your family members. Your love is only some loss of your precious nervous energy and valuable time. Except this loss there is no use. By emotion you are becoming weak and losing energy. Why are you doing such a foolish thing again and again? There is no benefit out of such act and there is only a clear loss. But if you divert your love towards God, He will protect and make you as well as your family members, prosper in this world as well as in the upper world. By spending the same quantum of nervous energy towards God, you get all unimaginable benefits forever! How wise is this act! By protecting yourself and your family members, you are proving your love towards yourself and your family members. This is the true love. The former is only false love, which involves wastage of energy just out of selfishness. Thus, wise scholars overcome emotions and analyse any point with calm and energetic brain.
The Gita tells us to always apply the brain; to analyse and find out the truth before any action (Buddhou Saranam…). Most people do not understand this truth. This is especially clear in the case of parents who blindly love their children with the climax of the emotion, spending their maximum precious nervous energy. The energy is simply wasted without any use for themselves or for their children. I find sometimes, some parents or elders talking with newborn babies! They talk so many sentences and they know very well that the baby cannot understand even a single word! They waste their nervous and oral energy for such a long time and they feel very great about such a foolish act! Therefore, try to understand My point without any excitement and try to implement My advice. You can experiment with My advice just for a month and then see the tremendous change in your circumstances.
Eradicate the ego
The next item is the eradication of ego. Whenever you are doing some appreciable act, immediately you disown yourself from such act. You surrender all the credit to the Lord even before somebody praises about you for it. If somebody praises you for such act, you pass on the ownership to the Lord at once. Otherwise, the wine of ego will enter your brain and you will be intoxicated with the ego. You will be transformed in to a demon shortly. Some people disown the praise externally but accept the praise in their minds. This is just like actually drinking the wine while negating it orally. In such case also the intoxication of ego is inevitable.
You are thinking that you are the owner or the master of your family. You feel you are the king or the ruler and you think that your family is your kingdom. This is the climax of foolishness and ignorance. You cannot even rule the organs of your body like the heart, kidneys, lungs etc. Even your body is under the control of the Lord alone. How can you control other human beings? Therefore, quit your post of the head of your family. From now onwards you recognise that the Lord is the head of your family. From this moment onwards you feel that you are just a member of your family like any other family member. You belong to the category of ‘ruled’ and you are not at all the ruler. Now your family and your body are under the control of the divine master. If anything happens to your body or to your family, do not get disturbed because rectification is the responsibility of the Lord who is the owner of your body and the family. Only the owner has to worry about any disturbance. You are not responsible for either the disturbance or its rectification. Let any problem arise, you be calm and peaceful. Even if you are disturbed and feel responsible, you cannot do anything in any case.
Suppose you respond to the problem and try to rectify it, even then, you should feel that you are acting as an instrument or a servant of God to do that work. You must feel that you are assigned to solve that problem by the order of the Lord. When the problem is solved you must pass on the entire credit only to the Lord. As I told you, you can experiment with My advice for a month and see the excellent works of the Lord.
Recognize God as the Supreme Controller
You must always feel that the final granting authority is only the Lord. There is no one or no force other than the Lord, who is capable of accomplishing anything. Everybody and everything acts according to His wish. The Lord is not seen by you. Therefore, you think that somebody is kind enough to help you. Actually the person, who helped you, is forced by the Lord to help you. That person is just carrying out the order of the Lord. Even if you scold him, he will not stop helping you. Even if you praise him, he will not help you if there is no sanction from the Lord. A messenger is bringing a signed cheque from the Lord. The Lord is in the house and you are not seeing Him. You only see the messenger and the cheque in his hand. You think that the messenger is very kind in helping you. You praise the messenger. The cheque is handed over in the bank. The bank staff are arranging for the payment of the cheque to you. You praise the staff thinking that they are very kind to help you. It is the duty of the staff to arrange for encashment of the cheque. They will lose their jobs if they do not do their duties. They are only working for fear of losing their jobs. Therefore, you must recognise that God is the signatory and that He is the account holder. You must understand that the Lord is paying His cash to you. You must analyse the root cause. The root cause is the cheque. The cheque is valid only when it is signed by the account holder. Therefore, you must recognise the force that makes valid the root cause of sanctioning the boons to you. By such deep analysis alone can you find the Lord as the cause of all causes. Then only will you will become grateful to the Lord and express your gratitude to the correct person who is the Lord alone.
Whenever any favour was granted, Jesus used to praise the Lord immediately and express His gratitude to the Lord. You must thank the Lord for whatever is given to you already. If you are not satisfied with the existing facilities, you will never be satisfied even if the Lord grants any number of additional facilities. If you are already satisfied and feel contented with whatever is given already, the Lord is further pleased to grant further facilities. Therefore, to achieve the grace of the Lord, contentment with the existing circumstances is essential. Therefore, always be satisfied and always be cheerful with whatever you have already. This is the basis for achieving the grace from the Lord in more quantity in the future. You must always express the gratefulness to the Lord for whatever is already granted to you. You should not ask for anything more. When thousands of people came to see Jesus, He just had four pieces of bread in a basket. He did not ask the Lord for more bread. He raised the basket with His hands and praised the Lord for giving those four pieces of bread. Immediately the four were multiplied to thousands. The Gita also says about the necessity of self-satisfaction with the existing things (Nityatrupto…). You will be rained with infinite grace of the Lord if you follow My advice. Again I suggest that you experiment with this for a month and then practice in your life.
Human Incarnation of God
All this preaching is practical philosophy, which requires firm faith in the preacher. The preacher should be the correct person. Only the Lord in human form can be such a correct preacher. If you believe a false preacher or an ignorant person as the true preacher, the results cannot be seen. If you approach the real water and believe it as real water, you can put your finger in it and feel the coldness, which is the correct result. If you put your finger in fire, you cannot feel the coldness because it is not water. Similarly the false preacher gives negative results. If you put your finger in air, which is neither water nor fire, your finger neither feels the coldness nor is burnt. Similarly an ignorant person acting as a true preacher can give neither the correct result nor a negative result. You will waste your time energy with such an ignorant preacher. Therefore, catching the right guide (Sadguru) is the fundamental step. If you mistake the true guide as some ordinary guy, it is your loss again. The Veda says “Ihachet Avedet…” which means that if you miss the correct preacher in this world in this birth, you are a permanent looser. All those ignorant people who did not recognise Jesus and crucified Him were permanent losers. Similarly, all the ignorant people who did not recognise Lord Krishna lost the spiritual treasure forever.
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