25 Jun 2005
The direction from God is always true. But then how to approach the formless God? If you ask something to God, He will not reply from the sky. If you approach God in a form, it must be through the human form only because only a human form can reply. But in which human form is God present? God is present in a particular human form. Even some human beings, in whom God is not present, are claiming that they are God. The actual human incarnation sometimes keeps silent. Sometimes He says that He is God and sometimes says that He is not God.
Arjuna asked Krishna for direction. Now from his point of view, Krishna may or may not be God. Therefore, even though Krishna was preaching about the direction, Arjuna did not believe blindly. He asked questions at every stage and analyzed the direction given by Krishna. Taking the benefit of doubt, he considered Krishna only as a human being and discussed with Him at length and in depth. Even after seeing the vision of Vishwarupam[1], he continued the discussions for a long time. This means he did not give any value to the miraculous vision. Even demons can give visions to others. Ravana showed a vision to Rama in which he appeared to be killing Sita. Rama believed and wept and wanted to stop the war. But Vibhishana[2] told Him that the vision was false and was created by the demon Ravana. Therefore, one should not decide based on the visions seen by the eyes alone. Satan showed a vision to Jesus in which he offered the entire world to Jesus. One should not believe the mind with emotion. Sometimes the mind is also affected by the tricks of Satan. When Rama went to catch the golden deer, Sita heard the voice of Rama crying for help. Sita decided that Rama was in danger. But Lakshmana argued that Rama can never be in danger. Finally Sita was proven wrong and Lakshmana was correct. Therefore, the emotional mind will mislead but the logical and analytical knowledge of the brain will not. Hanuman thought of committing suicide when Sita was not found in Lanka. But He analyzed and dropped the idea. Therefore logical, analytical knowledge and discussion can alone give the correct direction. In the beginning of the Gita, Krishna told Arjuna “Dadami Buddhiyogam Te…” which means that only by logical analysis of the brain, can God be achieved. After achieving God, logic must be closed and the heart must be opened. Shankara also said “Jnanaadeva Tu Kaivalyam…”, which means that only through divine knowledge can one achieve God. After achieving God, devotion and service will come. One cannot achieve God through devotion, because unless you recognize the correct form of God, how can you devote yourself to that form? You must select one girl through analysis and fix her as your wife and then only love and serve her. How can you fix the best girl without analysis?
At the time of Jesus, there were priests who always thought that old is gold and past is the last word. They hated the present. They had no logic. When they arrested Jesus, there were no proper discussions and logical analysis about His case. When there were no logical discussions, He was crucified based on simple emotional slogans. His death was not justified and therefore He rose and walked out. When a soldier was leaving finally, he pierced the stomach of Jesus with his weapon. Then blood came out. Blood will not come out from a dead body. Jesus was alive and He was brought down by His disciples. Then He was kept in the cave. He knew the protection of His life. He walked into India and met the king Salivahana and talked with him. His conversation was recorded in ‘Bhavishaya Purana’ of Vyasa. This scripture speaks about the future. Vyasa wrote this long back. The verse in scripture is “Isha Putram Cha Mam Viddhi, Kumari Garbha Sambhavam, Mlecha Dharmasya Vaktaram…”, which means “ I am the son of the Father of heaven. I was born to an unmarried girl. I preached spirituality to the Mlechas”. [Mlechas, is a general term for the common ancestors of today’s Christians, Muslims and Jews]. Thus spoke Jesus to Salivahana. He stayed in India till He attained the age of eighty-five years and died in Kashmir. You can find the buried tomb of Jesus there even today. On the tomb it is written “Jesus” in the Hebrew language. Jesus disappeared from His home at the age of 16 years. He returned only at the age of 30 years. He was crucified in His 32nd year. From the 16th year He was in the Himalayas in the association of several sages. He was a good Sanskrit scholar. He studied the Hindu philosophy and this is the reason the Christian and Hindu philosophies are almost similar in concepts. Krishna declared that He was God. Jesus declared that He and His Father were one and the same. Krishna said that He would come whenever there is a necessity. Jesus said that He would come again. Krishna said that He is the only ultimate goal. Jesus said that one could attain God through Him alone. All these are the same concepts.
Distinguishing God in Human Form
There is a difference between God in human form and a human being posing as God. To differentiate between both, analysis is essential like in the separation of the original diamond from an artificial diamond. Once you select the original diamond, there is no need of further analysis and you can kiss and love the diamond. Krishna was God in human form and Paundraka Vasudeva was a human being posing as God[3]. Krishna told the Bhagavad Gita and the latter could not preach any knowledge. Except for this difference, the external dress and performing miracles were common in both. The priests of Jerusalem believed in the dead messengers of the past and did not believe the living messenger (Jesus). Jesus said, “Let the dead bury dead”. This means the priests were dead because they always lived in the past and never in the present. Those who live in the past are dead and those who live in the present are alive. This means that the dead priests will attend to the dead messengers and the living disciples will attend to the present living messenger. When Jesus told His disciples that He would come again, it means that the human incarnation will come again for every future generation. Therefore, Christianity believes in the human incarnation that comes every time as in Hinduism. There is no difference between the two philosophies. The human incarnations of all the religions always tell the same point. The followers do not take the right interpretation and mock at the other religions. Christians criticize Krishna and Mohammed for killing the evil people. They say that Jesus changed all the evil people only through love. Then why did people crucify Him? Why did they not change by His love? Why then does Christianity suggest permanent hell for sinners after the enquiry? If love can change everybody, there should not be a hell at all! Jesus said that it is better to punish yourself instead of falling into hell permanently. Therefore, He was indicating the punishment and hell. He was never against the punishment of evil people.
The L.K.G. (lower kindergarten) students cannot be controlled by words like college students. They need a strong cane for discipline. The followers always misinterpret their original preachers. Krishna tried His best to change the Kauravas but after all His efforts failed, only as a last resort, He punished them. Similarly, Mohammed fought as a last resort only. In fact Mohammed was the incarnation ‘Kalki’ who killed evil people with a sword, riding on the horse. Krishna is Buddha while preaching the Gita. He was Jesus when He showed kindness on Sudama and Draupadi[4]. He was Mohammad in killing the demons. For protecting the good people (Pandavas) and for punishing Kauravas, Krishna was cursed by Gandhari because of which, He died by the arrow shot on His foot[5]. This was His crucifixion for the sake of good people like Pandavas. Both Jesus and Krishna died shedding their blood. He took the punishment on Him to protect the real devotees like Pandavas. Krishna and Jesus were born in similar situations. Devilish people killed the children born on their birth dates. Krishna left Vrindavanam when He was 16 years old which is also similar to Jesus. Krishna met the Gopikas again on the seashore when He was 30 years old. Similarly Jesus returned home at the same age. Jesus quoted several scriptures of Hinduism, which were later filtered out from the Bible.
Conversion
I am neither Hindu nor Christian. I belong to Universal Spirituality, which means that I am a true Hindu and therefore simultaneously a true Christian. I would like to question whether the conversion that is being done, is based on the conversion of religion or of spirituality. If it is a religious conversion, I am not interested in the topic. If it is a spiritual conversion, there is no need because all religions have the same spirituality. Religion is only an external dress and spirituality is the same person present in all the types of dress. If the religious conversion is aimed at a political background by which a religion wants to increase its number of followers and thus wants to have a single kingdom of Christians or Hindus, there is no spirituality in it. When Jesus thought of spreading the kingdom of God, a revolutionary [rebel] thought that Jesus was aiming to remove the Roman government and establish a Jewish rule. Jesus refused to join hands with that revolutionary. If you are prosperous, the first people who are jealous are the people of your own religious community. If you try to convert the entire world in to one religion, the entire world will become jealous when you prosper. Is this the ultimate result you desire?
Only the minority indicates real spirituality to reach God as said by both Jesus and Krishna. Jesus said that the path leading towards Him is very narrow. Krishna told in the Gita that only one in millions can reach Him. Therefore, only the minority is supported by the Lord and not the majority. Quality lies only in the minority and not in the majority. Jesus said that wherever two or three people associate to praise the Lord, the Lord dwells there. This indicates a qualitative minority and not the ignorant majority. You say that Hindus are worried about the conversion of Hindus into Christians. But I find that at least a few Christians are also converted into Hindus. Perhaps, the Hindu is worried since both the rates of conversions are not equal. If your worry is based on this point, you are not against the concept of conversion. If you are against the concept of conversion, you should not have agreed to convert Christians into Hindus also. I am completely against conversion from one religion to another religion because all religions have the same spirituality and the same God. The external dress of God and the language of the spirituality-syllabus differ from one religion to another. Therefore, there is no meaning in conversion. It is like two different classes of the same school in different languages. The two classes belong to the same standard and the same teacher goes and teaches the same syllabus to the two classes in their respective languages. Even if a person changes one class for another, the teacher and the syllabus remain the same. Whatever may be the religion, the devotee who converts, remains as a theist alone. If a theist becomes an atheist, then we shall have to worry about him. Thus by conversion no religion gains anything and no religion loses anything. After all, the person is in the same house of spirituality and he has changed from one room to the other. I don’t know why some people are anxious about conversion and some other people desire conversion. The person does not develop any better by conversion. If a student changes one section for another, his standard does not increase. Only his language is changed; the syllabus remains the same. Thus by conversion, one has changed the culture and language only but not the actual substance called as spirituality. Change of culture is not spiritual progress. In every language all standards are present. He should try to go to the higher standard in his own language and that is called as academic progress. Similarly one should try to go to higher levels of spirituality in one’s own religion. One should go up vertically from the lower standard to the higher standard in one’s own religion to reach the goal quickly, but not go horizontally from one religion to the other religion. The former is called as progress and latter is a waste of energy and time.
If a Christian converts a Hindu into Christianity, My advice to him is “Why are you so much particular about the change in the culture, which is the external religion. The internal spirituality remains same and therefore you have done only external conversion but not the internal conversion. Since spirituality in both religions remains the same, you have not converted him at all. You have plenty of money and a broad mind to sacrifice. You can help the poor Hindu because he is a poor theist. He is not atheist.” On the same occasion I advise Hindus also like this, “Most Hindus are poor. The rich Hindu minority has no broad mind to sacrifice to poor fellow Hindus. Neither do you help the poor people of Hinduism, nor do you allow them to get help from broad-minded, rich Christians. Majority of Christians are rich and also broad-minded. Why do you worry? The Hindu did not become an atheist by becoming a Christian. Only his external dress is changed. He has just changed his shirt and you need not worry about it.”
I wish that every human being in this world recognizes the underlying common basis of all the religions, which is Universal Spirituality. If that is realized, a Christian will not worry even if the entire world becomes Hindu and a Hindu will not worry even if the entire world becomes Christian. Both the Christian and the Hindu should worry if the entire world is filled with atheists. Any human being can wear a dress of any color. Nothing is gained if the majority wears shirts of a particular color and if one celebrates that as a victory; there cannot be greater foolish ignorance than this. One should become the fish living in the unlimited ocean of Universal Spirituality .One should not linger as a stagnant fish in his own river called as religion. If the fish of the river is patient enough to travel to the end of its religion-river, it will find the above-said ocean.
One can follow the religion of his choice in this world. All religions are equal but all the steps in each religion are not equal. All standards in a school are not equal but all classes in different languages of the same standard are equal. The formless God, God with form, like statues and finally the human form of God are respectively the school, college and university levels. Hanuman is the highest among devotees and He also gained the highest result, which is the post of the future Creator[6]. Nobody can be wiser, more devoted and more gifted than Hanuman. He worshipped Rama who was the human form of God in His time. In Valmiki Ramayana, there was no single reference of Hanuman worshipping formless God or energetic forms like Brahma, Vishnu etc., or statues. Similarly there was no single reference of Him doing bhajans, meditation by mind or discussing about God using intelligence. Hanuman silently worked for the Lord and got the result also silently. Thus the human form of God and practical participation in His work are the highest steps to please the Lord. You should not say that all the steps are equal in a staircase, but all the staircases are equal.
[1] Cosmic Vision of the Lord with various manifestations and Universes.
[2] Ravana’s younger brother who was a devotee of Lord Rama
[3] King of Pundra kingdom who imitated Lord Krishna, was killed by Him in battle
[4] Incidents when Sudama’s poverty is removed by Lord Krishna’s grace and Draupadi is miraculously covered by an endless stream of sari (clothing) when she was being disrobed in public by the Kauravas.
[5] Incident when Krishna is accidently shot by a hunter’s arrow.
[6] Lord Rama made Hanuman as the Creator for the next Manvantara (creation cycle)
★ ★ ★ ★ ★