19 Mar 2023
[Ms. Thrylokya asked: Paadanamaskaram Swami. I have found several videos on a discussion between Christianity and Islam regarding the point that whether Jesus is a messenger or the son of God. Please give me a clear picture on this topic.]
Swami replied: First of all, you must understand the basic concept in Christianity, which is the Divine Trinity. God, Holy Spirit and Son of God constitute the Trinity. You must clearly know the details of each item of this Trinity.
God:- God is beyond space because God is the generator of space. Space cannot exist in God before space is generated. If space exists in God before its generation, it means that space is not generated from God because already space is existing in God before its generation. You don’t see the pot (shape of the pot) in its cause, which is the lump of mud before the pot is generated. This means that God has no spatial dimensions. It means that God has no volume. Any item, not having volume can never be imagined even if you break your head for millions of births. This concludes that God is unimaginable. This God gives the proof of His existence through unimaginable events called miracles. Genuine miracles exist in this world apart from magic, which appears as a genuine miracle, but on analysis it can be easily found out that this magic is a false miracle. Due to the existence of magic, you shall not conclude that all miracles are magic only. Atheists blindly become rigid in negating even the genuine miracles also as false magic. Therefore, unimaginable God exists because of the existence of genuine miracles in this world. The source of all these genuine miracles is the unimaginable God.
Holy Spirit:- Spirit means energy i.e., quite different from the clearly visible matter. Awareness is also spirit because it is a specific work form of inert energy i.e., generated in the functioning brain-nervous system. Soul is the awareness and is considered to be the meaning of the word ‘spirit’. Hence, all forms of energy can be treated as spirit and especially the invisible form of energy or awareness is treated as spirit.
The above explained God shall not be thought as awareness because God also knows and thinks. But, the unimaginable God need not be awareness to think or know as per the worldly logic about awareness. The unimaginable God is omnipotent and due to the omnipotence, the unimaginable God can be omniscient and omnipresent. This means that even though the unimaginable God is not present anywhere in this world, God can be effectively omnipresent and omniscient. We can understand this with a small limited example. A king knows the information from every place of his kingdom with the help of his secret CID system even though he is not present physically anywhere. The omnipotent God knows everything of the creation without physically present anywhere and in His case, the CID system is not necessary due to His omnipotence. Without being present anywhere in creation (because He is beyond space or world), He is aware of everything and He is capable of controlling anything due to His omnipotence. Even though He is unimaginable, He can possess great attributes through His omnipotence and for this, the best example is that He has the attributes of knowledge and thinking even though He is not awareness. In this way, you need not be worried with the fight between one party saying that God is attributeless and another party saying that God is with attributes.
Such unimaginable God thought of creating the creation and such thinking was done before creation. Hence, in the time of such thinking there is neither inert energy nor a materialized nervous system. The inert energy functioning in the nervous system produces awareness. The inert energy is obtained from the digestion of food. Such awareness alone can think. But God thought to create this creation and, in that time, there was neither matter nor energy to produce awareness. Therefore, God thought not due to awareness but thought due to omnipotence. Such unimaginable God wanted to express Himself to energetic beings (having energetic souls and energetic bodies) present in the upper worlds to be created in future. Hence, He created the first energetic body and some space in which the energetic body could be accommodated. Then, the unimaginable God merged with this energetic body making it as His permanent residential address. This body and that little space are never destroyed even if the entire creation-space disappears. This is the first energetic incarnation that can be seen only by the energetic beings living in the upper energetic worlds. Neither those worlds, nor those energetic beings can be seen by human beings unless God wishes. Hence, this energetic body and soul is not visible to human beings and therefore, we can conveniently call this energetic incarnation as spirit. Thus, the first energetic incarnation is named as Holy Spirit, which is the relevant incarnation of God for the upper unseen energetic worlds containing unseen energetic beings. This means that the unmediated unimaginable God is mediated with energetic body. Mediation of an unmediated item is called as incarnation. The mediated item is not at all affected by the medium and hence, Holy spirit is nothing but the unimaginable God mediated in an energetic medium. The energetic medium may have form or may not have form. If it has form, such incarnation is called as Father of Heaven in Christianity and God Datta in Hinduism. In Islam, such unimaginable God is called as Allah. Some divine devotees experienced Allah as formless light and this means that the same first energetic incarnation (Holy Spirit) is mediated by light energy without form. In Hinduism also such situation is mentioned in the Veda where God appears as formless spirit (God mediated in formless energy), called ‘Yaksham.’ The same God mediated in energetic form is called ‘Father of Heaven’ or ‘God Datta’ in Hinduism. If Islam says that Allah is formless, we have to take unimaginable God as Allah. If Islam considers the appearance of Allah as bright light energy, it is the formless first energetic incarnation or Holy Spirit. It is very important to note that the original unimaginable God is not at all different from the first energetic incarnation. In fact, the first energetic incarnation (Datta or Father of Heaven) created all this creation, maintains it and finally withdraws it from gross state to subtle state so that after some interval, the same subtle creation is manifested into gross creation just like the same film reel is projected as the next film show. Remember that this first energetic incarnation merged with some more selected energetic beings to become other energetic incarnations.
Son of God:- In the creation, along with the upper unseen energetic worlds in which unseen energetic beings live, the earth is also created along with seen humanity on it. The media of human souls on the earth are bodies made of matter and some inert energy. The soul made of awareness (awareness is also a form of inert energy only) is the common item between an energetic being and a human being. The difference is only the external gross body, which is made of inert energy in the case of energetic beings and is made of matter and some inert energy in the case of human beings. Just like energetic incarnations are relevant to the upper energetic worlds, the human incarnations are relevant to this earth. The first energetic incarnation merges with selected human devoted beings to form various human incarnations. The first energetic incarnation merges with both soul and body withdrawing itself from the body and confining to the soul only whenever it is necessary. Generally, God withdraws Himself from the body so that the body remains with its natural properties so that fellow human beings can mix with Him freely to clarify their doubts in spiritual knowledge. The main aim of the incarnation of God (unimaginable God) is to clarify the doubts of devotees in spiritual knowledge.
Now the question is that whether God Himself directly comes down as incarnation to clarify the doubts of devotees or God sends some messenger to clarify the doubts of devotees. On this point, the answer from the Gita is that only God comes down in a relevant form to preach true spiritual knowledge and clarify the doubts. No other soul has that capacity to preach true spiritual knowledge and to clarify any doubt except the ultimate original God. The unimaginable God is not only beyond imagination but is also invisible and hence, such God takes a relevant form as medium and comes down for this purpose and such form is called incarnation. There is no difference between the unimaginable God and His visible incarnation. A naked person in the bathroom came out wearing some dress and there is no trace of difference or any type of modification between the original God (naked) and His incarnation (same naked person but clothed). Unmediated-unimaginable God (Nirguna Brahman) cannot be caught by the mind-eye just like an unclothed naked person cannot be caught by the eye. The same God becomes clothed (Saguna Brahman) can be seen by the souls and the medium (cloth) may be energetic (silk cloth) or may be human (cotton cloth). These two are only different states of the same item and the state cannot bring even a trace of difference in the item. In this way, one should realize that the goal in every religion is the same one item called God.
When God wants to do some work on the earth, He can send some close soul to earth in order to accomplish such work or may come down if the work is very complicated, which can be done by God alone. All the works can be done by the servant souls with the strength of God’s grace. But, one work can’t be done by souls and that is the propagation of spiritual knowledge and clarification of doubts in spiritual knowledge. The knowledge preached by God can be brought down to the earth letter by letter. But, if a critical doubt is posed by a devotee, sometimes, the messenger can’t clarify that doubt so effectively as done by God. Hence, the Gita says that whenever preaching true spiritual knowledge comes as the main program, God Himself will descend down (Jñānī tvātmaiva me matam). A servant is that soul coming down to earth to do any type of work except propagating true spiritual knowledge and clarification of any doubt posed by any soul. This exceptional work can be done only by the God in the form of Human Incarnation on the earth. If you confine the word ‘messenger’ to the soul that brings down the message of God as it is, the word messenger can apply even to a close soul of God. But, the work is not strictly limited to just pass on the message as it is. The work is further extended in all angles when doubts are shot by the receivers of knowledge. If the messenger gives a wrong answer, it cannot be rectified later on since the omniscience of God is tarnished. Hence, the answer should always come perfect in the very first instance itself so that the omniscience of God is undisturbed at any time. Therefore, whenever you use the word messenger in the sense of carrying on the spiritual knowledge to the world along with perfect clarifications of various doubts asked by devotees, there is no second person other than God and like this, God alone is the messenger and messenger alone is God. Some simple works like killing a demon etc., can be done by another devoted soul to God in which such danger does not exist. This does not mean that every messenger is God because even some human souls try to become messengers of spiritual knowledge. It only means that God alone becomes the messenger of true spiritual knowledge. Since the propagation of true spiritual knowledge along with clarification of every doubt in spiritual knowledge is the main program of the incarnation, every incarnation is a messenger. Therefore, there is no fourth category called messenger except the above explained trinity in which God exists in all the three states. Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammad, Mahavir Jain, Gurunanak etc., are the messengers, Who mean the Incarnations of God. There is no difference between God, Holy Spirit and Son of God because the same unimaginable God mediated in energetic medium is the Holy spirit and the same unimaginable God mediated in materialized medium is the Son of God. There is no difference between Holy Spirit and Son of God.
In the context of such clear background, why did messenger Mohammad (Mohammad is the Human Incarnation of God, called as ‘Son of God’ and every messenger is Son of God or God Himself in mediated condition. Son means that the medium is created by God. From the point of the medium, the messenger is called as Son of man and from the point of God, the messenger is called as Son of God) rejected the concept of Human Incarnation? His precedent messenger was Jesus, Who was horribly crucified by the public of that specific region. Mohammad wanted to prevent the humanity from this greatest sin and hence, rejected the concept of Human Incarnation God even though He Himself was the Human Incarnation. His generous heart shall be realized in this great sacrifice of His own fame to protect humanity from such a greatest sin. If Muslims and Christians understand this true background, they can be united and both can be united with Hinduism also. By union, individuality need not be lost. There are several states in India like UP, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu etc. Every human being belongs to its individual state while simultaneously belongs to the entire nation called India. Similarly, every religion retains its own religious individuality and simultaneously becomes a member of Universal Religion or Spirituality. The main concept of Universal Spirituality is that one shall follow his/her own religion and shall not criticize other religions. Buddhism also comes under Universal Religion because the silence of Buddha about God means that He is expressing God as unimaginable, Who can be best represented by silence. The silence of Buddha on God is misunderstood by His followers as negation of God. The differences among religions have come due to differences among the followers of religions due to their little knowledge. The founders of all religions are various forms of the single God alone representing the basic unity of all religions. The basis of every religion is God, heaven and hell since these three exist in every religion. Heaven and hell establish the merit of justice and the defect of sin or injustice in worldly life (Pravrutti). Heaven encourages merits of justice and hell discourages sins of injustice. God is the founder for Pravrutti and also Nivrutti (spiritual life). The fundamental essence of every religion is one and the same and the difference is only in the external culture and the language of scripture. The founders (single God in different forms) of all religions introduced merits and some ignorant followers introduced defects into all religions. Change of religion is meaningless because of the existence of merits and defects in every religion. If you are criticizing the form of God of another religion, you are criticizing the form of God of your own religion because God is the common actor in both the form-roles. Each scripture is written by the same God suiting to the culture of a set of people of a specific region, which brings the superficial difference because the fundamentals of scriptures of all religions is one and the same. If you are criticizing the scripture of any religion, you are criticizing your own scripture because the same God wrote both the scriptures.
The main defect of almost all human beings is ego-based jealousy towards co-human beings. When God comes down in a co-human form, naturally, the ego-based jealousy of the human beings becomes very powerful and as a result, the Human Incarnation of God is always repelled by general humanity. If the current goes in your house, you will not mind about it if the current also was absent in your neighbour’s house. This means that you cannot tolerate the greatness of your co-human being. In that case, you may question that why God did not come down in a super-human form so that the ego-based jealousy will not come out? The answer for this is that God wants to mix with all human beings in a free way so that there is no excitation in any human being disturbing its ground state of mental balance so that doubts can be freely asked. For this purpose, God is confined to the soul of the incarnation only so that the body is not divinized exhibiting natural properties of human nature encouraging co-human beings to mix freely with incarnation. If greatness is not exhibited, free mixing with human beings is the merit and negligence from co-human beings is the defect. If greatness is exhibited, repulsion due to ego-based jealousy is the defect and attraction to His divine personality is the merit. The Human Incarnation has to maintain a very critical balance in its behaviour towards co-human devotees. The Incarnation also behaves like a true devotee so that such behaviour becomes the practical example for other devotees to be followed. By this, the co-devotees treat the Incarnation as a devotee and not as God. Another complicated point is that the same Incarnation behaves in various levels as per the level of the devotees. If the devotees feel that the Incarnation is only a human being, the Incarnation behaves like a messenger sent by God so that the ego-based jealousy of the co-devotees is pacified (lowest level of devotion). If the devotees feel that the Incarnation is greater than themselves, but, not the greatest God, God behaves like the Son of God, Who is greater than the devotees, but, lesser than the Father-God (middle level of devotion). The devotees, who have conquered their ego-based jealousy and recognize the Incarnation as God, Who came down to preach the true spiritual knowledge, the Incarnation behaves like God Himself (highest level of devotion). These three steps are that of Messenger, Son of God and God respectively. I am in the light (pure dualism with God), the light is in Me (intermediate state) and I am the light (pure monism with God) are the three steps in which the Incarnation moves based on the level of surrounding receivers of knowledge. All these three steps were revealed by Jesus and the second and third states could not be tolerated by the surrounding devotees resulting in the cruel crucifixion of Jesus. Prophet Mohammad revealed Himself in the first state (Messenger) only, which is the safest step avoiding effects of ego-based jealousy like crucifixion and He propagated this step only for the safety of any Human Incarnation that comes to preach true spiritual knowledge in this world. This shows the practical intelligence and efficient administration of God in the form of Mohammad.
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