25 Dec 2008
[on the Eve of Christmas] Every religion says that its God created the entire earth and entire humanity. But, unfortunately there is only one earth containing this humanity. Due to one earth, there must be one God only and hence, all the religions are calling the same God by different names. Since God is completely unimaginable, all the names indicate that unseen and unimaginable God only. This unimaginable God is mediated by energy. Such mediated God is also one and the same because energy is also one and the same for all religions. This mediated God is called as Brahman by Hinduism, Jehovah by Christianity and Allah by Islam. The absolute unimaginable God as well as the medium (Energy) are one and the same and hence, there is no difference between these three names. Of course, when the absolute God gets mediated by human bodies, there may be minute difference in the form, culture and language of the external human form as in the case of Krishna of Hinduism, Jesus of Christianity and Mohammad of Islam. Even here the material of the human body is one and the same except slight variation in the external form. From the point of absolute God, here also there is no trace of difference and hence, all these three human forms are also one and the same.
If you argue that the human incarnation of your religion alone is correct, you will face the following powerful question: Your human incarnation appeared in a particular region in a particular time only and gave the correct message to the people of that particular region only. After that, several generations passed before that particular message reached the other regions of the world. All these generations missed that message and went to hell after death. If your message reached all the regions of the world in the beginning itself, at least some of the past generations might have benefited. If your God alone created this entire earth and all this humanity is His issue, there should be no partiality in giving the message to one region only and allow other regions to be deprived of such fortune. This concludes that your God is partial to one region without reason or that your God did not create this entire humanity. You have no answer for this question but we have the answer. Your God is impartial to all humanity and is the creator of this entire humanity. Even though the absolute God gave a particular message to a particular region through a particular human form, the same absolute God gave the same message in different human forms to other regions also. The language of the message may differ but the message is one and the same. The form, culture, dress etc., of the human incarnations in different regions may be different but the absolute God in these human incarnations is one and the same and hence, His message is also one and the same delivered to all regions at the same time impartially.
Therefore, all the human beings are the children of the same God and hence, there must be brotherhood between all the human beings. In fact, Christians and Muslims are actually cousins because both are the two branches of the same ancestor Abraham. One branch was headed by Ishmael, which became Islam. The other branch headed by Isaac became Christians. Muslims recognize Jesus also as the precedent prophet to Mohammad. Mohammad was very much pained at the crucifixion of Jesus and hence, resisted the concept of human incarnation, which can never be relished by the co-human beings due to ego and jealousy. This is not difference of policy but it is due to the heart felt pain by Mohammad about Jesus. Hindus were always co-operative with every religion and you can find the peaceful co-existence of Christianity and Islam in India without any violence. In fact, Hinduism itself is a mini model of Universality of Religions.
Methods of Bringing About Unity of Religions
There are several sub-religions in Hinduism like Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktayism etc., which co-existed based on unity in diversity. In fact, Shankara correlated all the sub-religions and brought the unity based on single God called Brahman appearing in different forms like Shiva, Vishnu, Shakti etc. The same process of unity of religions in one region was carried out by Mohammad, who established the concept of single God called as Allah. Of course, Shankara brought such unity by powerful logic and debate, where as Mohammad brought the same unity through the powerful sword. The powerful knowledge is represented by sharp sword as said in the Gita (Chchittvaa jnaanaasinaa…). According to the circumstances and the mental level of the then existing people, knowledge or sword was used. In the time of Shankara, the quarrel was between scholars of various religions through arguments. In the time of Mohammad, the quarrel was between the heads of various religions through swords. The final result was one and the same. Hindus and Muslims lived together from a long time in India. You will find Muslims going to Hindu temples and Hindus going to Dargahs of Islam. The Nawab of Hyderabad brings the pearls for Lord Shri Rama every year. The unity of Hinduism and Islam was much stressed by Shri Shiridi Sai Baba, who looked like Muslim and preached the unity of both religions. The unity of Hinduism and Christianity is very much indicated by Shri Satya Sai Baba, who looks like a Christian father in dress and preaches the unity of all religions. The difference between two religions never exceeded the limits of a deep debate of the scholars of both the scriptures in Hinduism. But today, the difference between religions has gone to the level of terrorism and the peace is not only cracked into pieces but also ground to fine powder.
The ignorant fanatics of a religion kill the innocent people of other religions. Such killing is not Jihad of Islam and also not Dharma Yuddha of Hinduism. You may argue that Mohammad brought the unity of religions through sword and therefore, conversion of other religion into your religion must be through violence. In the time of Mohammad, the religions were many and were quarrelling with each other by swords and that affected the peace to a great extent. Mohammad preached the unity of religions and finally had to use the sword only to stop several swords fighting with each other. That is not the situation in the present time. In every country, all the religions co-exist peacefully like the different members of the same family. The reason is that the humanity is well advanced in education and has improved a lot in the faculty of logic through advancements of science and technology. Of course, you are free to teach your religion or even prove the defects of other religion through arguments and debates. If people are convinced, they will follow your religion. If not, you have to leave them peacefully. The Quran says that one should preach about Allah and leave the person with safety. Mohammad never said to use the sword when the religions co-exist with peace and love to each other. The Gita came out from a war. But, the war was not based on the deference in the religions. It was based on eradicating the injustice used to grab the property of some brothers by their brothers. Lord Krishna tried a lot for compromise. It was a war based on the division of property and not on the division of religions. Even in that war, innocent people living in villages and cities were not killed through terrorism. Only selected soldiers fought with each other in a selected place called Kurukshetra. You should not say that Aswatthama killed the people in sleep in the midnight and this is a part of Dharma Yuddha (Jihad). But, Aswatthama killed the soldiers of other side only and never entered the city of Pandavas and killed innocent people as done by terrorists today. Seeing these cruel activities of terrorism based on the difference in the religions, all the three human incarnations (Krishna, Jesus and Mohammad) from heaven are deeply pained because the same absolute God exists in all the three forms, who is the single creator of the entire humanity. The father is terribly pained if one of his sons kills the other son.
This entire earth is the property of the absolute God since it is created by Him. No human being created any region of this earth and therefore the absolute right of this entire earth belongs to the absolute God only. It is the climax of foolishness of human beings to fight and kill each other for the sake of the borders of divisions of countries and for the ownership of any region on this earth. The representatives of all the countries on this earth should unite and form a Central Government to control the terrorism in any country. It should be responsible for the peace of the entire world. If the peace is achieved in entire world in this way, it is a real achievement of the success of this Holy Christmas.
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