03 Feb 2005
The direction from God is always true. But then how to approach formless God? If you ask God for direction, He will not reply from the sky. If you approach God in form, it must be only the form of a human being because only a human form can reply. But in which human form is God present? God is present only 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 about His divinity; sometimes He says that He is God and sometimes says that He is not God. Arjuna asked Krishna for direction. But from Arjuna’s point of view, Krishna may or may not be God. Therefore, even though Krishna preached him the direction, Arjuna did not believe blindly. He asked questions at every stage and analysed the direction given by Krishna. Taking the benefit of doubt, he considered Krishna as only a human being and discussed with Him at length and in depth. Even after seeing the vision of Vishwarupam, he continued the discussions for a long time. This means that Arjuna did not give any value to the miraculous vision.
Even demons can give visions. Ravana showed a vision to Rama in which he appeared to be killing Sita. Rama believed it and wept. He even wanted to stop the war. But Vibhishana told Him that the vision was false and was created by the demon Ravana. Therefore, one should not decide based on these visions seen by eyes. Satan showed a vision to Jesus in which he showed the entire world being offered 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 gave the argument that Rama can never be in danger. Finally Sita was proved wrong and Lakshmana was correct. Therefore, the emotional mind will mislead you but not your logical and analytical knowledge of the brain.
Hanuman thought of committing suicide when Sita was not found in Lanka. But He analysed 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 declared “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 recognise 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 her and serve her. How can you fix the best girl without analysis?
At the time of Jesus, there were priests who 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 analyses 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 Roman soldier was leaving finally, he pierced the stomach of Jesus with his weapon and 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 technique of protection of His life. Later [after His resurrection] He walked into India and met the King Salivahana and talked with him. His conversation was recorded in the ‘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, Mlechcha Dharmasya Vaktaram…”, which means “I am the son of the Father in heaven. I was born to an unmarried girl. I preached spirituality to Muslims”. [Mlechcha, means foreigners; especially the descendants of Abraham. Swami uses the words Muslims in the sense ‘desendants of Abraham’. It includes Jews and Muslims.] 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 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 all the Hindu philosophy and this is the reason why the Christian and Hindu philosophies are almost similar in concepts. Krishna declared that He is God. Jesus declared that He and His Father are 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 alone is the ultimate goal. Jesus said that one could attain God only through Him. All these are the same concepts.
There is difference between God in human form and a human being posing as God. To differentiate between the two, analysis is essential like in differentiating an original diamond from an artificial diamond. Once you select the original diamond, no further analysis is needed and you can kiss and love the diamond. Krishna was God in human form and Paundraka Vasudeva was a human being posing as God. Krishna told the Bhagavad the Gita and the latter could not preach any knowledge. Other than this difference, the external dress and performing miracles were common to both.
The Jewish priests believed in dead messengers and did not believe in living messengers. Jesus said, “Let the dead bury dead”. This means that the priests were dead because they always lived in the past and never in the present. Those who live in 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 said that He would come again, it meant that the human incarnation of God will come again for every future generation. Therefore, actually Christianity, like Hinduism, accepts the human incarnation that comes every time.
There is no difference between the two philosophies. The human incarnations of all religions always tell the same point. The followers do not take the right interpretation and mock the other religion. The Christians criticize Krishna and Mohammed for killing evil people. They say that Jesus changed all the evil people through love. If that were true, why did people crucify Him? Why did they not change by His love? Why does Christianity suggest permanent hell for sinners after the enquiry? If love can change everybody, then there should not be any hell at all! Jesus said that it is better to punish yourself instead of falling into hell permanently. Therefore, he was indicating punishment and hell. He was never against the punishment of evil people.
The kindergarten students cannot be controlled merely by speech like college students. They need a strong cane for discipline. The followers always misinterpret their original preachers. Krishna tried His best to change Kauravas but only as a last resort, He punished them. Similarly, Mohammed fought only as a last resort. 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. He was Mohammad in killing the demons. For protecting the good people (Pandavas) and for punishing the Kauravas, He was cursed by Gandhari, because of which He died by the arrow shot on His foot. This was His crucifixion for the sake of good people like Pandavas. Both Jesus and Krishna died shedding their blood. Krishna took the punishment on Him to protect the real devotees like Pandavas. Krishna and Jesus were born in similar situations. Evil kings ordered the killing of children born around the same time as them. Krishna to like Jesus, left Brindavanam [His childhood home] when He was 16 years old. Krishna met the Gopikas again on the seashore at His age of 30 years. Similarly Jesus returned home at the same age. Jesus quoted several scriptures of Hinduism, which were filtered out from the Bible.