Name:dattaswami •
Title: Human incarnation – Christian – Hindu- Muslim View •
Date posted: 05/19/07 8:18
Q: Human incarnation – Christian – Hindu- Muslim View
My dear Christians and Hindus,
I repeatedly say that Hinduism and Christianity have the same basic structure of spiritual knowledge. When God comes down as Human Incarnation, He is viewed in three ways. 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. Veda says the same “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 monoism (Advaita) of Sankara. 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 Human Incarnation. The human body is exactly the similar medium in which the soul of a human being also exists.
For any transaction common medium is the best. It is unnecessary and wastage of time and effort to try to see God in the medium of energetic form. For such a divine vision lot of severe penance has to be done. You have seen 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 the cotton shirt? The person is important and not the shirt. There is a saying which states that one caught 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 only the costliest shirt. Therefore, the time and effort you have concentrated on the meditation to perceive God in such 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 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 the vision. The energetic form cannot be seen by the naked eyes. Only by special energy granted by the Lord, the eyes can see such energetic form. The internal eye which is the mind can only imagine the form of pure awareness. Moreover, touch is not possible in the case of the forms of energy as well as 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 a few seconds only. The energetic form is highly unstable and is subjected 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 only and grants the boons for the penance and disappears immediately by the process of diffusion.
Such energetic form is not at all convenient for co-living. If you see 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 are 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 monoism of the wire and the electricity and get the complete benefit.
The second view is to see the God and the Human Body as separate items. The monoism gets diluted because of the natural egoism and jealousy of humanity. They cannot accept a particular human being as God. For such acceptance complete eradication of egoism and jealousy is needed which is highly impossible. God is present in the heart of the Human Incarnation. The Lord is wrapped by the human body like a chocolate is wrapped by a covering sheath. The inner Lord is the main component and the external human body is only a minor component. The human body is recognized as a 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 represents this concept. Jesus told 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 talked that He is the Son of God this line of philosophy appears, which is called as ‘Visishta Advaita’ or a special type of monoism. The Father and His son are physically separate but both are one and the same by their essence. The Father is like ocean and the Son is like a wave. The human beings cannot worship the God. For their convenience, a small part of God came down to give the divine experience.
The third line of view is ‘Dvaita’ or Dualism. This results when the egoism and jealousy of a human being is in climax. They cannot accept any human being greater than themselves in any way. God is the Master and the Human Incarnation is only 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 on 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 to the earth. Such choosing of the messenger is only a chance. This belongs to Madhva. God never enters any human body and will not come down to the earth. Only a little power and His grace enter the messenger.
Whenever Jesus claimed Himself as the messenger from the God, this line of philosophy appeared. Islam believes this type of concept for them. Mohammed is only a messenger from God. They do not accept the concept of Human Incarnation. But they respect the messenger and worship Him as the representative of God. Thus this type of worship started the representative worship. A representative of God can be any object in the world. Not only the human body but also any non-living inert object can also stand as the representative of God. Based on this only, the 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 also another special form of energy only. 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 nonliving object and thus treated the entire cosmos as God. Scientists believe that the ultimate is only this world. Thus this concept of representative worship ended with atheism finally. This concept has good sides also. When the Human Incarnation is denied the false human incarnations are prevented. Otherwise several preachers have started cheating the public by exploiting this concept. In that way this line of philosophy is no doubt good.
Thus, the 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. The 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, not to speak of quarrels between heterogeneous religions. Never a Church in India was attacked and never a temple in America was attacked. The 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 the Universal Spirituality.
At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness Sri Dattaswami
Anil Antony
www.universal-spirituality.org
Universal Spirituality for World Peace [email protected]
