Confluence of Christianity and Hinduism

Introduction

These discourses will bring a co-ordination between Hinduism and Christianity. The messages of a Hindu saint like Swami Vivekananda have spread in Christian countries. The messages of Christianity have spread in India. Thus there is a broad-minded brotherhood between Hinduism and Christianity. The tolerance of Hindus and the love of Christians are the reasons for such a bond of brotherhood. Spreading of these special discourses among your Christian friends will strengthen the feelings of brotherhood and love, which is the aim of Swami. When people following the two religions are mixed with love that means the two religions are mixed. Religion means only the people following those religions and therefore the scriptures can also be mixed and correlated.

God and Human Incarnation

Lord Jesus was the human incarnation of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 10:40). The human body of Holy Jesus is like the metallic wire, which was all over, pervaded by the Holy Spirit. Veda says 'Antarbahischa' which means that the Holy Spirit pervades all over the body of Human Incarnation. Wherever you touch the wire the electric shock is given. Similarly the entire human body of Holy Jesus is holy. The holiness is the nature of Holy Spirit just like the shock is the property of electricity. As the electricity cannot be separated from the wire, the Holy Spirit cannot be separated from the Holy Jesus. So here the Holy Spirit is the Holy Jesus. Holy Jesus refers this Holy Spirit as His Father. He tells that He was sent by His father as a messenger. Though He and His father are one and the same, He speaks like this for which there is a practical reason i.e.; every human being repels with another human being. A man cannot accept another man as God due to Jealousy and Egoism. Bhagavatgita says, "A man will insult Me when I come here in human form (Avajananti mam..)". For this purpose Holy Jesus wants Himself to be called only as the messenger of the Holy Spirit by the disciples whenever He is introduced to the public. If He tells the truth the egoistic public will not hear even what He preaches and will reject Him. Therefore He is telling His disciples to introduce Him as a messenger only. Of course, the disciples are really the messengers of Holy Jesus.

Holy Spirit has taken over the human body of Holy Jesus and pervaded all over the body to preach the divine knowledge to this world. The same Holy Spirit is sending the disciples for the propagation of the Divine knowledge. Both the body of Holy Jesus and the disciples are instruments of the Holy Spirit chosen for different purposes. The Holy Spirit is preaching through the body of Holy Jesus and is propagating the divine knowledge through disciples. Therefore if you respect the disciple you are respecting the Holy Spirit indirectly. Though both the instruments exist like this, the Holy Spirit is present in Jesus and is not present in the disciples. Due to this difference the disciple is an indirect instrument and the direct instrument is Holy Jesus. The disciple propagates the divine knowledge after hearing from the Holy Jesus. Therefore when such disciple is respected, Holy Jesus is respected first and then the Holy Spirit. But among the disciples there may be some person who cannot repeat what Holy Jesus exactly preached. In such a case the Holy Spirit will take over the body of that disciple and preaches (Mathew 10: 20). Such a disciple differs from Holy Jesus because the Holy Spirit resides in that disciple for some time only where as the Holy Spirit resides in Jesus all the time.

Holy Jesus is telling that He is the messenger of the Holy Spirit and He is also telling that the disciple is His messenger. He is giving the same status to Himself and the disciple by telling like this. The reason is that some disciple may become jealous in future if He says that He Himself is the Holy Spirit where as the disciple is His messenger only. The difference in the status may bring jealousy. Therefore He is maintaining the equal status so that no devotee becomes jealous of Jesus in the future. Due to jealousy the disciple may slip from Holy Jesus.

When He says that He is only the messenger, this shows the humility and submissiveness of Holy Jesus. He wants His disciples to be humble and submissive to the Holy Spirit through out their lives. For this purpose He sets Himself as an ideal. The Holy Spirit present in the human body of Holy Jesus is the essence of true and infinite knowledge as Veda says "Satyam Jnanam Anantam Brahma...". Humbleness and submissiveness are the fruits of the Divine Knowledge. Therefore the humbleness and submissiveness are the qualities of the Holy Spirit itself. This means whatever Holy Jesus speaks is the statement of the Holy Spirit only.

The Only Love

Lord Jesus has said, "If any one comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he can not be my disciple (Luke 14:26 to 27; Mathew 11:34 to 38)''. The knowledge is compared to a sword. The Bhagavad Gita says "Chhitva Jnanasinatmanah". This means that the ignorance should be cut by the knowledge, which is like a sword. The bonds with wife or husband and children are due to ignorance. Such bonds should break when the Lord in human form competes with them to conduct His test. Lord comes in human form in every human generation to preach and give His direct presence. If the Lord comes in only one human generation, God becomes partial to that human generation because other human generations are not blessed with such opportunity. To see, to touch, to talk and to live with the human incarnation, He comes down as per the prayers of the devotees. The Lord comes to preach and so He will not enter the statues or animals or birds. Veda says "Na tasya pratima asti'' which means that God will not enter the inert statues. Gita says "Manusheem tanu masritam" which means that God enters the human body only because the main purpose is to preach the human beings. Gita strongly says that he who worships the inert statues will be born as an inert stone ("Bhootani yanti"). Christians should be commended on this point who are worshipping the Holy Jesus only, who is the most powerful human incarnation of God. Veda says "Na tat samah" which means that nobody and nothing should be equal to the Lord in human incarnation. One should leave everything and everybody for the sake of the Lord in human form. The bond with the human beings can be broken only by the bond with a new human being. Such new human being must be very powerful who can be only God in human form.

A new bond existing with formless God or statues cannot break the human bonds. Only the bond with another living being can cut the bond with the living beings. The bond with formless God is impossible. The bond with inert statue has no use. The above statements of Holy Jesus indicate that one should cut the bonds with his family and with the wealth. In Hindu religion also it is said that God (Datta) cuts all the bonds of family and wealth ("Dattam Chinnam"). Even the bond with the body should be cut for the sake of the God. Gita says the same thing as "Mat Gata Pranah". Holy Jesus says that one has to carry his own cross (death) for the sake of the Lord. This means that one has to invite his own death with his own hands for the sake of God. Holy Jesus did like this as an ideal example for others. This means that you have to cut your bonds not only with your family and wealth but also with your life if necessary.

Hanuman, a top devotee, tore his heart with his own nails for the sake of the Lord and was blessed by the Lord to be immortal. So when the devotee sacrifices his life, his life gets protected forever. The essence of this gospel is that the love is proved only by the practical sacrifice. Veda says "Dhanena Tyage nyke..." which means that sacrifice of money proves the real love. Money is the fruit of the work. So money is another form of work. If it is inconvenient to sacrifice the money, at least they should sacrifice the other form of money, which is work for the sake of God. Depending on the money all the family members are attached to you. If money is not there all the family will leave you. You are also giving the money to your family only. Therefore if the bond with money is cut and if the money is sacrificed to God, the family bonds are considered as vanished, even though the family exists externally. The work of God in human form is the propagation of His divine gospel. For doing such divine work the family also stands as an obstacle because most of your energy is diverted for the family only. Therefore you do not have any energy to work for the sake of Lord. Hence Holy Jesus wants His disciples to leave their families for the sake of God. The propagation work needs both money and work. Generally every body works to maintain his family. In the name of maintenance, several luxuries are introduced, which look like essential needs and thus there is no end for your work to earn the money for the sake of your body and your family. Your blindness increases and you will be putting more and more efforts to work and earn money for the sake of the family bonds. In such a case you can never even see the human form of God. At least you should remove your blindness by the divine knowledge if not the actual bonds. People of very high devotion only can cut the actual bonds. You are giving money to your family but you are giving words to God by prayers and you are giving mind to God through meditation. You are giving love to your family through your work and money, you are calling the sacrifice of words and sacrifice of mind as love to God and you are fooling the God. Your real love is only with your family and not with the God. Holy Jesus tests your real love to God by these statements. The Christian Pope and fathers and the Hindu Acharya and saints left their families and concentrated completely on the work of God. Such pious souls can only be representatives of God in this world.

Sacrifice of Wealth is the Way

Lord Jesus has said "Do not Lay up for yourselves, treasures on earth". "But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven". "For where your treasure is there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:19 to 22; Luke 12: 33 to 34). He has also said "Not everyone who say to Me, 'Lord, Lord' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but He who does the will of My Father in Heaven" (Matthew 7:21) Hindus, particularly, are sacrificing words through prayers and feelings through expression of love for the sake of God. When the question of wealth or money comes they sacrifice it for the sake of their families only. This is the reason why India suffers with poverty. Swami Vivekananda wept loudly facing the sky asking; "Why India with such high spiritual knowledge is suffering with poverty?" The foreigners are not so well in prayers and expression of love or meditation compared to Indians but they sacrifice their money for the sake of God with full vigor. Therefore God blesses the foreign countries with wealth and prosperity. Indians sacrifice words and mind only to God. Therefore Indians are blessed with very good pronunciation of language and excellent knowledge, which are connected to the words and mind. Gita says 'Ye Yatha Mam Prapadyante' which means that God gives you result in the same way in which you worship Him. If you worship Him with words (prayers) only He will also appreciate you with sweet words. If you love Him with your mind and concentrate with meditation, He will also love you in turn with high concentration of mind. If you sacrifice practically, He will also do everything to you practically. Indians must learn this practical sacrifice from foreigners as they have learnt the science and technology from the West. Even in the olden days, Indians were always doing exercises in theoretical knowledge of God and in composing lot of poems on God. Therefore the same attitude entered even their education of science. They have become theorists even in science. The foreigners were less theoretical and more practical in spiritual things and therefore that attitude entered their scientific education also and the foreigners have become the real practical scientists. Let Indians not be proud that they are the masters in the spiritualism if not in science. Though I am born in India, I deny this. The Indians should follow the foreigners not only in science but also in spiritualism by learning the practical aspect of the materialistic as well as divine knowledge.

Today, in the world everybody agrees that the real power is the money only. Money is the fruit of work and Bhagavatgita calls sacrifice of money "Karma Phala Tyaga". In Bhagavatgita it is said "Dhyanat Karma Phala Tyagah" which means that devotion is greater than Knowledge and sacrifice of the fruit of the work (money) is greater than the devotion. Knowledge consists of intelligence and words. Devotion consists of mind and words. Sacrifice consists of heart and love. The proof of the love is the practical service, which is the practical sacrifice of work or money. For the propagation of the divine knowledge and devotion the money is needed to publish the gospel in the form of books. When you sacrifice your money for the divine work your treasure in the heaven is built up. This means that God will help you after your death and you will enter the kingdom of God. You are giving your earnings to your family only and so your real love is on your family only. There is no need of any further argument on this point because it is very clear proof. This is the real fire test for your love. You are sacrificing valueless words and valueless mind in leisure, which is valueless time. This cannot prove the real value of God. You must give real value to God. You are finishing your prayers and meditation on God as soon as the time to go to job is nearing. Similarly when some work for the family is approaching, you are immediately leaving the presence of God. Therefore you are not giving any value to God for all practical purpose. But you are telling lies in your prayers that God is everything for you. The money is the final test and it can be the only test also since all the family is associated with you for money only and the family serves you in your old age for your money only. If the money is sacrificed to God your real color of love can be seen. Sage Vasista told Lord Rama to bring money first as Gurudakshina (pious offering to the preacher) before preaching the divine knowledge ('Dhana marjaya"'). The preacher tested Rama's Love to God in the light of the sacrifice of money. In Vishnu Purana Lord Vishnu says 'Tasya vittam Haramyaham' which means that he who sacrifices money for the sake of God, is really blessed. This looks quite odd for us to wonder whether even God wants money! No. God does not want money because this entire world is His wealth only as per Veda (Kasyasvit Dhanam"). You have taken the money from His treasure for your needs and God permits this. But you have taken extra money also and you are storing it, which is not permitted by God. You have to return back that extra to the Lord when He comes in human form for His divine work. Remember that you are returning His own money, which was stolen by you since He did not permit you to take the extra money. When you have gone to a friend's house he gave you a cup of milk. He permitted only the milk to be taken by you but not the cup. You have stolen the cup also as the extra, which was not expected by your friend. You have to return back that stolen cup to your friend secretly. Holy Jesus says that when you donate the money to God by one hand the other hand should not know about that donation. Since it is stolen money it should be returned secretly. A father purchased some sweets and gave to his child. The father is asking for one sweet from the child just to test the attitude and the love of the child on him. Even if you are not returning back the God's money to God, you are leaving that money here only and you are quitting this world with vacant hands. That extra money is left in this world only, which is the bank of the God. The devotee who donates the extra money to God for His divine work is also quitting this world alone with vacant hands. The former is going to Hell as a thief but the latter is going to the Kingdom of God because he returned the stolen money of God. When you are returning this extra money, you must be very careful to see that this money reaches God only and not others. God dwells in two places 1) In the body of human incarnation (Son of God) 2) In the heart of a real devotee. When the money is donated to such God man or the real devotee, that money is properly used to uplift the humanity. In such social service the God-man or the real devotee will use lot of discrimination due to their divine knowledge and the money donated by you will be properly spent. Without the practical sacrifice of money or at least the work, mere prayers, love and meditation are only the side pickles in the plate without the central bread or rice. When God eats the pickles only which are served by you, His stomach is burnt with high acidity and God becomes furious. Due to His anger the extra money stored by you goes waste through diseases etc., Your children may loose that money also and they are also not blessed in any way in their lives. This gospel of Holy Jesus should open the eye of knowledge of all the Hindus to learn the practical sacrifice from foreigners. Holy Jesus referred to such people who do not give up their extra money for God's work saying that they can never reach God even if a camel passes through the eye of a needle. His Gospel refers to such selfish rich people only who are caught up in the net of their limited families.

The Real Conversion

"I indeed baptize you with water. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire (Matthew 3:11; Mark 1 : 1 to 8; Luke 3 : 1 to 18)", is said in the Bible. The Veda says 'Prajnanam Brahma' which means that the Holy Spirit is the divine Knowledge. The Gita says 'Jnanaagnih' which means that knowledge is fire. This means that the acceptance of Holy Jesus should be through His knowledge radiating through His sentences, which are like diamonds coming out from His mouth. The acceptance should not be just by sprinkling some water. If you accept Holy Jesus just for some money or bread or some materialistic benefits, that is not the real conversion. Your spirit i.e., the soul should be attracted directly by His powerful knowledge. The Holy water represents rituals without knowledge. Unless you study Vedas (Upanishaths) and Bhagavatgita and realize the knowledge by putting it in practice you cannot be a Hindu. A true Hindu is always a true Christian because the practical sacrifice is the same in any religion. Whether you can leave your family and money and come to God or not is same in any religion. The knowledge is same in all the scriptures. Whether you are a doctor studied in English medium or French medium, you can cure the disease of any patient and perform the surgery. Religions are only languages and knowledge is the content of the syllabus. Any body does not understand the Brotherly-hood of all the religions. If you travel along the religion " river you will reach the Spiritualism " ocean. Live as a sea fish and don't be stagnant as a river fish by stopping your journey which should be along with the flow of religion " river. If a Hindu insults Holy Jesus and Holy Bible, he has insulted Holy Krishna and Holy Gita. Same thing applies to the follower of any religion. Let each human being understand all the religions by reading the scriptures of all the religions. An Indian goes to a foreign country and takes a degree in medicine studying the subject in that foreign language. If he comes back to India he can practice applying the subject he studied to any human being. He can perform the surgery to any person. You are purchasing a diamond from a foreign country or you throwing it away since it is the foreign diamond. You are using the fan, the electric bulb the television etc., which are invented by foreign scientists and you are using these things in your daily life. Why not you use the diamond like concepts from the foreign scriptures like Holy Bible in your spiritual life also? This question applies to the follower of every religion.

The Human Incarnation

It is said in the Bible, "He will save His people from their sins " and "His name 'Immanuel (Matthew 1: 21 and 23)' which is translated, 'God with us'. Holy Jesus is the human body into which the Holy Spirit entered like the current into a metallic wire. The Holy Spirit without the union of husband and wife created even the human body. Of course the entire universe is the creation of Holy Spirit only. In the creation of the Universe there is a scientific logic with the concept of cause and effect. But this creation of the human body in the womb of Holy Mother Mary was beyond the scientific logic. Thus the very human body showed super power of God even in the formation stage. Hinduism calls such incarnation as the full-fledged incarnation (Pari purna Avatara). The Holy Spirit is called 'Brahman' or 'Paramatma' in Hinduism. Even Lord Datta was born to His mother without the physical union of His mother and father. He stayed in the womb of His mother for nine days only instead of nine months. He is considered as the full-fledged incarnation of 'Paramatma' or 'Brahman'. He is considered as the top most preacher and His preaching are embedded with excellent divine knowledge like the preaching of the Holy Jesus. Holy Jesus is also the top most preacher in the world. The Holy Spirit enters the human body only because the main purpose of the incarnation is only to preach the humanity. If God enters the statues, trees, birds, animals etc., such preaching cannot be done. The Human incarnation preaches us and stays with us and so it is called 'Immanuel'. The Human Incarnation is better than the statues in temples (Matthew 12:6) because He preaches whereas the statue is silent. He is the real and full form of God in Human Form and if you insult Him you have insulted directly the God (Matthew 12:31). Bhagavatgita also says the same thing ('Avajananti..'). You cannot approach the Holy Spirit directly because the Holy Spirit is with infinite power, which is also inexplicable. By such power the Holy Spirit enters the human body. The mighty ocean is now contained in a tiny water drop. 'Maya', the inexplicable power operates when such human incarnation is born as per Bhagavatgita "Sambhavami Atma Maayaya" which means that the infinite God enters the finite human body due to Maya. All the other human beings are only tiny water drops. The human incarnation is also a tiny water drop externally but the mighty ocean in hidden in it. He is the lion covered by the leather of the goat and is mixed with goats. By this way the goats can come near without any fear. Except this way of human incarnation one cannot approach God directly (Matthew11:27).

Another main purpose of the human incarnation is that He suffers for the sins of His beloved devotees who proved their love to Him by their sacrifice and service. In Hinduism also we find the human incarnations of Lord Datta suffering the sins in the form of diseases, which are taken from His real devotees (Matthew 8:17). A devotee should serve the God in human form without aspiring anything in return. Such service is the only real and full sacrifice. Otherwise it is business only. Remember that Holy Jesus also suffered for the sins of His devotees only and not for the sins of all the people. Others who do not believe Him and criticize Him have to go to the ever-lasting fire. This is the case with any Human Incarnation. The criticism of Human Incarnation by the fellow human beings is only due to natural jealousy because likes repel each other (Matthew 11:6). The human body follows all the rules of nature so that He can come near to the people but due to the same reason the human beings neglect Him (Matthew 11:19).

Scriptures

Lord Jesus said "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the profits. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill (Matthew 5: 17)". The right interpretations of the old traditional scriptures given by Holy Jesus appear to be quite revolutionary. But they are the real essence of the scriptures. Selfish Scholars misinterpreted these old scriptures and established a bad tradition and mislead the public. Certain inconvenient portions of scriptures were removed and certain selfish portions were introduced. The Scriptures were polluted and this happened in Hinduism also. Holy Jesus washed all the dirt in the Christian scriptures. Similarly in Hinduism the three preachers called Sankara, Ramanuja and Madhva also washed such dirt but the dirt comes often because the wind blows every day carrying the dust. The religion becomes dirty in every human generation. Spiritualism is the brooms stick with which God in human form sweeps it away. For this purpose He comes down in human form in every human generation. All the old is not gold as said "Purana mityeva"..". It is also said 'Taatasya Kupoyam"..' which means that a fool drinks salt water from a well saying that it was dug by his fore fathers. So one should not follow all the old blindly. Analyze it at every step and find out the truth. Krishna condemned the ritual portions in Vedas by saying "Traigunya Vishayah..". Similarly Lord Buddha condemned killing of animals in the name of Sacrifices. Veda says clearly "Manyuh Pasuh" which means that one should kill his foolish animal behavior. But instead of doing that, people started killing the animals in sacrifices. Holy Jesus also corrected several portions of the scripture and showed the true path. Even the Veda, which remains now, is a very little portion of the original Veda. The lost portion of Veda is called 'Khila Bhaga'. Holy Jesus also told that He came to complete the scriptures, which means that some correct portions were lost. Rituals prescribe certain time and place for God's worship. But Holy Jesus tells that spirit is important and not the place or time (Matthew 12:11 & 12).

Narrow Spiritual Path

"Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there are many who go in by it (Matthew 7 : 13 and 14)". The Bhagavathgita says "Manushyaanam Sahasreshu".." which means that millions of people will try to reach God but only one can reach God. This means that the spiritual path is narrow with one or two devotees only who can reach God. So you should not follow the majority as example in spiritual path. Majority goes to Hell. Will you also go to hell? Diamonds are in minority and gravel stones are in majority. In worldly matters you can follow the majority. But in spiritual line there is only one Jesus one Buddha one Sankara etc., If you are in the association of majority you will be polluted by them since they induce the worldly poison through their conversations (Luke 13: 20 & 21). If you are in the association of the Satguru you will be spiritually strengthened by His gospel.

Judge by Knowledge

Suppose there are two teachers and one is a Hindu and the other is a Christian. You must judge the teacher by His knowledge and way of preaching. Accept that teacher whose teaching inserts into your heart deeply and make you understand the subject. Such knowledge will definitely lead to practice. Similarly you judge any scripture by the value of its knowledge and the way of preaching the knowledge. Don't be biased in such judgment because you will be helped by the knowledge of the teacher and not by the teacher. If you insist that Lord Krishna is the only God and Holy Bhagavathgita is the only scripture by which one can get the salvation, it is not correct. I will put a question here. If what you say is correct the information about Lord Krishna and Holy Bhagavatgita should have been given to the entire world on one day and in the same minute. Then those who follow will get salvation and those who do not follow will go to hell. Then God becomes impartial to all the human beings. But Krishna and Bhagavathgita existed in India thousands of years ago. The information about Krishna and Bhagavathgita reached other countries only about 500 hundred years back when Vasco-da-gama invented a route to India. Before the invention of India the Indians were blessed by Lord Krishna and Bhagavathgita. But what about the foreigners? They did not have any information. In the absence of the information how can they follow Krishna and Bhagavathgita? It is not their fault when the information itself was absent. All the foreigners before 500 years went to hell according to your argument. That is not justified because they were not informed. This means God became partial to India only. But God is impartial. All the human beings in the world are His children only. Therefore such rigid argument of conservatism is foolish. Of course this applies to every religion who follows such conservatism. Be open minded and read all the scriptures and judge by the merit. You must judge the teacher by his knowledge and way of preaching only and not by the teacher's caste, sex and religion. Therefore I advice all the Hindus to read the preaching of Holy Jesus and get the spiritual benefit out of them. His teachings are very sharp and shrewd like the powerful rays of radiating Sun which will help you in your spiritual effort. Don't be biased by the external culture which is apparent only. Are you not using the fan, the electric bulb, television etc., which are invented by the Christian scientists? Similarly you should use the diamonds that came out from the mouth of Holy Jesus in your spiritual efforts and get their benefit.