Enriching Christianity

Note: This article is meant for intellectuals only

[Divine Discourse by His Holiness Shri Datta Swami for Hindu-Christian Gathering:]

My dear devotees of Holy Christianity and Holy Hinduism,

If a Christian loves another Christian as his brother, there is no greatness in it. Similarly, there is no greatness if a Hindu loves another Hindu as his brother. The greatness lies if a Christian loves the Hindu as his brother and vice-versa. A true Christian must love a true Hindu as his brother and should treat a wrong Christian as an outsider. Similarly, a true Hindu must love a true Christian as his brother and must treat a wrong Hindu as an outsider. Suppose you are in white dress. An outsider is also in the white dress, but your own brother is in blue dress. Based on the colour of the external dress, will you treat the outsider, who is in the same colour of the dress as your own brother? Will you treat your own brother as an outsider because the colour of his dress is different from your dress? You are recognizing your own brother not by the external dress but by the internal body in which your own parental blood is flowing. Similarly, you are recognizing the outsider as the outsider based on the point that his inner body contains some other parental blood. Therefore, you must recognize your real brother not by the external religion but you must recognize your brother by the internal spirituality. If the spiritual values and levels are coinciding to your stage, such a devotee is your real brother whether he is a Hindu or a Christian or a Muslim or a Buddhist. For example, take the spiritual value of speaking the truth.

Any person belonging to any religion must be your real brother if he speaks the truth. You must treat a person as an outsider even if he is belonging to your religion if he is a liar. The spiritual value is the real parental blood i.e., descending from the original Godfather. When this is achieved the Universal Spirituality becomes meaningful and alive. Therefore, analyse and judge the spiritual values of other person to make friendship with him irrespective of his nationality, language, caste, sex, age and religion. God will be immensely pleased if this attitude is developed. The main aim of our Universal Spirituality is only to establish such angle of view in the world. The religion is only external culture, which is related to language, habits of dress, habits of food and habits of regional styles of life. The external religion is only ignorance like the covering smoke. The inner spirituality is like the internal burning flame of fire. The analysis is like putting on a fan that generates vigorous wind, which blows away all the external cloud of smoke and makes you visualize the true inner fire, which is the eternal spirituality.

If you realize this internal spiritual knowledge, which is like the underlying fire, you can see the perfect homogeneity and unifying single phase. The language differs and therefore, the words differ, but the meaning is same. The water remains as water, which may be indicated by different words used by different languages. There is one entity, which is beyond the imagination. Such entity is called as God or Parabrahman. Such God has no beginning and no end because God is unimaginable. The beginning and the end must be also unimaginable for an unimaginable item. The beginning and the end of the cosmic energy or space or the creation are also unimaginable. Therefore, the beginning and the end are unimaginable for the unimaginable item like God and also for the imaginable item like space. Therefore, the two points, which are the beginningless and endless characteristics cannot help you in understanding the real nature of God. If you start recognizing the God by simply these two points (beginningless and endless), you may think that God is an imaginable item like the space or energy or the creation. Infact, based on these two characteristics people have imagined God as an imaginable item like space or energy or creation. This concept has misled people to such a low level that people think that God is the very infinite space or infinite energy or infinite creation. Therefore, one should filter the concept of God at this juncture itself. One should think that God has no beginning and no end because the beginning and the end of an unimaginable item are also unimaginable.

Such God desired to create this Universe for entertainment. The very desire itself is the Creation. In view of God, this present materialized universe in only an idea or imagination or the very desire itself. Therefore, the desire to create the world is itself the desire and also the created world itself is a desire. Thus, the creation, maintenance and dissolution of the imaginary world are also imaginations or desires. A part of this infinite creation is the individual soul. The soul is like a drop of the infinite ocean of imagination or desire of God. Thus, quantitatively the entire ocean of imagination of God is very huge compared to the tiny soul. Remember that both the Universe and the tiny soul are made of the same substance called as imagination or desire. Thus, the force of the Universe is far greater than the force of the soul. Due to such huge quantitative difference of the same phase, the Universe, which is far stronger than the soul appears as a materialized entity for the soul. But this infinite ocean of desire, which is the infinite Universe is a tiny drop compared to the infinite force of God. Therefore, again due to the same quantitative difference of force, the entire universe is just the very weak imagination from the view of God. Thus, imagination and materialization exist simultaneously true from the point of God and soul.

For the sake of entertainment, God desired to create the Universe. This statement is in the Veda (Sa dvitiiya Maicchat). In this statement, there is a very subtle intermediate stage, which is the essence of the desire to create the Universe. The desire to create the world is like the golden ornament but the essence of such desire is like the raw gold in which the ornament is not yet expressed. Such raw essence of the desire is pure awareness. The pure awareness is a special subtle form of energy, which is not qualified by any form. Such pure awareness is called as the spirit, which is not qualified and does not have any attribute. This is called as Nirguna Brahman, which means the pure awareness, which has no reference to the creation of the universe. It is a very critical and subtle point to recognize the pure awareness. The Veda says that only very very sharp intelligence can grasp that critical state (Drushyate Tvagrayaa buddhyaa).

Shankara, the topmost genius among the spiritual preachers could grasp that state and proposed the concept of Nirguna Brahman or non-qualified pure awareness. Such pure awareness is the first creation of God (Parabrahman). This first creation is almost as critical and unimaginable as the very Parabrahman itself. The only difference is that Parabrahman is absolutely unimaginable for any sharp intelligence, but this pure awareness is imaginable only for a very sharp intelligence. This pure awareness is called as Mula Prakriti or Suddha Sattvam or Mula Avidya or Mula Maya or the Spirit in general. The Parabrahman maintains such spirit and it is only an associated item and is the first created item. The word Mula means the first. This spirit is in the form of knowledge. It is aware of itself, which means that it is knowledge. Knowledge requires both subjective and objective characteristics. It is subject as well as the object. Therefore, it is called as knowledge or Sattvam. This knowledge is the first form of energy. Energy is always active. Action is the characteristic of Rajas. Such Spirit is unaware of its own creator who is the God. Therefore, it is having ignorance or Tamas. Thus, the Knowledge itself is action and ignorance. According to the Gita, Knowledge is Sattvam (Sattvaat Sanjayate Jnanam), action is Rajas (Rajah Karmani) and ignorance is Tamas (Tamastvajnanajam). Thus, these three qualities are always inseparable. The pure knowledge (Suddha Sattvam) itself is pure action (Suddha Rajas), which is the pure ignorance (Suddha Tamas). Thus, in the very first instant itself the three qualities are created simultaneously in the purest state. Since all these three co-exist, it is called as equilibrium of the three qualities. When the equilibrium is disturbed various items of awareness result in which the three qualities exist in various proportions. Such disturbance of the equilibrium resulting in various distorted items of the three qualities is the very creation. The various mixtures of these three qualities constitute this diversified universe, which is meant for the play of the God and for His entertainment. When the entertainment is over, all the three qualities go into the equilibrium state. Thus, the Universe is converted into Mula Prakruti.

God is in association with this Mula Prakruti in the beginning. At this stage, the Mula Prakruti is only a creation or created item and cannot do anything further. Its equilibrium continues. In fact, the Mula Prakruti is only inert and the continuation of such equilibrium is the inertia. God enters the Mula Prakruti and pervades it. Now, this Mula Prakruti is electrified wire. It is the ignited stick and is called as fire. Now, this Mula Prakruti becomes divine and is called Brahman, or the Holy Spirit. The Spirit, which is just the inert created item became Holy due to the existence of God in it. Now, Brahman multiplies its little part of the Mula Prakruti in which, Parabrahman does not exist. This means that God enters ninety nine percent of Mula Prakruti and not one percent. This little part of undivine Mula Prakruti is multiplied by the disturbed equilibrium and the Universe appears. Thus, the pure awareness in which God pervaded becomes Brahman. Now, Brahman becomes the spectator of the Universe. The little pure awareness into which God did not enter is modified into the Universe in which God does not exist. Here, the modification does not mean materialization. The modification means the undisturbed equilibrium being converted into disturbed equilibrium. In both the states, the substance is only awareness. You can compare this to a daydreamer’s mind. The mind of the day-dreamer is Mula Prakruti. A little part of the mind is converted into dream. The mind, which is not converted, is a spectator of the dream. The dreamer is identified with the spectator part of the mind. Thus, the dreamer is witnessing the dream through his unmodified mind. The dreamer has not entered the dream and therefore, is not multiplied. When the dream city is burning neither the spectator part of the mind is burnt nor the dreamer. The spectator part of the mind itself can be treated as the dreamer because the dreamer entered that spectator part of the mind and exists in it. Thus, Brahman, the spectator of the Universe can be treated as Parabrahman. Such Parabrahman who is the spectator of the Universe is called as Eeshwara. Thus, Parabrahman is the original unimaginable creator. Mula Prakriti is the first created item, which is the pure awareness. Brahman is the major part of pure awareness in which Parabrahman entered and occupied it. The same Brahman enjoying the Universe by vision is called as Eeshwara. Neither Parabrahman nor Brahman nor the Eeshwara has entered the Universe, which is the disturbed equilibrium of the three qualities.

Thus, there is no disturbance in either Parabrahman or Brahman or Eeshwara. In Christianity, God is Parabrahman. Brahman and Eeshwara are called as the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the substance with which the Universe is made of. The spirit is not Holy because God did not occupy it. Thus, the Universe is not Holy in toto. It is Holy with reference to the good devotees and the divine incarnations. It is unholy with reference to bad living beings and Saturn. Parabrahman who is a spectator for sometime develops a desire to enter this Universe in the form of a living being especially as a human being because the main aim is to preach the divine knowledge. The Veda says the same (Tadevaanu Praavishat). This divine human being in which, Parabrahman or Brahman or Eeshwara exists is called as human incarnation or God in Flesh. The human incarnation consists of four items.

The first item is God.

The second item is the Mula Prakruti, which is the pure awareness or Brahman or Aatman or Karana Shariiram (Causal Body).

The third item is the disturbed equilibrium of the three qualities, called as Jiiva or Sukshma Shariira (Subtle Body).

The fourth item is the Gross body made of five elements (Sthula Shariira), which is again imaginary only in view of God but a materialized form in view of other human beings.

If you analyse any ordinary living being it contains all the three bodies except God. If we analyse any inert item of the world it contains only the gross body made of the five elements.

God should be understood as the unimaginable creator. Next, God can be understood as the unimaginable spectator of the world. Lastly, God should be understood as the unimaginable actor, who has entered the universal drama in the form of Human Incarnation.

In the first state, God is called as Brahman. The same God is called as Parabrahman before that first stage. In the second stage, God is called as Eeshwara. In the third stage, God is called as Avatara Purusha or Sadguru. Anybody can go up to the first stage only and no intelligence can go beyond that first stage. This means Parabrahman can never be understood. The climax way to understand the Parabrahman is to grasp Him as Brahman. If you analyse carefully, Brahman is also an incarnation. The Parabrahman is embedded in the pure awareness. The pure awareness is the medium, which can be understood by sharp intelligence. Therefore, anybody can understand God only through a medium. The finest and the subtlest medium is pure awareness. Scholars like Shankara like God in such rich medium. Some people like a person in costly silk cloth. Others can understand God in the form of Eeshwara. Ramanuja and Madhva have stopped at the level of Eeshwara, who is God in terry-cotton shirt, which is a mixture of silk and cotton. Brahman is unqualified pure awareness, which is called as Nirgunam. Eeshwara is the qualified pure awareness, which is called as Sagunam. Therefore, Shankara preached God to scholars. Ramanuja and Madhva preached God to ordinary people. There are some people, who are ignorant and cannot grasp even the form of Eeshwara. For such third category, God in Flesh is the easiest way, who is God in cotton shirt. Brahman is electrified raw Gold. Eeshwara is the electrified Golden chain. Human Incarnation is the electrified Iron chain. The Gold is costly and the iron is cheap. The awareness is subtle and can be grasped by scholars only.

The human body is very easy and can be grasped directly by the eyes. But, in all these media, the electricity is one and the same. When you touch any of these three media, the electric shock is also one and the same. Thus, the experience of God can be obtained from Brahman in the transcendental meditation (samadhi). The same experience of the God can be obtained when Eeshwara appears in the energetic form pleased by severe penance (sakshatkara). The same very experience of God is also obtained by seeing Lord Krishna (darshanam). The experience of the God is one and the same. The medium and the approach differ. The first two methods are very difficult. The last method is very easy. The goal and the benefit are one and the same. Among these three, who is wise? The last person is the wisest, who obtained the same goal through easiest path. The experience of God is obtained through the medium only. The medium indicates the God. When you want to drink hot tea, you are shown a cup. You are told, “Have that Cup”. Here the word cup means the tea and not the cup without the tea. When you touch the cup, you are experiencing the heat of the tea through the cup. If the tea is absent, the cup is cool. Thus, you can differentiate a cup with tea from the vacant cup. Thus, by experience you can differentiate Lord Krishna from any other ordinary human being.

The very presence of the human incarnation electrifies you with divine experience even without the preaching from the human incarnation. But, sometimes experience may mislead you. Experience belongs to the faculty of the mind. Sometimes there may be false experience due to the defective mind. You may feel the divinity through a miracle. Both God and Saturn do miracles. Most of the people decide the divinity through the experience obtained from the miracles. Therefore, the faculty of intelligence should be opened to decide your experience. You must hear His knowledge. You must analyse His discourse. Knowledge is the inseparable ornament of God though knowledge is the very characteristic of a medium (awareness) only. God has given us that facility to identify Him through that inseparable characteristic. Love, bliss and miracles should associate such knowledge. Without knowledge, the decision should not be taken based on the other three characteristics. The other three are always associated with the knowledge but they also exist independently even without the knowledge.

Some people think that Shankara is a partial incarnation whereas Lord Krishna is the complete incarnation. If you visit a postgraduate class, the Professor is in full swing expressing the highest knowledge in its climax. But, when the Professor comes to L.K.G. class, he cannot express his full knowledge. He reveals only very little of his full knowledge to those elementary students. Does this mean that the Professor is really a schoolteacher in that class? The full knowledge exists in the Professor even in that elementary class. But, it is not expressed because those elementary students cannot grasp it. When Krishna taught the Gita to Arjuna, He revealed the climax of the spiritual knowledge. Arjuna is a very high-class soul. He did severe penance and could see Lord Shiva. He is like a P.G. Student. But, when Shankara was preaching the human beings in Kali Yuga, they are not of such divine level of Arjuna. Therefore, Shankara expressed the divine knowledge according to their level only. Krishna is the incarnation of the Lord Narayana. Shankara is the incarnation of Lord Shiva. The Veda says that Shiva and Narayana are one and the same (Shivascha Narayanah). But this example does not mean that every schoolteacher is a professor. It relates only to a Professor present in the elementary class. There are real schoolteachers also. Similarly, there are partial incarnations in whom only a little power or grace of the Lord has entered. In such people, God does not exist. Therefore, you should be careful in differentiating the real schoolteacher from a Professor acting as a schoolteacher in an elementary class. You should not say that every scholar is the incarnation of the Lord and at the same time, you should not say that Shankara is not an incarnation of the Lord because He was a scholar. All scholars are not incarnations of Lord but an incarnation of Lord can be a scholar.

A Christian was telling that a false preacher is a fox. What he said is absolutely correct. But, one should take a very long time and should do very deep analysis before concluding negatively about any spiritual preacher. If the preacher is really the Lord and if you have misunderstood Him, you are acquiring the greatest sin by scolding Him. You are losing all the benefits of His Divine Knowledge. Therefore, you are put not only to the loss but also to the greatest sin. If you misunderstand a false preacher and treat him as the real preacher and praise him, you are put only to the loss but not to any sin by following his false guidance. You get loss, but you are not getting any sin. Even your loss will be shortly compensated by the Lord, who will meet you and drag you out of your wrong path. Thus, finally your loss is also compensated by the Lord. It is a well-noted saying, which says that a criminal may escape but the innocent should not be punished. A false preacher may be praised but a true preacher should not be criticized. Therefore, if you are not convinced with a spiritual preacher, salute him and politely leave him. Never criticize any preacher (Guru). You might have gone to higher spiritual level. The preacher may belong to the lower level. Even then you must respect him. As a college student, you should respect even the schoolteacher. One day you were his student. You have come to this level only by his guidance. All the preachers are like the steps of a staircase. The lower step is the basis of every higher step.

Primary Scripture

There are several religions and there are several scriptures corresponding to these religions. We must fix a scripture as the primary standard so that other scriptures can be standardized with reference to that. The other scripture also becomes standard with reference to which some other scripture can be also standardized. This is called as the process of standardization in Science. Such a primary standard can be the Veda. I know immediately the colours of your faces will change. Immediately, you will blame Me that I am not the preacher of Universal Religion. You will misunderstand Me as the preacher of Hinduism in guise. This situation will arise even if I take the scripture of some other religion also as the primary standard. The misunderstanding is inevitable and unavoidable. I have to take one scripture of some religion and I have to be subjected to the criticism. Therefore, I ignore the criticism. I know what I am in My inner consciousness. My inner self is the real witness. As long as I am the preacher of Universal Religion to My inner self, I need not fear for any external criticism from any angle. The reason for selecting the Veda as the primary standard is that even today the Veda is being preserved by oral recitation with the help of thousands of families. If you go to older and older times, millions of families were reciting the Veda just to preserve it from any type of intrusions or deletions. In Indian spiritual field, there are several branches of philosophy who fight with each other orally. For all these branches, the Veda is the standard text. Such situation never existed in any religion in this world and does not exist even today. Even today, different schools of philosophy in Hinduism fight with each other and all of them quote the same Veda. Such competition was and is unique in Hinduism. In such competitive atmosphere, pollution of the Veda is impossible. If any word is added or deleted, immediately the other schools will shout because they fear that in such case the Veda may support a particular branch of philosophy due to the possibility of a new interpretation for a new sentence. Leave the past. Tell Me frankly whether such situation exists in any religion in this world even today. This is the main reason why I have selected the Veda as the primary standard. The diversity in Hinduism has done lot of good in this direction. The sanctity of the scripture is well protected. In the olden days, the books were in the form of written scripts of palm leaves. Printing was not there. Therefore, a very few scripts were only present. In such case, it was very easy to introduce a new palm leaf or to remove an older palm leaf because hardly one or two scripts were present in a very large region. Except this one reason there is no any other reason for Me to favour the Veda but you need not worry that the scriptures of other religions have to be judged with reference to the Veda only. Fortunately, all the scriptures of all the religions agree with the Veda.

The primary standard is useful in very few places where there is disagreement. Even that disagreement arises only from the misinterpretation of the statement. If the correct interpretation is given all the statements are perfectly coinciding with the Veda. Moreover, one can decide the final version of any concept based on the logical analysis. If the logical analysis fails, then mere the Veda need not be taken as authority. If the logic disagrees you can reject any scripture including the Veda. Therefore, the Veda along with the logical analysis only stands as a primary standard. When you are convinced logically about a concept and when such concept is found in the Veda, then only the concept is authorised. Therefore, I am not rubbing the Veda on any head without the logical analysis. Therefore, one need not doubt about the fanatic. The primary standard means the original word of God heard directly. But, when other scriptures are perfectly in agreement with such word, where is the question of fanatic? Every scripture becomes the word of God. This point supports the Universal Religion, which says that the single God delivered the scriptures of all the religions. When the author is one and the same, how can there be difference between the scriptures? If there is any difference, it is only by your misinterpretation. Therefore, primary standard is only for convenience but not for fanatic.

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