Duh… really; but is there not but one God?

Duh… really; but is there not but one God?

Christian theologians are grossly myopic and mostly uneducated on other religions; if they were otherwise – they would have, by now, joined the dots from all the religions and arrived at the conclusion that all religions are the same and the God referred to in the Bible – is actually the same God in other religions. Monotheistic religions shy away from making such claims; they define themselves through exclusionary means which reiterates their separateness from other faiths and traditions. And we wonder – what tradition and faith do they come from that the believers of the monotheistic religions simply reject the Other as either being deviant or less truthful – only fit for heathens.

I, undoubtedly, occupy a place of being a heathen Other – from the perspective of the western Christian theologians – but the sad truth is that unless we join the dots, our children will inherit a world that is torn apart by religious zealotry.

To the untrained mind, there are irreconcilable differences between Hinduism and the Biblical monotheistic religions; concepts of Original Sin and Evil do not exist in the former.

Christian theologians need to be aware that there are no differences between the basic tenets being propounded in the Bible and what is also articulated in the Upanishads.

 

In the Garden of Eden, mankind was aware of the fact that they were one with God and had emerged from this spiritual Omniscient Being. This awareness made them immortal; once the Fall took place, they lost this sense of spiritual awareness. In the Mundaka Upanishad, Brahman is defined as “immortal and undecaying by nature,” “true and imperishable.” The Kena Upanishad refers to this in the following manner:

The wise ones, having realized (Brahman) in all beings, and having turned away from this world, become immortal. (part 2. Verse 5)

Expulsion from the Garden of Eden; how Sin came into the world.

The notion of Evil or Original Sin tantamounts to humankind being in a state of not recognizing God or being aware of God; this lack of spiritual awareness of God – that the whole Universe is but Brahman/ God – and humankind and the world are but an extension of It and created out of It – is being in a state of having Sinned. Hinduism calls this Maya – when we assume the corporeal parts of the world as the Real and forget that the world is but a manifestation of God.  The Mundaka Upanishad describes it as the following:

The Purusa [the Bible refers to this as the Holy Spirit] is transcendental, since S/He is formless. And since S/He is coextensive with all that is external and internal and since S/He is birthless, therefore S/He is without vital force and without mind. S/He is pure and superior to the (other) superior imperishable (Máyá). [The notion of Maya is akin to the Fall and humankind’s expulsion from Eden and spiritual separation from God].

 

The whole purpose of one’s existence is to realize Brahman, or to go back to an Edenic stage and be one with God: and this is how the Kena Upanishad describes it (Part 1):

 

The eye does not go there, nor speech, nor mind. We do not know (Brahman to be such and such); hence we are not aware of any process of instructing about It.

 

If we were told that there really is not any difference in the stories that the Bible and the Upanishads are telling us – then, we would be open to accepting that those religions which use these texts are not really different from each other. At the core, these religions are all the same; and they refer to the same God. By refusing to see these similarities, we coerce ourselves to believe in lies that enables differences to emerge when in actuality there are no differences.  

 

If we want to leave a religion-war-free world for our children, we have to be committed to ensuring that all religions are able to articulate similar narratives.