Lets hold hands and sing songs of peace...

Lets hold hands and sing songs of peace ...

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 spiritual awareness.

The Kena Upanishad says 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)

The notion of Evil or Original Sin tantamounts to 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 whole purpose of one’s existence is to realize Brahman: and this is how the Kena Upanishad describes it (Part 1):

 

3    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.

 

4. That (Brahman) is surely different from the known; and again, It is above the unknown” – such was (the utterance) we heard of the ancient (teachers) who explained It to us.