religion Cream of Religion

[dattaswami]

Cream of Religion

You are the cream of Christianity and Hinduism. In course of time the devotees of other religions will also join you and make this group a complete representative of Universal Spirituality. I wish that all of you retain the identification of your individual religions. Let this group be a chain of gems of different colours. Let not the other gems be coloured by white paint so that the whole chain can become a garland of only white gems. Let the pearls remain in the garland, which are white in colour. Let them not insist that the other gems also be coloured by white paint. A chain with different coloured gems looks more beautiful than a chain of mere pearls. The thread running through all these gems is Universal Spirituality. Religion is a gem with a particular colour. Spirituality is the thread that is holding all the different gems in the garland.

Christians are the followers of Christ. Buddhists are followers of Buddha. Janis are followers of Mahaveer Jain. Hindus are the followers of various forms of God. Muslims were the followers of all the prophets up to Mohammad. Thus, the word ‘Muslims’ is general just like the word Hindus. You cannot say that only the followers of Krishna are Hindus. Followers of Shiva are also Hindus. Later on the word Muslims was used specifically for the followers of Mohammad. Before the arrival of Christ and Mohammad all the non-Hindus were called as Muslims. In Sanskrit the word Muslims is represented by the word ‘Mlechcha’ which means all non-Hindus. Thus, in ancient times there were only two religions. One was Hinduism in India and the other was Mlechcha or Muslim out of India.

Sage Vyasa wrote a scripture called ‘Bhavishyat Purana’ which mentions about the arrival of Christ to India after His crucifixion and His conversation with King Salivahana. Therefore, this point has the validity from scripture. The historical proof exists for the burial tomb of the Christ in Kashmir (India) even today. We cannot help if some conservative people like the well-frogs, deny this [a frog in a well thinks that his own well alone is the mighty ocean].

The word Brahman means the greatest. Any item, which is the greatest in a category, can be called as Brahman. An officer in a department is Brahman. The president of the country is Brahman. The officer is the greatest among the staff of the department. The president is greatest among all the citizens of the country. The word greatest or Brahman is common to both the officer and president. This does not mean that the officer and president are equal. You have to take the sense of the same word according to the context. Similarly the soul is greatest among all the items of creation. The soul can be called as Brahman. But God is greater than the soul. Therefore, God is the greatest among all the items whereas the soul is the greatest among the items of creation. Both God and soul can be called as Brahman. This does not mean that God is the soul. Similarly, a non-Hindu is called as a Muslim. The follower of Mohammad can be also called as Muslim. This does not mean that all the non-Hindus are followers of Mohammad.

When the body of Jesus was pierced by a spear, blood came out. This means that life was retained by the body of Jesus even after the crucifixion. This shows the yogic power of Lord Jesus. Jesus was in the Himalayas from 16th to 30th year of age. He did severe penance and was in the association of great sages in the caves of Himalayas. He attained all the yogic powers. He used the yogic power and retained His life. This is only the praise of Jesus and should not be misunderstood as a false crucifixion.

The word Brahman refers to Parabrahman or God pervading all the pure awareness. A very little part of the pure awareness in which God has not entered is like the mud used to prepare the pot. The rest of pure awareness pervaded by God is like the pot-maker. The pot is this universe. The Veda says that the pure awareness used for the creation is just like a ray of the sun (Padosya Visvaa Bhutaani). Sage Vidyaranya in his famous philosophical book called ‘Vedanta Panchadasi’ also mentions this same point. The part of the mind or the nervous energy, which is used for the conversion into a dream, is very very little.

This spectator-part of the mental energy is huge compared to the mental energy that is converted into the dream. Due to the vast quantative difference between the spectator energy and the modified energy, the modification is almost nil compared to spectator. Thus, the spectator is real and the modification is almost unreal. This is the concept of Shankara of the unreality of the world. The word ‘Mithya’, used by Shankara does not mean completely unreal. It means almost unreal. A dream is almost unreal compared to the dreamer. A daydreamer will control the dream like God controlling the universe. A night-dreamer is controlled by the dream like the soul which is controlled by creation. This difference is made clear through these two examples.

If you see the difference between God and the soul, the word God indicates the Parabrahman or God associated with pure awareness. The word soul means only the pure awareness without Parabrahman. The quantity of pure awareness that is associated with Parabrahman is like the ocean. The quantity of pure awareness which is the soul is like a tiny water drop. The ocean is Mula Prakriti. The soul is the drop of the ocean. Even without the reference to God, there is a lot of quantitative difference between the Mula Prakriti (Ocean) and the soul (drop). Both these are qualitatively same. But once the Mula Prakriti is pervaded by Parabrahman, there will be a qualitative difference also.

The ocean and the drop are quantitatively different but are qualitatively similar. Suppose the ocean is illuminated by a lot of energy and the drop is not at all illuminated. Now, the illuminated ocean is different quantitatively as well as qualitatively from the non-illuminated drop. There is no difference between Brahman and Ishwara. Brahman is the non-spectator. Ishwara is the spectator. When you are sitting in the house peacefully you are like Brahman. Suppose you are watching a movie on TV, you are like Ishwara. Brahman and Ishwara are essentially one and the same. The work of watching the creation is the only differential point, which is not an essential difference. Therefore, Ishwara and Jeeva (soul) are qualitatively and quantitatively different. This is the theory of Ramanuja and Madhva. If you take the water item alone [not considering the illumination aspect, given the above example], the ocean and drop are qualitatively one and the same. This is the monism of Shankara. The dualism of Ramanuja and Madhva arises only when the illuminating energy of the ocean and the quantity of water in the ocean are both considered.

The human incarnation is the illuminated drop of water [other souls are non-illuminated drops of water]. The energy that illuminates the ocean as well as the drop is beyond the spatial dimensions. Therefore, from the point of the energy, the quantitative difference between the ocean and the drop disappears. This means that the God present in the universe and the God present in the human incarnation are one and the same; both qualitatively and quantitatively. Due to the unimaginable power of this energy, even the quantative difference in terms of water between ocean and drop also disappears. Thus the Cosmic Ishwara and Lord Krishna are one and the same qualitatively and quantitatively in terms of God as well as in terms of the pure awareness. Therefore, the entire cosmos is present in the small body of Krishna. In every aspect the cosmic Ishwara and the human incarnation are exactly one and the same.

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