The God, Allah and Brahman
https://ramamohanraocheruku.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-god-or-allah.html
Maybe the clergy of Christianity and Islam don’t want to realise Truth, as the present set-up suits them in pursuing their goal of world dominion. – Maria Wirth
We keep using the English term “God” as if we know what it means. But do we? “Of course”, many may reply: “God is the English term for the Creator of the universe, for the Highest Truth.”
At the outset the English word 'God' is masculine gender. As regards his qualities he was visible to a selected few and told them what he wants from us humans. He is also said to be compassionate and loves those who believe in him and who follow the instructions sent down through those special people, but he won’t have any mercy for those who don’t follow his specific instructions. They will be sent to eternal hell fire.
Somehow this Abrahamic view of God has taken predominance, maybe because the majority of humans are either Christians or Muslims. This view is reinforced and fear of eternal hell is instilled in children, generation after generation. Even as adults, most don’t question their belief. It has become part of their mental make-up. And there is comfort in believing that one has the “right” belief in the “true” God and belongs to a big group of like-minded people, which will stand up for this God and defend him ferociously against any criticism.
However, though Christianity and Islam go both back to Abraham and have similar views regarding the creator, each one insists that its own God alone is the true one. But yet the God has to declare to which side he belong, at least to those whom he trusted. From that 2000 years back (approximately) till date he could not find any dedicated devote whom he can tell any further commandment or any revision to the older ones if it so prompts.
However they see it as their divinely ordained duty to make the whole world believe in their particular God. That means Christianity claims all must become Christians and Islam claims all must become Muslims to gain entry into heaven, and they leave no stone unturned in pursuing their goal. The means are not important for them but only ends.
Both are united in claiming that those who worship many Gods are the worst offenders in the eyes of their “only true” God and this “Evil Practice” needs to be wiped out. So they feel justified in defaming especially Hindus whom they see as “idol worshipers”.
Let us try to scrutinize with a critical view. Is it possible that the Supreme is a sort of superhuman entity who is heavily biased towards his followers and very much unforgiving towards “others”?
At this juncture let us explore the possibility of any other hypothesis. Here ancient India comes in. In ancient times, long before Christianity or Islam appeared, Vedic Dharma (today called Hinduism) had a very mature understanding of the Highest Truth which is generally called Brahman (there are other names, like Paramatman or Tat).
'Brahman' (Not to mistake as Brahmin) is not personal, not a superhuman entity, not male or female, but the most subtle, invisible, conscious, one basis of all. The Rishis meditated on the truth and came out with astonishing insights. They declared, “Brahman is not what the eyes can see, but That whereby the eyes can see. Brahman is not what the mind can think, but That whereby the mind can think” (Kena Upanishad).
The rishis established an impeccable truth that the God is none the less than your own self(Atman) that is with in you.
Jagadguru Adi Shankaracharya gives a concrete example. For your reference I just give that. Suppose you keep 5 or 6 pieces of of broken earthen pot with some water in them when the sun is shining, we can find him (image) in all the pot pieces which are kept in open field under direct Sun light. If a piece is broken then the sun with in disappears. That is the image reaches back to the Sun. Actually this system of proving is provided by 'Nyaya Shastra' which is one among the six limbs of VEDA. Now again this Nyaya Shastra contains four disciplines called Pratyaksha(Perception),
Anumana(Inference), Upamana(Co
Unlike the clergy of Christianity and Islam, who rely basically on a story book, the Rishis vigorously and intelligently enquired into truth which is reflected in the ancient texts, especially the Upanishads. For example, they had criteria for what is true:
One: it must be at all times—past, present and future,
Two: it must not need anything else to shine, or in other words it has to be self-evident.
Those two criteria dismiss the whole universe as untrue and says that it needs something to “shine”—i.e. it needs consciousness. This, Acharya Shankara proves by another UPAMANA called 'Rajju Sarpa Bhranti' which means mistaking a rope to be a snake in a dim light. As long as the required light is not thrown on the rope the observer firmly believes that to be a snake. That is maya or mithya as Shankaracharya presents it.
Now we conclude that the universe is not true. So what is left? The Rishis claim that the extremely subtle, conscious basis of everything is not some separate thing at some different place. It is our very being and therefore there is a chance to “real-ise”—know it as real—by turning inwards to what is unchanging and true in us beneath the ever-changing activity of our mind and develop devotion for it.
Unfortunately, we miss out on being aware of this source of our awareness because we prefer to look outside and hardly make an attempt to stop the mental chatter once in a while. This is unfortunate because the Rishis claim that our essence is not only the source of valuable inspiration, but is also most blissful—far more blissful than what any worldly enjoyment can give. And the Rishis spoke from experience.
So the English term “God” is actually not denoting the absolute, highest Truth, but a great power in this manifested reality—more on the level of the “Gods” in Hinduism, whom these two religions despise.
The Vedic Gods are mainly personified powers who are, as it were, in charge of running our world and on whose benevolence humans depend for a happy life. They however, unlike the two Abrahamic Gods, do not condemn anyone eternally to hell if people fail to propitiate them.
It is strange that the Christian and Muslim theologians don’t realise that their understanding of God as a personal, separate, biased entity cannot be the ultimate truth. Scientists have realised it. In fact, some scientists are aware that the ultimate truth that they seek is in all likelihood the Brahman of ancient India, and many big names in modern science, though those names sound Jewish or Christian, were inspired by India’s ancient wisdom—from Voltaire, Schopenhauer, Schroedinger, Heisenberg, Oppenheimer, Einstein till Steve Jobs and Elon Musk.
Maybe the clergy of Christianity and Islam don’t want to realise it, as the present set-up suits them in pursuing their goal of world dominion. The threat that God will send those who don’t do what the clergy tells them to do eternally to hell is surely a powerful incentive for the “believers” to stay in line. At the same time, it puts their intellect into a strait-jacket and is an affront to human intelligence.
Hindus escaped this strait jacket. They are not told what to believe. Many of them don’t believe in God or Gods, but they are sure that Brahman is the truth and the Gods are at least as real as our persons are real—temporary aspects of the one eternal Brahman. This intellectual freedom may well be the reason why all over the world their intelligence is acknowledged and admired—and this in spite of the fact that Indian students need to overcome the huge, unfair hurdle of studying in a foreign language.
The inspiration I got from Maria Wirth, a German author and psychologist who has lived in Uttarakhand for many decades made me to add my thoughts.
swasti.
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