Essence of Religion- HINDUISM , CHRISTANITY , JUDAISM AND ISLAM in light of scriptures. (Where is the confusion- Part 3 ) WHERE IS THE CONFUSION : In order to attain the truth, you yourself would have to know the full truth to know where any particular religion falls short of knowing the full truth. You’re in no position to say a given religion is partially true and partially false unless you have access to the whole truth, which forms the basis of your comparison. Looking at the verses from different scriptures (Refer to Part 2 ) confirms the oneness of God and the message conveyed in all purpose is to serve him alone . Now the question arises if the verses are so apparent but then “ how come we are living in a society plunged into polytheism one way or other ”. The answer lies within yourself . You live in traditions and cultures , knowingly or unknowingly , you end up following what your ancestors have been doing it . Even if you tend to question them , you would be given a wrong explanation and forged misinterpretation of the verses just I quoted above. The purpose of the quoted scripture is to enlighten you with a pure form of understanding your own scriptures and to draw closer to the creator in truth and to seek his help alone. Remember you are going to die alone and you will be alone facing the creator . The only way you can come out of stubbornness it to educate yourself , Your sincere efforts and honest approach will aid you in this cause . The most vital, “ seek the guidance from God alone – be firm in your mind that he is one and alone : Remember again , God has given us all means to find him thru our mind and inner conscience . As far to my understanding and many historians ( archeological evidence ), what happened to those previous religions is that on the one hand their doctrines or teachings were changed or forged ( for worldly gains or benefits ) so that they became faulty and diluted – either intentionally – to the detriment of all those believers who sought reliable divine guidance – or on the other hand unintentionally through their neglect of the doctrines when their representatives stopped paying attention to them and stopped living up to those teachings. In fact, we have historical evidence that some ruling class of the society in the past took authorities over the religious matters and altered the teaching to their own whims and desires for their own gain and have kept the masses away from the truth. I will just highlight some of the evidence below and leave it for the readers to investigate themselves and find the truth. CHRISTIANITY : In Christianity , we have induction of Term called Trinity ( nowhere found in Bible ) defines God as three divine persons the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit; one God in three persons. The three persons are distinct, yet are one substance, essence or nature. Neither the word Trinity nor the explicit doctrine appears in the New Testament, nor did Prophet Jesus and his followers intend to contradict the Shema in the Hebrew Scriptures: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord” (Deuteronomy 6:4). It was first introduced by Tertullian, a Latin theologian who wrote in the early 3rd century, is credited as being the first to use the Latin words Trinity, person and substance to explain that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one in essence—not one in Person. .It is the most debated topics amongst Christian theologies till date . There is a strong sense of rejection and its does not find a natural acceptance .The bottom line that if someone tries to get the beliefs from the scripture, they will never find trinity in it or anything like it .It is a product of an age of worldly wisdom and spiritual barrenness. The message of God is beautiful, refreshing, and a spiritual antidote to the confused, contradictory human philosophizing of the Platonic doctrine of the Trinity. HINDUISM : I was lucky to have many Hindu friends in my school and college days but unfortunately never had an opportunity to discuss in details about religion, with the exception of one of my closet friend , Manish and he was bit into vedas stuffs so whatever an earlier idea, I had about Hinduism was introduced by him. Recently there has been so many studies in comparative religion so it’s very imperative that you do not become a slave to someone’s else thought but rather I suggest you to use your own intellects in understanding the scriptures . Recently, I read out the below verse from upanishad to my Hindu friend , though he agreed that the quotes quoted by me are ok but my interpretation needs correction. Ekam evadvitiyam He is One only without a second. [Chandogya Upanishad 6:2:1] His interpretation of the above verse in his own words , “ It means that there is nothing but Brahman i.e. the Creation & the Creator are not two but just ONE ! . Further he added “ It appears that you have not been able to understand Hindu philosophy properly. All Hindus believe that there are various names & forms of God but God is only one. For a Hindu there is God in everything ... he bows before the formless Brahman & also the Brahman in form with equanimity ... he considers that there is God in the parents, the teacher, the river, the Tree, the animals etc. etc. ... there is nothing which is not the manifestation of God. I do not force you to agree or disagree on his interpretation, My point is that your belief’s can’t be based on interpretation but on clear conscience and understanding . The general rule behind the interpretation of any verses that it shall not contradict the scriptures itself so when we look for similar verses that speaks out about the same subject, you will soon realize that his interpretation doesn’t full the above criteria. Let’s analyze some of his interpretation with the following verses . Bhagavat Gita 7-24: The ignorant believe that un-manifest Para Brahma (One God) incarnates or takes manifestations, because they do not completely understand My highest, immutable, incomparable, and transcendental existence Oh God! There is nobody like you either in this world or the world beyond. No body equal to you is born as yet nor will be born ever in future also. Yajurveda 27.36 All these several worlds, find ultimate refuge, in that curiosity-provoking, thought –arousing Lord who is our father and creator, who is , the maker of sacred injunctions and Knows all the abodes and worlds and finally who is only one assuming the names of different divinities. Rigveda 10.82.3 Bhagavat Gita 7:19-21: All those who do idol worship, All those who worship demigods are materialistic people. Yajur Veda 3:32: ...Of that God you cannot make any images. Yajur Veda 32:3: God is formless and bodiless Rig Veda, Vol.6,45:16: There is only One God, worship Him. Vedas in general terms is speaking of one God , we must note that there is a difference between reverence and worship. Even the Vedas, the supreme authority in Hinduism, proclaims that only 1 God is worth worshiping so to say that Hindus can take any attribute of God as idol and worship it is incorrect as per teachings of the Vedas. Hinduism has a caste system, with four major castes. Members of each are required by strict religious laws to follow certain hereditary occupations and to refrain from intermarriage or eating with members of the other castes. The highest, or priestly and intellectual, caste is that of the Brahmans. The remaining three in order are Kshatriya (ruling or warrior caste), Vaisya (common artisan and agricultural caste), and the Sudras (the low caste people). It is difficult to trace out when the caste system entered into the life of Hindus and how and why there occurred confusion between the Varna System and the caste creation. In fact in the Vedic era, there existed no such division and discrimination among the people. According to Dr. BK Lahri , “ It is indeed unfortunate that the Varna System came to be connected with the caste System We can not know how and why and when it so happened. It grew up with a sort of spiritual monopoly of a certain group bent upon its material prosperity. It established the class of Brahmin by birth to safeguard their posterity. It is they who created and developed the ideas of inferiority and superiority among the people. This led to discrimination and distinction between various groups of occupations and the degradation of society began and reached so low as there came out people such as untouchables and pariahs. Thus the Varna turned Caste system brought about social degradation and downfall dividing people as low and high and the lowest. The above facts are just few of many that illustrates the changes took place in the vedic era and the modifications that has taken place which itself in a way has distorted the message of the scriptures. It is an Islamic viewpoint that every nation was sent a Messenger for their guidance. ALLAH says in Quran, And verily, We have sent among every Ummah (community, nation) a Messenger (proclaiming): Worship ALLAH (God Alone), and avoid (or keep away from) Taghut (all false deities, etc. i.e., do not worship or join parterns with God ). Then of them were some whom Allah guided and of them were some upon whom the straying was justified. So travel through the land and see what was the end of those who denied (the truth). (Qurân 16:36) From what we have seen above, it is clear that Monotheism existed among the different faiths at a certain point . And when Muslims encounter the Monotheism, we say, subhânallah ( Glory to ALLAH ) this is what Allah mentions in the Qurân. We have to look for His Signs as Allah says: Soon will We show them our Signs in the (furthest) regions (of the earth), and in their own souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the Truth. Is it not enough that thy Lord doth witness all things? (Qurân 41:53) Islam teaches that a pure belief in One God is intuitive in human beings and thus fulfills the natural inclination of the soul. As such, Islams concept of God is straightforward, unambiguous and easy to understand. Islam teaches that the hearts, minds and souls of human beings are fitting receptacles for clear divine revelation, and that Gods revelations to man are not clouded by self-contradictory mysteries or irrational ideas.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 06:50:39 +0000
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