THE REALITY BEYOND FORM:
CHRISTIANISED IMAGES OF THE SUPREME
CHRISTIANISED IMAGES OF THE SUPREME
By Durgadas
Although Hinduism has many thousands of years of traditions and various views of the Supreme Reality that today is loosely termed as “God”, this image has somewhat been Christianised by many modern Indian Swamis and Gurus, which reverses the actual image of the reality of “Godhead” itself in traditional Hinduism.
Whilst the teachings of many Hindu teachers to the West such as Paramhansa Yogananda and Swami Vivekananda, Swami Sivananda etc. appealed to the minds of many white Western previously Christian minds, the reality remains that the Hindu God was somewhat “Christianised” to a degree where even today, he stands more as the “God the Father” image, the old man with the beard of the Bible, rather than the true transcendental figure represented in Hindu texts.
Whilst mainly innocent on the part of these Hindu Swamis make Western audiences take up the traditional Hindu texts such as the Bhagwad Gita (a simplistic text that could be explained to them as the “Hindu Bible”), and introduce Yogic and symbolic concepts that would easily correlate to Western minds and Biblical passages, the damage done was one that many New-Agers and Western Hindus began to cultivate a bias towards the Hindu God as a somewhat Christianised image of his true characteristics which, although explained by these Hindu gurus, was forgotten or ignored by their followers.
We see for example how Gurus such as Paramhansa Yoganand and Sivananda liberally use Biblical verses, passages and quotes to sustain various views in Yogic philosophies and also in Advaita Vedanta or Hindu Non-Dualism, which ultimately fails in the eyes of their devotees, who take this in a more literalised, Christianised naive view of their Gurus.
The next issue was that the Hindu God, pervading all, being in all and assuming all forms and being the inner soul of all beings was perceived in this higher symbolic state in the realm of intellectualism by Western neophytes also, who would thus ignore Hindu texts, traditional views and values over their Christianised views of which they grew up with, and if corrected, challenged etc. would use the “All is One so I am right” issue, whilst clearly attacking Hindu views and traditional views.
Such an example can be seen amongst modern-day Yoga teachers, who profess themselves as “Hatha-Yoga” (typical system of Yoga including breathing and Yoga posture exercises) teachers, but are largely unaware nor practice the greater limbs of karma yoga (yoga of action or service), bhakti-yoga (Yoga of devotion) or understand completely the Samkhya (cosmology) philosophy and system of which Yoga rests, not Vedanta the spiritual philosophy behind Yoga and Hinduism, let alone deeper systems as Tantra and have rarely heard of systems as Ayurveda or if so, know very little about them and argue these are a “not need to know” basis. Such ignorance itself rests within the psyche of the Christians and their Christian God, showing the Christianised image of the Hindu God by Hindu Swamis at fault in the first instance. Nor do they also see the importance of languages as Sanskrit, which is equivalent to Latin in the Western word.
It is also this Christian mindset that also has a Colonialist attitude to it, that Westerners must always be right and better scholars over the poor dark-skinned Indian Hindus who their ancestors subjugated. Forgetting of course the short history in which Britain itself has compared to India, nor the Roman influences that were the backbone of the British and European civilisations or to mention the various sciences passed via the Arabs and Romans into greater Europe originating in India in the pre-Christian eras into the Medieval Periods (as numerals, zero concept, astronomy, mathematics, medicine and surgery etc.).
Whilst the teachings of many Hindu teachers to the West such as Paramhansa Yogananda and Swami Vivekananda, Swami Sivananda etc. appealed to the minds of many white Western previously Christian minds, the reality remains that the Hindu God was somewhat “Christianised” to a degree where even today, he stands more as the “God the Father” image, the old man with the beard of the Bible, rather than the true transcendental figure represented in Hindu texts.
Whilst mainly innocent on the part of these Hindu Swamis make Western audiences take up the traditional Hindu texts such as the Bhagwad Gita (a simplistic text that could be explained to them as the “Hindu Bible”), and introduce Yogic and symbolic concepts that would easily correlate to Western minds and Biblical passages, the damage done was one that many New-Agers and Western Hindus began to cultivate a bias towards the Hindu God as a somewhat Christianised image of his true characteristics which, although explained by these Hindu gurus, was forgotten or ignored by their followers.
We see for example how Gurus such as Paramhansa Yoganand and Sivananda liberally use Biblical verses, passages and quotes to sustain various views in Yogic philosophies and also in Advaita Vedanta or Hindu Non-Dualism, which ultimately fails in the eyes of their devotees, who take this in a more literalised, Christianised naive view of their Gurus.
The next issue was that the Hindu God, pervading all, being in all and assuming all forms and being the inner soul of all beings was perceived in this higher symbolic state in the realm of intellectualism by Western neophytes also, who would thus ignore Hindu texts, traditional views and values over their Christianised views of which they grew up with, and if corrected, challenged etc. would use the “All is One so I am right” issue, whilst clearly attacking Hindu views and traditional views.
Such an example can be seen amongst modern-day Yoga teachers, who profess themselves as “Hatha-Yoga” (typical system of Yoga including breathing and Yoga posture exercises) teachers, but are largely unaware nor practice the greater limbs of karma yoga (yoga of action or service), bhakti-yoga (Yoga of devotion) or understand completely the Samkhya (cosmology) philosophy and system of which Yoga rests, not Vedanta the spiritual philosophy behind Yoga and Hinduism, let alone deeper systems as Tantra and have rarely heard of systems as Ayurveda or if so, know very little about them and argue these are a “not need to know” basis. Such ignorance itself rests within the psyche of the Christians and their Christian God, showing the Christianised image of the Hindu God by Hindu Swamis at fault in the first instance. Nor do they also see the importance of languages as Sanskrit, which is equivalent to Latin in the Western word.
It is also this Christian mindset that also has a Colonialist attitude to it, that Westerners must always be right and better scholars over the poor dark-skinned Indian Hindus who their ancestors subjugated. Forgetting of course the short history in which Britain itself has compared to India, nor the Roman influences that were the backbone of the British and European civilisations or to mention the various sciences passed via the Arabs and Romans into greater Europe originating in India in the pre-Christian eras into the Medieval Periods (as numerals, zero concept, astronomy, mathematics, medicine and surgery etc.).
We also see this attitude in Western Hindus who have troubles with accepting the greater span of the Hindu Yuga Cycles (world ages) with millions or years or the traditional antiquity of figures such as Krishna and the end of the Vedic period around 5,000 years ago, rather than the start of it!
According to Hindus for example, there have been 7 Manus or flood-figures such as Noah already, and there are another 7 to comes. As it is now in 2011, according to the Hindu texts, 29,813,113 years have passed since the first “Manu” or progenitor of humanity, Swayambhuva Manu.
To the challenge however, we find in more traditionalist schools coming to The West, such as ISKCON, a refreshingly Indian and Hindu taste of traditionalism, of both dates, of the complete system of texts as the Gita, Puranas (history texts) and also cultivation of the Sanskrit language, Hindu sciences as Vastu (Indian Feng Shui), Jyotish (Hindu Astrology), Ayurveda etc. as well as the ritualism that goes with it. The Christian God although equated with Vishnu-Krishna is also less frequently compared to him, and in a different manner.
Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati, the founder of the Arya Samaj Hindu sect that arose in the 18th Century as a challenge to Islam and Christianity also brought forward an Old-School Hindu ideology of God, and although formless, removed his more personal humanised aspects and made him more scientific as a concept, as reflected in the ancient Hindu Upanishads – the fathomless Brahman that is to be Realised through meditation and inner practices, not by mere outer displays of egoic or selfish devotion as we find often in Western faiths. Maharishi Dayanand also showed a more scientific and ecological side to Vedic rituals such as the Hawan or fire ritual, and a more psychological and karmic healing side to the samskaras or Hindu rituals of the Brahmana texts, along with their more allegorical stories and symbols, as of the Puranas also.
For the first time, he criticised in his book, Satyarth Prakash (The Light of Truth) not only Jainism, Sikhism and aspects of Hinduism, but also Christianity and Islam, quoting passages from the Bible and the Koran. He was a formidable opponent of the Christian Missionaries and Muslims alike, since he was the first to reveal the Hindu Weapon against these foolish people bent on world-domination by a fear-based and forceful domineering doctrine – for he showed that it was Logic alone that defeated them!
Perhaps then we can see with the Inquisitions of the Catholics amongst their other attacks on non-Christians and Pagans, as to the real reason behind them – since the Pagans, Witches etc. all used one thing the Christians despised and knew it would defeat them – Logic! If man has logic, then he can think for himself – and as any good Socialist Leader knows, it becomes dangerous for people to think for themselves, as they would also then challenge the Popes and God!
For it is the Christian logic to remain ignorant, throw logic out the window and replace any true wisdom with the ignorance that “humans alone need not have knowledge of this and that, as God alone knows and we are not meant to”.
So true to them – as this shows with Islam and Christianity alike, why any wisdoms or sciences they did receive before completely banning science altogether and burning higher institutions of learning and Hindu Universities* such as Nalanda in India (founded c.500bce) were derived from India in the first place. When India’s wisdom was destroyed and smothered by the Muslims in the 12th-16th Centuries and the Catholic Church also smothered sciences in the West, so did they plunge the world into dark ages.
[*We look at the Buddha who grew up in current day Bihar of India and in Nepal (then all part of ancient India), who studied at the University of Kapilavastu, dating back to at least 800bce. Unlike Christians however, Buddhists revered these older Hindu Universities and did not destroy them, but rather studied under Hindu as well as their own Monks in such Universities.]
By now of course, we are asking ourselves the question of What God are these Christian people really worshipping? As certainly, it seems more like the Shaitan they talk about and devote more of their time and efforts towards cultivating than any true loving entity that even created the world at any time!
My personal view is that if Islam and Christianity forgot about the Shaitan (Satan), they would be much better devotees of their God, and also serve fellow human beings and other creatures better also under the cosmic law of nature. For otherwise, it seems that they continue to live in a day-dream world where anything their faith disagrees with is the work of the mythic Shaitan figure alone, and must be destroyed by violence, which apparently is “God’s plan”...which of course contradicts their views as we mentioned earlier that also according to these faiths, things are for God alone to know, not humans (except, it seems, violence in his name, or rather, as an excuse for perverse behavior amongst his ‘beloved few’).
We can thus see the background of many Western Hindus who take up half-hearted Hinduism fueled by the kind words about Christianity by well-meaning Hindu Swamis mentioned before. What happens is simply that this psychological and social Christianised stigma and dogma does not leave them, but rather enters into Hinduism in this new route, under another guise – arrogance.
Unlike Islam and Christianity however – and unbeknownst to these New Western Hindus, Hinduism has had a long history of non-violence, vegetarianism and kindness to all beings, as also giving shelter to the many Zoroastrians and Jews that were persecuted in their own lands at the hands of Muslims and Christians.
Along with this is the linchpin of the Hindu tolerance scale – that Hinduism accepts, nay, promotes religious debates and discussions through intellect, not violence and wars!
As far back as the Hindu Upanishads, Hindu Rishis or Seers challenged one another over the interpretation of texts from various viewpoints. Rishi Yagyavalkya is a well-known Seer who challenged the orthodox of his day, as also was Krishna (c.3200bce) and Shankaracharya (c.500BCE) and other saints as Ramanujacharya, Madhavacharya and Chaitanya the Vaishnava saints.
Yet, there are no religious wars over the differences, but philosophical debates over differences alone, of which each walks away from the other with a feeling of friendliness and goes about his business. This is why Jainism and Buddhism, although having their birth in Hindu India also survived along with it, grew with it, and also why they were greatly brought back into the Hindu fold again also, without violence.
As the Chinese Philosopher Hu Shih aptly put it with regards to Indian Buddhists and Indian influences into China:
“India Conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.”
We also see similar trends with Hindu Gurus and Swamis and movements today (again, notably ISKCON), which peacefully have attracted many Western and other adherents into the Hindu fold without a fear-based philosophy or one of violence, but by their mere presence, open views and ashrams (monasteries) and monks alone, as they have had for over 2,000 years in south Asia, Arabia, south-east Asia and the far east of Asia.
We thus see a rather different attitude of the Hindus to Western faiths and their adherents.
This is because Hinduism doesn’t have a one prophet and one book philosophy. It also has various views on Godhead, of which all agree that the Supreme pervades all and is localised in all beings as the Atman (soul), seen as identical to the Supreme and to others seen as sparks to a fire as to his relationship.
In traditional Non-Dualistic or Advaita Vedanta, represented in the most ancient texts as the Rig Veda, we see that there is a One Truth (Ekam Sad), who alone has many names or forms, but remains One Alone.
This allows for a Unity within Diversity. Most Hindus know that the Supreme is really a “Formless Absolute” and that his God or Goddess, whether it be the elephant-headed Ganesh representing the wisdom of the Supreme; the Goddess representing creation and power or the Yogi-God Shiva – all these are but aspects, personifications and localised forms of the One Truth alone that exists, that is identical to our own inner being also.
Life itself is not eternal, nor is heaven nor hell, which are but temporal higher and lower states of the Soul’s journey before ultimate release or liberation (moksha), where the soul remembers it’s own true reality as one with the Supreme Godhead itself. Life itself and the cycle of samsara (reincarnation) is but a dream or a play (leela) – a cosmic drama alone in a temporal world of illusion (maya, the soul’s unconscious state to it’s true reality as Godhead or Brahman due to avidya or ignorance).
According to Hindus for example, there have been 7 Manus or flood-figures such as Noah already, and there are another 7 to comes. As it is now in 2011, according to the Hindu texts, 29,813,113 years have passed since the first “Manu” or progenitor of humanity, Swayambhuva Manu.
To the challenge however, we find in more traditionalist schools coming to The West, such as ISKCON, a refreshingly Indian and Hindu taste of traditionalism, of both dates, of the complete system of texts as the Gita, Puranas (history texts) and also cultivation of the Sanskrit language, Hindu sciences as Vastu (Indian Feng Shui), Jyotish (Hindu Astrology), Ayurveda etc. as well as the ritualism that goes with it. The Christian God although equated with Vishnu-Krishna is also less frequently compared to him, and in a different manner.
Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati, the founder of the Arya Samaj Hindu sect that arose in the 18th Century as a challenge to Islam and Christianity also brought forward an Old-School Hindu ideology of God, and although formless, removed his more personal humanised aspects and made him more scientific as a concept, as reflected in the ancient Hindu Upanishads – the fathomless Brahman that is to be Realised through meditation and inner practices, not by mere outer displays of egoic or selfish devotion as we find often in Western faiths. Maharishi Dayanand also showed a more scientific and ecological side to Vedic rituals such as the Hawan or fire ritual, and a more psychological and karmic healing side to the samskaras or Hindu rituals of the Brahmana texts, along with their more allegorical stories and symbols, as of the Puranas also.
For the first time, he criticised in his book, Satyarth Prakash (The Light of Truth) not only Jainism, Sikhism and aspects of Hinduism, but also Christianity and Islam, quoting passages from the Bible and the Koran. He was a formidable opponent of the Christian Missionaries and Muslims alike, since he was the first to reveal the Hindu Weapon against these foolish people bent on world-domination by a fear-based and forceful domineering doctrine – for he showed that it was Logic alone that defeated them!
Perhaps then we can see with the Inquisitions of the Catholics amongst their other attacks on non-Christians and Pagans, as to the real reason behind them – since the Pagans, Witches etc. all used one thing the Christians despised and knew it would defeat them – Logic! If man has logic, then he can think for himself – and as any good Socialist Leader knows, it becomes dangerous for people to think for themselves, as they would also then challenge the Popes and God!
For it is the Christian logic to remain ignorant, throw logic out the window and replace any true wisdom with the ignorance that “humans alone need not have knowledge of this and that, as God alone knows and we are not meant to”.
So true to them – as this shows with Islam and Christianity alike, why any wisdoms or sciences they did receive before completely banning science altogether and burning higher institutions of learning and Hindu Universities* such as Nalanda in India (founded c.500bce) were derived from India in the first place. When India’s wisdom was destroyed and smothered by the Muslims in the 12th-16th Centuries and the Catholic Church also smothered sciences in the West, so did they plunge the world into dark ages.
[*We look at the Buddha who grew up in current day Bihar of India and in Nepal (then all part of ancient India), who studied at the University of Kapilavastu, dating back to at least 800bce. Unlike Christians however, Buddhists revered these older Hindu Universities and did not destroy them, but rather studied under Hindu as well as their own Monks in such Universities.]
By now of course, we are asking ourselves the question of What God are these Christian people really worshipping? As certainly, it seems more like the Shaitan they talk about and devote more of their time and efforts towards cultivating than any true loving entity that even created the world at any time!
My personal view is that if Islam and Christianity forgot about the Shaitan (Satan), they would be much better devotees of their God, and also serve fellow human beings and other creatures better also under the cosmic law of nature. For otherwise, it seems that they continue to live in a day-dream world where anything their faith disagrees with is the work of the mythic Shaitan figure alone, and must be destroyed by violence, which apparently is “God’s plan”...which of course contradicts their views as we mentioned earlier that also according to these faiths, things are for God alone to know, not humans (except, it seems, violence in his name, or rather, as an excuse for perverse behavior amongst his ‘beloved few’).
We can thus see the background of many Western Hindus who take up half-hearted Hinduism fueled by the kind words about Christianity by well-meaning Hindu Swamis mentioned before. What happens is simply that this psychological and social Christianised stigma and dogma does not leave them, but rather enters into Hinduism in this new route, under another guise – arrogance.
Unlike Islam and Christianity however – and unbeknownst to these New Western Hindus, Hinduism has had a long history of non-violence, vegetarianism and kindness to all beings, as also giving shelter to the many Zoroastrians and Jews that were persecuted in their own lands at the hands of Muslims and Christians.
Along with this is the linchpin of the Hindu tolerance scale – that Hinduism accepts, nay, promotes religious debates and discussions through intellect, not violence and wars!
As far back as the Hindu Upanishads, Hindu Rishis or Seers challenged one another over the interpretation of texts from various viewpoints. Rishi Yagyavalkya is a well-known Seer who challenged the orthodox of his day, as also was Krishna (c.3200bce) and Shankaracharya (c.500BCE) and other saints as Ramanujacharya, Madhavacharya and Chaitanya the Vaishnava saints.
Yet, there are no religious wars over the differences, but philosophical debates over differences alone, of which each walks away from the other with a feeling of friendliness and goes about his business. This is why Jainism and Buddhism, although having their birth in Hindu India also survived along with it, grew with it, and also why they were greatly brought back into the Hindu fold again also, without violence.
As the Chinese Philosopher Hu Shih aptly put it with regards to Indian Buddhists and Indian influences into China:
“India Conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.”
We also see similar trends with Hindu Gurus and Swamis and movements today (again, notably ISKCON), which peacefully have attracted many Western and other adherents into the Hindu fold without a fear-based philosophy or one of violence, but by their mere presence, open views and ashrams (monasteries) and monks alone, as they have had for over 2,000 years in south Asia, Arabia, south-east Asia and the far east of Asia.
We thus see a rather different attitude of the Hindus to Western faiths and their adherents.
This is because Hinduism doesn’t have a one prophet and one book philosophy. It also has various views on Godhead, of which all agree that the Supreme pervades all and is localised in all beings as the Atman (soul), seen as identical to the Supreme and to others seen as sparks to a fire as to his relationship.
In traditional Non-Dualistic or Advaita Vedanta, represented in the most ancient texts as the Rig Veda, we see that there is a One Truth (Ekam Sad), who alone has many names or forms, but remains One Alone.
This allows for a Unity within Diversity. Most Hindus know that the Supreme is really a “Formless Absolute” and that his God or Goddess, whether it be the elephant-headed Ganesh representing the wisdom of the Supreme; the Goddess representing creation and power or the Yogi-God Shiva – all these are but aspects, personifications and localised forms of the One Truth alone that exists, that is identical to our own inner being also.
Life itself is not eternal, nor is heaven nor hell, which are but temporal higher and lower states of the Soul’s journey before ultimate release or liberation (moksha), where the soul remembers it’s own true reality as one with the Supreme Godhead itself. Life itself and the cycle of samsara (reincarnation) is but a dream or a play (leela) – a cosmic drama alone in a temporal world of illusion (maya, the soul’s unconscious state to it’s true reality as Godhead or Brahman due to avidya or ignorance).
The great Monist Shankaracharya around 2500 years ago writes about this in his Vivekachudamani:
“Identifying the Self with this non-Self – this is the bondage of man, which is due to his ignorance, and brings in its train the miseries of birth and death. It is through this that one considers this evanescent body as real, and identifying oneself with it, nourishes, bathes, and preserves it by means of sense-objects, by which he becomes bound as the caterpillar by the threads of its cocoon” (Vivekachudamani, 137).
He further elaborates (verses 387-388):
“That in which something is imagined to exist through error is, when rightly discriminated, that thing itself, and not distinct from it. When the error is gone, the reality about the snake falsely perceived becomes the rope. Similarly the Universe is in reality the Atman (Self, Soul).
“The Self is Brahma (Creator), the Self is Vishnu (Preserver), the Self is Indra (Lord of Gods), the Self is Shiva (Destroyer); the Self is all this universe. Nothing exists except the Self.”
Perhaps it is also this concept of a Self-God, along with personal karma and personal liberation that makes Hindus responsible for their own actions and ultimate release that differs so greatly from the Western traditions, especially Christianity, which seeks to do some kind of karmic reflection process or karmic and responsibility transfer for their actions, which makes them act in ways that do not operate according to the organic philosophies of the world, or in the sane man’s mind!
Although Hindus may ask for guidance and help from the Deity, which is one with his own inner being – he does so in order to gain an ultimate higher wisdom and understanding of his own Self-being towards liberation and also to transcend the base sensory pleasures that cause bondage to his human condition.
Prayers by Christians and Muslims however, seem more primitive and seemingly ironically Paganistic in tone, asking for wealth, health and power over their neighbours as opposed to any true universal release from suffering, nor personal advancement of better qualities. In short, their religion is nothing but one of self-preservation, ego and vanity.
It is one of blame upon others and mythic creatures such as the Shaitan, and imaginary ideals of forgiveness of their bad deeds by some Saviour. It thus shows there is no wisdom or personal responsibility being taught in these faiths. And in the end, they expect to be rewarded by eternal life in some Heaven, which to Hindus would at best be a temporal state from which the soul is reborn eventually and undergoes the typical suffering and bondage again.
I guess it is no wonder then, that in their frustration of bondage, they lash out at organic faiths and the true religions as Sikhism, Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, which teach about cause and effect and personal responsibility as also personal responsibility for Liberation also, since they will not want to face up to the Truth, it being beyond their comprehension.
“Identifying the Self with this non-Self – this is the bondage of man, which is due to his ignorance, and brings in its train the miseries of birth and death. It is through this that one considers this evanescent body as real, and identifying oneself with it, nourishes, bathes, and preserves it by means of sense-objects, by which he becomes bound as the caterpillar by the threads of its cocoon” (Vivekachudamani, 137).
He further elaborates (verses 387-388):
“That in which something is imagined to exist through error is, when rightly discriminated, that thing itself, and not distinct from it. When the error is gone, the reality about the snake falsely perceived becomes the rope. Similarly the Universe is in reality the Atman (Self, Soul).
“The Self is Brahma (Creator), the Self is Vishnu (Preserver), the Self is Indra (Lord of Gods), the Self is Shiva (Destroyer); the Self is all this universe. Nothing exists except the Self.”
Perhaps it is also this concept of a Self-God, along with personal karma and personal liberation that makes Hindus responsible for their own actions and ultimate release that differs so greatly from the Western traditions, especially Christianity, which seeks to do some kind of karmic reflection process or karmic and responsibility transfer for their actions, which makes them act in ways that do not operate according to the organic philosophies of the world, or in the sane man’s mind!
Although Hindus may ask for guidance and help from the Deity, which is one with his own inner being – he does so in order to gain an ultimate higher wisdom and understanding of his own Self-being towards liberation and also to transcend the base sensory pleasures that cause bondage to his human condition.
Prayers by Christians and Muslims however, seem more primitive and seemingly ironically Paganistic in tone, asking for wealth, health and power over their neighbours as opposed to any true universal release from suffering, nor personal advancement of better qualities. In short, their religion is nothing but one of self-preservation, ego and vanity.
It is one of blame upon others and mythic creatures such as the Shaitan, and imaginary ideals of forgiveness of their bad deeds by some Saviour. It thus shows there is no wisdom or personal responsibility being taught in these faiths. And in the end, they expect to be rewarded by eternal life in some Heaven, which to Hindus would at best be a temporal state from which the soul is reborn eventually and undergoes the typical suffering and bondage again.
I guess it is no wonder then, that in their frustration of bondage, they lash out at organic faiths and the true religions as Sikhism, Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, which teach about cause and effect and personal responsibility as also personal responsibility for Liberation also, since they will not want to face up to the Truth, it being beyond their comprehension.
It can hence be said then, that the Christian converts to Hinduism need not plaster the gloss of their philosophies on the covers of Hinduism, but rather it would be better advice for them to either remain in their desperate positions of their narrow faiths or rather, to make a complete commitment – leave behind their Bible, ideas of sin, saviours and devils at the door, and enter Hinduism, with the openness and freshness of mind that is expected of one learning a foreign science as a novice during their first Lecture.
That way it would be much more productive in the long run for both the new devotee and their Hindu faith, and thus create also a seemingly longer-lasting and more cordial relationship between themselves and their new Hindu faith, as also between other traditional members of Hinduism, extending to the several hundreds of millions of Hindus throughout the world also.
That way it would be much more productive in the long run for both the new devotee and their Hindu faith, and thus create also a seemingly longer-lasting and more cordial relationship between themselves and their new Hindu faith, as also between other traditional members of Hinduism, extending to the several hundreds of millions of Hindus throughout the world also.
