" God is one; and we call him by different names" is a common line in India. Those who worship Vishnu may express their worship to the deity by names like Ram, Krishna, Gautama Buddha and so on. So for such people to say the line may sound so correct and appropriate. But those who worship Allah or Jesus as Muslims and Christians do respectively will find the line problematic. As a follower of Jesus I can agree that God is one, but to say that Vishnu is same as Jesus or Jesus is same as Gautama Buddha or Ram and Allah are one is not true. For example, in Purana, Vishnu would incarnate over and over again; but Jesus of the Bible was born as a human person just once, and incarnation will never repeat; whereas Allah that Muslim worships will never take human form.
The other way to look at it is to ask whether all religions are just the same or not. Christians are to marry just one person; Muslims can have upto four wives. Christians and Muslims can eat beef; Hindus cannot. Observing a day of rest and worship once in 7 days, specially Sunday, is an essential part of Christians way of life; Hindus do not have any such particular day. There is no holy land for Christians just as Muslims revere Mecca. All these various codified practices or lack thereof indicate that there are deep differences. One can also say that behind all these differences in expressions even deeper differences lie in doctrinal beliefs. Bible teaches and thus Christians believe that salvation cannot be earned, but is received as God's gift. And this is different from Hindus way of gaining salvation through gnan (knowledge), bhakti (devotion) or karma (work). Quran teaches and thus Muslims believe that Jesus is one of the prophets, but Bible does teach that Jesus is more than a prophet; that Jesus is God incarnate. Hindus believe in reincarnation; but this is not true for Christian and Muslims. This sort of difference in beliefs lead to differences in practices.
Religious differences have engender violence in various part of the country and of the world. It may look appealing to bring all these differences and bring them under one religious umbrella. Well, Christians and Muslims believe that such time will come in future; but that will be God's working and not by human strength and knowledge. However, in spite of such differences it is much more honest and respectful to others in admitting genuine differences and dialoguing with another for mutual understanding and respect than covering up the real differences. I do not think such superficial patch up work will bring genuine respect and peace. Genuine religious differences do not just provoke people to violence; nor does similar religion just unite people. There are external factors like greed, mistrust, fear, lust for power etc that act upon religious differences to fan the flame of violence.
"God is one; and we call him by different names" is definitely a common line in India; however not so common among people who follow monotheism. The reason being that they are lead to anyway believe in a single Holy figure/spirit as God.
ReplyDeleteA very noteworthy thing here is that when some Hindus say this line, they normally don't even consider Allah or Jesus as God, in their ignorance. When the rest of the Hindus say this line, they believe that God is still one, which is only a belief or a spirit. These people believe that Christians see that 'belief' in Jesus and Muslims see that 'belief' in Allah and so on.
For people who believe in Polytheism, God is mostly still a 'belief' or a superficial entity, but is presented in DIFFERENT forms, human or otherwise (just as it is presented in a SINGLE form to Christians or Muslims). Which is inherently different from saying that they consider Vishnu and Jesus as same. They consider Jesus and Vishnu as different forms of God, where incarnation has happened repeatedly with Vishnu, but not with Jesus; whereas Monotheists only consider their respective Holy figures/spirits as God.
Isn't it somehow even a little similar to what Christians believe in - God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit?
When monotheists say that God is one (which is apparently their respective Holy figure/spirit), are they denying the existence of any other religion?
Hi Babbu, we had gone to Narnaul the other day. We met your parents and others. We enjoyed being there. Any weekend if you'd like to visit us, we'd be very very happy to have you with us.
ReplyDeleteChristians believe in father, son and spirit but the belief is still called monotheism. So there is difference with regard to polytheist idea of spirit/god. Polytheist idea of spirit would not be termed as monotheism.
For monotheists like Christians it is the teaching and life of Jesus that is the standard for belief and practice. And Jesus did acknowledge the existence of other spirits; and other religions, if one would consider worshiping of other spirits as other religions. So by extension Christians do acknowledge the existence of other religions. The noteworthy feature of monotheistic faith like Christianity, however, is that Jesus said salvation is through him... whereas the other spirits were his creation, so salvation cannot really be through other spirits. This possibly makes Jesus an interesting figure to engage with... and of course, his love for sinners, outcaste, and all sorts of people are reasons too. And as people explore who Jesus really is some fell in love with him and became his follower; and some rejected him. And this still continues!
Thanks for reading and commenting on the blog. Good day!
Helo Sudhu
ReplyDeleteYour explanation of what it means to a Hindu when he/she says “God is One” is new to me and thank you for writing that. As a monotheist, we tend to bring the different ideas of God and see if it is one as Bro. Jeremiah did here , your view was fresh and helped me see in a different light.
One thing you ask here caught my attention, “When monotheists say that God is one (which is apparently their respective Holy figure/spirit), are they denying the existence of any other religion?”
So thought of sharing my Christian perspective. When we say God is One, we are not denying the existence of other religion, on the contrary, we affirm that all these religions (including Christianity) are expressions of the hunger of human being for that God. As for me,I found my answer to that hunger in Jesus and I also think that Jesus would be the answer to that deep hunger of humanity (for God). Different religion may express that in different ways, since the discussion here is somewhat related to Hinduism let me restrict to it. As far as I see in Hinduism (I am open to learn about it more), I see expression of three kinds of hunger around the subject of God. Here they are (as I see):
1.The hunger to see God as reality not just a vague idea. Someone who they can see and know it’s real. We can see that in how Hindus devote so much of their time making and honoring the idols, making their Gods/Goddesses in Physical form.
2.The hunger to pay for their karma. All Hindus affirm their sinfulness and seek to pay for that sin. I see some people going to the extent of torturing themselves physically.
3.And lastly, desire to enter their next life with a hope of better life.
We Christians believe that all these hunger can be fulfill in Christ.
As for the first hunger, we believe that Jesus is God Himself who came to this Earth as a human being. And what we get here is not just a vague idea of God but God himself walking among us in physical form.
As for the second one, the hunger to pay for our sins, we believe that was precisely what Jesus was doing on the cross. Because of what he did on the cross, Jesus can also say to any Hindu looking for forgiveness or a way to pay for his/her sin, I’ve paid for you and your sins are forgiven.
As for the last one, desire to enter their next life with a hope of better life, we believe Jesus gave that Hope when He rose from the dead and said “Because I lived you also will live.” I am convinced by the evidence that this resurrection did happen historically, thus grounding this HOPE on a historical event.
If there truly is a God, I believe that God would be big enough to answer the hunger of different cultures around the world. Don’t you think so? :)