The Responsive Universe

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• 

  Tony

  February 19, 2021 at 1:06 pm

  The Question Of Authority In Hinduism

  Here, I submit, lies the fundamental problem for Hinduism. It has been written of the Vedas, the most authoritative Hindu Scriptures: “No historical records can give us the certainty to know the ancient authors and the dates of their works…Veda means wit or wisdom. It was a “Book of knowledge” or the divine unwritten wisdom, because it was transmitted, not by writing, but by oral repetition through a succession of teachers who claimed to have received the divine wisdom and were thence called Brahmans” (Lit-Sen Chang, Asia’s Religions, Vancouver: Horizon, 1999 p. 181). It would seem that these ‘Scriptures’ are merely the traditions of men. By contrast, the Bible was written down and carefully transmitted by copying. Amazingly, the manuscripts recently discovered (especially the Dead Sea scrolls) reveal that there has been no essential change to them over millennia of copying. This is to me nothing short of a miracle, and a proof that God has preserved His word- the Bible. There are at least 24,000 ancient New Testament manuscripts available for analysis – far more than for the Hindu scriptures. The next most well supported book, Homer’s Iliad, has only 643. And there are original fragments of John dating back to 120 AD, and of Matthew to 65 AD- i.e., almost at the time they were originally written. The few variant readings do not affect in any way the sense of the text; and none of the variant readings contradicts anything written elsewhere in the New Testament.

  The Brahmans wrote their own Brahmanas some centuries after the Vedas were written. These changed the Vedas’ demand for blood sacrifice by teaching that horses, cows and other gifts could compensate for actual animal sacrifice; and they clearly used their writings to get power over the people, and to their own economic benefit. The corruption of the Brahmans, whom Hinduism accepts as inspired messengers from God, lead to the production of the Upanishads- which criticize the Brahmans for being corrupt and claiming things as Scripture which were merely written for their own personal benefit. Thus, within the documents accepted as ‘Hindu scriptures’ there are amazing inconsistencies, with some Scriptures claiming that others are not valid. Personal prejudices of the writers continually come out in the writings. Thus, the Bhagavad-Gita, written after the time of Jesus, claims that Krishna was the incarnation of Vishnu in the East whilst Jesus was the incarnation of Vishnu in the West, but the “Eastern Christ is superior to the Western Christ”. This text has often been used by Hindus to criticize Western colonialization of India and its effects. But Christianity is of Asian / Middle Eastern origin, in that Jesus was Jewish as were the founders of Christianity. It wasn’t ‘Western’ in that sense. Hindu Prime Minister Nehru even claimed that Christianity would impede India’s progress. Hindu nationalists have often claimed that Indians are all born Hindus- using their theology of karma and inevitable predestination to bully and shame their countrymen into accepting their religion.

  If a Hindu asks why he or she believes as they do, the answer can only really be ‘Because I accepted the traditions of my fathers’. The issue of truth doesn’t come into it- for there is nowhere to appeal to for ultimate Truth. Jesus said that His word was Truth (Jn. 17:17), that “the truth” makes us free (John. 8:32), that we will be guided into all truth (John. 16:13); because “I am the truth” (John. 14:6). And the Bible itself boldly claims on every page to be the words of the one true God. By contrast, the Hindu writings appear nothing more than the recollections of various philosophers, passed on with varying degrees of accuracy, and added to over time according to the whim and local needs of the various priests who produced them. Because it has no real concept of truth, Hinduism is very syncretistic, allowing for truth in every religion. It includes even Buddha among the true manifestations of God [i.e. the avatars], despite the fact that Buddha rejected the basic tenets of Hinduism. On the other hand, Christianity is very exclusive, insisting as Jesus did that, He was the way to God- not just “a” way. You can surely appreciate why this was, and why it is- for the Bible, epitomized as it was and is in the person of Jesus, claims to be the ultimate Truth.

  The Scriptures are not given any real weight in defining a person’s knowledge and relationship with God:

  “The knowledge which is gained from inference and the study of scriptures is knowledge of one kind. But the knowledge which is gained from samadhi is of a much higher order. It goes beyond inferences and scriptures”

  Patanjali I:49

  Meditation and looking inwards for enlightenment supposes that we humans do in fact have light within. But there is no actual evidence for this. Biblical Christianity achieves a remarkable thing: Whilst explaining our own need to look outside of ourselves to God and His word the Bible and His Son Jesus for true light, we are also taught not to despise ourselves. For the Bible repeatedly teaches the value of the human conscience within our relationship with God.

  People who attempt meditation and other spiritual disciplines experience varying degrees of progress and success, and all seem to come to slightly different conclusions. This is surely because whatever ‘light within’ which they access is in fact the subconscious reflection of what they have already heard or been taught by others. And if it is different for each person, then there is no such thing as truth. We end up saying that our feelings are the ultimate truth, that we are in fact God. And this is where Hinduism leads people, through its idea that we seek for God within ourselves. Yet the awesome reality is that out there, above the steely brightness of the night sky, there is ultimately Heaven itself, and God Himself located there. And He is reaching out to each of us, earnestly wishing us to consider and believe His self-revelation as it is contained in His word the Bible and seen lived out in flesh in the person of His dear Son, the Lord Jesus.

  The huge numbers of Hindu scriptures means that Hinduism is very hard to define- and it is therefore hard to believe, if not impossible. This contrasts with the way the New Testament speaks of a definite “form of teaching” which was to be believed before baptism, and how those who were converted gave a brief confession of their faith in Jesus before their baptisms. The way the records speak of “the faith” and “the one faith” enables us to infer that there was a body of Christian doctrine that made up “the faith”. This simply cannot exist in Hinduism- which means that people are Hindus because that is how they were born, but for no other reason. Because there is no real authority and no sense of Truth, there is therefore tremendous contradiction within the Hindu Scriptures and their interpreters. I want to give the well known examples:

  Teachings about caste

  Teaching about widows

  Teaching about the personality of God

  Hindu Teachings About Caste

  The classic issue is that of caste. Some claim caste is purely hereditary, whereas others suggest it is a result of human behavior. The Laws of Manu insist that the lowest castes, the untouchables, have no right to read the Vedas [Scriptures]. This to me is just as bad as the Roman Catholic church forbidding its members to read the Bible in earlier times, or insisting it be produced only in Latin so that common people couldn’t read it. We will see time and again that Hinduism shares many features in common with other misguided religions. Yet other Hindu writings seem to suggest that the untouchables can read them and thereby rise above their caste. Again, the vexed question of mobility between castes has sorely vexed Indian society- because there are contradictory statements about it in the Hindu Scriptures.

  This passage from the Laws of Manu gives the punishments of those who stray from the duties of each of the four castes: priest, ruler (or warrior), commoner, and servant.

  “But those classes who slip away from their own innate activities when they are not in extremity pass through evil transmigrations and then become the menial servants of aliens. A priest who has slipped from his own duty becomes a ” comet-mouth” ghost who eats vomit; a ruler becomes a ” false-stinking” ghost who eats impure things and corpses. A commoner who has slipped from his duty becomes a ghost ” who sees by an eye in his anus”, eating pus; a servant becomes a ” moth-eater” ghost”.

  — The Laws of Manu, 12:70-72.

  As I shall comment later, the meaning and value of persons is utterly debased by this kind of theology. Threats are held over poor people to insist that they remain in poverty; they are shamed into remaining within their social and low spiritual position by the most awesome threats. It’s akin to the way the Catholic church devised and uses the threat of a fiery, eternal hell fire of punishment to shame and scare their simpler members into blind, unquestioning loyalty. In passing, we note that the Bible speaks of “hell” as merely the grave; the punishment for sin is the eternal unconsciousness of death, not eternal torture. A God of love would never entertain such a human, revenge-based notion. Yet more progressive Hindu priests have seen the debilitating effect of the caste system on Indian society and have insisted that Hinduism ought to elevate people rather than tie them into the caste system. Mahatma Gandhi, the most famous Hindu, was of this persuasion.

  Hindu Teaching About Widows

  Many passages in the Hindu Scriptures teach that a widow must never remarry, on pain of the most awful punishments:

  “A virtuous wife should never do anything displeasing to the husband who took her hand in marriage, when he is alive or dead, if she longs for her husband’s world (after death) . . . She should be long-suffering until death, self-restrained, and chaste, striving (to fulfil) the unsurpassed duty of women who have one husband . . . But a woman who violates her (vow to her dead) husband because she is greedy for progeny is the object of reproach here on earth and loses the world beyond”.

  The Laws of Manu, 5:156,158,161

  So unfortunate was the fate of widows considered to be that we find the following cited as a benefit of chanting the Guru Gita:

  “It averts women’s widowhood… If a widow repeats it without desire, she attains salvation. (If she repeats it) with desire, she will not become a widow in her next lifetime”.

  (Guru Gita, v. 145-147).

  In passing, note the Hindu attitude to Scripture. It is to be chanted, not deeply thought about as a source of truth. In essence the same mistake is made by many rank and file Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians, who treat the book called the Bible as some kind of icon or talisman- instead of opening it and reading for themselves daily the words of the living, loving God who so desperately seeks a two way direct relationship with them.

  And yet there are other Hindu Scriptures which more than imply that a widow can remarry.

  The following verse is cited by P. V. Kane, in his History of Dharmashastra:

  “Another man is ordained for women in five calamities: a) When the husband is missing and is unheard of; b) The husband dies; c) When the husband is impotent; d) When the husband has become an ascetic; e) The husband has become depraved”.

  —Agnipurana 154.5-5; Parashara Smriti IV.30; and Narada Smriti V.97.

  Atharva Veda IX.5.27-29 includes a verse that translates as

  “Whatever woman, having first married one husband, marries another, she and the other new husband will not be separated if they offer a goat and five rice dishes illumined with religious fees”.

  Further, the remarriage of widows is advocated in the Vashista Dharmasutra of the Rigvedins.

  These issues impact the most personal and intimate aspects of human life. And yet the Hindu Scriptures are totally contradictory in these areas. Is it really right that human life experience is played around with in this way, all for the sake of baseless traditions?

  The Poorva Meemamsa rules for the interpretation of scripture clearly state that if two smritis clash, the two conflicting viewpoints indicate alternative practices, both being equally valid. Even according to this rule, widow remarriage is offered as an alternative to the lifelong celibacy of widows in the Smritis. This acknowledgment that the Hindu Scriptures can contradict each other indicates that there really is no basis of authority in Hinduism. It all depends on the teaching of those who interpret those Scriptures. The individual has no direct access to the teaching of God Almighty. Yet the Christian can read their Bible and find for themselves the way to God.

  Hindu Teaching About God

  If we look at the history of Hinduism, the early period stressed the vision of God as personal. The 33 Vedic devas, led by Indra, the King of Heaven, are all personal in nature. It was not until later that the idea of a supreme transpersonal cosmic spiritual reality was celebrated in the Upanishads [later Hindu Scriptures]. A well-known Hindu group that stresses God as personal is ISKCON, the International Society of Krishna Consciousness, popularly known as “Hare Krishna.”

  The six different ‘insights’ [Sad dasanas] of Hinduism into God are mutually contradictory. Vedanta is pantheistic [teaching many nature gods]; Mimamsa says God has no authority and the Vedas [Scriptures] are not divine revelation; and Vaisheshika claims that matter formed from the difference between atoms, not God or His creation.

  If there is such fundamental contradiction within the Hindu writings about who God is, then we are left with a most searching question: If ‘religion’ is essentially about the ‘rebinding’ [as the word means] of God with mankind, how valid can Hinduism be, if it is self-admittedly confused about the most elemental issues relating to God Himself?

  Problems In The Hindu Scriptures

  The belief in reincarnation is based on trust in others who are thought to have superior access to spiritual knowledge- not on personal reading of God’s word, as occurs in true Christianity. The question becomes one of: Why should I trust the assertions made by these gurus?

  Any seeker for truth would surely agree that consistency is something which we would look for in analyzing the gurus’ claims. And yet as we have shown above, there is a great inconsistency within the Hindu Scriptures themselves, let alone in the views of the gurus who interpret them.

  There are also evident factual errors in the Hindu Scriptures. Incredibly the Bible contains no such scientific errors despite being written over a period when wrong understandings of the physical world abounded. And there is concrete evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls and the discovery of early Greek texts of the New Testament that the Bible text has not been tampered with in the light of later scientific discoveries. Consider the following observations from another writer:

  Geography

  The Puranic description of the geography of Earth is full of fabulous elements. For example,

  “Earth, composed of seven continents, together with the oceans extends 500,000,000 leagues across. Holy Jambudvipa lies in the middle of all the continents; in its center is said to be lofty Mt. Meru, bright as gold. Its height is 84,000 leagues, and it extends 16,000 leagues below the earth; its width at the top is 32,000 leagues, and its diameter at the base is 16,000 leagues”.

  Kurma Purana, in Classical Hindu Mythology, p. 52.

  In this quote, ” league” is presumably a translation of a Sanskrit term at least loosely approximating the usual English meaning of ” league” (about three miles). At this rate, Mt. Meru is something like 252,000 miles high. The tallest actual mountain on Earth is Mt. Everest, at about 29,000 ft, or less than six miles.

  In the next quote we see that the impossibly high Mt. Meru is held to be the source of really existing rivers in India such as the Sita:

  “Ganga, the heavenly river flowing from the feet of Visnu and inundating the orb of the moon, falls all around the city of Brahma. Falling on the four regions, O twice-born ones, she subdivides into four rivers, namely Sita, Alakananda, Sucaksus and Bhadra. The river Sita flows from the atmosphere east of Mt. Meru and then through the eastern range called Bhadrasva to the sea. And each of the others does likewise: Alakananda to the South enters Bharatavarsa; Sucaksus to the West falls on Ketumala, and Bhadra to the North falls through Uttarakuru…”

  Kurma Purana, in Classical Hindu Mythology, p. 54

  The scripture then describes nine different subcontinents, of which one (Bharatavarsa) includes or is the same as India. Eight of the subcontinents are populated by people who live paradisial lives.

  Astronomy

  “Bhurloka, Bhuvarloka, Svarloka, Maharloka, Janaloka, Taparloka and Satyaloka are the worlds thought to have their origin in the egg. In the old stories Bhurloka is said to stretch out as far as sun and moon radiate their beams of light, O bulls of the twice-born. As far as Bhurloka extends in width and circumference, so does Bhuvarloka spread out from the sphere of the sun, from which sphere the firmament extends upward as far as Dhruva is located. This region is called Svarloka… The sphere of the sun lies 100,000 leagues from earth. The orb of the moon is also said to be 100,000 leagues from the sun. The whole circle of naksatras appears the same distance from the moon. Twice this distance beyond the naksatras, O wise ones, is the planet Budha (Mercury), and Usanas (Venus) dwells the same distance from Budha. Angaraka (Mars) too is the same distance from Sukra (Venus). The priest of the gods (Brhaspati/Jupiter) resides 200,000 leagues from Bhauma (Mars), while Sauri (Saturn) is the same distance from the guru (Jupiter). This is the sphere of the planets. The sphere of the Seven Seers shines 100,000 leagues’ distance from that. Dhruva dwells the same number of leagues above the sphere of the seers. Dhruva is the central point of this entire wheel of luminaries in which resides the lord Dharma, Visnu Narayana”.

  Kurma Purana, in Classical Hindu Mythology, pp. 46-47.

  The notion that the distance from the earth to the sun is the same as the distance from the sun to the moon. Actually, the distance between earth and sun is vastly greater than the distance from the sun to the moon.

  The stars in the naksatras (lunar constellations) are said to be closer to us than are several of the planets; but actually, all stars are vastly more distant from us than all planets. The listed distances between the planets are neither accurate nor even proportional to their actual distances. The stars in the Little Dipper are said to be proportionally only slightly further from us than Saturn, whereas actually they are vastly more distant.

  In addition to the inaccuracies, there is the strange omission of all mention of the outer planets (Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto). This omission is easy to understand if you suppose the Hindu astronomy was based on naked-eye observations; much more difficult if you suppose that such knowledge come from the infallible psychic insight of great rishis”.

  “The Absolute” In Hinduism

  Hinduism has many deities, ranging from 1,000 to 33 million gods, all somehow related to the “Absolute”. The Bible teaches there is only one God. The trinity is an idea not taught in the Bible, although accepted by many misguided Christians. Indeed, the idea of a triune God is essentially paganic. Hindus believe in a ‘Trimurti’, where there are three gods: Brahma, Vishnu and Siva. Yet the Bible by contrast insists that there is only one God, God the Father. The practical implications of this are fundamental.

  Implications Of There Being One God

  If there is only one God, He therefore demands our all. Because He is the One God, He demands all our worship; and because He is One, He therefore treats all His people the same, regardless, e.g., of their nationality (Rom. 3:30). All true worshippers of the one God, whether Jew or Gentile, are united in that the one God offers salvation to them on the same basis. The fact there is only one Lord Jesus implies the same for Him (Rom. 10:12). Paul saw these implications in the doctrine of the unity of God. But that doctrine needs reflecting on before we come to grasp these conclusions. Christ taught that the command that God was one and therefore we must love God included the second command: to love our neighbors as ourselves. The first and second commands were in fact one command; they were inseparably part of the first commandment (Mk. 12:29-31). This is why the ‘two’ commandments, to love God and neighbour, are spoken of in the singular in Lk. 10:27,28: “this do…”. If God is one, then our brother bears the one Name of God, and so to love God is to love our brother (cp. 1 Jn. 4:21). And because there is only one God, this demands all our spiritual energy. There is only one, the one God, who seeks glory for men and judges them (Jn. 8:50)- therefore the unity of God should mean we do not seek glory of men, neither do we judge our brother.

  That God is one is a command, an imperative to action (Mk. 12:28,29). It underlies the whole law and prophets (Mt. 22:40)- it’s that fundamental. If there were two Gods, Yahweh would only demand half our energies. Nothing can be given to anything else; for there is nothing else to give to. There’s only one God. There can be no idolatry in our lives, because there is only one God (2 Kings 19:18,19). Because “there is none else, thou shalt keep therefore his statutes” (Dt. 4:39,40). The Hebrew text of Dt. 6:4 suggests: “The Lord is our God, the Lord is one”, thereby linking Yahweh’s unity with His being our God, the sole Lord and unrivalled Master of His people. It also links the first principle of the unity of God with that of the covenant to Abraham; for “I will be their God” was one of the features of the covenant. The one God has only one people; not all religious systems can lead to the one Hope of Israel. ” The absolute” of Hinduism cannot be divided into parts.

  Consider the context of Dt. 6:4. Moses has set the people up to expect him to deliver them a long list of detailed commands; he has told them that God told him to declare unto them “all the commandments…that they may do them…ye shall observe to do therefore as the Lord your God hath commanded you…ye shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God hath commanded you…now these are the commandments…that ye might do them…hear therefore O Israel and observe to do it [singular]…”. Now we expect him to reel off a long list of commands. But Moses mirrors that last phrase with simply: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one” (Dt. 5:31-6:4). And in this context, he gives no other commandments. “Observe to do it “ is matched with “The Lord our God is one”. This is the quintessence of all the commands of God. And he goes straight on to say: “And these words…shall be in thine heart” and they were to talk of them to their children in the house and by the way, bind them upon their hands and on the posts of their homes. Some Jewish traditions, perhaps correctly, place the shema, “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one” in their phylacteries. And this is indeed the context. It was the unity of God and the imperative from it to love Him with all the heart which is what was to be programmatic for their daily living. This is why it was Jewish practice to recite the shema several times a day, and also on their deathbed. Dt. 6:1 RV reads: “Now this is the commandment [singular], the statutes and the judgments…the Lord our God is one”. And then they are told to write the statutes on their door posts etc. It would have been hard to literally write all 613 of them there. Yet the whole way of life for Israel was epitomized in the single command…that God is one. It was and is a command, not a mere statement.

  No Idolatry

  There is a religious impulse within all men, a desire to serve someone or something. ” The absolute” of Hinduism doesn’t stop idolatry. Generally, men and women sink this in the worship of the many idols of this materialistic age. But for us, there is to be one God, one channel alone for our devotion. When Israel rejected the fountain of Yahweh, they hewed out many other fountains, in the form of idols (Jer. 2:13). The urge to worship is there within all men and women. We are asked to concentrate and consecrate that passion solely for the one God- not to share it between the many things that demand it. Romans 1 goes so far as to condemn men because they worshipped the created things besides (Gk.) the creator. All their adoration should have gone to the one God Himself. And there will come a day when all the world realizes that God is one (Is. 37:20 Heb.)- in that they will realize that He alone is God and all else is pure vanity. Because He alone is holy, only He will be worshipped then (Rev. 15:4). “The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day” (Is. 2:11,17).

  We are just as much at risk from idolatry as were Israel, and as our Hindus today. Our worlds, our lives and hearts, are full of potential idols. And what, in the most fundamental essence, is wrong with idolatry? It seems to me that idolatry trivializes this wonderful God of whom we have spoken. It makes the Almighty Jehovah of Israel into a piece of wood or stone, or into a smart career or new house. And so anything that reduces the majesty, the surprise, the passion, the vitality in our relationship with God is an idol. Time and again in our lives, God is edged out by petty distractions- a car that needs repair, a leaking gutter, a broken window. One could almost weep for the frequency and the way in which all this occurs, so tragically often.

  Even under the Law, “Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger as for one of your own country: for I am Yahweh your God” (Lev. 24:22). The inclusiveness of Yahweh of His people, the nature of who His Name reveals Him to be, should of itself have led Israel to not discriminate against other races. Because Yahweh is who He is, therefore, we must be like Him; His very existence and being demands it of us (Lev. 20:7 cp. 19:2, 10). If we really know the characteristics implicit in His Name, we will put our trust in Him (Ps. 9:10; 124:8). If we see / know God in the experiential sense, we will do no evil (3 Jn. 11). To have the true knowledge of Jesus Christ means we will not be barren [Gk. ‘idle’] nor unfruitful (2 Pet. 1:8). When Zacharias wanted to have grounds for faith, he was simply told: “I am Gabriel…”, the man like God (Lk. 1:19). The declaration of God’s Name in Ex. 34:6,7 doesn’t include statements like ‘Trust in God! He’ll help you!’. Instead, we read of the grace, mercy, justice and inevitable judgment of God. Knowing and experiencing these more abstract things will lead us to a practical faith in God. Because David remembered God’s Name, therefore He kept His law (Ps. 119:55 RSV). This is why the Bible uses the idea of ‘knowing’ God in the sense of knowing Him by experience, not just ‘knowing’ the right theory. Likewise John uses ‘the truth’ in the sense of not just correct knowledge but the way of life it brings forth. All this sharply contrasts with the way Hinduism claims it is impossible to ‘know’ God.

  Other Implications

  The idea of truth is often linked with the fact there is only one God (Is. 45:5,6,14,18,21,22). Hindus believe there is no such thing as truth, partly because they fail to worship the one true God. This means that all He says is the total Truth; for there is no other God. Thus, one God has given us only one faith, hope etc (Eph. 4:4-6). Other belief systems can’t be acceptable with us. We deny Hinduism’s attitude that all religions have some truth in them. And it also follows that as James points out, faction amongst true believers is a lie against “the Truth”. Such was the crucial importance of the unity of God; and likewise, it should influence our lives, hourly. It is thereby so, so evident that those who do not believe in one God are far from God not only in their intellectual understanding but also in their living.

  The Personality Of God And Hinduism

  The Bible very clearly teaches that God is a personal being. His ways are morally very far above ours. And yet we are made physically in His image. We seek to adopt His moral image, displayed as it was in its glorious fullness in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. When Jesus returns, our bodies will be changed into a body and nature similar to that of God Himself. Thus, His plan to manifest Himself in His many children will be complete. His memorial Name, Yahweh Elohim- He who will be [revealed in] many, speaks eloquently of this, His essential intention.

  Yet the average Hindu considers that God is impersonal, because any other view of Him is too limiting. This has stopped them perceiving the wonder of the fact that God is personally righteous, and above all that “God is love”, and that God so loved this world that He gave His only begotten Son (John. 3:16). The true Christian response is that it is wrong to consider “personhood” a limitation on God. This contention is based on the more general premise that it is a misconception to consider any attribute when applied to God as a limitation. No right-thinking person should deny that God in His essence is beyond human conception and language. Of course, He is; God is infinite. But that realization does not make God property-less. It means that whatever properties God has, He has in an unlimited capacity.

  The Hindu devaluing of God’s personality has lead them to devalue human personality, as we I comment later. To be a person means to have greater dignity than to be person-less. There is a particular trait that is perhaps the most powerful expression of personhood, namely the willingness to forego one’s own advantage for the sake of someone else. When someone sacrifices his own wealth, health, or even his life, we see that he has reached the highest level of what it means to be a real person, distinguishing himself categorically from the lower orders of being. It is therefore in the person and self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that we see full and ultimate, real, personhood.

  Vishnu And Incarnation

  The Vaishnava branch of Hinduism teaches that it is the incarnation of God [Vishnu] in earthly things that enables some sort of human ‘salvation’. However, the Hindu writings are confused as to how many times and in what forms God [Vishnu] has had a manifestation [avatar]. The Garuda Purana lists 19 avatars of Vishnu, while the Bhagavata Purana lists 22 in one place and 23 in another. Clearly the Hindu writings as a whole cannot be the source of truth when they are so unreliable and mutually contradictory. If there is no real basis of authority, then one has to conclude as many Hindus do- that one is a Hindu merely because they were born one. There is no concept of being converted to true religion, because religion is merely cultural, something inherited and into which one is born.

  The avatar of God [Vishnu] in the fish [one of the defined avatars] is an example of how bizarre are the explanations behind the concept: “The Vedas were stolen from Brahma by a demon, so the gods sent a flood on the earth to drown him and thus recover the holy scriptures. Vishnu took the form of a fish, predicted the coming deluge to the saint Manu and saved him together with his family by leading his ship to safety”. Brahma doesn’t sound like the Almighty God of the Bible if he can have books stolen from him. The whole story sounds like mere fairytale, just as do the other supposed avatars of God.

  There are many contradictory aspects of the Hindu avatars / theories of God’s incarnation on earth. For example, in the Parasurama and Ramachandra avatars, two incarnations of the same god wrestle with one another. Yet each avatar is supposedly under divine control.

  According to the Bible, the one, personal God was manifested in His Son. This was His ultimate avatar. Jesus was not God Himself, as many Christians wrongly teach. He was prophesied in the early chapters of the Bible as the descendant of Eve, and also that of men like Abraham and David. He therefore didn’t exist as a person before His birth [even though many Christians mistakenly think He did]. He was conceived in the womb of Mary, and therefore and thereby He became the Son of God. His mother was an ordinary woman, who had other children apart from Jesus. She had to be an ordinary woman, to fulfil the promises that Jesus would be the descendant of men like Abraham and David. Yet He had no human father- God was His father, in that He made Mary pregnant.

  All this means that we see what God would have been like, were He a human being. Jesus could say that in understanding Him, we understand His Father. So, there was a practical and moral implication behind Jesus being God manifested in flesh. It saved us in that Jesus gave us a real, concrete example of how to live and be as the ideal, perfect human. But more than this, Jesus was our representative- He was one of us, and yet also the Son of God. And this is why He can gain forgiveness for us. His death and resurrection was therefore representative of that of each of us who chose to identify with Him. We do this by baptism, by dipping under water, into His death and resurrection. We sin, and therefore die. But Jesus, although like us and tempted like us, never sinned. Therefore, He rose from the dead and was given eternal life. By baptism into Him, accepting Him as our representative, identifying ourselves with Him, we can have the same eternal life which He now has. You can see, surely, the difference in the type of avatar / manifestation which God achieved in Jesus, compared to the folklore stories of how God became manifested in a fish etc.

  Due to considering the physical body a mere garment that is put on and off (according to Bhagavad Gita 2,22), there cannot be any real association of God with a physical body. Christ came to redeem the physical body as well, therefore His association with it was real. For the same reason there is so much accent laid on His physical resurrection, which for a Hindu would be completely absurd. True Christians therefore have a real, bodily hope. We will live again, because He literally died and lived again. The Hindu has no concrete hope as he attends the funeral of his loved one. For the Christian who has been baptized and lived in Christ, there is every reason to believe that the body which now dies and decomposes will be literally resurrected / recomposed at the return of Jesus. This was and is the wonder of the resurrection of Jesus, who is the “first fruits from the dead”, the one who has gone before us. The Jesus who went into the grave was essentially the same Jesus who came out. No wonder His friends held Him by the feet and handled Him in such wonder and joy.

  The Meaning Of Persons And Hinduism

  The Hindu view of humanity seems to me to devalue the human person. By contrast the Biblical record of the one God and the attitude of His Son Jesus shows a tremendous value placed on the importance of the individual. Our bodies are not in themselves wicked- our body can be the temple of the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 6:19), and they are made in God’s image. The Son of God Himself had a normal body like we do. And we are promised “the redemption of the body” through being given a body like that which Jesus now has (1 Cor. 15:52,53; Phil. 3:20,21). Our passions, failures, strengths and personalities are all used by an all-wise Father in His plan to develop each of His children to manifest Him eternally. By contrast the Hindu Scriptures claim:

  “The gods consider him a Brahmana (a knower of Brahman) who has no desires, who undertakes no work, who does not salute or praise anybody, whose work has been exhausted by who himself is unchanged”.
  — Mahabharata, XII.269.34

  True Christianity places a remarkable value on the worth of the individual person. If we perceive this, we will not consider anyone as merely an ” ordinary” person. There is no such thing, no such person. In my own search for a partner, and probably in yours too, I have observed the sense that it has to be someone special, not just one of the crowd, someone different from all those normal ones. This attitude has some wrong implications. If we perceive the meaning of persons, their value, we won’t consider those near and dear to us as somehow unique when compared to the mass of others. Everyone is special, nobody is like anyone else. This is how God sees His children, and we should reflect this perspective. It is this which will make us arrestingly different from the people with whom we daily walk.

  The Lord’s parables all feature an element of unreality, which flags attention to His essential point. The shepherd who left the 99 and went after the lost one was an unusual shepherd. Common sense tells us that one should think of the good of the majority, not max out on the minority. We invest effort and resources in ways which will benefit the maximum number of people. But the Lord turned all that on its head. The Christ-like heart cannot disregard the minority, however small or stupid or irritating it or they may be. For people matter, and the heart of Christ will bleed for every single one.

  The goal in Hinduism is to bring the individual person to the realization that indeed he is not a separate being, but rather a partaker of the great Self. So, the saying is “Atman (self, soul) is Brahman.” The goal of the individual through yoga and spiritual exercise is to realize and know that he is Brahman. This is to me an effective atheism, replacing the one true God by self-ism. And this is what the majority of human beings do, whatever religion they claim to adhere to. All Hinduism has done is to make it intellectually respectable. Hinduism teaches that we should lose ourselves, in that the individual human being should not speak or think of being an individual self. The goal in Hinduism is to attain detachment from self-desires and wants, and to become one with the universal Self. In the teaching of Jesus Christ, the concept of “losing self” is very different. Jesus affirms the individual self as a real and true creature. This individual self is never lost or dissipated into some greater Self, but is a created being with definite personal existence. It is “us” who are to be saved by the work of Jesus. We identify personally with His death and resurrection through water baptism, and then we live a life based upon copying and manifesting His character. This is why Jesus could promise that we will “see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God”. Then He will wipe away all tears from our faces. You and me, personally, really can be there in the eternity of God’s very real and literal Kingdom which is to come on this earth, with Jerusalem as its capital, and the places that are now barren deserts changed… At judgment day, with the prospect of that Kingdom clearly before everyone who appears there, the Lord will discuss our lives with us, commending the faithful for their good deeds, and criticizing the wicked for their selfishness. This is all something very real and personal.

  The concept that Jesus taught of selflessness was to forsake the desires of a real, independent self that are in rebellion to God’s ways. Jesus taught that man has lived in sin and separation from God ever since the fall or rebellion of Adam and Eve (the first man and woman God created). To live for the self, according to Jesus, is to live in sin. Jesus said, ” If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). This means to abandon the sinful self desires that are a part of human nature. This means to choose as an individual to live for others and for God. In this sense, the selflessness of Jesus’ teaching is the virtue of abandoning the sinful and destructive desires of the sinful self and pursue instead God and the good of your neighbor. The virtue of self-denial according to Jesus then is not merely something abstract, achieved within the meditating mind. It is not an enlightenment or realization of being universal Self. It is the individual, in real, hard human life, choosing to deny his real personal desires and to live instead for what God has said is good.

  “This is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the sacrifice for our sins”. Love is an issue of awareness, not a denial of individual self for a great cosmic Self. Love is a sacrificial act, a personal act of laying down one’s life for others, just as Jesus has done for us. True Christianity enables us to live lives that are real, to experience present life as a great and thrilling reality. According to their doctrine of maya [illusion], Hinduism seems to consider this life to be an illusion, an annihilation of the human personality. Sin is merely ritual disobedience or infringement of the caste system, not a real, felt, hurtful act against a loving Heavenly Father. Thus, Hinduism has lost sight of telling right from wrong in real life. Sin can be got round by paying money to a priest [as, effectively, in Catholic and Orthodox churches]. Yet the offence of sin is against God, and the way to attain forgiveness is only through the sacrifice of His Son and our association with it. Of course, most human beings are the same- they have no real sense of offending God, no sharp sense of right and wrong, seeing everything as an effective illusion, and deciding between good and bad behavior merely on the basis of expediency. And yet, again, Hinduism has turned this basic human condition into a religion. It offers no real salvation from it. In the real Christ there is ample, real and relevant salvation from sin and all negative effects upon us, from wherever they may come.

  Karma In Hinduism

  This is the Hindu name for the idea that our actions influence the fate and actions of others in their future lives on earth- as well as affecting who we are, in our future reincarnations. And yet there are many major problems in this view:

  The Hindu Scriptures are again contradictory in their teachings about karma. Thus, the Upanisads state that we are not reborn on Earth until our karmas are exhausted in the heavens and hells. Yet other Hindu writings claim that there is some kind of leftover karma to determine our worldly existence.

  There is the question of whose karma causes a recompense to occur -my own, or that of the person whose action repays me. This is left unresolved by Hinduism.

  Likewise, the question of how karmic causes coexist and interact with physical causes.

  There is also no meaningful explanation of how the vast complexities of the system are coordinated.

  Ideally, a theory should be simpler than the phenomena it seeks to explain. It is not clear that the theory of karma really achieves this goal.

  Hindus use the idea of karma to explain how they were born Hindus, and thus don’t need to search for truth nor have any conversion experience. Yet we as mixed-up sinners clearly need to repent of our sins, stop looking within our corrupted selves, and look outwards towards the God of love and salvation revealed in the Bible. Sadly some professing Christians make the same essential mistake when they reasons that ” God awakened me and made me to believe; I had no choice but to obey”. This is another example of where Hinduism, apostate Christianity and most other religions share the same basic false assumptions.

  Karma And Predestination

  The Hindu idea of karma is actually very similar to the idea of total predestination which is pushed by some Calvinist Christians. There are many sound Biblical reasons for rejecting this kind of philosophy.

  § It makes a nonsense of the whole concept of obedience to God. We are continually told in the Bible that we must keep God’s commands, and by doing so we can give Him pleasure or displeasure. This concept of commandments is meaningless if God is forcing us to be obedient. Christ offers salvation “unto all them that obey him” (Heb. 5:9).

  § Hebrews 11 shows that God’s intervention in our lives and ultimate granting of salvation is related to our faith. The many Biblical examples of praying to God for deliverance in time of trouble are meaningless if everything is totally predestined. Likewise, the idea of salvation being the result of our faith in Christ is also made meaningless.

  § Baptism is a pre-requisite for salvation (Mk. 16:16; Jn. 3:3 5). However, salvation was made possible on account of the work of Christ (2 Tim. 1:10), not through the abstract concept of predestination. We must consciously choose to associate ourselves with Him, which we do through baptism. Romans 6:15-17 speaks of us changing masters at baptism, from a life of sin to one of obedience. “To whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are”. This language of yielding oneself clearly implies freewill as opposed to unconditional predestination. The yielding is through obeying from the heart the doctrines of the Gospel (Rom. 6:17).

  § There is no point in God speaking forth His word, if we are ultimately predestined anyway. There is also no point in preaching; yet the Bible, both in command and by recording examples of this, shows that it is through the preaching of the word that men and women come to salvation. “The word of…salvation” (Acts 13:26) has to go forth to men.

  § We will be judged according to our works (Rev. 22:12). Why, if our freewill actions are unimportant in relation to salvation? Paul said that the Jews judged themselves to be unworthy of eternal life by their rejection of the word of God (Acts 13:46). They were judging themselves – God was not preventing them. If we say that God is predestinating some people to salvation and others to condemnation, then God is effectively forcing people to be sinners, in the same way as He supposedly forces people to be righteous. Because of Adam’s sin, “death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Rom. 5:12). This is why men die, as a punishment for sin (Rom. 6:23), not because God forced them to be sinners at some point in time before Adam’s sin.

  § 1 Cor. 10 and many other passages hold up the example of those in the past who once had a relationship with God, but then fell away, as being warnings to believers. The fact that it is possible to ‘fall from grace’ (Gal. 5:4) means that there cannot be a ‘once saved always saved’ system of salvation. Only by continuing to hold and live true doctrine can we be saved (1 Tim. 4:16).

  § Jesus clearly taught that understanding God’s word is dependent to some degree upon our freewill effort. “Whoso readeth, let him understand” (Mt. 24:15). Thus, we let ourselves understand the word – we are not forced to. There is a parallel between this and the oft-repeated words of Jesus: “He that hath ears to hear…let him hear”, or understand. Having ears to hear therefore equates with reading God’s word. Because God’s spirit is so supremely manifested through His word to the extent that Jesus could say that His inspired words “are spirit” (Jn. 6:63), it is impossible that God’s spirit would work on a man, apart from His word, in order to force the man to be obedient to the word.

  § “Whosoever will” can “take of the water of life freely” (Rev. 22:17), through responding to the word of life found in the Gospel. Here surely is freewill rather than predestination irrespective of our personal desire for salvation. Likewise Acts 2:21: “Whosoever shall call on (himself) the name of the Lord shall be saved” through being baptised into that name.

  Salvation In Hinduism

  Death is real. Many Bible passages stress the unconsciousness of the grave. There is a real pain in the loss of loved ones, which Hinduism seeks to obscure. But death and loss are real and they can be deeply painful; this pain is real and not foolish illusion, as Hinduism bids us think. Death and loss are not to be ignored, and they teach fundamental lessons for mankind. Jesus Christ came not only to provide forgiveness on the cross but has broken the power of death to those who trust Him, through His resurrection. As we have said, through baptism into His death and resurrection, we have the personal hope of a resurrection like His (Rom. 6:3-5). He could say in sober truth: “Because I live, you will live also”. Hinduism claims that the power of sacrifice depends not upon moral fitness but upon the correct ritual of sacrifice. Yet the whole purpose of the death of Jesus was that here was a perfect man, who never sinned, who overcame every aspect of our humanity, who died for us. And we can identify with that sacrifice and be counted as if we too have died to sin, and thus we will share in the inevitable corollary of His perfect sacrifice, i.e. His resurrection to eternal life.

  According to the Bible, the first lie was ‘You will not really die’. Hinduism and many other false religions, including those who believe in an ‘immortal soul’ within Christendom, are merely repeating that essential lie.

  The Biblical message concerns the establishment of the Kingdom of God on this earth, to be inhabited eternally by those who in this life have accepted His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and lived His life. They will thus share the eternity of that life at His return. This is in sharp contrast to the Hindu idea that “You are the world. When you transform yourself, the world you live in will also be transformed.”

  “Vaishnava Hinduism states in its major writings, the Puranas, that the god Vishnu causes a cyclic manifestation and dissolution of the world. Each cosmic cycle (mahayuga) has four ages (Krita Yuga – 1,728,000 years, Treta Yuga – 1,296,000 years, Dvapara Yuga – 864,000 years and Kali Yuga – 432,000 years) followed by the dissolution (pralaya) of the physical world. The whole cycle is repeated 994 times, which is a period called kalpa, and then a dissolution (pralaya) of both the physical and subtle world follows. 36,000 kalpas and pralayas make the lifespan of Brahma, the creator god, which is followed by a total dissolution (mahapralaya) of the physical, subtle and causal world. Then all worlds, time and space return into Brahman, and the whole cycle starts again in an endless process of manifestation and dissolution”.

  All these figures appear to be quite arbitrary. There is no actual evidence that this is true at all. I would argue that Hinduism is merely seeking to make intellectually acceptable the essential nihilism and hopelessness which there is in all those outside of Christ. Churchill admitted: “Our problems are beyond us”. Jean-Paul Sartre likewise: “There is no exit from the human dilemma”. And Hinduism effectively says the same, wrapped up in religious terms. The Bible teaches something far more hopeful- that God created this world out of love, in order to give Him pleasure, in order to give His people, the highest possible level of joyful existence. Creation was not therefore a mere necessity, due to its cyclical nature. It was a consciously achieved act of love, a decision was made by God and acted upon. The cycle of Hinduism is most depressing- there is no ultimate plan nor progression, and everything comes to nothing in the end. Biblical Christianity offers the wonderful prospect of eternal life in a real, concrete, definable Kingdom to be established on earth. The effort which we put into character development now will be eternally reflected in the persons we will eternally be. This adds a zest and urgency to human life and character development. It’s why true Christians read their Bibles daily in order to fervently know the mind of God and to be changed by His Spirit. This is based on the teaching of the Bible, rather than the confused and variant oral traditions of Indian philosophers handed down through human traditions. There is absolutely no evidence of the length of the four ages- if, e.g., a priest somewhere taught that the Kali Yuga age lasts 420,000 years rather than 432,000, who could prove him wrong? The whole thing is so lacking in meaningful doctrine. In the Bible, each doctrine has meaning in practice, and each one connects into other doctrines within the framework of the Christian faith. What practical, logical or moral difference would it make, for example, if the lifespan of Brahma is 6,000 kalpas and not 36,000? Or 360,000? These figures are purely arbitrary.

  The Bible promises clearly that this planet will not be destroyed. God is a savior God, not a destructive, vengeful being. He has a purpose which He will execute and towards which all things are related and purposeful. Consider these Bible verses:

  “The earth which he hath established forever” (Ps. 78:69).

  “The earth abideth forever” (Ecc. 1:4).

  “Sun and moon…stars…heavens…he hath also established them for ever and ever: he hath made a decree which shall not pass” (Ps. 148:3-6).

  “The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Is. 11:9; Num. 14:21) – difficult, if God lets the earth destroy itself. This promise has not yet been fulfilled.

  “God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it; he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited” (Is. 45:18). If God made earth only to see it destroyed, then His work was in vain. And yet the Hindu view of endless cyclical destruction implies that everything was created in vain. One can’t believe both the Bible and the Hindu writings.

  Right back in Genesis God had promised all this to Noah. As he began to live again in the new world created by the flood, perhaps Noah feared that there could be another wholesale destruction. Whenever it started raining after the flood, this thought must have come to his mind. And so God made a covenant (a series of promises) that this would never happen again.

  “I, behold, I establish my covenant with you…I will establish my covenant with you (notice the emphasis on “I” – the wonder of God choosing to make promises to mortal man!); neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there anymore, be a flood to destroy the earth” (Gen. 9:9 12).

  This covenant was confirmed by the rainbow. “When I bring a cloud (of rain) over the earth, the bow shall be seen in the cloud: and I will remember my covenant…between me and you…the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth…This (rainbow) is the token of the covenant” (Gen. 9:13-17).

  You can see rainbows today. The Bible has meaning for human life in practice. The rainbow is an eternal covenant between God and the people and animals of the earth, it follows that the earth must have people and animals living on it forever. This in itself is proof that God’s Kingdom will be on earth rather than in heaven. God has an eternal purpose with man upon this earth; He would not destroy the planet which He had promised to Abraham’s children as their eternal inheritance. And this is the promise which Paul says is at the heart of the Christian Gospel (Gal. 3:8). We find therefore that the Bible is full of literal descriptions of the literal kingdom which is to come upon the earth.

  Hinduism And Christianity: The Practical Difference

  Hinduism And Christianity: The Practical Difference
  The hope for transformation is not within us, but without us in the person of God. The inner man has been corrupted and we need the saving hand of God. It is through His undeserved mercies and grace that He first works. As we walk with Him, He teaches us His ways and transforms us through His word to be more and more like His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

  Hinduism tends towards passivity; Hindu prayer is overridden by a sense of being at the mercy of the fated will of gods and goddesses. And this sense of resignation leads to passivity. The true Christian approach to prayer is different; Biblical examples of prayer are of tears and passion. This arises from the knowledge that we personally are in a one-to-one relationship with the one true God, our Father, who is passionately willing to change things for the sake of our prayers, and who is willing to consider our life position and feelings; a God with whom we can wrestle in prayer, as the difficult children we are, as He leads us towards a real and tangible salvation in His Kingdom.

  COME OUT OF DARKNESS INTO THE LIGHT!!!

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