The Quran is guiding us back to the Veda.
The clue to this is in the following verse from Sura Imran:
“The most important shrine established for the people [by Abraham] is the one with Bakka; a blessed beacon for all the people.” (3:96)
From the Veda we know that Brahman lays the foundation of the universe through his union with Saraiswati. <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:place>Om</st1:place> is the holy sound and word that is also the said foundation. Saraiswati is alternatively known as Baka. The universe emanates from the holy word. In the Quran the shrine is said to be built by Abraham, it is built with Bakka, and it is the most important shrine, established for the people, not merely for the Moslems, and it is also the blessed beacon for all the people. Incidentally, the same meaning can be derived from the very first words of the Gospel of St John:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
The holiness of the Word before everything else is essence of the Veda, and the same import is carried forth to us through the Upanishads, where it is said that the Absolute Brahman is pure sound. From ‘baka’ is derived ‘kabya’, which denotes literature, especially that which is from the highest inspiration. If we transpose the letters of ‘Bakka’ we get ‘Kaaba’. In the Quran the Kaaba is described as Masjidul Haram, which can be read as “the masjid of Abraham” or “the shrine of Brahman”. Thus we are still being directed towards the holiness of the Word. In the context of Sanatana Dharma this is the Holy Veda.
The Kaaba is also described as a restricted temple and a safe sanctuary, expressed through the word “haram”. Everyday we are finding out more and more how all the cultures of the world derive from the sacred Sanskrit, and even the remote cultures of the American Indians, or the Australian Aborigines, are not exempt. This does not imply that religion and culture can only derive from the Brahmins who impose their interpretation of the Veda unto the people. Quite to the contrary. The Holy Word itself provides the four walls, into the refuge of which we nestle, and then it becomes our domestic home. The Veda is indeed divided into four parts. Sanatan Dharma is all about the home. From its midst we know that all culture, indeed all existence, is coming from the hearth inside the home. The same truth is coming from the four divisons of <st1:City><st1:place>varna</st1:place></st1:City>, as well as the four stages of life – the chaturashram The same is sanctified through the observance of chaturmasya – the four sacred months. (The chaturmasya is also stated in the Quran, but Moslems don’t understand it, and don’t observe it either.) The home is the manifestation of the Vedic word in the material plane. Godliness comes from the home, is sustained by the home, and returns to the home. This is the safe sanctuary from the material world outside the home. There is no priestly imposition here. All of it is spontaneous manifestation.
The Moslems have yet to work out the true meaning of the above Quranic verse. The historical controvery is concerning the spelling of Bakka. Once faction insisted that it is a misspelling of <st1:City><st1:place>Mecca</st1:place></st1:City> (the mistake not being Allah’s, but rather of the transcribers, as if somewhere down the line a mistranscription has persisted.) Another faction said that <st1:City><st1:place>Mecca</st1:place></st1:City> must have been called Becca in the old days (though no explanation is provided regarding why Allah would include an anachronism into a timely message for humanity.) Some among the modern Quranists, those who reject the traditional way of Hadith and Sunnah, are telling us that Bakka is Jerusalem, and indeed there is a plain near Jerusalem called Becca. The controversy rages fierce.
Orthodox Islam will never accept this. But the fact of the matter is that orthodox islam does not follow the Quran. Rashad Khalifa proved to us the divinity of the Quran by uncovering the 19-based code that underlies it, and at the same time exposed the sham of orthodox Islam, making it clear to us how such Moslems are only idolizing the Prophet through the means of Hadith, which is nothing but discredited hearsay surrounding the Prophet. The Quran is a closed book to them and is merely recited without meaning. What religion are these ‘Moslems’ following? Let’s have a look.
There is another way that runs counter to the way of Sanatana Dharma, and that traces the path of the asuras. This way shuns the home, and instead builds a four-walled structure and bows down to it and exhorts the divine fire to emerge from within it. This is the way of Tantra. This way is not necessarily evil, as long as the Vedic word is abided by. It is nothing other than the material quest for knowledge, otherwise known as science. Tantra has the four elements, while science has the four dimensions. But once the Vedic word is abandoned both science and Tantra become evil. The organized religions of the world can easily be shown to follow Tantra. Everyone is agreed that what took place centered around the Kaaba in <st1:City><st1:place>Mecca</st1:place></st1:City> before the advent of Islam were Tantric rites. If one looks carefully one can see the exact same taking place today, only under disguise. It is no different with Christianity and Judaism.
Now see what happens if we transpose ‘Makka’. We get ‘<st1:place>kama</st1:place>’ – sensuality, or eroticism. The left-hand path of Tantra, is very much achieved through the means of eroticism. The science that is practised in the modern world, which follows the empirical method, is completely confined to the sensual way of knowing. No wonder its biggest fruits are plain justification of sin. This kind of science justifies greed, gluttony and envy (free market economy), pride (material evolution and progress), lying and stealing (law by precedence) and lechery (fine art). If this is in the West, then the ritualized version is in <st1:City><st1:place>Mecca</st1:place></st1:City>.
The truest Moslems are the Sufis, and they do indeed perceive the holiness of the Vedas. And to listen carefully to the Sufis is to imbibe lessons from the Upanishads, only within a different terminology. However, I believe that we have missed so far the direct connection between Brahma and Saraiswati in the Vedas and Abraham and Bakka in the Quran. Of course Abraham and Sarai of the Torah are counterparts, and I understand that previous commentators have noticed this.