Inquiries into the Absolute: Digest 62

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Digest 62, July 7th, 2003

 

Answers by His Holiness Romapada Swami Maharaja

 

*** You are welcome to send in your questions to HH Romapada Swami at

iskcon_dc with the word "Question" in the subject. ***

 

Essence of Religious Teachings

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Q 1)

If Jesus, Mohammed and Buddha were giving a message relevant to a particular

time and place, why didn't they give the name Krishna as it would have meant

the solution to a lot of problems of today? Just because they didn't, does

it mean that their teachings are not valid?

 

A)

Spiritual teachings are disseminated according to the particular needs of

the people being preached to, based on their level of spiritual advancement.

Lord Buddha's mission was simply to dissuade the cruel animal killing

practices that were being carried on in the name of Vedas. Similarly

Sankaracharya also preached impersonalism, according to his own statement,

in order to simply delude the atheists, and to bring people back to the

fold of the Vedas from Buddhism and other deviated sects. In other words,

their mission at that particular time was not the dissemination of

Absolute Truth, because the people were not ready for it. Their purpose

was to uplift the population from a course of abject degradation and pave

way for progressive advancement in future. While their actions amount to

incomplete revelation of the truth or even deception, their efforts

accomplished a needed step away from total material absorption.

 

Similarly, Christ's and Mohammed's choice not to reveal the topmost

understanding about the nature of the spiritual world and detailed

descriptions of God and His topmost holy names, given their particular

time and circumstances, was for very good reasons. They both declared

the fact that they were not disclosing the complete Truth in its entirety.

This does not invalidate their teachings but they are to be accepted as

appropriate to their time and circumstances.

 

Srila Prabhupada compared such apparent discrepancies between different

systems of religion to that which is sometimes found between elementary

and higher level mathematics. These 'seeming contradictions' were

introduced purposefully; distinctions are indispensable because it is

important at the elementary level to simplify concepts, thus leaving out

higher understandings.

 

Quite often, and naturally so, beginners in spiritual life are unable

to penetrate to the essence of their religious teachings and see the points

of underlying unity with other systems. It may sometimes even be important

for neophytes in spiritual life, therefore, to devoutly stick to their own

particular principles as taught in their own faiths until they come to a

higher level of spiritual realization and purity. Difficulties arise,

however, when we accept the external aspects as all-in-all and fail to

respect the differences in those systems laid out for others based on their

own level of advancement. [Then there are those who tend to the other

extreme of secularism and indiscriminately accept anything and

everything as equally valid and finally adhere to none. The result is

simply a complete loss of systematic spiritual cultivation.] The real

solution is only the continued education within different groups to

gradually come to a higher spiritual understanding where such apparent

differences are eliminated, once again as in the example of understanding

higher-level mathematics.

 

It has indeed been the prediction of the acaryas that there will be a golden

age in this Kali when all the different religions of the world and their

sub-sects will unite under the banner of Lord Caitanya's sankirtan movement

and at that time all of their particular understandings and realizations

will be synthesized in his philosophy of `acintya-bhedabheda' or

"simultaneous-oneness-and-difference."

 

 

 

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----- Festivals over the next week ------

Jul 10 2003, Thursday Ekadasi Sayana (Break fast 04:52-09:47) (Fast)

Jul 13 2003, Sunday Disappearance Srila Sanatana Gosvami

Guru (Vyasa) Purnima

 

*** NOTE: All times are for Washington D.C, USA, EST ***

For festival information for your city please go to http://www.iskcondc.org and

click on 'Calendar'

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** A brief biography of His Holiness Romapada Swami available at

:http://www.prastha.com/cgi-bin/uncgi/renderphilo.pl?ndx=2

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