What did the Vedic writers discover?

[suchandra]

By Robert Rock 31 December 2008

 

http://donigreenberg.com/2008/12/31/santa-claus-and-god/

 

I want to ask you to take a moment and see if you can recapture your thoughts and feelings about when you truly believed in Santa Claus. What was it like? Can you remember? If you can’t remember, we can at least capture something of the feeling by observing children of today. There is Santa, at the North Pole, spending each whole year getting ready for Christmas. Building toys for all the children in the world. Keeping track of each one of them, and what they want as they go through an entire year of new growth and discovery. But also keeping track of how they are behaving. Keeping a book with good and bad marks in columns, and adding up the totals during the twelfth month.

Santa loves children. He likes to see them happy, that’s why he gives them their favorite toys. He likes himself too. That’s why he’s so fat. He is friendly and jolly, but also can be very stern when needed.

I don’t remember how I felt when I experienced believing in Santa, but I do remember when I began not to believe because that was far more traumatic. And that may be the reason it is still in memory. I remember looking up the chimney one day when no one was looking, and seeing it was terribly dirty, and far too small to pass his body through. I pondered why grownups believe something like this. Does his body become smaller when he tries to pass through? And are there smaller chimneys in the world than the one we have? And are there people who don’t have chimneys - like Indians? I dismissed those questions for the moment, but the doubt stuck with me. I also noticed his moustache seemed to be glued on. If it wasn’t real, was he real? Then I wondered how he could get around to all the children in the world in one night. Nothing seemed to add up, except the grownups insisted he was real. Now I had two problems - one with Santa, and one with my parents. What was I to believe? I never really resolved this dilemma as a child. Things just gradually took a different shape. But deep down at some level the matter is still unresolved. Because I never really confronted the grownups, just hid the hurt, and made my own silent decision. It could have been a growing experience for both of us - the confrontation, and resulting mutual acceptance of the truth. I have forgotten the day when I finally gave up believing in Santa, it was so gradual. But now I believe in him in a different way - because he is good for young children.

Have you sensed by now that I’m making a comparison between Santa Claus and God? Let’s take a look. God loves us. He wants to see us happy. He gives us many of the things we ask for. Even in other religions, he is also known as loving - as the compassionate one, the merciful. Wise, all seeing. But, also like Santa, God can be very stern, doesn’t hesitate to punish, historically has been known to be quite vengeful.

While these are characteristics of the god of early Judaism, don’t we still believe this? Don’t we every day ask for something from God? Don’t we give thanks when something is received, especially when not deserved? Don’t we feel guilty about some of the things we do? Don’t we worry God might even know our thoughts, and judge us accordingly? It is immature for us to believe in Santa Claus at our age, but is it immature to believe in God much the same way? Maybe - maybe not.

Don’t judge yourself for the way you believe. Don’t judge others for the way they believe. If it works for us - for them - no one has anything to say about it. But I am troubled often at my belief in a Santa Claus God. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. If God truly loves us, why let millions in Africa die from starvation, from the cruelty of others - from plane crashes and auto accidents? The praying hundreds that went down with the Titanic. It can be explained, but it can’t be explained.

Is there another kind of God? - rather, is there another way to perceive of God - another way to experience God - than as a great Santa Claus? For example, we’ve been hearing that the kingdom of God is within us ever since Jesus uttered these words, but how good are we at achieving this? It’s far easier to think of God being outside of us somewhere in heaven or outside beyond the universe, rather than being in ourselves. I can’t help but question why God would think so highly of me as to place a part of him in me. I don’t regard myself as that deserving. We are all far more familiar with praying to God - “out there” than in here. So, what is the truth? How do we proceed toward a better understanding of God, than we presently have, and a better ability to sustain a personal contact with God?

Six thousand years ago these same questions were not only being asked, but the answers were recorded - in India. Writings which eventually became known as the Vedas, where centuries of discoveries were passed down from generation to generation, each new group of seekers studying the preceding writings of those before, and adding their newly maturing discoveries to the record. Until the answers that began to take shape were so believable and so true to everyday life, their writings developed into their present “New Testament,” the Upanishads, the Mahabarata, the B’havagad Gita and the Brahma Sutras. The theology, or philosophy behind these latest writings is known as Vedanta - “Veda - ante” - or the last of the Vedas. Their answers were so highly developed, they still apply to our present day needs - but the seeking continues, especially in the West, where they have recently been found to have relevance not only to Christianity, but to Islam (Sufism) and to reform Judaism. What did the Vedic writers discover, that is speaking so clearly to us today? Does it give us a clue to something beyond a Santa Claus God? Yes it does, and Jesus knew about it too, though not necessarily through the Hindus.

But before proceeding further, I want to ask if anyone is troubled by my references to non-Christian teachings. For instance, are you uncomfortable with mention of Hinduism as a guide to Christian belief? If so, may I read a brief passage from our hymnal - the footnote of hymn No. 581. (Read)

Let me continue by also reading a brief passage from a new book that came out just this year — p. ix, of “Children of Immortal Bliss”

The core Vedantic ideas of unity of existence, universality of religious truth and our indwelling divine nature no longer seem as strange to us as they did only 75 to 100 years ago when the general belief was that God was distant, in His heaven, and “the judge of the earth.” Many in the West who want a better understanding of God in human affairs no longer to this model, but feel that God may not be so distant after all. This is a momentous step forward. These and other related beliefs have been slowly filtering into Western consciousness, principally through the influence of Vedanta and other Eastern teachings.”

But where does this leave us? As revelatory as this is, are we to begin giving up our Christian belief, and begin following Hindu teachings? I think not. Let’s look at some of the sayings of Jesus:

Matt 7:7 “Ask, it will be given to you,” “Seek, you will find,” ” Knock, it will be opened for you”

Thomas: 2: “Those who seek should not stop seeking until they find.” “When they find, they will be disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel, and will rule over all.”

Luke 17:20, The coming of God’s Imperial rule: “People are not going to be able to say ‘Look, here it is!’ or Over there!’ On the contrary, God’s imperial rule is right there in your presence.”

Thomas 3:3 “If your leaders say to you: ‘Look, the Father’s imperial rule is in the sky.’ - then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you: ‘It is in the sea’, then the fish will precede you. Rather, the Father’s imperial rule is within you, and is outside you.”

Jesus was a master at speaking in multiple meanings such that listeners of all levels heard something of value for them. Those that believed God was in the sky, watching, heard that he loved them. Those who suspected there was something more to it than this - heard something else. We are no different. We hear what we want to hear.

But did Jesus know something about Vedic teachings? Scholars say it’s not impossible, since his town of Nazareth was on a trade route through which much of the world passed at the time. Or did he make these same discoveries because he simply delved so deep into himself, and found the same inner realizations as the people of the Vedas? We don’t know. Regardless, these ideas point to a path we can now follow that leads us beyond the Santa Claus God. Are you interested in discovering this for yourself?

You don’t have to. But it might be very interesting. It’s only a matter of choice. If the familiar God we worship, pray to and sing to is enough, then it is enough. But if it is not, then: “To thine own self be true” - seek for what you need. Again, a Hindu story in the Mahabarata spoke to this dilemma over a thousand years ago: Here the story is one of the god Krishna advising his troubled earthly follower Arjuna.

“For those who are not ready for the higher teachings … the B’havagadGita provides a compromise. Krishna says in effect, ‘If these ideas are too much for you … then throw the burden on me. If you can’t live up to these truths of the scriptures. If Truth is too strong for you, if you don’t know what the Self means, if you… can’t follow such an austere path … then throw all the burden on me. I will save you. Worship me and I will carry you across the ocean of worldliness to the other shore.”

Another way this has been said is: “Come to me all you who weary and heavy laden.”

So for some, Jesus saves. But those for whom this is not working must search further.

I am a Christian because that’s how I was raised, and I don’t want anything else.

But if my religion contains truths that other religions have, that I simply haven’t discovered yet - am I to ignore them because they call God Brahma - or Allah - or Great Spirit? Is not God one?

Western civilization has been coming to this point of honoring and discovering the Self within - through secular activities, like psychoanalysis, medicines, drugs and other inner-realization methods, but far less through our Christian religion. Are we now ready to take another look at what has been known all along in religious paths for thousands of years?

Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is within us and outside us. We have worshipped God for centuries - outside of us, but we have very little history in experiencing God within us. For most of us this is a great uncharted territory. But when we want to explore it, exactly how do we find and foster this inner self - how do we experience the God that Jesus says is within us?

It is a discipline requiring new study, search, and experimentation - and many more sermons. But it is enough for the moment to re-introduce these thoughts which many of us have heard before, in the hope of tweaking interest in venturing a closer and more sustained look.

While it is true, the Santa Claus God can be very good to us, if you need something beyond this, then maintain an openness to these new ideas - ones that might actually be very old ideas.