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Comparative Religion
07/30/2003
Adam and Eve, The forbidden Fruit and The Common Truths.
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ChritianityH: Hinduism:
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The Trinity.H:
Hindu Holy Trinity: Brahma, Vishnu and Siva. When Atri Muni was praying to one God, all three gods appeared before the muni and granted his wish to have three sons, who turned out to be partial incarnations of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva. They added that the ONE is all three in ONE that he was meditating on. (Bhagavatham Canto 4. chapter 1.C:
The SatanH
: Hindu religion’s Satan is the Asura. God and asura are the two sides of one coin. Sura is god and asura is antithetical to god.
C:Jesus said in Matthew 22:29, "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God."
H:Look at the power of My divine nature. (Bhagavad Gita9.05)
The one who knows my power is united in me and devoted to me (10-07)
Whosoever is blessed with glory, effulgence and power, know that it is only a fraction of my power. (10.41)
C"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
H:Hiranyagarba, the germ, the cosmic egg broke into two half-shells - upper gold, and lower silver of heaven and earth. Here Hiranyagarba is the universal soul, a product of nameless, formless Non-being. It is the Great Self, as distinguished from the individual self. This egg is the seed of the universe, just like a seed is a potential tree inside the seed. Author's personal bias: Hiranyagarba is the blue print for Prakara, Cit and Acit - the sentient and insentient. This primal or the stem substance is Aakaasa, which in its original state, is undifferentiated, and pluripotential
C:Creation, Omnipotence and No Existence before God
H:In the beginning, there was no Being. There was Prajapati – God Who created man, beings, and universe. Prajapati / Brahma, Brahman, Isvara and Narayana are interchangeable names indicating the same Entity in this context. They are distinct in their own special ways under different contexts. It is like calling Mike a teacher, a father, a brother, a son , a husband, and an uncle at different times in different relationships.
C:....... the Old Testament ....... Spirit of God..... the quickening / propulsive principle of the world.......... all life coming from God. The word "moved" or "moving" mean motion, ...... light, heat and electricity...... the Holy Spirit brooded over the waters; From chaos came cosmos, order.
H:. It was pulsating and propulsive. It looked upon itself. It was awareness itself. What am I? Who am I? Let me be something. . He created the mind. All that was there, was water. Then came the heat. Fire / heat is that in the water. Let me breathe life into my own self. Let me be a person / entity. Prajapati was born out of His own will.
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Work of Divisions 1st day – light, 2nd day - air and sea, 3rd day - land and plantsWork of Quickening and Adorning 4th day - sun, moon and stars, 5th day - birds and fish, 6th day - animals and man
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This formless awareness-Self, powered by kama and Tapas, bursts forth into this universe, the gods, the asuras, the two-footed and the four-footed ones.C:
"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being."Instead of saying, "Let there be man," as He had said, "Let there be light,"
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First there was Awareness -Atman / Light. From Vishnu, Brahma was born, From Brahma, the gods, the men and other beings were born. Just like a draft animal is yoked to a vehicle, so also prana (breath) is yoked to this body. It was awareness or divine intelligence. It was the word of god. It was a thought, before it became energy, material or flesh. "Let there be light" are the words of God. Hindus call it Vac - word of God. A word translates into energy or material, just like a thought translates into a chair. God is the divine mover and the shaker, and more.Nada and Bindu are two saktis (power). Naada (Nada) is sound and Bindu is dot, point or light. Nada and Bindu are the progenitors of Tattvas, the building blocks of the universe. Nada is Sakti and Bindu is Siva (Siva-Sakti); Nada is action and Bindu is static; Nada is white and Bindu is red.
He creates, quickens, and actualizes. There are many Maha vacs in Hindu religion. The most quoted one is : Tat Twam Asi, That Thou Art. Others: Prajnanam Brahma, Consciousness is Brahman. Aham BrahmaAsmi, I am Brahman. Ayam Atma Brahman, This Self is Brahman. Jesus said: "I and My Father are One" - John 10-30. He also said " Believe that the Father is in Me and I in Him" - John 10-39 Nobody understood Lord Jesus Christ. These two vacs correspond to the Mahavacs of Hinduism. (St. John says, "in the beginning was the Word and the Word was God, the same in the beginning was God.")
As Lord Krishna said : Bhagavad Gita Chapter 7: Verse 25
Nor am I manifest to everyone, veiled by my Yoga-Maya . The foolish don't understand me as unborn and unchanging.
Commentary: (Lord Krishna) I am veiled by yogamaya. I am seen in this human form that is usually associated with the jivatman (men and women) and gunas. I am beyond all these. My human form fools the ignorant, who underestimate my powers. I am Unborn, Supreme, Imperishable, Transcendent, Immutable and yet in this form, I am endowed with kalyana gunas. This is a divine sport to me and I willed this human form, so that my devotees can surrender and take refuge in me .
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Prajapati, Adam and Eve and the Single soul of Koran: Woman came out of man. Adam came first and The Eve came out of Adam. Koran says that God created one soul, a mate from the latter and countless men and women thereafter. Then there is the Hindu view of Prajapati splitting into two, one male and another female.H:
One alone was no delight. He - Prajapati - desired a second. He caused the self fall into two pieces. There from arose husband and wife. The whole humanity came forth from these two. I ( God) emitted all this. I am the creation. He created Rta, universal law. Rta and logos have some commonality between them. He created dharma. Just like the thread issues forth from the spider, all worlds, all gods, all beings including asuras come forth from me. According to Brahmasamhita Text 13, the universe and beings exude out of the porous body of the Lord. The split to create another being is the original sin. In order to correct the original sin, the gods offered sacrifice. The asuras were opposed to it. This was and is the struggle between the good and the evil.Recently geneticists have unraveled some truths about man and woman. It is said that man's inheritable mutations take place at twice the rate of a woman's, indicating an evolutionary spearhead in man. It can spearhead an evolutionary process or produce maimed bodies or minds. This goes to endorse the Christian view of Adam and Eve and the Hindu view of Prajapati splitting into two parts, resulting into two beings. Don't get ribbed on this rub. Just lacing the rice with spice. According to Koran 4:1, God created a single soul from which he created its mate and through them countless men and women. Since the Hindu scriptures predate the dawning of Jewish, Christian and Islamic faiths and scriptures, could it be possible that those religions borrowed the idea from the Hindus. Could it be possible that this revealed knowledge was given by god to different people at different times?
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"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat . ."H:The Supreme Spirit is the witness, the guide, the supporter, the enjoyer, and the great Lord (BG13.22)
The indestructible God who pervades the three worlds and sustains them. (BG15.17)
According to Subaala Upanishad (13-13), child-like non-attachment and innocence are the qualities to be developed. Innocence here means freedom from knowledge of right and wrong.
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The serpent, the fruit, Eve and AdamH:Those who have supreme faith in me with purity in thought, word and deed without any desire for fruits – reward – are said to be good men. Bhagavad Gita(17.17)
The serpent is an allegory for the inner weakness of man and his susceptibility to the gratification, disobedience of the word of God, and blame game. Hindus call this tree of knowledge of good and evil as false knowledge. It is called Avidya. This avidya / nescience is neither existent nor non-existent. It is inexplicable. But I will try. It cannot be existent, because God is the only real existence. But it is existent, because without it , there is no phenomenal world. Avidya and Maya are the cause of the phenomenal world. This avidya was too strong to be overcome by Eve and Adam and could not be dispelled by knowledge (Vidya). But it is not that strong that it can’t be overcome. This avidya is transient, ephemeral, unpredictable, but surmountable and casts a spell of Maya. This Maya is veiling, revealing and projecting. It veils the Real. It reveals the nescience or ignorance of the subject. It is projecting the illusion of this universe or the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This fruit on the tree is an illusion superimposed on the Real, that is God or Brahman or His word. This Avidya and Maya are the products of prakriti, the gunas, namely Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas. Sattva is good behavior, Rajas is action and Tamas is ignorance. Maya can be compared to a web. The spider moves about the web very easily, just like God moves about in this phenomenal world. The individual self gets caught in Maya, just like the fly gets caught in the web. It is like the honeybee drinking nectar gets trapped behind the closing petals of the flower.
What is Maya? This phenomenal world is a world of dualities. There is dirt covering the diamond. In this case dirt is veiling the diamond. There is a Truth behind a lie, ignorance or superimposition. There is a Real behind Maya. The web of phenomenal world is hiding the Real. Maya is a veil on the Real. Maya is the cloud between you and the sun. The Real is Atman / Self / Soul.When one is in ignorance, he sees the phenomenon and does not see God. When he sees God, the universe vanishes. There is divinity in all beings. In the ameba or worm, it is mostly hidden or obliterated by Maya and in the human, it is least hidden. Divinity is the same in all human beings and out of this comes morality. In the Satan / the snake the divinity is very much overshadowed and so morality is least expressed. That was the reason why the devil's moral values are low. Paul speaks of Satan as "the god of this world" and the "prince of the power of the air" since Satan, or the devil, is said to disguise himself as an angel of light.
This Avidya and Maya are not only a negative principle, but also a real power. In its negative mode, it is veiling - that is veiling the Self or the Real. In their positive mode, both project this phenomenal world from the REAL / Self, in such ways that we perceive this world. We are dazzled, befuddled, entertained, confused, taught, fulfilled, frustrated and more. We walk, we sleep, we work through it all. Our emotions are kneaded, beaten, rolled, twisted, turned, smeared, oiled, sprinkled, baked and garnished like pretzels through the gunas, namely sattva, rajas and tamas. We feel happy one time and we feel unhappy other times. How do we extricate ourselves from this vise of Avidya and Maya? We are innately equipped to overcome these by Vidya and moksa - knowledge and liberation.Bhagavad Gita explains knowledge and Liberation.
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God is really withholding something very important from you, Eve." Eve disbelieved God and His wisdom. Satan still has influence on people, giving them wrong ideas and thoughts on God. Satan succeeds. Eve's initial doubt and disbelief turn into disobedience. She ate the fruit and gave the fruit to Adam, which he ate.H
: When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and fell victim to the deception from the serpent, their innocence was lost, they became aware of dualities of gunas – right and wrong, duality of gender, duality of god and humans.
This original sin lead to many other sins that followed eg Cain’s murder of his brother.
Read "Creation............... for more details.