Saturday, March 2, 2013

Discussion on God: Similarities of Hinduism and Abrahamic Religions.


Just like Abrahamic religions, Hinduism also has the concept of "The One God" - also called Paramatma(Sanskrit: Param-Supreme, Atma-Soul). Christians call it - Jehovah, and Muslims call it - Allah. It is eternal and infinite. It has no form. One cannot define it with words because It is perfect. If there is only one God in Hinduism just like the Abrahamic religions, then who are Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Indra, etc from the perspective of Abraham religions. Below, I will post my views i.e.  how I relate these entities to the Abrahamic religions. This is just my personal view and some people may disagree with this. I do not mean to offend anyone, My aim is just to show that all religions are just different ways to reach the same God and they are not that different. So I don't see any point in fighting over religions or in claiming that one religion is superior over other. If, by any chance, I offend anyone by this post then please accept my sincere apologies.

Let me start by discussing the Trimurti's in Hinduism i.e. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Brahma is the creator of all the material beings/things, Vishnu is the protector or the maintainer, and Shiva is the destroyer. I personally feel that, if you compare these entities with the Abrahamic religions, you can relate them to the Arch-Angels. For example, the story of Raphael signalling the beginning of the Armageddon, is comparable to that of Shiva doing the Tandava Nritya. Similarly it is said that Michel is the protector, leader of the Gods armies against evil; and thus is comparable to Vishnu. It is said that whenever there is degradation of moral values in the society, Lord Vishnu takes a human form to protect the righteous people from the evil and restore morality. Gabriel is said to have revealed the Koran to Muhammed and as far as I know he is associated with birth. I see him as Brahma, 
 the creator of the material world and the one who revealed the Vedas to the mankind. 

You can think of the Demi-Gods or the Devas (Indra, Agni, etc) as Angels(like Uriel, Ridwan, etc) . It is said that they live in the Swarga, which is similar to the heaven of Abraham religions. People like Buddha, Adi -Shankaracharya, Madvacharya, and other Gurus or Yogis who taught the people the moral principals and showed them different ways to reach God can be thought of as Prophets/children of God just like Mohammed, Jesus etc .

To summarize,

Hinduism == Abrahamic Religions
Paramatma == Jehovah, Allah
Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva == ArchAngels (Gabriel, Michael, Raphael) 
Indra, Vayu, Agni, etc == Angels(like Uriel, Ridwan etc)
Avatars == Angels taking human form
Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Adi Shankaracharya are all Gurus or Prophets or children of God .

To conclude,

All religions are nothing but different ways to reach same God and they are not that different if you look at it with an open mind. I would appreciate if you provide your views on the same.

No comments:

Post a Comment