Islam and Christianity have damaged Vedic culture yet we consider them revealed religions – so are they part of Kali’s plan or have they become distorted over time?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So the question is that when we see Islam and Christianity, we say that they also come from God but then we see they have damaged Vedic culture so much. So is it that it is also part of Kali Yuga and Krishna Asman or is it that these people got the message wrong and because of which they did so much damage to the Vedic culture. Is that correct? Actually both are true.
It’s true that as a part of Kali Yuga, various religions which will come up which will not talk much about transcendence so much. And if you see even in Islam and Christianity, although the concept of love of God is talked about, that is hardly ever emphasized. So Islam largely has become, is not so much a religion that is a quest for spiritual truth as it is a quest for political power.
That’s how Islam is right now. So this does not mean that there are not many, that there are sincere Muslims who practice and there are great Muslim saints also in the Islamic tradition. And of course in the Christian tradition we have St. Francis, Apostasy and other saints who are like that.
Very advanced communities. So I would say rather than seeing things in terms of this religion and that religion, we learn to see things in terms of three modes. Goodness, passion and ignorance.
So in every religion there are people who are in goodness, there are people who are in passion, there are people who are in ignorance. And depending on which, on what is the mode of the leaders of that religion, that religion will eventually become either Sattvic, Rajasic or Tamasic. It’s prominent expressions.
So if you see in the Vedic culture, there has always been a separation between the Brahmanas and the Kshatriyas. There are these two centers of power. The Brahmanas are powerful, Kshatriyas are also powerful.
But the Brahmanas do not get involved in the world too much. The Kshatriyas get involved. In Christianity also we say Jesus lived more like a Brahmanical life.
St. Paul, who is one of the Apostles, he was the person who spread very vigorously. He is the organizer of Christianity. But still he was directly a disciple.
And then afterwards when the Pope, although he is supposed to be a priest, the Pope also had tremendous political power. So when spiritual designation and political designation gets mixed up, then the spiritual quest and the political quest also gets mixed up. And when that happens, then the religion doesn’t remain spiritual much.
And among all the religions, in Islam, from the beginning, the spiritual and the political has been mixed up in that. Why? Because Muhammad was not just a spiritual teacher, he was also a political fighter. And most of the followers of Muhammad, after him, they have focused more on his political accomplishments than on his spiritual teachings.
And that’s why that religion has become associated more with Rajoguna and Rajoguna politics also comes with Tamoguna. When I want power, I destroy others who don’t have power. So that’s how that religion has quite a possessive and destructive aspect to it.
But we have to understand that there is a central, there is a message which is not necessarily non-devotional or anti-devotional. These religions, at their core, they are also means by which people can, people were meant to be elevated. And people have become elevated by them.
But then, that by the power of time, things do get declined. And that has happened not just in these non-Vedic religions, it has happened within the Vedic tradition also. Within the Vedic tradition also.
So, yes, definitely we want to protect Vedic culture. And generally when we want to protect, we want a visible symbol of an enemy that we can attack. Somebody whom we can personify and quantify as the other who is a threat to us.
And it is very easy to sort of demonize these religions. Now, I am not saying that they have not caused harm or they are not causing harm. Yes, they have caused harm.
In fact, I have written articles also. Website, I have talked about conversion and articles about what the threat of conversion is. But the point is, we shouldn’t just get into a simplistic body-based designation.
Because after all, Hindu is what? It is a body designation. Prabhupada talks of sarvopadi nirmuktam. So, there he says we should not have a body designation such as I am a male, I am a female, I am Indian, I am American, I am a white, I am a black.
And this is I am a Hindu, I am a Muslim also. So, in that same sequence he puts it. So, what we should focus on primarily is spreading a culture of sattva-guna.
From sattva-guna we can have transcendence. And there are people within these religions also who are sattvic. Now, they may be less, they may be more in certain religions or they may be having influence in those religions or they may not have influence also.
That is a different issue. And accordingly, how we interact with them, that will be different. But the point is, we don’t have to sort of consider these religions to be intrinsically evil.
And we should see them as the source of all our problems. The problem in society, whichever religion it is, it is the lower modes. And the means is purifications by practicing bhakti, which brings us to sattva-guna, and which eventually takes us to transcendence.
So, certainly, if some devotees have that zeal, if they come from some background like RSS or something like that, where there is a zeal to protect dharma, a means to do something to protect from other religions, then they can do till that zeal in Krishna’s service. And that’s the way they may be able to channelize their passion. But everybody else, that doesn’t have to be the focus.
So, definitely, the way Prabhupada presented, he presented Jesus as well as Mohammed very respectfully. And he talked about them as messengers of God who came to elevate people’s God consciousness. Prabhupada said they did a great service in their times.
But then Prabhupada also has talked about quite objectively about how in Chaitanya Charitam, it is not mince words, how the Muslim invaders were destroying temples. And he said we have to protect ourselves from it. So, we don’t have to have both these extremes.
One is we demonize them entirely. And we think that they are intrinsically evil. And nor can we romanticize, we are all going towards God, so everything is good.
You practice your way, we practice our way. And we will be just friends. We can’t be friends in a very simplistic sense.
Because these religions, they may not be intrinsically against God. But they are intrinsically, very deeply against deity worship. So, if these religions spread, definitely there will be threats to temples.
Threats to deities. So, we have to have our own, eventually we have to have our Kshatriya way, which protects us. So, we have to see, if there are people who are sattvic, who want to live in a pluralistic, broad-minded way, we network with them and try to have some good relationship.
But if there are Rajasic and Tamasic people, which there are definitely, then we have to, what can we do? What should we do? Actually, to deal with these threats, there are only two things. There is rigor in our own sadhana, and there is vigor in our preaching. By rigor in our sadhana, we become more sattva guna, and we get more purity and potency in our Krishna.
And by vigor in our outreach, we change Krishna consciousness to more and more people. We can’t make ourselves as tools for spreading negativity about these religions. That’s not our focus.
Focus on presenting the positivity of Krishna consciousness, and the negativity, whatever is there because of these religions, people will themselves be able to compare. This is what Krishna consciousness is offering, and this is what others are offering. So, this is much, much superior.
And if some devotees have inspiration, to sort of do something to protect the broad Vedic culture, they can also do that. But that also should be more constructive than destructive. Constructive means focusing on doing positive, rather than just criticizing and pointing out the evils of others.
Does that answer your question? Thank you. Yes, sir, last question.