World Religions – From Bhakti Universal to Bhakti Confidential

[Talk to IIT Kharagpur students at Kharagpur, India]

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So in summary, I spoke today about world religions from bhakti universal to bhakti confidential. I talked about the three paths, exclusivism, my way is the only way, which is irrational because why should the unlimited God be limited to only one way. And pluralism, which is also so open-minded that your brains fall out.
If all paths are right, then one path is my way is the only way. And if my way is the only way, then all paths cannot be right. So we should be tolerant but not unintelligent.
So the proper understanding is inclusivism. One path with multiple levels. Levels of consciousness.
So Krishna said all people are my path. That means whatever people are attracted to, they are attracted to manifestation of Krishna. Whether it is a movie star, whether it is a place, whether it is a sports, whatever it is, they are attracted to manifestation of Krishna.
Everything attractive comes from Krishna, but everything attractive does not necessarily take us to Krishna. So we need to focus on those manifestations of Krishna’s attractiveness, which take us towards Krishna. A materialistic singer singing takes us away from Krishna.
A devotee singing takes us towards Krishna. But everyone is on the path to Krishna. And seeing the connection of what we are attracted to, and seeing this connection with Krishna, it is vital.
If alcoholic by drinking will not go towards Krishna, what I think is the attractiveness of this alcohol comes from Krishna to move towards Krishna. So this is the inclusive vision, not only for people who are following religion, even those people who are religious. When anything is there, they are attracted to evolution, they are attracted to nature.
That is how God is manifesting His attractiveness to them. Moving forward, we discussed about different religions. They are like different paths for climbing up the same mountain.
And we don’t have to be sectarian and claim this is the only way. Prabhupada respected Jesus because he had so much love for God. Prabhupada appreciated the reciting of the prayers and namas because he saw that there is another way of worshipping God.
At the same time, while appreciating that there are different mountains to climb up, we don’t get caught in making religion just another designation. Like the idea that a Jew and a theist. So the purpose of religion is not just to add another designation.
The purpose is to raise our consciousness. So when people try to convert, simply increase the number count, what is happening? They are simply moving from one place at the bottom of the mountain to another place and trying to pull people from here to there. No, you want to rise up.
So in different religions, there will be different practices and even different conceptions. For example, traffic rules in India and America are different. All religions are not the same, but they have the same purpose.
And even concepts can be different because God reveals himself at different times in different ways. It’s like, say for the human body, Allopathy and Ayurveda offer different models. So like that people may have some different concepts about God also.
And then we discussed about how in the Krishna conscious path, there are, this is the one path to go up the mountain, but there are some special facilities that are available. One is the knowledge about God’s all-attractiveness. There is an objective criteria about God, the definition of God, which is universal.
And there is a revolution or depiction of God, which is specific. But from the universal to the specific, we can move if we have open mind. The Christian can become a better Christian.
So if somebody is faithfully following Christianity, Prabhupada encourages them to follow, move up the mountain that way. The nominal Christians, Prabhupada inspires them to come this way and move on. Now if somebody says, no, but Krishna is not revealed in my tradition.
Prabhupada says, no, yes, but Krishna is not incompatible with the revolution of the tradition. Essential definition is the same. No, he is not revealed in my tradition, so I will not follow him.
The tradition is like a college. You go towards God. So you can ask such people, are you interested in college or are you interested in knowledge? If you are interested in God, whichever tradition you are involved in, you can take it.
And then lastly I discussed about not just God’s attractiveness, which is we see Krishna is depicted here in the Bhakti tradition and the conception of God as an old man with a beard in the Sustan Chambers. He is far less attractive. His attractiveness of Krishna can make us become attracted to him more easily.
And then there is the philosophical understanding of why we are here in this world and what is the conception of the other world. So the idea that all our relationship in this world will be perpetuated eternally in the spiritual world, that leads to logical paradoxes. And Bhakti understanding is, all of us are souls, all of us have an immediate relationship with Krishna.
A materialistic conception of the other world can also lead to destruction in this world because people, as I talked about in Islam, out of their love for women, they become killers over here. So when there is proper philosophy to understand them, then there is transformation of the heart. There is rigid determined practice of the process by which the heart can be transformed.
Ultimately, it’s not that we are proud of what we have, we are grateful for what we have and we try to ourselves practice diligently, raise our consciousness and inspire others to raise their consciousness. Thank you very much.