If a Muslim wants to study the Gita but can’t accept God’s personal form what to do?

Transcript

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Somebody from an Islamic background is interested in studying the Bhagavad Gita but can’t accept the personal form. What do we do? Yes actually we sometimes equate personal and form but Islam is Mayavadis, impersonalists, they don’t accept the personality they don’t accept the form the devotees they accept the personality and the form Muslims are peculiar hybrids no disrespect to their tradition but their notion is Allah is a person but he does not have a form so you could if he is a person he must have a form so they say that, there are references in my book Idol Worship I have given references even from the Quran where they talk about the eyes of Allah the hands of Allah, the ears of Allah they try to say this is metaphorical, but if you look at the context in the Quran it is Allah is a person who is speaking and a person who has form so generally this is a this is we could say a cultural barrier that stops them because in their tradition in Islam it is said that worshipping God in an image that is considered to be the greatest sin it is said to Allah can forgive any sin but he will not forgive the sin of idolater and it is considered idolaters are the persons who are going to the worst hell and they are going to first go to hell so now why do they think like this actually this is there I will explain it elaborately all this in my book Idol Worship maybe you can give that book to him but I will explain this briefly for our understanding this comes from Moses from the old testament, the new testament and the Quran all of them they have new testament not so much but the old testament and the Quran they have strong antipathy to worship of God in any form so actually Islam, Christianity, Judaism they come from the same original tradition but later on their stress is different so Moses is accepted as a prophet even by Muhammad Muhammad considered I am the last prophet I am the seal of all prophets I have given the highest teachings, the final teachings so in the original tradition when Moses had got the 10 commandments he went up the mountain to get the commandments and the people whom he was leading at that time they took all the gold that they had and they made it into a calf and they started worshipping that calf when Moses came down with the 10 commandments he was so furious he said why are you worshipping this God I had gone to talk with, why are you worshipping this this image of God so he smashed that image stop this worship he said worship the only one true God and in their tradition whether it is the Bible, the Quran or both the Bible and the Quran old testament, new testament there is no positive description of the form of God so therefore they consider that any depiction of God is a concoction is a imagination and then they think God is up there and there is a depiction over here so some people they may say that you know you at least worship the depiction there is some connection with God but their understanding is that the depiction because people are not so philosophically evolved they say they will worship only the depiction and forget the reality and in this way the depicted image becomes not a representative of God it becomes a competitor to God the worship that was meant for God is now taken by the depicted image and that is why they say that because the depicted image is a competitor to God there should be no competitor to God and that is why they destroy the depicted images so it is not just destroying temples, deities this is not a part of fringe fanaticism in their tradition this is central to their history in the old testament whenever any king would conquer any kingdom it described in celebratory tone he went to that place and destroyed all the idols over there so they have a very strong visceral antipathy to the depiction of God in any image because they feel that anybody who takes the worship that is meant for God away from God that is actually an agent of Satan so they don’t consider the deities to be God, they consider deities to be representations of Satan and they feel Satan has to be destroyed so they do it with self righteousness what they consider as righteous wrath so because of this background for them to accept deity worship is extremely difficult now our understanding is that God himself is a person and that personal form has been revealed in our scriptures so the deity is not a depiction of God the deity is a manifestation of God and that is why the deity does not compete with God and take away from God the worship that is meant for him rather when the deity is worshipped it is God himself who is worshipped the conception is very different and unfortunately even in the Vedic tradition there are impersonals who also, whose arguments play into their hands actually you know God is not having a form but the form is just meant for less intelligent people, those who cannot worship they are formless so then they say oh you know you Hindus you are less intelligent so you need a form we don’t need a form because we are more intelligent so that way they try to position themselves as superior and they position others as less intelligent or even as demoniac so there has to be careful careful exploration if somebody is coming from that conceptual background there has to be very careful guiding of them upwards, so if they can’t accept the personal form, fine, let them just chant the holy names, let them appreciate other aspects of the philosophy, at least let them understand the soul and if they practice the regulative principles, whatever way they can, their consciousness rises, then this conceptual barrier that has been there almost from their childhood that will slowly break it will slowly get eroded and they will become more open to understanding God’s personal aspect but it may take time no need to hold their inability to accept God’s personal form against them because everybody has some sore spots you know, once I was sick for almost one and a half years and for this one and a half years doctors couldn’t diagnose what was wrong with me so they did so many blood tests that my whole arm was filled with pricks of needles for blood tests and finally when they had to when one more blood test had to be done a nurse came and that nurse was actually almost spent 15 minutes trying to find a place where there was not already a prick so that now the nurse could have said that you know if you have so many pricks, you already have so many pricks that’s your problem, my problem is to take the blood sample but the nurse did not do that that is sensitivity so if somebody already has a lot of pricks then you have to be more careful so similarly everybody comes with their background, so for them this personal conception for those who come from Abrahamic religions, for them the personal conception is like a very sore spot for them even little touch causes lot of pain so then it is our responsibility to not touch them there at that point and guide them in a way that they can gradually understand they appreciate other aspects of the philosophy their consciousness evolves and then eventually they come to accept the personal form also Bhaktivinoda Thakura has written a book on the life and teachings of Lord Chaitanya and there he discusses a very beautiful approach he says, you know, is Lord Chaitanya God? he says that many people in India would not accept that, he says yes what we consider is, as far as Gaudiya Vaishnavas are concerned, they accept Krishna as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is God and the many miracles that he has performed, they are the testimony for them, that he is God but, actually even demons can perform miracles, Ravana performed miracles also, so miracles are proof of divinity the important thing is, Lord Chaitanya has given the process of developing spiritual love and if we chant the holy name, if we follow the process, we will experience a miraculous flood of love of God in our heart and that is the essential gift that Lord Chaitanya has come to offer, so he says, even if you can’t accept Lord Chaitanya as God even if you consider Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as a teacher of devotion to God and you follow his process that’s fine and if they follow that process, if they get transformed, then gradually their conviction that Lord Chaitanya is God will come in them so we have to acknowledge people’s sore spots and not press them there just let them grow in their philosophical understanding from where they are and gradually they will appreciate these difficult aspects also Thank you very much Gantraj Srimad Bhagavatam ki Srila Prabhupada ki Gaur Bhaktavidya ki