Will Christians in the kingdom of God see Christ as described in the Bible or as sages described in the Vedic literature?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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So if somebody devotes himself to Jesus and they attain the planet of Jesus, is that planet of Jesus going to be as described in the Bible? Or is it going to be as a description of the spiritual world given in the Vedic literature? All facts are only seen from some theoretical perspective. All facts are theory-led. So we cannot just take one fact from one system of thought and impose it on another system of thought.
We give a simple example. Say, there are two systems of medicine. Ayurveda and Ayurvedic.
In Ayurveda, a lot of focus is on the balance of Kapha, Vata and Tantra. And then there is the whole concept of digestive fire. The digestive fire has to be adequately strong for a person to be healthy.
Now if you ask an allopathic doctor, what is this digestive fire? What do you mean by digestive fire? There is no fire in the body. You cannot have fire in the body. So now what does it mean that Ayurveda offers one particular model of the body.
Allopathy looks at the body with another model. Now both these models, they are about the same body. But because they have a different erotical framework, they see the body differently.
We can see some similarities but we will also see some differences. And it may not always be possible to reconcile everything from one model with everything from another model. Both allopathy and Ayurveda will say, yes, there is a heart, there is a stomach, there is this, there are different organs.
Nobody is going to say there are different organs in the body. The organs are going to be the same. But the conceptual mode of analysis can be very different.
And sometimes although the same object is being analysed, the conceptual mode of analysis is so different that reconciling the two modes may be almost impossible. Even in science in the same way, there is quantum physics and there is relativity. And these two in physics are two ways in which physics works today and they are just not reconciling.
So one of the fundamental insights which we get from deep study in any field, whether it is scientific or whether it is philosophical, is that reality is bigger than our capacity to comprehend it. We can comprehend it but not fully. So that is why if we take concepts from one religious tradition and then we take concepts from another religious tradition and we try to say, you know, how does this match here? Where is this over here? Where is this over here? You just have to understand that the two are coming from two different frames of reference.
And that is why matching them is an exercise that has to be done very carefully and also it may not always work out. So now the specifics of the descriptions of the kingdom of God. Even in our tradition it is described that, you know, the descriptions are not exhaustive.
Yesterday God is bigger than the religions that are devoted to him. So no text can claim to have an exhaustive description of God or even of God’s kingdom. So there are certain specific descriptions of God’s kingdom which are given in our tradition.
At the same time God is much more than those descriptions and his kingdom is also much more than those descriptions. So now whether certain features which are described in the Bible are also there in the spiritual world as described in the Vedic tradition or within the spiritual world as described in the Vedic tradition, there are certain specific planets which are similar to what is described in the Christian tradition. Answering these questions will practically require omniscience which none of us have.
So once we get into specifics, we can just get endlessly bogged down in details. So our focus in general whenever we study scripture, once we get into specifics, we can get three sided track. So if you understand the scripture, whichever religious tradition the revelation has given, that is meant to inspire people to rise in their consciousness towards God.
So the description may be given in a way that appeals to the people at that time. Now whether the description is, no tradition can actually claim it’s an exhaustive description of the reality what it is. So it is done in such a way that it can attract people and whatever is described over there, that is the purpose, if we keep it in mind, the purpose is to become attracted towards raising our consciousness and attaining God.
So as I said, various possibilities could be there. It could be that there is a whole planet where the kind of description of angels and other beings that are in the Bible are there. Or it could be that those descriptions are simply given there culturally for attracting some people.
See everything that is in scripture is not necessarily the teaching of scripture. Scripture, everything that is in scripture is not necessarily the teaching of scripture. Because scripture also contains description of the times on which it was revealed.
So for example, say it is described in Chetan Charita Amrit that Haridas Thakur was not allowed to enter into the Chetan Matrim. Now that is not a prescription of scripture that people who are not born in Hindu family should not be allowed to enter. It is simply a description of the reality at that time.
So that description is not a prescription. There is a description of the social reality at that time. It is not necessarily a prescription for what everyone has to do, nor is it a description necessarily of how things are in the spiritual world.
So I would say that we focus on principles and not get too caught in specifics because scripture is revealed to different people at different times and to make sense to people at those times a conceptual frame of reference is used which will be intelligible to people at those times. But we coming from a different conceptual frame of reference will find it difficult to make sense. If we focus on the principle of raising our consciousness, principle of developing love for God then we can avoid a lot of unnecessary confusion and agitation of the mind.
If somebody is specifically interested then we can interact with say scholars who have done a lot of interfaith studies. There are devotees scholars like that also who have studied Christianity and Vaishnavism. They have gone deep into it and then we can interact with them and if that is a special interest or special passion that we have then we can do that.
But as a general principle it is best to focus on principles and see the commonality of the principles. Is the answer your question? Yes sir. You can repeat the question.
One of the striking thing is that in these religions the form of God…