Are we worshiping the same God ?

[SHIVAJI]

Ekam Sat Vipra Bahuda Vadanti -- (Truth is one; sages call it by various names.)

-- Rig Veda

[Arjuna]

Ekam Sat Vipra Bahuda Vadanti -- (Truth is one; sages call it by various names.)
-- Rig Veda

God is One for sure. And any one worshipping God worships Him\Her only.
But this doesn't imply that any object of any worship is God (though God is present in everything).

Basically this is a common misconception that "all paths lead to same goal". Not only they may lead to different goals but they in fact clearly DECLARE they do so .

[sm78]

Basically this is a common misconception that "all paths lead to same goal". Not only they may lead to different goals but they in fact clearly DECLARE they do so .

Correct, and the misconception arises because most people have stopped following their sampradaya to embrace the universal.

Also the misconception is quite modern and a peculiarity among a section of Hindus and Western New Ageists.

[Kaos]

I agree, with both Arjuna and sm.

The Christian God doesn't even want his followers to have other gods before him. Certain Eastern religions, traditions and schools of thought are polytheist.

Buddhists even reject the idea of a creator god.

Therefore, how can we be worshiping the same God?

[SHIVAJI]

God is One for sure. And any one worshipping God worships Him\Her only.
But this doesn't imply that any object of any worship is God (though God is present in everything).

Basically this is a common misconception that "all paths lead to same goal". Not only they may lead to different goals but they in fact clearly DECLARE they do so .

This is what happens when one is concerned with pedantry and loses sight of the essence or substance of religion.

Sri Ramakrishna himself , practicing the various sects of Hinduism and then christianity, islam found through his own experience that all paths or religions, when practiced in earnest and true love, leads to the same goal.

This has been stated by the other masters as well.

[Arjuna]

Yahweh, the god of the Christians and Jews, was just one of the many minor desert deities of the Semites. Others were Baal, Dagon, Moloch and so on.

Yahweh of Judaism and Christianity is NOT minor deity (though in some past that was the case for common people) but the Godhead Himself.

Vishnu in Vedas for example was a minor deity, servant of Indra. But Vishnu of Pancharatra is the Supreme God. Varuna was Supreme in early Vedic texts but in Puranas he became dikpAla. Etc.

What matters is not chosen name of God but how he/she is understood.

[satay]

Namaskar Arjuna,

Vishnu in Vedas for example was a minor deity, servant of Indra.

Would you be so kind to provide a reference of this so that those of us who haven't studied the vedas can look this up to verify?

On a side note, let's suppose for a second that vishnu disappears from the theology of hinduism and doesn't exist any more for the Hindus...would that be the death of Hinduism?

Would we have the same answer from a christian if churchianity's god (major or minor) disappeared from their mythology?

Just something to ponder...I have no time to enter into a long discussion.

[satay]

Sri Ramakrishna himself , practicing the various sects of Hinduism and then christianity, islam found through his own experience that all paths or religions, when practiced in earnest and true love, leads to the same goal.

This has been stated by the other masters as well.

Namaskar,

But different religions promise different 'goals' e.g. for a true christian his or her goal is to 'be with God for eternity' a christian spends his life in hopes that after his death on the judgement day that he will be accepted in heaven because he accepted jesus as his only saviour and rejected the false religions and false gods e.g. especially the false gods of hinduism.

For a muslim, the goal is to be with 72 virgins in the heaven...

For a buddhist, the goal is to reach the state of nirvana and escape from the wheel of rebirth.

Goals are different. All paths lead to the same goal if goal were same but they are not...isn't?

[Kaos]

Goals are different. All paths lead to the same goal if goal were same but they are not...isn't?

Namaste satay and all,

I think, the answer to that, is the case of an illusion reflecting another illusion, creating further illusion, thereby leading to continued bondage.

[atanu]

God is One for sure. And any one worshipping God worships Him\Her only.
But this doesn't imply that any object of any worship is God (though God is present in everything).

Basically this is a common misconception that "all paths lead to same goal". Not only they may lead to different goals but they in fact clearly DECLARE they do so .

Namaskar Arjuna,

In what you and most others say there is an assumption that the particular emphasis of a guru or a sect is more powerful than God's will.

I do not think it is so.


SIVA-MAHIMNAH STOTRAM

Different paths (to realisation) are enjoined by the three Vedas, by Sankhya, Yoga, Pashupata (Shaiva) doctrine and Vaishnava Shastras. People follow different paths, straight or crooked. according to their temperament, depending on which they consider best, or most appropriate—and reach You alone just as rivers enter the ocean.

--------------------------

The differences in emphasis and language and different application by different cultures cannot obliterate the commonality, as thousand dvaitic vedic assertions cannot invalidate even a single advaitic shruti.

Because one without a second God is the beginning and the end (and the middle).

Assuming a permanent difference of goals and results, as you say is the truth, is actually speaking like a christian.

Om

Islam and Christianity, at present, glorify the roles of the creator and the preserver gods respectively. But I do no think that the transformation aspect is totally absent in these religions.


Om