Originally Posted by
vcindiana
If we substitute the word Love for JC in his statement I am the way..then it becomes compelling that LOVE (God) is the way and the truth and the life.
Love... VC
Namaste VC,
It reasons well with me. But if this love (which is your term for God) was different from the God Shri Krishna, then the problem would remain. Would Gods then clash? With Vedantic background, however, some of us will have a slightly different view but the differences will be in words only.
Shri Krishna also teaches "Submit to me" or "Whosoever is worshipped, I am worshipped alone." So, is Shri Krishna in competition with Jesus or Jesus's Father? Shri Krishna also talks in two roles as a teacher of Brahman and also as Brahman.
I have noted elsewhere the following three points.
- The enlightened being is not divided in objects. In other words, He is One and All - Vishnu, all pervading.
- Vishnu offered the beast (ego) to its deity and attained victory over all asuras and devas. We are also taught to offer our beast to Vishnu and attain a status like Vishnu.
- Yajur Veda teaches us to follow footsteps of Vishnu to attain unsurpassable victory.
When Jesus says "I am the way", it is not said as an individual but as an enlightened all pervading being that we know as Vishnu (or I must say like Vishnu to avoid wrath of some).
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To illustrate further, let me add a story (real happening).
In Ramana Asrama, devotees were singing a Ramana Stuti and Ramana himself was also singing with the group. The situation appeared very incongruous to a devotee (as it appears to us) and he asked "Why you are singing your own stuti?". Ramana said "Your problem is that you think that the Ramana is this". So, Ramana, the body-voice was singing to ramana the all pervasive, to Vishnu.
Some old Jews (and many in Hinduism) steeped in body sense cannot fathom that true enlightentment is that where the individual beast is gone. There is only Brahman, which is the way and which is the goal. So, when an enlightened Guru teaches "I am the refuge of all", the Guru is referring to primeval AHAM, that is God. And this I of Jesus is not different from I of Shri Krishna. Jesus has said "Father in heaven and I are same". Shri Krishna has also said so in many ways. There cannot be two fathers in heaven, since every religion accepts that God is One. Shri Ramana is recorded to have said "I am that I am", of Bible is the most elegant expreseion of the truth.
This is more or less the advaita understanding, propounded by all advaita gurus. If one imagines that I of Jesus is one and I of Shri Krishna is another, then there is going to be a Godly World War.
That said, I must make one distinction. Veda says that "Lord comes from heaven to guard". That must be Ishwara and Avatara. Vedas also say that "Aspirants by their penance and austerity cross the bank to attain immortality". These must be the Jivan Muktas. Though the paths are of coming and going, spiritually, however, these two categories must be meeting in union, as Shri Krishna teaches "A Yogi sees same everywhere."
In the highest sense of immutable Brahman, the coming and going are the happenings in states of Self.
Om Namah Shivaya
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