Christianity is simpler

[jaggin]

Namaste Jaggin,

First, your way of posting is a bit peculiar -- one gets no idea as to which point of purvapakshi (Sanjaya in this case) you are refering to. Second, your language skill is such that one does not get the idea that you are talking of 'Battle already won by christains over others' or 'Battle already won by all due to grace of God'.

You may wish to clarify. It is excellent, if you are telling us the latter, which is re-telling the highest Vedantic truth that bondage is thought. But, hardly one christian out of millions believe the latter understanding. I do not know yet what you mean.

Om Namah Shivaya

The latter. A crusading spirit entered the church but there is no indication in the Bible that Jesus ever condoned it. Saul (later Paul) had a crusading spirit against Christians and Jesus took exception to it. In actuality though the battle is not won by "all" but by God. It is still up to the individual to accept the grace that is offered.

I am not even familiar with the concept "bondage is thought." Can you explain it to me? I know that I am not bound by my thinking. Of course there is the concept in Christianity that you are what you think.

[jaggin]

Namaste

Just want to say that I did not reply to the above post thinking - let the ones well-equipped to speak , speak, rather than my meddling into this thread.

Unfortunately, on the surface this appears to some as - Hindus are "bowing down to statues".

Above explains why worshipping a form in the proper spirit
is not idolatory. In fact, by that logic , insisting that "Jesus (the form) is the only way" is idolatory ! This is what my earlier post was saying.

Jesus obviously did not intend to point at "his form", but to what it stood for.
Another thing many people of Abrahamic faiths miss , is desh (place/country) , kAla (time/era) , pAtra (subject / people involved).

Sanatana Dharma teaches us that all scriptural rules should be applied but not imposed without taking into consideration the place, time and subjects factor.

[i] Again, "Do you believe in Jesus ?" Yes. What is there to not believe ?
That does not mean that Hindus should throw away such rich and deep spirituality and submit to Christianity.

Christians have been asked to preach to those who need the preaching, and those who themselves come knocking on their door.

We do not preach to our Mother just because we don't understand Her.

We do not cut down the tree and the roots now that we have one specific kind of sapling, flower, fruit.

May we all see light

May none of us be the blind men in the story of "Six Blind Men and the Elephant". We are all pointing to the same elephant. Limitations of Language make us differ.

I do not want to say anything else on this thread.

praNAm

I hope you aren't practicing hit and run. If you didn't consider what you had to say worthy of writing it, why did you bother to do so. If it is worthy then you should be willing to talk about it more.

Take notice that someone previously referred to receiving wisdom from a butcher. There is no way for you to know how inspiring your words might be.

I definitely agree. However Christians do not worship the form of Jesus although the Roman Catholics probably come close to it. I dont have a problem with forms per se but I do think they offer the temptation to worship the form instead of what it represents and it also provides opportunity to misconstrue what the form represents. I heartily agree that Jesus never presented His form as something to be worshipped. Even the cross and the resurrection that highlight the form are representing something else.

No doubt, but that is not because it isn't there. That is definitely the difference between having a rigid law and a living Word that Jesus represents.

So if you believe that you should ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior that must mean you have done so already. What Jesus asks you to give up is His prerogative not mine. Whether Jesus would require you to submit to Christianity is only answerable by Him.

You speak for yourself. Christians bring the message of the gospel because we are required to do so. If a person has already heard the message we don't need to bring it again. You will be held accountable for what you do with it. Sometimes we bring a message to someone who has heard it because we do not know yet that they have heard it. I sometimes change my approach and bring the message again in a different way because it seems that people hear the words but just don't get the message.

That depends on whether the tree is diseased or healthy. Chistianity is a grafted in branch of the tree of Judaism so it is not out of the question for that to happen. However God takes exception to grafting in dead branches or live branches to dead trees. As far as I can tell Hinduism is a live tree.

[atanu]

The latter. A crusading spirit entered the church but there is no indication in the Bible that Jesus ever condoned it. Saul (later Paul) had a crusading spirit against Christians and Jesus took exception to it. In actuality though the battle is not won by "all" but by God. It is still up to the individual to accept the grace that is offered.

I am not even familiar with the concept "bondage is thought." Can you explain it to me? I know that I am not bound by my thinking. Of course there is the concept in Christianity that you are what you think.

Namaste jaggin

Thank you for the above and we be will be friends forever. For most of us 'the ALL' is also God, so the battle is always won by Lord. Veda therefore says Rudra yields to no second. Names may be different but the understanding is same.

Hinduism is many layered. That thought is bondage is an advanced teaching. One may think seriously that one is a General Manager and get bound. Another may just play the role (always thinking of God) and remain free.

Regards

Om Namah Shivaya