I grew up a Christian, but I am really starting to change my beliefs. I think Jesus is the highest incarnation of someone in heaven. Who highest one in charge in heaven?
Might me Vishnu, or Krishna. I want to know what you think.
I grew up a Christian, but I am really starting to change my beliefs. I think Jesus is the highest incarnation of someone in heaven. Who highest one in charge in heaven?
Might me Vishnu, or Krishna. I want to know what you think.
Vannakkam: Personally I don't believe Jesus existed or that there is a heaven. I'm a Hindu. Apparently you are at the very initial stages of changing your beliefs.
Aum Namasivaya
The question is not as to whether Jesus existed or not. I just want to know who is in charge in heaven.
Edit:You probably don't know very much about who Jesus was like most Christians today. Most people don't know that Jesus went to India and learned from the enlightened men of India then came back to Israel. We can talk about that on another thread if you want.
Last edited by AstralProjectee; 23 August 2011 at 05:31 PM. Reason: More info
Vannakkam AP: Nobody, because there is no heaven in Hinduism, just as there is no hell. I'm not trying to be insulting; I'm just pointing out differences in philosophy.
Aum Namasivaya
Sounds like there is a heaven to me. Vaikuntha is the highest heaven in Hinduism. So who is the greatest one in Vaikuntha.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven#Hinduism
Hinduism
Main article: Hindu cosmology
According to Hindu cosmology, above the earthly plane are six heavenly planes: 1. Bhuva Loka, 2. Swarga Loka, meaning Good Kingdom, is the general name for heaven in Hinduism, a heavenly paradise of pleasure, where most of the Hindu gods (Deva) reside along with the king of gods, Indra, and beatified mortals.[26] 3. Mahar Loka 4. Jana Loka 5. Tapa Loka and 6. Satya Loka.
In the Hindu Vaishnava traditions the highest heavan is Vaikuntha, which exists above the six heavenly lokas and outside of the mahat-tattva or mundane world. It's where eternally liberated souls who have attained moksha reside in beautiful and eternally youthful human forms with Lakshmi and Narayana (a manifestation of Vishnu). Vaikuntha is divided into various realms where various avatars of Lakshmi-Narayana preside. These include the celestial Ayodhya where Sita-Rama preside, and the celestial Goloka where Krishna and his various consorts such as Radha and Rukmini preside. The liberated human souls or jivas who live there engage in different types of relationships (Rasa (theology) with the countless manifestations or avatars of Lakshmi-Narayana.
"This way of looking at the Godhead is disconcerting to the Western schematic mind. In the Vedic approach, there is no single God. This is bad enough. But the Hindus do not have even a supreme God, a fuhrer-God who presides over a multiplicity of Gods. If there has to be a plurality of Gods as is the case in all polytheistic religions, there could at least be a tabulated statement of Gods arranged in some order of superiority and inferiority, each God having some distinctive characteristics of his or her own. But here we have no such thing, no ranking, no order of seniority and precedence, no hierarchy, no recognizable magistracy; it is all anarchy. This melee could not even be called a pantheon - a body of Gods, however disordered (Gk. pan+theos); it is a body of demons and evil spirits, pandemonium (pan+diamon)." -- Ram Swarup, quoted in "Defence of Hindu Society," by Sita Ram Goel (Voice of India, 1987)
Vannakkam AP: That's from a comparative religion site, and as you read is one particular view unique to Vaishnavism, one of 4 sects within Hinduism. So I am wrong. Still there is no heaven as in the Christian version. In my personal version of Hinduism which is not Vaishnavite, there is no heaven. The closest thing at all, and its not close at all, is the attainment of moksha, and that is absolute monistic unity with Brahman, so the individual jiva (soul) wouldn't even exist any more, let alone reside in some place that didn't exist in the first place. But each to his own opinion. In my view the site should have explained that many Hindus don't believe in it at all, but as BryonM just quoted, that idea is really difficult when one begins with a western mindset.
Aum Namasivaya
Last edited by Eastern Mind; 23 August 2011 at 06:47 PM.
If you want to see heaven in the eyes of our current world, just look at our current world and project it to a heavenly abode.
It would be impossible to have ONE single heaven, with ONE single deity as the supreme. That's called exclusivism.
Just because a bunch of people in the desert way back then felt they were special, it doesn't really mean they are!
Even the most hardcore Dvaitists would recognize that God presents himself in various forms, because there are infinite ways for us to have a relation with God.
You all don't understand what it means to have a hierarchy in heaven. If one calls another to do something the other will see that it is perfectly right and since they are both on the same level they will both agree that this or that will or must be done. Let me put that into your terms. Since they are both in the same ocean of consciousness and awareness there is no disagreements. Just as Jesus always listened to the father and did as he was told. Let me put that into your terms just as the Jesus (Atman) always listens to the father (brahman.)
And just because there is a hierachy in heaven does not mean one is greater than another. If one is greater than another it is not in a dualistic way. As a son is not greater then the father and the father not greater than the son. Though the father has a differnet role than the son and vise versa they are an equal. The father may be perceived to be the greater one but is actually not greater because he just has a different role.
I have a universal way of looking at things.
IMO, that's a very wrong way at looking at life at subtle higher planes. Do we have CEOs in there too? Because the way you put it, it almost sounds like a company.
Then you try to poetize this quantitization of heaven with Hindu terms. It's better to leave this childish way of looking at heaven to other lines.
And looking to the subtext of your whole post, no, people here are not interested in the preaching of Christian theology.
People here are interested in Hinduism not the incoherent philosophical mess that anything related to Abrahamism is.
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