WHAT NEXT??? LOVE THY GOD
Whatever your religion has been, be it Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam or Judaism, it is evident that you were lacking certain knowledge that is extremely vital for your well-being, particularly in the next life. The path had been one and the same all through.
You are a Muslim and wish to search the Straight Path. How will you know the role of Devatas in their Noor state, the role of the Manifest Self and the Divine Creation Plan that comes to effect even the self within us? You cannot do that without studying the scriptures and teachings of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Judaism. Suppose you are born in a Hindu household and wish to understand the Straight Path in its totality. You cannot do so without studying the scriptures and teachings of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Likewise, the case with Buddhism, Christianity and Judaism.
Just try to study the missing links of your own scriptures that have been sabotaged by Zulmat (Forces of Darkness). You do not have to accept the truth by subscribing to another faith. Just become a true follower of your own faith, apply your wisdom, and endeavour ceaselessly to come to the path of One God of the Universe, and start loving Him, worshipping Him.
Hold on to the rope hanging from the heaven, follow righteousness, remember your Lord in your acts, try to understand the real purpose of all your acts and rituals, and you will find yourself gradually climbing the steep ascent of endearment to your Lord.
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Love is truly everything. Whose love it is matters. It can be love for fame or fortune. It can also be love for a physical being. Some people love to be bad, they commit crime because they love doing so. The real and long lasting love has to be towards God. All other loves fade and die away but the more we fall in love with the Creator, the better it is for us. Atma has been created to unite with the Paramatma. That is possible only through real love where atma undergoes all hardships but remain fixed in love of God and in this manner moves towards purity and Paramatma; thus it gets closer and closer to moksha or salvation. But until that does not happen, the atma has to remain on earth, moving from one body to another. It needs body because it needs food for its sustenance. Since it is not capable of moving out of this world, it remains here and once atma leaves a body, it is given another body. This way it remains and has remained ever since the beginning of this world. I always say that the sad part is that if we are living in a material body on this earth in this age, it means that our body has been unable to attain salvation all through the life of this creation. This is the sad part. Upanishads say that the atmas that were obedient have already attained salvation in previous ages. Those who were ungrateful remain till onset of Kaliyug. This explains the reason why there is great amount of sin and crime in the Kaliyug. Because all the atmas that exist are those which are the worse: who have been unable to attain salvation despite God giving them opportunity after opportunity. This will continue until the end of the world. Due to its sensual and material afflictions, our atmas today tend to fall in love with all other things but God. Whereas the real love has to be for the Divine Creator of all.
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If you love somebody from the core of your heart, your efforts will be keep the person pleased, at all times. If you make God your friend, your beloved, how can it be that you think of ever displeasing Him. You know the only way to get closer and closer to God is through holding up to the rope of Divinities and righteousness. All your worship, all your activities, even your daily chores, must be performed only and only for God.
Those who perform worship in hope of heaven or fear of hell, it is not the right thing to do. How can you hope of getting into heaven without seeking God? Seek God and heaven may be the reward, but merely doing activities, performing prayers, meditation and doing other activities for love of heaven, you are putting heaven and God together. If God becomes yours, you need not worry about heaven, in fact if God becomes your, He might create a 1000 heavens for you… He might give you the authority to take whomsoever you like to heaven.
When we look in the history we find one person who it is evident performed each and every act of his life, howsoever small, for God. That person is Ali. Surely the rest of the Ahlulbayt too were on the same level, but since history has recounted more from Ali’s life, we are in position to talk about him a little more. An arrow gets stuck in the bone of his ankle. Whenever there is attempt to take it out, the pain is such that it cannot be taken out. Somebody suggests, the best way to take it out is when Ali is engrossed in prayers. While in prayers, the arrow is pulled out from the bone, but Ali doesn’t get to know of it. Such is the devotion with which Ali used to seek His God. Ali used to say: O my God, I do not worship you for the love of heaven or for the fear of hell. I worship you because I found you worth being worshipped.
Meditate, seek Him with all your power, all your energy, perform acts while keeping His remembrance in mind, and you will find all your sorrows, all worries, all troubles vanishing from your life.
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Buddha has cited several acts that are better than the sacrifice of animals. Better than this sacrifice is the sacrifice of giving perpetual gifts kept in the family where they are given specifically to virtuous recluses? Better than this is the putting up of a dwelling place (Vihara) on behalf of the Order in all the four directions. Even better than this is one who with trusting heart takes a Buddha as his guide, and the Truth, and the Order – that is a sacrifice better than open largesse, better than perpetual alms, better than the gift of a dwelling place. Even better than this is a sacrifice when a man with trusting heart takes upon himself the precepts – abstinence from destroying life; abstinence from taking what has not been given, abstinence from evil conduct in respect of lusts; abstinence from lying words; abstinence from strong, intoxicating, maddening drinks, the root of carelessness. But better than all this is the sacrifice which enable a man to uphold his morality, give his confidence in this birth and the next, make him guard his senses from getting astray, enable him to become mindful and self-possessed, enable him to understand the virtues of content and solitude and refrain from five hindrances and also understand the first Ghana. Buddha has described all these in detail signifying that good conduct, righteous living and abstinence from all that is evil and untruth is the best sacrifice that a man can give to his Creator. This is the true purpose of life.
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Fact is that religions are man-made but the God’s path is truly one and only one. Deviations or misunderstandings created all the religions of the world while the core of these religions is still the God’s true path, which got obliterated with time.
Since Devatas are the rope to salvation, Zulmat never wanted that true cognizance of the role of Devatas to get established. Man’s material tendencies made him worship the body in which Noor was working. Since we are prone to material afflictions, we all started valuing the physical personality of Avatars, whom we considered our own. Thus, we find that lovers of Rama, Krishna, Mahavira, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammad and Ali – all loved their physical bodies more than their teachings. But we forgot that these personalities became divine because they loved God more than anything else. They gave sacrifices of their luxuries, they gave sacrifices of their near and dear ones, and they gave sacrifices of their comfort, their emotions, their happiness all their worldly possessions and those which they could muster – for whom – for one who was dearer to them than anything else.
How many people are trying to emulate Rama to become maryada purushottam? How many are following Krishna’s teachings given in Gita? How many are working to purify their selfs, as Mahavira or Buddha had talked of? How many are following the path of Jesus or indulging in complete devotion to God, as shown by Mohammad and Ali? Yet we are ready to fight and die in the name of one or the other of these, forgetting that Rama, Krishna, Mahavira, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammad and Ali was the name given to the same Noor, when it descended in different bodies.
If you have read this BOOK, you have surely realized one thing – the power of Zulmat or Force of Misguidance to deviate us in the name of truth. Zulmat could deviate you because you kept looking at others – for what they had to offer – instead of searching the path yourself and treading it. Zulmat could also deviate you because it knew that your afflictions to senses and the materialism that surrounds you has left you incapable remaining steadfast. Path to salvation is again within the grasp of truth-seeking spirits. It might be the last chance for us!
But don’t cease taking lessons from your past! Don’t think Zulmat has accepted its defeat. It is still in the ring. It has several time-tested techniques up its sleeves. Some of these techniques may be so unique, you would not even fathom them in your wildest imaginations. Most importantly, it still knows you are prone to being pulled or distracted. Your ego, your worldly attractions, your anger, your fears, your own likings and dislikings, your unwanted pride, your fickle imagination, your self-made concepts and worldly values, there are so many directions from which you can be pulled.
As if the divinities already knew it, they have even prophesied this. You have realized there is One God, you have broken the boundaries of religion. You are waiting for the Messiah. Zulmat might send false Messiahs. Unless you remain open to wisdom, you will not be misguided. The moment you leave it…from somewhere it will get a chance.
Take examples. The native Aztecs of South America of the so-called Mayan civilization too were waiting for final deliverance in the form of a Messiah. Must surely be sincere in their waiting. Must be performing actions and preparing themselves for the time when the Messiah would arrive. Their Messiah was called Quetzalcoatl. Then there a time when they felt the Messiah has indeed arrived. It so happened that when the Spanish conquistadors arrived on March 4, 1519 under Hernan Cortes, with merely 11 ships, 600 foot soldiers, 16 horses and some artillery on the coast near what was to become Vera Cruz, the entire Aztec Empire succumbed to their feet by August 13, 1521. Part of the reason for his success was a case of mistaken identities, the Indians believing that he was a divine person named Quetzalcoatl whose return had long been prophesied, didn’t offer much of a fight and consequently Spanish got control of the entire region. The entire Aztec empire which inhabited a region encompassing southern Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Belize and western Honduras succumbed to Spanish feet. Once there, the Spaniards had no problem annexing the neighbouring territories.
Take another example from the war of Siffin between forces loyal to Ali and those loyal to Muawiya. Muawiya had succeeded in bribing a few people in Ali’s camp. They were at all times conniving against Ali. When Ali’s commander, Malik-e-Ashtar had reached a stone’s throw distance from Muawiya’s camp, and it was evident that Muawiya was on verge of defeat, Amr-bin-Aas’s satanic mind framed a new trick. Copies of Quran were sought and they were put up on raised spears. Amr-bin-Aas announced caliph will be decided on the basis of Quran. Those in Ali’s camp couldn’t see the trickery. Those close to Ali kept on saying the war is nearly won. Look into their trickery. But they didn’t. They were blind to reason. In fact they reasoned that there is nothing greater than the Quran. It is for upholding Quranic knowledge that they were fighting. Why fight now, when those in the opposite camp were ready to abide by the Quran. They argued and went to the extent of telling Ali they would kill him, if he didn’t stop the fight. They forgot Ali was one about whom Mohammad had said he was closer than their own selves. They forgot Ali was one about whom Mohammad had said Ali is with truth and truth is with Ali. The war was re-won by Muawiya from the verge of defeat. Zulmat’s stooge and agent consequently went on to become the caliph of the entire Muslim world.
Beware! Zulmat at times work on your religiosity to pull you away from religion. If you take lessons from the past, you will not deviate. Remember, Zulmat’s chief enmity is with you treading the path to salvation. It won’t like if you try to defeat it. It tried all the deviations, even went on to create a maze, so that the path to salvation could obliterated, so that it doesn’t have to put its efforts on various individuals aspiring to reach that path. When the path itself was forgotten, who would have treaded it? Now the path is known once again. One person here, one person there, few persons elsewhere will surely try to tread the path. Zulmat will have to plan its strategy once again so that some people do not reach the desired height… they do not reach the God.
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Hans Kung warned us that there will be ‘no peace in the world until there is peace between the religions.’(Hans Kung, Judaism: The Religious Situation of Our Time) One guarantee of peace between cultures and civilizations are peace between religions. We know there is no peace despite all the great universal religions are calling for peace, love, harmony, compassion, justice, mercy, charity and tenderness. For example, in the Torah, it says:
Be a student of Aaron: love peace and pursue peace.
(Talmud-Avot 1:11)
In the New Testament, it says,:
Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. From anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again.
(Luke 6.27-30)
Mohammad, the last Prophet, said:
You will not enter paradise as long as you do not have faith, and you will not have complete faith as long as you do not love one another.
(Shahid Sani. p.458)
Yet the sad truth is that there is no peace. Does it mean to say that now, when the boundaries of religion are being shattered, it is getting evident that my religion is your religion and yours is mine and all are deviated in one manner or the other, will peace return?
No! Not so early! If there is no peace, religion was never responsible. It was Zulmat or Force of Misguidance who had even created these boundaries of religion. Ego’s clash with other person’s ego, my anger’s clash with your anger or your ego, my desires coming in your way, you realizing your material pursuits are getting into conflict with mine, my sensual attractions getting in conflict with yours, my narrow mindedness with your sordidness, and more… these are the contributory factors for peace getting disturbed.
The day one man defeats Zulmat and moves ahead on the path of Divinities to reach God, he attains peace. Then no problem, no conflict, no emotional turmoil, no unwanted happening disturbs him. He lives in peace and nothing disturbs him. History has shown people whose legs and hands were being amputated, who were being crucified, yet there was smile on their face. For they had attained peace at far higher levels and such things didn’t affect them anymore.
In the society, peace will come only when an entire mass of society or a group of people attain that high level where their self gets into communion with their Creator.
However, if you think you are moving on the path of spiritual elevation and Zulmat will not try to disturb you, you are on the wrong. Divinities are the first to know when you start treading the path of self-elevation but so is Zulmat. It doesn’t want to lose one stooge. You contributed to its power till now. It were you and countless others like you who formed the forces of Zulmat (the power of misguidance). How will it allow you to move to the other side of the fence without making an attempt to stop you… through all tactics that it has up its sleeves?
We have been promised of a time when the Kalki Avatar or Mahdi would defeat the forces of Zulmat. It is only then that you can hope for world peace. Kalki’s rule will be the rule of peace and justice for all humanity and all creations of God.
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We all are yearning for happiness. The world around us tries to pull it towards itself in hope that we will get happiness. We run after all material things in the same hope. But hopes are belied. If we get moments of happiness, there are also moments when happiness eludes us. We see it in the form of loss of our near and dear ones, loss of health, loss of property, poverty, hunger, feuds and skirmishes, and various other conflicts. What is happiness? How to get it? And how to retain it?
People around us give hope that happiness would come which we get this or that? We run after it as we run after mirage. At times we believe if we reach such and such position in life, there will be happiness around. Some feel if they are able to build a house of their dreams, there will be happiness. Few others feel if they have so much of money they will become happy. Certain woman may think if she has so much of sarees or sandals or jewellery, she will be happy. Some look for happiness in their children; those who are older look for the same in their grandchildren. Life ends but happiness eludes us as a fish slips out of the hands and goes back into the water. Hopes keep getting belied and yet you keep generating new hopes. Even when you reach the mouth of the grave, you still continue to hope… of a better next life, of heaven, of Apsaras, and more.
The world outside merely give you illusions and… more illusions. Happiness is right inside you but you search for it outside. For getting pure happiness, you will have to understand the purpose of your creation. Quran says man has been created so that he worships God. Upanishads say the Manifest Self (Paramatma or Rooh or Divine Spirit or Vishnu) worshipped God extensively and when it desired there be more worshippers, God allowed it to have more worshippers. Thus, a process led to creation of man, but before that the Divinities were created as a link between Manifest Self and man. If we get to know this, we will know where to search for happiness.
There is something else that needs to be known. If the Manifest Self or God wanted mere people who chant Aum or Allah-o-Akbar all times, who keep praising the God, or remain in prostration all through millions of years, It had thousands and thousands of angels at Its disposal. It could have created more. Angels continue to perform what duty they have been assigned, as robots created by the Manifest Self. Does God gain anything from their worship?
Not that God gains anything from our worship? But the Manifest Self wanted to have more worshippers and God gave the Manifest Self the go-ahead. Till here it was fine. But when the Manifest Self created a Noor so that there be more worshippers, Zulmat too got created. We are not in position to say precisely whether the Manifest Self wanted to create Noor and God created the Zulmat too so that there be a test for subsequent creation or whether the Manifest Self created Noor and Zulmat as part of a plan for man. From Quran, which says the Manifest Self is the creator of Noor and Zulmat, it appears the Manifest Self created the two in full knowledge that man is to be created subsequently, for whom there will be a test. Test is to defeat the Zulmat, identify the Noor and reach the Manifest Self. This has to be a process carried out inside us and not outside. Zulmat tries to lure us to the fallacy of material charms, this and that and you run after it in hope you will get happiness. Only when you will cut yourself off from these external afflictions and attractions that you will develop the capacity to look within. External actions, performed ritualistically, have no meaning if they do not affect the self within. A true wayfarer lives in the world, perform all actions, interacts, talks, laughs, earn a living, but he detaches himself from the attractions and afflictions of the outside world. He knows everything around is a mirage that will disappear soon. Even our body, to keep it young, glowing and healthy, we perform so many activities, will no longer remain with the self. Our self will become alone as soon as it leaves the body.
Therefore, the intelligent person is one who prepares for that eventuality. He finds a companion for his self that will always remain with the self. He will never be alone, never forsaken. Quran says those who die in the path of God, don’t consider them as dead, they are alive and seek sustenance from the Lord. Upanishads too, we have shown in Part-I, talk of company and food for such a person. This happiness won’t die in a matter of few days. This will be permanent happiness. Those who are able to build this relationship, while the self has still not deserted their body, find happiness in this world too. Nothing from outside affects their peace. Upon death, they will be the people who moved ahead (as per Quran); they will be those who attained salvation or moksha or nirvana.
It does not matter if you are born in a Buddhist household, a Christian household, a Hindu household, a Muslim household or a Jew household or in the household of followers of any other religion or path. If you wish to attain permanent bliss, the path is one. You have your own Avatars and Prophets. You have your own scriptures. We have proved they all are identifying the same path. If you couldn’t understand it so far, it was your fault. From your own scriptures, find the path. Follow what your scriptures say. When you identify the Divine Rope, hold on to it. Two things are essential for attaining salvation. Without these two prerequisites, no salvation can be obtained. One is the identification of the rope that leads to the Manifest Self, which is the link between us and the Manifest Self. That rope has been hanging down from heavens all through the times for us to hold it and climb it. This is the reason why Imam Jafar al-Sadiq, the eighth Ahlulbayt asked us: Remember, Tauba (seeking pardon from sins) cannot be accepted, even if a person’s head is severed from body while in prostration, if his heart doesn’t agree to our vicegerency (of God). [Source: Hadiyat-ush Shia, p. 103]. This mean to say until you identify the role of the Divinities as rope to salvation. If you have read our commentary of Gita, you will find Manifest Self (from the mouth of Krishna) too is talking on the same lines when he says that those who perform good deeds, but are unable to attain salvation, are given birth either in the families of Kings or of the Devatas. This shows righteousness as the sole factor is not enough to attain salvation. Neither does one attain salvation without righteousness and a certain level of purity of soul.
Question arises, why birth in the families of the Kings and the Devatas? This is so because one born in the family of King or Devata has greater chance of reaching the truth regarding the other aspect essential for salvation, i.e. the rope hanging from heaven or in other words, the inverted tree with roots in heaven and branches coming down to the earth. Another question arises, what is the family of a Devata? When one or the other Noor descends in human body on earth and the Devata lives as a normal human being, he is likely to have children as well, who will bear children and then more children. The progeny of a Divine Spirit in human body is called the family of the Devatas.
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Those who attain happiness in this world live like Kings while being among the beggars. They live in the company of those desirous of worldly gains but remain undesirous. If you look around, there have been so many people who have attained this happiness; who have realized happiness is not in the world outside but within us. People who have treaded that inward journey and reached God, remain satisfied, contented and happy. But they are not to be deified. This is the mistake that we commit; we start worshipping them. Like in the case of Sai Baba, Nizamuddin Aulia or Moinuddin Chishti. They were self-realized people who were in communion with the Manifest Self, while their bodies remained on earth. Did they ever say they are to be worshipped? If God was listening to prayers from their doorsteps, it was because it was listening to prayers from all such places where people, despite their mistaken beliefs, were coming to the doorsteps of people who have treaded the right path.
God knew each of us is deviated. He knew Zulmat had created a maze and it was not in our capacity to break that maze until He wished so. Due to this deviation each of us, with whatever beliefs, considered ourselves on the right path. Despite the fact that we are wayward subjects of His Empire, God loves us the most. As we have quoted from an Upanishad earlier, each of the self is dear. It pains the divinities if any of the self gets into the clutches of Zulmat and reach the stage from where there is no coming back. The Divine Powers are ceaselessly trying to show us the way; they are working on our consciousness so that we come to the path of worship and subservience. If we are not finding the path, it is because we are asleep; we have been numbed to sleep amidst the charms of sensual attractions and afflictions.
The day you wake up and realize you will not find happiness anywhere around that day you will stand up with full awakening. Your eyes will not fall on others, nor will you seek anybody else to gain happiness. You will realize there is definitely happiness in the world but not in things wherein you seek happiness. Conscience will come. It is courtesy the divinities. But conscience is given only to a person who is found striving for truth. This conscience will itself enlighten you; make you happy. Your search for happiness in the outside world will stop. From now on, you will only keep going deeper and deeper within you.
This shows there is happiness. It can be found. If there was no happiness, what was the purpose of life, of religion and of our creation? But this happiness has to be sought. The purpose of Divine Avatars was to shows us the path of this happiness, of permanent bliss.
We have given you the example of Ali in whose ankle an arrow had pierced the bone. The arrow was taken out while he was engrossed in worship. Imagine, where he would have been, at levels of spirituality, in communion with the Creator, so that he couldn’t get to know of the arrow being removed. Look at Mahavira! It is said insects crawled on his body. They bit him. But he continued to remain in communion with his Lord. Look at Buddha! Did they do all this so that we start marvelling at them and begin to worship them? Did they ever say Buddha wanted statues of himself erected with names like laughing Buddha, reclining Buddha and standing Buddha? Recall the first congregation after the death of Buddha which decided events of the life of Buddha are not to be kept. You did not save the events of his life, so that we could take lessons from them, but you are happy creating replicas of his physical body, which is no more.
If we believe all this, there will be nobody more foolish than us. These people, while engaged in meditation and worship were engrossed in creating a communion with someone else and we deify them. Sai Baba talked of One God (Ek Khuda) all his life. Yet we deified Sai Baba himself. Manifest Self was indeed talking from the mouth of Krishna, but the same Manifest Self was talking of need to subjugate oneself to the Absolute God. Manifest Self was referring to the Absolute with words like ‘He’, ‘His’ or ‘Him’ in Third Person. Since we had made a belief that Paramatma is God, we overlooked all the conversation of Gita.
Buddha said pain is the hammer of God; Devata gives us pains to groom us towards betterment. Pains that we undergo are lessons for us to introspect and think. At times, pain make us return to God, when we had forgotten Him in good times. Due to pain, we start worshipping and praying to God in hope that the pain is removed. Even Buddha is confirming to the Devata’s role in leading us to God. We have shown, they have been created for the same purpose.
At times these pains are given to individuals. But there are times when the Devatas use the hammer of pain for collection of individuals. As it happened in the case of tsunami, about which we have talked about under the heading ‘Counterpoint’. We know IndraDeva is the Lord of thunder and rain. If the whole of south China gets immersed in water due to great intensity of rain, so much so that dams collapse, if there are greater number of natural calamities occurring than they ever occurred in world history, this could be the reason. The world is so engrossed in material pursuits that it has forgotten the purpose of its creation. Paramatma is angry; the Devatas are angry.
If we say there is pain and agony in the world around, it is because it is the very nature of material world. What else could you expect of Zulmat? You have been charmed by Forces of Darkness, which are the forces of evil. Would a force of evil think of your betterment, of your well-being? Never! It has its own mission to complete. And you are used as objects, which are pulled and pushed, played with, made to whirl in the whirlpool of delusion and ignorance, but always kept away from the Straight Path. What more could you expect of Forces of Darkness!
It is as if you asked the Path from a person and he shows you another path, different from the path that would lead you to your destination. Far away from the path, you sought the path again, and you are deviated in another direction. This will continue to happen until you stop asking for the path from those already deviated… from the agents of Zulmat. You will find the path only in the scriptures sent by God. Once you really search in your respective scriptures, the Straight Path – the shortest one – will become ignited right in front of you for you to tread upon.
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Quran (Chapter al-Qadr) talks of the Rooh (Spirit) and angels standing subservient to the Lord. Rooh, we have seen is the Divine Spirit or Manifest Self or Paramatma which is one but which created the Noor that divided manifold to become the various Divinities. Muslims, who had discarded all the previous scriptures, owing to they belonging to people of other religion, couldn’t understand what is meant by Rooh. If they had the inclination of reading the so-caleld Hindu scriptures, they would have reached the truth about Rooh (Paramatma)? But why they would have done this, as they had already labelled the entire mass of Hindus as kafirs, and reading their scriptures would have lead them astray! Lately, some of them did start reading these scriptures but only with the purpose of showing and proving the supremacy of their religion, just as the earlier day Christian scholars had done. Never was inclination to seek truth, from wherever it comes, and therefore they couldn’t understand these scriptures. Ironically, it is those very scriptures that are showing the true path to the world.
Had they read the description of Divine Spirit in Jew and Christian scriptures, there was some chance they could have somewhat understood the concept of the Manifest Self. But they were so very repulsive of the concept of Trinity, as it was built by the Christians, it never got into their mind that there could lessons be learnt. In their disenchantment, they even forgot that even Jesus had, at times, spoken of the Holy Spirit and Quran too was talking of ‘Rooh’.
Out of their ignorance, they said ‘Rooh’ stood for angel Jibreel (Gabriel). They forgot to see that the Quranic verse was talking of angels and Rooh separately and there was no logic whatsoever in removing Jibreel from the list of angels, which he indeed is, and talking about him as rooh separately. Quran and Prophet’s traditions have talked of four senior-most angels (in terms of responsibility given to them). If not four, Jibreel (Gabriel) and Mikail (Michael) were the superior most. Why single out Jibreel and leave Mikail? Was it because Christians talk more dearly of Mikail while Jibreel is said to have brought the Quranic verses on Prophet Mohammad? We have said time and again that our personal likings and dislikings, tastes and distates, attachments and repulsions, love and hatred for views, concepts, beliefs and philosophies, have mattered more. This is so because howsoever learned the commentators may have been, they could not remove themselves from these afflictions. We have said earlier that it is these afflictions which are the cause of all sorrows and unhappiness, all discord and hatred, all fights and wars. The attachment to ‘my’ and ‘mine’ has to be removed. Likewise, the commentators should have detached themselves from afflictions like ‘my beliefs’, ‘my religion’, ‘my viewpoint’ and ‘my prophet’ (rather, the Prophet who came to us). If their self had reached God, they would have acquired the vision to look from there, as to what is Divine Creation Plan that is working in the cosmos.
It was due to such afflictions and failure to detach themselves from these that the Muslims continued to believe that God sent Messengers and Prophets among all people and in all civilizations, they believe that there are overall 124,000 Prophets out of which more than 300 are Messengers, yet they never considered the teachings of anybody else, other than Mohammad, as their own. This was despite the fact that Quran (Surah Baqarah) was telling them to consider all scriptures from God, including Quran, as equal. Leave aside the scriptures of the Hindus, they gave the same treatment to the scriptures dear to the Zoroastrians, the Jews and the Christians, despite their confirmed belief that Zartusht, Musa and Eesa were Prophets from the same God. The reason given being that all these people have corrupted the Divine Scriptures and they are no longer in their original form.
Muslims claim that lot many Fire Worshippers (Zoroastrians), Jews and Christians embraced Islam after recognizing the prophecy of a Prophet to come from their own scriptures. There is description of Salman – the Persian (Farsi) – who was originally a fire worshipper but search of truth led him to Christianity and while in Damascus, when he saw from the Christian scriptures that the Prophet Mohammad was to come in such and such reason, he travelled to Medina where he, after several hiccups in his plan, finally met the Prophet. There are so many stories told by the Muslims, which are true. If that is so, why was it these neo-converts, who had seen from their own respective scriptures that the Divine messiah is about to come, didn’t keep the original copy with themselves, and later propagated it, so that there would be in circulation two copies, one which had been altered and changed and the other that people had kept safeguarded. The later day crusades, rivalry with the Jews and a near complete subjugation of the Fire Worshippers, further compounded the matters, so that there was no chance left of considering their scriptures as ours.
Truth is that when Muslims couldn’t safeguard the true understanding of Quran, how could it be expected of them that they had read or understood scriptures of other religion? The mention of Rooh was there in Quran but they never cared to know what it means. The mention of Ahlulbayt was there in Quran and Prophet Mohammad left no stone unturned to identify them as saviours and those on whose path salvation could be achieved, but they said we do not need the Ahlulbayt; Quran is sufficient for us. What’s more, each of these Ahlulbayt, including the beloved daughter of Mohammad, were killed in one manner or other, by those calling themselves Muslims.
There remained one small minority who continued to hold on to the Ahlulbayt in their attempt to continue holding on to the teachings of Mohammad. They were persecuted and killed for keeping the Ahlulbayt dear. They ran helter-skelter, at times migrating beyond the boundaries of the then Muslim empire. Since the reason for their killing and plunder was their ‘mistake’ of keeping the Ahlulbayt dear, by the time they came out of these bad times and entered peaceful living, Ahlulbayt meant everything to them, at times even forgetting the God. Thus they committed the same mistake which people during the time of Krishna had committed. Had Mohammad himself not said with great force that he was only a servant and messenger of Allah, and included saying of this also in the five times obligatory prayers, such people would have surely deified the Ahlulbayt at the cost of God. Eventually, some of them did, which can be seen from the Akhbari conflict within the community. Most of those who didn’t reach such levels of digression too had forgotten that even if they were holding on to the Ahlulbayt, they were suppose to fulfill the other essential thing – i.e. lead a life of righteousness with a view to elevate their self to the desired levels – to attain salvation.
It is true that such teachings continue to remain in their books and some of them would show the written teachings to claim that our view about them is wrong. This is exactly what we wish to communicate. The true teachings are very much there in the scriptures of Buddhists, Christians, Hindus and Jews as well. Deviation has been that we, collectively as a community, have ceased to understand the true content and purpose of our respective scriptures and also ceased to follow them in their entirety.
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As we mentioned earlier, pain and sorrow are very much part of this world. They will continue to remain so until the Kalki Avatar doesn’t come to relieve us of sufferings and lead us to the path of our Lord. We have seen that there are times when Devatas themselves give us sufferings to jolt us from our slumber and forgetfulness and make us return to remembrance of God. At times death is also bestowed so that the spirit gets another chance. Traditions say that on the Day of Judgment, it will become evident that not an iota of injustice has been given to any person. This is so because being Just is one of the chief attributes of God and the divinities are carriers of Divine Attributes.
Unable to cope with the distress of being face to face with pain and suffering, there are people who decide to leave the worldly life and go to take sanyasa. They forget that even if they go to a forest or a mountainous cave, they are still not leaving the world. It is possible that by taking sanyasa and going in the solitude, they might get relief from some people or situations around them, but the fact remains that factors that were responsible for pain and suffering still remain, even in the solitude. This is the reason why none of the Divine Preachers taught about leaving the world. Even Buddha and Mahavira, who are talked about as having taken sanyasa, continued to remain amidst people and teach them. Gita, we have seen, has been extremely outspoken against sanyasa and talks of remaining in the world, amidst people, but with detachment. This was something that was extremely hard to understand by people who saw taking sanyasa as a noble act.
There are people who even commit suicide when they couldn’t cope with the pain and suffering. But is this freedom from pain and suffering? No! This is so because the soul leaves the body but does not get freedom from bondage of this world. Such a soul is sure to get an even lower birth, where there one may face greater sorrows and sufferings. Soul is bound to this world and only path to get out of this world is certain desired level of purity and the knowledge (of the torchbearers).
Therefore, you do not have to be an escapist. Wherever you are, in whatever situation you are, it is best for you that commence preparations for getting out of pain and sufferings there itself. Make an attempt to self-realization, to attain Nirvana or Moksha (Salvation). Buddha has said in clear words that this alone is Sanatan Dharma.
Interestingly, the term ‘Sanatan Dharma’ is understood to be related to Hindus. What we find is that even Buddha is telling us what Sanatan Dharma is. How sad that neither Hindus see Buddha as their own nor the Buddhist want to see any relation of Buddha’s teachings with Sanatan Dharma of the Hindus.
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End of Part IV of IV of the BOOK
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