By Karan Krishna Prabhu, Nepal
God is one, and God does not
belong to this or that religion. In Kali-yuga, different religious sects
consider their God to be different from the God of others, but that is not
possible. God is one, and He is appreciated according to different angles of
vision….. God has no competitor. There is only one God. In the Svetasvatara Upanishad
(6.8) it is said, na tat-samas cabhyadhikas ca drsyate: “ No one is found to be
equal to Him or greater than Him”. That is the definition of God.
(Srimad Bhagavatam, 5.3.17p)
When we
speak “Krishna.” You should understand “Krishna”
means God, the Supreme Being. The etymological meaning of “Krishna”
is “the all attractive.” Without being all attractive there is no meaning of
God. It is not that God is attractive only to certain class of men. No, God is
attractive for all classes of men, unless he is animal. Animal does not know
what is God and what is the attraction of God. He does not know. But in the
human society, at least in the civilized human society, there is a certain idea
of God. Either you follow Christianity or Vedic principle or Mohammedan
religion or even Buddha religion, there is conception of God. There is an
attempt to understand God. That is human society. Therefore, according to the
capability, country and the people, the conception of God may be a little
different from one another. But the attraction fro God is there. There is no
doubt about it.
All
civilized societies make some inquiries into God, or the nature of God, and
these inquiries are called religion. There may be differences in the degrees of
inquiry, but the desire to know of the supreme being is there.
There can
not be two Gods. God is one. As such, if God is one, there can not be two
religions also because religion means to understand God, to love God. That is
religion. And religion means the words of God. So why there should be two
religions? There can not be two religions. There may be some difference
according to climate, country, population. There may be some difference in the
execution of religion, but on principle there can not be two religions because
God is one and religion means the words of God. So how there can be two
religions? We have made two, three, four, five, six, increasing the number of
religions.
God
is neither Hindu, Muslim or Christian. God is God. We understand Him from
different angles of vision, and that different angles of vision may be called
as Christian angle vision, the Hindu angle vision, this Jew angle vision. Now,
just like the sun is there. Here we see it is not so bright, but you ask some
Arabian friend. He will say, “It is very bright.” So his appreciation of the
sun is different from your appreciation here. It is cloudy; it is misty. But
the sun is the same.
If a person
is actually a devotee of God, he can see that God is one. God cannot possibly
be two, nor can the Hindus have one God and the Christians have another. If God
cannot be two, there cannot be any competition between God. This is the verdict
of the Vedas. But at the present time there are so many “gods.” So many rascals
are coming out, proclaiming. “I am God”.
So how many
Gods are there? God is one. That is the Vedic injunction. God is one, just like
the sun. No one can say that it is an American sun or a German sun or an Indian
sun. if the sun, which is the creation of God, is one and is so powerful. Then
what of God Himself? Actually there are trillions of suns, but due to our
limited vision we can only perceive one. But if one sun created by God can do
so much work, distribute so much heat and we can just imagine how powerful
trillions of suns are and above that how powerful is God, the Greater of all of
them.
Note:
Srila
Prabhupada is the founder Acharya of International Society for Krishna
Consciousness ( ISKCON). This is a spiritual society based on the Brahma Madhwa
Gaudiya Sampradaya.
The society
was resister in 1966 at New York
and since then the society has spread all around the world.
The ISKCON
society is a respectable society all over the world because it is a non
political and fully dedicated to the religious cause as understanding of God
and practice of God consciousness.
Source : Back To Godhead Magazine , NEPAL ( Book your one copy now, To buy it please call at 00977-9841195582)
