It has been an amazing journey till now after undergoing soul enriching sessions on discover yourself.
Can scientist believe in god?
Getting eyes to see god?
Vedic wisdom
Who am I?
Substance and shadow
The sessions have given a new perspective to our life. The six and final session revolves around “if there is one god then why so many religions?”
In order to have clarity for it, we need to know the answers to all these questions:
Are all paths right?
Do all paths lead to the same goal?
Why there are different names, forms, worship, rituals, and rites of god?
Is there any path that synthesizes all these religions?
Is there any ultimate goal behind all these religions?
Let’s understand the purpose behind having so many religions.
We all have the different level of awareness as well as understanding about spirituality, we all need the knowledge which we can relate & understand. The very first reason behind having so many religions is,
‘Religions are presented according to the ability of people to digest truth’.
For spiritually advanced people, message is given in an undiluted pure form.
As Krishna gave the knowledge of Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna (700 shlokas in just 48 minutes).
For those who are less advanced spiritually, knowledge is suitably modified to preclude rejection, to help them make limited spiritual progress. e.g: there are students who are at different level of study of education. Some of them are in elementary school and some of them are in high school and college.
Let’s look at a few statements from different scriptures and try to understand the reason why it has been written in such language at that time and what is the actual meaning of it.
“Thou shall not kill” – Bible
“Do not have sex with mothers and sisters” – 4th Surah, Verse 23-24, Quran
“That religion which teaches one love of god which is unmotivated and uninterrupted is the topmost religion” – Srimad Bhagavatam
Bible is around 3400 years old, Quran is about 1350 years old and Bhagwad Gita came around 5000 years ago.
So if we observe that the period of each scripture was different and people’s understanding was also different and thus knowledge has been shared through various religions which have the same essence but different content. What is important is people should understand the knowledge at that period of time based on their level of spirituality.
To understand more deeply, let’s discuss the essential principles of all religions.
God is one.
Obey God’s laws.
Service to God.
Return to the kingdom of God.
Sin no more.
The glory of holy names.
Sacrifice and renunciation of material pleasure.
Approaching a spiritual master.
These are the principles, which has to be followed if we are following any religions, because all religions’ essence is same. By practicing these principles, we will be able to follow our respective religion more accurately which will lead us to the destination called Godhead home.
Now let’s go deeper to understand that which is the oldest religion. As we all know that Bhagavad Gita was spoken 5000 years ago, then what was there before Bhagavad Gita. In vedas, the answer to this question is there.
Sanatham Dharma – coming from dawn of creation. The depth of verifiable and inconceivable information in vedas is far greater than other scriptures. The reason behind it is the “clarity of each answer is so transparent and step by step details has been given to us of all the creation.
Srimad Bhagavatam, on the other hand, gives the sankhya (or count) philosophy of 24 elements of the universe given in vedic scriptures in a scientifically explainable terminology, which can be proved.
In Srimad Bhagavatam 2.5. 26-29:-
“Because the sky is transformed, the air is generated with the quality of touch, and by the previous succession, the air is also full of sound and the basic principles of the duration of life: sense perception, mental power and physical strength. when the air is transformed in course of time and nature’s course, fire is generated, taking shape with the touch and sound. since fire is also transformed, there is a manifestation of water, full of juice and taste. previously, it also has form and touch and is also full of sound. and water, being transformed from all variegatedness on earth, appears odorus and, as previously, become qualitatively full of juice, touch, sound, and form respectively.”
In Srimad Bhagavatam 2.5.30-31:-
From the mood of goodness, the mind is generated and becomes manifest, as also the ten demigods controlling the bodily movements. such demigods are known as the controller of directions, the controller of air, the sun-god, the father of daksha prajapati, the ashwini kumaras, the fire-god, the king of heaven, the worshipable deity in heaven, the chief of the adityas and brahmaji, the prajapati. all come into existence. by the further transformation of the mode of passion, the sense organs like ear, skin, nose, eyes, tongue, mouth, hands, genitals, legs, and the outlet for evacuating, together with intelligence and living energy, are all generated.”
I felt quite enriched that our vedas has the ultimate source of knowledge which has the capacity to help us to understand the depth of each subject. We all can understand that why vedas are the supreme spiritual literature…
Now after having the clarity about all religions and scripture, the question arises naturally to us that,
“why do we worship Lord Krishna as the supreme?”
The answer to this question, we have discussed in the 5th session that Krishna is the only one who is possessor of all 6 opulence called beauty, fame, wealth, knowledge, strength and renunciation. There is no one who possesses all 6 opulence. Even all great sages confirm krishna’s supremacy. Thus we worship Lord Krishna as the supreme.
Now each scripture says that, “God is love”, “God is great”. Then it is very important for us to know how to worship God.
There are 4 reasons behind worshipping god.
Love
Duty
Desire
Fear
Now the ultimate reason to worship god is out of love. By worshiping the God out of love, we can reach to the ultimate contentment, happiness, and peace.
In Bhagavad gita, Lord Krishna has described that how one will worship based on one’s basic nature. There are 3 modes which has been given.
तमस (Ignorance)
रजस (Passion)
सत्व (Goodness)
Our puranas describe the examples for each mode of people
Worship in mode of ignorance:-
Those who are fond of material prosperity approaches shiva for benedictions. e.g : भस्मासुर or वृकासुर, offer animals or chicken in sacrifice to please kali. Now here is one thing, we need to clarify, why God will get pleased by killing some animals. Because of our incomplete knowledge and information, we end up with the misunderstanding. In puranas, there is a complete methodology described that if one is willing to perform such actions, how one should and what will be the consequences.
Worship in mode of passion:-
This kind of worship has been performed out of the desire for material assets, hankering for honor and desire to become the ultimate enjoyer. e.g: हिरण्यकश्यपु
Worship in mode of goodness:-
This kind of worship is performed by many ऋषि (rushis) out of love. They don’t do for material desire or to become supreme but they worship god because they love god. e.g: शंक्राचार्य, माधवाचर्य, चैतन्य महाप्रभु
So in these 3 modes, the best mode of worshiping is mode of goodness.
In the shastras(शास्त्रों), there are 9 ways of serving god & reviving our love for him.
श्रवणम (hearing)
कीर्तनम (chanting)
स्मरणं (remembering)
पादसेवम (serving)
अर्चनम (worship)
वन्दनम (prayers)
दास्यम (carrying out instructions)
साख्यम (friendship)
आत्म निवेदनम (complete surrender)
Now in kalyuga, we can serve lord & can revive our love for him with the help of two ways. Those 2 ways are कीर्तनम (chanting) & श्रवणम (hearing).
Now we have proper details about how to perform each activity in ‘sanatam dharma’.
‘Sanatam Dharma’ means ‘our eternal function’. ‘our eternal duty of service and love to god.’
Total absorption of mind and senses in service to god is the real art of living. Such absorption will enable one to transfer himself to the kingdom of god.
1) कीर्तनम:- This can be achieved by chanting Hare Krishna (maha mantra) :
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna ( हरे कृष्ण हरे कृष्ण ) Krishna Krishna Hare Hare ( कृष्ण कृष्ण हरे हरे ) Hare Rama Hare Rama ( हरे राम हरे राम ) Rama Rama Hare Hare ( राम राम हरे हरे )
2) श्रणवम:- This can be achieved by hearing about the supreme lord. e.g: listening to the shalokas of bhagwad geeta
With these 2 activities, one is able to attain the spiritual body. This is also known as साधना (sadhana) which energises and revitalises our spiritual mind.
Now to perform साधना (sadhana), there is a particular way to do it which will lead to the enhancement of pure spiritual conscience and will help us to go back to the abode of the supreme personality of godhead.
There are 3 activities which needs to be done.
Japa – chanting the holy names of the lord on beads for concerntration and regulation during brahma-muhurat (4:00 a.m. – 6:30 a.m.)
Reading of scriptures
Hearing from spiritual gurus, holy masters, spiritual teachers.
There is a beautiful abcd which will be helpful for all of us to do this consistently in our lives.
a:- association of devotees
b:- books – reading books
c:- chanting the names of lord
d:- diet (krishna prasad)
Putting this abcd into practice, we definitely can achieve our true purpose of life.
We are deeply grateful to ISKON (international society for krishna consciousness) for giving us a wonderful course of DYS and Prabhu Jagadish for delivering it beautifully and making us understand in a very simple yet profound language.
We are forever going to live with Krishna Consciousness.
I will suggest everyone to have this experience as it can really empower our souls and can give direction to live peaceful life by knowing the true essence of spirituality.
Hare Krishna!!!
About Dr. Gazal Goyal Bansal
Founder and CEO, Life Coach and Speaker, Dr. Gazal Bansal is a
Doctorate in Political Science, UGC (JRF), a Gold Medalist, Certified ISO 22000 Lead Auditor, a Licensed Practitioner of NLP from The Society of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (TM) & a Pranic Healer.
As a spiritual evangelist and a practical thinker, she is a radical enthusiast and a firm believer in the philosophy of conceptual pragmatism, logical reasoning, and the spiritual energy matrix. She is a staunch believer of the fact that before you speak, your energy speaks.