Many Expression one experience

AMRIT VACHAN (Inspiring messages of Realised Saints)

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 # MANY EXPRESSIONS :

     ONE  EXPERIENCE #

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( By Swami VENKATESANANDA)

One of the things in which we take special pride in India is the peaceful co-operation of the different religions there. Only when political considerations interfere, religious distinctions acquire some prominence; otherwise it has been a country where all religions were welcomed, not merely tolerated, but were appreciated by the practitioners of other religions.

Once in Madagascar a Christian girl asked Dr. Radhakrishnan  "Why do you Hindus worship so many gods, where as we worship only One God?

"He replied with a question, "How many Gods are there?" "Only one," she said. "Then why do you say my god and your gods as though you yourself believed there were several? asked Dr. Radhakrishnan. "She did not utter another word.  For only those who are themselves not sure that there is only one God, argue. Those who believe in the One God know that, albeit in various ways and forms, everyone worships Him alone.

Though He can be called by many names and approached by different people in different ways, the Indian believes that there is only One God. "Ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti", declare the Vedas. "Truth is one, sages express it in different ways."

 Expression only is different, not the realisation nor the experience. A group, representing many different nations, sit drinking milk, each in his own cup, round the same table, experiencing the same sensation (that of drinking milk), but each identifies that milk with a noun from his own language, a sound strange to his companions. His cup may be different, his word for milk incomprehensible, but the milk is the same.

God is One. The religion that leads Man to Him is also one. Some call Him Krishna or a thousand other names and the religion, Hinduism. Some call Him Christ and the religion Christianity. The devotee of Christ is Christian; the devotee of Vishnu is Vaishnava; the devotee of Siva is a Saivite; the adorer of Isvara is an Arya Samajist; he who adores Allah is a Muslim, but all of them believe in the One Fundamental Truth.

There is no difference — superiority or inferiority — among the Prophets either. Each one comes from Him, is of Him—is He Himself. The one who came later is not necessarily superior to the one who came earlier. Rain fell last year, a thousand years ago, and this year. Is this year’s rainwater superior to last year’s or that of a thousand years ago?

He comes to all His children, in the way in which they can recognise Him, and with the message which they need. He is nobody’s domestic servant, and no one can dictate where, how and if He should incarnate. All are His children. He comes to help primitive man in the jungle as He comes to guide the Roman emperor.

The followers of the sage, saviour or Prophet have, however, the duty and privilege of serving their fellowmen with the Gospel they themselves received from their Master. The attitude here is not one of self-righteousness, religious or intellectual vanity, but one of worship of the Supreme Being Who dwells in the hearts of all those whom we thus serve.

OM

ATMAN

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