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ALL RELIGIONS SAY ‘ONE’ – Part 2 (In Hinduism, Sikhism, Christianity, Judaism, Confucianism & Buddhism)

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ALL RELIGIONS SAY ‘ONE’ – Part 2 (In Hinduism, Sikhism, Christianity, Judaism, Confucianism & Buddhism)

ALL RELIGIONS SAY ‘ONE’ – Part 2 (In Hinduism, Sikhism, Christianity, Judaism, Confucianism & Buddhism)

August 28,2011

This is the continuation from the first article ALL RELIGIONS SAY ‘ONE’ – Introduction

All religions also believe in one God.

1. Judaism:

Belief in one God is a fundamental Jewish belief. The Shema, a central prayer, states “Hear, Israel: The Lord is God, The Lord is one.” The idea of any other God is heretical for Jews. It follows that all prayer and praise can only be directed to God.

“Do not make any gods to be alongside Me……. (Exodus 20:23)

“Whoever sacrifices to any god other than the Lord must be destroyed.” (Exodus 22:20)

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God the Lord is One.” (Deuteronomy 6:4)

“…..Before Me no god was formed nor will there be one after Me.Even I, am the Lord; and apart from Me there is no Saviour.” (Isaiah 43:10-11)

2. Christianity: In the New Testament;

“The most important one (commandment), answered Jesus, is this:

‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.’ (Mark 12:21)

“…….We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but One.” (1Corinthians 8:4)

3. Sikhism:

“ik-oNkaar sat naam kartaa purakh nirbha-o nirvair akaal moorat ajoonee saibha’ng.”

Translation: “God is One; Truth is His Name; He is the Creator; The Fearless; Without Enmity; The Immortal; The Unborn; Self-illuminated.”

4. Hinduism:

In all the 4 Vedas, which are the holy scriptures in Hinduism, the concept of only One God is very firmly declared.

‘Brahma Satram’ of Vedas says thus:

“Eham braham thavidya naasthe nahne naasthe kinjan” – meaning “God is One; none other; none at all.”

Atharvana Veda: chapter Allobanishad 1-10

“Allo jiyeshtama paramam pooranam pirahmaandam allaam ………………………………………………..

…………………………………………………………………………… allah allah illal lethi illallah.” (Sanskrit)

– meaning “Allah is whole. All of the universe belongs to Him.

……. The One who cause the earth to function is the Creator of earth. There is no God but One……”

Rig Veda:

“Yaa Ik Ith Musthi-I” – meaning “the Only God is the only One to be worshipped.” (6:45:16

“Maa chchaithanyathri shanstha.” – meaning “do no worship anyone else except the only God. He is Pure and One. Praise only Him.” (8:1:1)

Yajoor Veda:

“God is formless. It is only God who has no birth, is fit to be worshipped.” (32:3)

Bhagavath gita:

He who knows Me as the Unborn, as the One with no beginning, as the Supreme Lord of all the worlds – is undeluded among men and is freed

from all sins. (Chapter 10:3)

Intelligence, knowledge, freedom from doubt and delusion, forgiveness, truthfulness, self-control, calmness, pleasure and pain, birth, death, fear, fearlessness, nonviolence, equanimity, satisfaction, austerity, charity,

fame and infamy are created by Me alone. (Chapter 10:4-5)

By practicing this remembrance without being deviated, thinking ever of

the Supreme Personality, O son of Kunti. (Chapter 8:8)

Think of the Supreme Person as one who knows everything, who is the oldest, who is the controller, who is smaller than the smallest, who is the maintainer of everything, who is beyond any material conception. He is luminous like the sun, beyond this material nature, transcendental. (Chapter 8:9)

Men of little intelligence worship the demigods, and their fruits are limited and temporary. Those who worship the demigods go to the planets of demigods, but My devotees reach My supreme abode. (Chapter 7:23)

5. Confucianism

Wang Daiyu, in the section on ‘The True One’ explains Confucian concept thus:

“The True God is the Only One, the original being of the no beginning, and not the being of taking orders.

Nothing can be compared to Him. The True One is the Only One, not the Number One. The Number One comes from the Only One…….. The Number One is the seed of myriad things in the universe; and the True One is the Master of the Number One. The Way comes from the True One; that is why the religion of Pure and True honours only the True One.”

6. Buddhism:

Due to the ignorance of the true concepts and teachings of Buddha, most of the Buddhists today believe that there is no place for ‘belief in God’ in Buddhism; and that Buddha preached only to attain Nirvana. However, a detailed study of life history of Ghautama Buddha reveals just to the contrary – Buddha believed in God, and preached Oneness of God! What he was against was the concept of many gods and idolatry!

The Aryans, who were politically and economically most powerful, wielding absolute influence on religious matters in Indian subcontinent during the time of Buddha, regarded Ghautama Budhha, who was condemning the concept of many gods and idol-worship, as their arch enemy. They unleashed intense and extensive propaganda against Ghautama Buddha saying that he was preaching “against the existence of God”, to destroy his credibility. Their onslaught succeeded after the demise of Buddha. People later believed their false propagation, and this led to the belief that Buddha did not believe in God.

However, a famous scholar, Arthur Lille, in his book, ‘India in Primitive Christianity’ says that the following was seen as an inscription on a stone-slab, as the saying of Buddha :

“Believe in God and do whatever righteous things He has commanded you to do; because He is the Only One, who is fit to be worshipped and be shown your humbleness. I declare openly that there is no other way equal to this belief of one God, to attain the bliss of Heaven (Nirvana). So, O my people, put in all your efforts to attain this highest goal (of Heaven).”

This shows that Buddha believed in God; and he preached ‘Oneness of God’. Another proof of Budhha’s belief in God can be derived from an episode in the life history of Buddha:

When Yasodha, Siddhada’s (later known as Ghautama Buddha) wife saw her husband at Saranath after many years, she placed their son, Iragulan, at his (Budhha’s ) feet, and requested to ‘show a way’ (meaning, “what are we to do?”).

Buddha answered, “The One Who showed me the way, would also show you the way.” – meaning, the God who showed him the way, would also show them what to do. This clearly shows that he believed in God – the Super Power.

Budhha has also said : “I have not seen God; but God is a Super Power.”

‘Sath Tharmis’, a sect of the Mahayana Buddhists, in their religious hymns, ‘Dharma Gajan’ and ‘Patha Janaani’ proclaim Oneness of God. One of their early morning prayer hymn is “Thehar banga” — meaning ‘breaking idols’.

As we have seen so far, all religions believe and advocate Oneness of God. However, the later followers of all these religions – except Islam – introduced the concept of incarnation of that One God, in various personalities at various times at various places, which then led to Idolatory. It is ONLY ISLAM that has very firmly upheld the concept of Unity of God, without any interpolation, to this day. And it will be so forever.

They believe that, that One God incarnates (make himself born) as various personalities to guide mankind. But, Islam categorically rejects this concept of reincarnation because, concept of reincarnation contradicts the very nature of that One God. God is Omnipotent & Omnipresent. Every religion accepts this. He is All-powerful; and He was, and is, and will be, present everywhere at any time, since He created everything.

To believe that He has to be born in a human form, to understand the misery and shortcomings of human beings, and to guide them, contradicts His attributes of Omnipresence & Omnipotence. Such believe would limit His power and scope. As His Presence is always nearest to everything that He has created:

“But We are nearer to him than you, but you see not.” (Al-Quran 56:85)

Hearing everything that is being spoken of and seeing everything that is happening, engulfing the whole of His creation.

“Verily Allah knows the unseen of the heavens and the earth: and Allah sees well all that ye do.” (Al Quran 49:18)

He created everything. The Creator then would certainly know all about that which He has created. The manufacturer of a car would surely know everything – from bolt to door – about the car. The manufacturer of a computer knows everything about the structure, components & function of the computer. It would be utter naïve to think that the manufacturer would not know about that which he has produced. And that is exactly what God says in Al Quran:

“Have you not seen that Allâh knows whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is on the earth? There is no secret conference of three but He is their fourth, nor of five but He is their sixth, nor of less than that or more but He is with them wheresoever they may be; and afterward, on the Day of Resurrection, He will inform them of what they did.” (Al Quran 58:7)

meaning, He knows everything about His Creations (their form, nature & function).

So, logically it follows that He need not take human form and come down to earth to know about His creation; because, He is Omnipresent. He is not far away so as not to now what is happening in this world. No! He is very, very close to all of His creation – seeing and knowing what all His creation do, as stated in Al-Quran;

“And indeed We have created man, and We know what his own self whispers to him. And We are nearer to him than his jugular vein (by Our Knowledge).” (50:16)

“And when My slaves (Man) ask you (O Muhammad) concerning Me, then (answer them), I am indeed near (to them by My Knowledge). I respond to the invocations of the supplicant when he calls on Me (without any mediator or intercessor). So let them obey Me and believe in Me (alone), so that they may be led aright” (Surah Baqarah 2:186)

To comprehend the concept of Omnipresence & Omnipotence, knowing everything of what is going on all around, might have been unimaginable 1400 years ago; but still the Muslims, due to their very strong faith believed it without any doubt. However, in the present time of modern inventions and highly advanced technology, it is not something hard to accept. Man, the creation of God, sitting in his operating room, launches a satellite to go into the sky, thousands of miles away – sometimes landing at faraway planets. Sitting in his room here on earth, he observes every movement of the satellite, thousands – sometimes millions – of miles away. If something goes wrong in the direction or mechanism of the satellite, he rectifies the fault in the direction or mechanism – sitting here itself in the operating room. He does not travel thousands or millions of miles to the satellite to rectify the fault.

Through the mechanism of CCTV, a man sitting in his home can visualize all that is happening in the vicinity of his office, far away from his home.

When Man, a mere simple creation of God, sitting his room can rectify something thousands or millions of miles away, can He (God) – who is Omnipresent & Omnipotent – not do so? Has He to come to earth in human form to know and correct the sufferings of human beings? Even if so, were the so-called ‘incarnation of God’ able to totally correct the wrongdoings of Man at those periods? No! A portion of the people followed them, while majority of them still persisted in falsehood and wrongdoings. Thus, this itself contradicts the concept of Omnipotence! If that was God who came down to earth in human form, he should have corrected every soul with His will.

So the belief of incarnation does not have logical corroboration with human reasoning; and contradicts the concept of Omnipresence & Omnipotence of God.

Even Sri Ramakrishna Prahamsar, a great Hindu sage, has explained ‘Avathar’ (Incarnation) thus:

“Avadars are prophets chosen from men and sent by Eeswaran (God). He is like a commander representing a great emperor. Just as a king sends his commander to quash the trouble in a faraway place of his sovereignty, Eeswaran (God) sends His representative to any place in the world, where justice dips to bottom and injustice flourish and prevail.”