What is this Trinity that both religions [Hinduism and Christianity] worship?
Written: 24 Dec. 1994.
Revised: 24 Dec. 2006.
It is an article of faith with me that all religions worship the same God. I'd
like to look at two religions to test this assertion. The religions I choose to
look at are Hinduism and Christianity.
According to Christianity, the God we commonly worship has three facets and thus
is called"The Trinity.”Those three facets are the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Here is St. Matthew's reference to them:
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven
and in earth.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. (1)
Hinduism also worships a Trinity. What in Hinduism is the equivalent of the
Christian Trinity?
Many might respond: "Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.”No, this Trimurthy is
equivalent to the creative, preservative and transformative potentiality of the
divine energy or Shakti. Brahma creates; Vishnu preserves; and Shiva transforms.
Although I have not carried out the research that might allow me to make this
statement with confidence, I believe some day that Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva
will be found to be other names for the cosmic powers called by Hindus and
Buddhists rajas, sattwa, and thamas, which also create, preserve, and transform.
The Trimurthy is not equivalent to the Christian Trinity.
Let us take a closer look at the Christian Trinity of Father, Son and Holy
Ghost. These words are just names, but what do they point to? The Father, King
of kings, or Lord God Almighty, is described in the Old Testament as a
stillness, a void, from which everything originated and into which everything
resolves itself. He (He is not a"He") is described in the New Testament as our
Home in which are many mansions. Do we recognize this void, this origin and home
of all? In Hinduism, it is called Brahman, Sat-Chit-Ananda.
And who in Hinduism is the Son? The Son in Christianity is the Pearl of Great
Price, the treasure buried in a field (the kshetra?), the mustard seed that
grows into a great tree, the measure of leaven that leavens the whole loaf.
The Son and the Father are one. The Son is in the Father and the Father is in
the Son. Yet all along the Father is greater. Moreover, no one can know the Son
but the Father and the Father but the Son. Do we recognize this Son? In
Hinduism, it is the Atman, the offspring of Brahman.
The Atman is in Brahman and yet Brahman is in us (in our heart-center or
hridayam). Yet all along Brahman is greater than the Atman. Moreover, no one can
know the Atman but Brahman and no one can know Brahman but the Atman.
Another way of saying this is that the Atman is the"Individualized"Self and
Brahman is the"universal"Self. It is only by knowing the individualized Self
first that the universal Self can be found. This is the foundation of the
universal spiritual teachings like"Know thyself"And"The Kingdom of Heaven
[i.e, the Father] is within.”
As Jesus taught, when true disciples find the Pearl of Great Price, the
treasure, they sell all they have and purchase it. Translated into Hindu terms,
when true disciples see the Atman in the first experience of enlightenment,
often called"spiritual awakening," they divest themselves of all their worldly
desires ("sell what we have") and contemplate only the Atman, until the Atman
becomes Brahman in nirvikalpa samadhi. Having attained Brahman, they have
"purchased"The Pearl; they have made It their own.
Therefore, Hindus call these two Divine Entities Brahman and Atman; Christians
call them Father and Son. But they are the same Divine Persons no matter what
name we use for Them.
What about the third Divine Entity in the Christian Trinity—the Holy Spirit
or Holy Ghost? Who is the Holy Spirit in Hinduism? If you did not know by now, I
suspect that you may be able to guess.
"Spiritus"In Latin means"breath.”The word is used to signify that which moves
across the waters of God's Being and calls all creation into existence. While
the Father is stillness, the Holy Spirit is motion.
Jesus referred to this relationship. He was asked what password would be used so
that disciples could recognize each other and he said to tell them"A movement
and a rest.”The Holy Spirit is movement; the Father is rest. (2)
The Holy Spirit was with the Father since the beginning of Time, before ever
there was an Earth. It is called by many names in the Bible: the Glory of God in
Exodus, Wisdom in Proverbs, the voice in the wilderness in Isaiah, the noise of
many waters in Ezekiel, the sound in the silence, the Word of God, the Amen, the
true and faithful witness of creation, the law (as in Jesus' phrase"The law and
the prophets"), and so on. In all those names, the Holy Spirit is movement
(voice, noise, sound, word). God is a wilderness because He is prior to the
natural laws of this phenomenal world; no law can bind him. He is also stillness
and silence.
Looking now at Hinduism, what was with Brahman since before Time? What moved
like breath and creation came into being, where Brahman, who willed the
movement, is stillness and silence itself? What is the fabric of creation, of
phenomenal nature? Hindus will reply that Shakti is.
Shakti is the Divine Mother of creation, Prakrithi (Procreatrix in Latin),
nature, the phenomenal or relative world. Shakti is movement, sound, energy,
Aum, the Sabda Brahman, the Nada Brahman. Shakti is the natural law, dharma, the
true Guru. Sakthi is the name of the Holy Spirit in Hinduism.
The Hindu dharma is the Christian law. The Hindu Saabda Brahman is the Christian
Word of God. The Hindu Aum is the Christian Amen. Prakrithi is Procreatrix.
Shakti (energy) is the Holy Spirit (breath). The Divine Mother and the Spirit of
Truth are fundamentally one.
What are we left with? The Hindu Trinity of Brahman, Atman, and Shakti is no
different than the Christian Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. And it is
on this basis that we can say that Hindus and Christians worship one and the
same God and that their religions are one.
Stripped of all the different rituals, these two great world religions are seen
to be two roads to the same destination.
What then is the secret of the Trinity as far as evolving human beings are
concerned? It is this. Enlightenment proceeds by levels. The first level we are
destined to know is the Light within our own hearts (the Son or Atman); the
second level is the Light within all of creation (the Holy Spirit, the Divine
Mother); and the third level is the Light beyond creation (the Father, Brahman).
This does not exhaust the levels of enlightenment, by any means. God's Being is
Infinite. But it is the part of Reality that we are destined to know.
Whether one worships the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost or Brahman, Atman, and
Shakti, the One God knows it is He Himself (or She Herself, or It, as you wish)
that is being worshipped.
I am filled with awe and gratitude that I have been permitted to say these
words. I am aware that, had I uttered them in the sixteenth century, I might be
burned at the stake. I humbly bow before your freedom to worship as you please.
Footnotes
(1) Matthew 28: 18-19.
(2) Gospel According to Thomas, p.29.
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