Christian vs. Hindu deities

[roger]

I was thinking about something that I can vaguely remember thinking about before, about whether Christian deities and Hindu deities are actually the same entities.

 

I believe that "Yahweh" IS "Brahma," but what about Shiva, Vishnu, Christ, and the Holy Spirit?

 

In ACIM it says that EVERYONE is "Christ," just like Jesus was, but maybe "Christ" IS Shiva (or Vishnu).

 

And perhaps the "Holy Spirit" IS Vishnu (or Shiva).

 

Does anyone know the answers to these questions? I'd love to hear everyone's opinions.

Edited June 15, 2016 by roger

[Cheshire Cat]

In My opinion based on the bible, Yahweh is closer to a god of war.

Edited June 15, 2016 by Cheshire Cat

[dwai]

I was thinking about something that I can vaguely remember thinking about before, about whether Christian deities and Hindu deities are actually the same entities.

 

I believe that "Yahweh" IS "Brahma," but what about Shiva, Vishnu, Christ, and the Holy Spirit?

 

In ACIM it says that EVERYONE is "Christ," just like Jesus was, but maybe "Christ" IS Shiva (or Vishnu).

 

And perhaps the "Holy Spirit" IS Vishnu (or Shiva).

 

Does anyone know the answers to these questions? I'd love to hear everyone's opinions.

Imho it isn't productive to try and map Hindu deities Into Christian worldview. They are unique and have unique characteristics, powers and temperaments.

[3bob]

I'll second what Dwai said on that...btw in Hinduism itself there are several big branches and many sub-branches or schools and they don't all agree on all the meanings or summations along such lines, but they do respect the diversity of the umbrella called "Hinduism".

[roger]

Imho it isn't productive to try and map Hindu deities Into Christian worldview. They are unique and have unique characteristics, powers and temperaments.

 

Thanks for sharing your opinion, Dwai. Perhaps you're right.

[vonkrankenhaus]

Humans like human-readable imagery and ideas.

 

It's hard to convince someone that you can negotiate with "water".

 

Because they know that "water" doesn't have a human thought process.

 

But a "God" of water,,, could be assumed to have some human characteristics that "water" itself doesn't.

 

Maybe you could convince this "God" of something.

 

This allows someone to claim that they know the "God" of water, but you might not.

 

Which "Gods" work in what areas and correspond to what things - this is a fool's errand.

 

 

 

 

 

-VonKrankenhaus

[Direwolf]

I'm not sure Christianity can be compared in that way. The 'Yahweh' of the Bible doesn't allow other Deity concepts, it's pretty explicit in the Bible when there are verses such as Exodus 20:3 "You shall have no other gods before me." The bible is very exclusive towards the God that is represented by 'El Shaddai' 'Yahweh' 'etc'.

[blackstar212]

IMO the Christian and Hindu deities are manifestations of the one infinite source of all manifestation. In that way they are related. I believe if the religion guides the person to compassion, humility and moderation then it is a beneficial path.

[vonkrankenhaus]

Re:

-----

"Exodus 20:3 "You shall have no other gods before me." The bible is very exclusive towards the God that is represented by 'El Shaddai' 'Yahweh' 'etc'."

-----

 

Well, once there are invented some "gods", then the natural progression is to reduce that concept of proprietary control and manipulation to a single exclusive source that one group can sell on everyone else.

 

But it's all always been pure "bullshit".

 

Otherwise, you know - we'd all be equal, which is not compatible with the creating of "authority" over groups, etc.

 

We see by YinYang thinking that all movement is coming from imbalance, and this is the artificial way of creating that for political use.

 

 

 

 

 

-VonKrankenhaus

[roger]

Christ is not Shiva.

 

Deities don't exist.

 

Greek myths aren't true. A relative told me that they were not true. I assumed that they were a clone that was made. They even got hit with rebirth.

 

These people are more common than people think. These people make clones with a fairly small device. I know certain things about life...I know another civilization is richer than our civilization somewhere. I hate what cloning is for good reason.

 

I truly hate people. I said "I shit on god" and I got hit with deva mara. Every schizophrenia issue everywhere is a deva mara issue.

 

You're okay, Lino.

 

Bless you.

[Veezel]

I was thinking about something that I can vaguely remember thinking about before, about whether Christian deities and Hindu deities are actually the same entities.

 

I believe that "Yahweh" IS "Brahma," but what about Shiva, Vishnu, Christ, and the Holy Spirit?

 

In ACIM it says that EVERYONE is "Christ," just like Jesus was, but maybe "Christ" IS Shiva (or Vishnu).

 

And perhaps the "Holy Spirit" IS Vishnu (or Shiva).

 

Does anyone know the answers to these questions? I'd love to hear everyone's opinions.

 

As a Christian, it is my opinion that Hindu deities are false gods who's main purpose is to trick humanity into believing they are the way to paradise.

[thelerner]

As a Jew, once you get beyond the bible into 3,300 years of theology, the thinking is God is transcendental, without, within and really really big.  Beyond space and time, human conception, yet like dna held within all things.  Every day we hold things up, and say The spirit/breath of the infinite infuses all things, Look Bread, or wine, or washroom, anything.  The point of prayer is to connect in some way to this Beyondness.  Not for stuff, but because its reconnecting to our source.  and that's good.

 

On the third hand, in a battle between Christian versus Hindu deities, I'd put my money on Hindu.  God and Christ might be a powerful father son team, but the Hindu's still have them outnumbered.  

Edited August 6, 2016 by thelerner

[Eques Peregrinus]

Generally, when it is claimed that gods fight, it is actually their clergy. That is why atomic weapons are kept by politicians instead of religious authorities. 

[dwai]

As a Christian, it is my opinion that Hindu deities are false gods who's main purpose is to trick humanity into believing they are the way to paradise.

I had to say this...as a practicing Hindu (by birthright as well as by practice) - in that case, stick to your own religion. No need to malign our deities (not that they will feel offended - just as grown ups don't feel offended when toddlers say embarrassing things)...

 

[blue eyed snake]

As a Christian, it is my opinion that Hindu deities are false gods who's main purpose is to trick humanity into believing they are the way to paradise.

 

this is an eclectic forum, meaning that people of all creeds are together here, talking about their ways to tread the spiritual path ( among a lot of other things).

 

do not judge other people('s)creeds, and they will not judge you or your creed.

 

----

 

more on topic, I once became aware of a big blue entity/intelligence while I was doing standing posture. being raised in a christian oriented culture I thought of it as a blue angel. It was.... indescribable, humbling.... I cannot find a pic that conveys a little of how small I felt, and how overwhelmingly big, knowing etc this entity was.

 

 

Later that day the mind took over, and I thought, the hindoes have a blue-skinned god, Vishnu ( Dwai will correct me here when I'm wrong)

 

 

In Tibet ( I think)  there's Blue Tara

 

 

so, whatever 'gods' are, i'm for sure not the only one 'meeting' or being visited by a blue entity, I'm not likely to forget it,

 

Bes

[dwai]

[Spotless]

Where ever a human is - there are more beings present than the number of humans.

[dust]

Veezel: Are you Christian?

 

Matthew (and Luke): "Judge not, that you not be judged."

John: “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”

James: "If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless."

 

dwai and BES: Don't we see the irony in, in demanding tolerance of religion, asking that a Christian keep his opinions to himself?

 

Christianity is judgemental. Despite all those quotes just above, the whole Abrahamic thing is essentially about judging one's own religion, one's own god, to be the only real one. In fact, Veezel wasn't judging people but judging the gods of Hinduism, and the right to do that is surely an essential part of his religion...?

[dwai]

Veezel: Are you Christian?

 

Matthew (and Luke): "Judge not, that you not be judged."

John: “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”

James: "If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless."

 

dwai and BES: Don't we see the irony in, in demanding tolerance of religion, asking that a Christian keep his opinions to himself?

 

Christianity is judgemental. Despite all those quotes just above, the whole Abrahamic thing is essentially about judging one's own religion, one's own god, to be the only real one. In fact, Veezel wasn't judging people but judging the gods of Hinduism, and the right to do that is surely an essential part of his religion...?

 

 

The irony is that we want to settle for "tolerance". We should be pushing for mutual respect. Tolerance is a very low bar to set...

 

While I respect the rights of people to feel superior about their theology, I don't think that automatically means I should accept their bad-mouthing Hindu deities without admonishing them for their immaturity

(especially on a forum with practicing Hindus and to discuss Hindu dharma). 

Edited August 8, 2016 by dwai

[rex]

Unhelpful post deleted - sorry

Edited August 8, 2016 by rex

[Michael Sternbach]

Although we must be careful regarding the exact definitions of terms in different schools of Hinduism, we can say that the Holy Spirit equals the Universal Soul that interweaves and interconnects all existence.

[Maddie]

On ‎6‎/‎15‎/‎2016 at 1:11 AM, Cheshire Cat said:

In My opinion based on the bible, Yahweh is closer to a god of war.

This is the archeological consensus actually. 

[Jainarayan]

I hope I'm not peeing anyone off by "necroing" threads, it's just that having been away so long, some of these posts, especially in the Hindu section are catching my eye.

 

If Veezel is still here I'd like to point out that our gods do not induce us or trick us into anything. There is no "Paradise" in Hinduism akin to the Christian or Muslim idea of Paradise. God in Hinduism, whether one sees him/her as Vishnu and his avatars, Shiva, or Devi, does not judge, reward or punish. He leaves that to the effects of one's karma.

 

There's an unfortunate propensity, even among Hindus, to try to find correspondences between religions. The overwhelming beliefs are that Jesus is not Krishna; Krishna is not a "messenger" or prophet of God; Jesus is not an avatar of Vishnu; the Trimurti of Hinduism is not the Holy Trinity of Christianity. 

 

Personally, I'm not wild about equating the Holy Spirit with Brahman. The Holy Spirit is an emanation of God the Father (acc. to Orthodox; "and the son" acc. Catholics). Brahman is all that there is. Brahman is not a thing or an entity, it is everything that exists: sarvam khalvidam brahma "all this [we see] verily is Brahman" Chandogya Upanishad (brahma is not the creator god Brahmā, but an inflected form of brahman).

[Boundlesscostfairy]

Well in relating Gods I think you have to wonder which attributes are similar and which ones they share with each other..

 

I wouldnt go out of your way to say that Yaweh and Brahma have a zero percent relation.. but how much they are related and which attributes are the same might be a good question.. I think they are both called the highest God.. so thats got to be a reasonable relation.. maybe at best they are about 50% similar..?

[Maddie]

On ‎1‎/‎20‎/‎2018 at 1:01 AM, Boundlesscostfairy said:

Well in relating Gods I think you have to wonder which attributes are similar and which ones they share with each other..

 

I wouldnt go out of your way to say that Yaweh and Brahma have a zero percent relation.. but how much they are related and which attributes are the same might be a good question.. I think they are both called the highest God.. so thats got to be a reasonable relation.. maybe at best they are about 50% similar..?

 

To me Yaweh and Brahma are quite different in several ways. Brahma I believe is not really a personality but more of an impersonal force which to me sounds more like the Tao than Yaweh. Also being that Brahma isn't really a personality it would not get jealous or angry, but Yaweh does which would put him more on par with the lower tier gods of Hinduism like Indra and such, or Zeus or Thor of other pantheons.