IF you get lost in West Asia and a master guides you to the way, you will surely be happy. What if a traveller in South Asia gets lost? If a master there can guide him to the way, shouldn’t you be happy too? Instead, you may feel sad that he didn’t call upon your master for help.
But he could never do so because the era of the masters was a time when you had to get by without TV or handphone, and donkey was the primary mode of transport. No master could acquire a global following in his lifetime.
The masters, or founders of religion, lived centuries apart at west-end, east-end and south-end of the Asian continent. Whatever teachings a master imparted, only persons within that civilisation could hear the good news in the master’s lifetime and for many years after. Contrast that with today’s scene where US President Donald Trump, in New York, can say to Modi in New Delhi: “I sent you a message just now. Have you read it?”
Civilisations arose independently at the three ends of Asia, and all had masters who drew inspiration from the same inner source. With our scientific knowledge today, no one should feel astonished that three masters (and many more) discovered exactly the same way independently.
As the year draws to a festive end, we celebrate the birth of Jesus, who is noted for some of the most remarkable sayings.
Profound verses from the Gospel include these: “I am the bread of life.” “I am the light of the world.” “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved.” “I am the resurrection, and the life.” “I am the way and the truth and the life.”
But you may not be aware that at least three masters have spoken the same way. Such luminous verses had been recited in Vedic India 1,000 years before Jesus and in Buddhist pujas 500 years earlier than Jesus.
Here are verses spoken by Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita: “I am the life of all that lives.” “I am the father of this world, the mother ... and the grandfather.” “I am the creation and the annihilation, the basis of everything, the resting place and the eternal seed.” “I am the source of all; from me everything evolves.” “I am the beginning, the middle and also the end of all beings.” “I am the mind; and in living beings I am the consciousness.”
In like vein, the Buddha says: “I am perfected in the world, a teacher supreme am I.” “Omniscient am I, among all things undefiled.”
When you read these verses out of context the real meaning eludes you. Due to the complete absence of science-based interfaith learning, the assumption is that Jesus, Krishna and Buddha are rivals offering competing ways. This conventional understanding is based on a terribly wrong and divisive assumption.
The “I am” focus of these masters is not on themselves as persons, but on the supreme reality within. Buddha makes it crystal clear when he poses the question, “Which one thing is to be eliminated? The conceit: ‘I am’.” The discovery of God is possible only when you slay your ego. As Guru Nanak says: “He who slays his ego is himself like the true god.”
With spiritual insight gained from quantum physics, we can understand these verses better today. You know about particles – objects with mass. You are one big particle. However, subatomic particles can turn into waves that extend to infinity.
That’s because each particle is a peak of compression of the wave, a point wherein the wave coalesces to become a particle. A particle is thus a wave. Imagine throwing a stone into a pond. The stone becomes a wave that extends to the edge. Later it turns back to stone.
The masters, transcending their human personalities, represent compression points of a wave.
Imagine God, not as a heavenly king, but as a universal field of light that stretches pervasively like a wave to infinity. Jesus, Krishna, and Buddha are points of this light.
Alternatively, you can imagine God as a seabed of light beneath the waves. Three islands pop up from the seabed to illuminate their surroundings. Jesus, Krishna, and Buddha are these three islands.
The writer champions inter-faith harmony. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
