Comparative Religion: Christ and Krishna
by Narasimha dasa
I recently read a news article about why George Harrison wrote the song “My Sweet Lord”. He wanted to raise awareness of God and point to the idea that the essence of Christianity and Krishna consciousness are the same. Unfortunately, over time, without the protection of the Vedic system of Parampara, or the spiritual succession of pure devotees, religious teachings become adulterated over time and key tenants are changed, obscured, or totally cancelled due to materialism and politics. This has been the constant fate of Christianity.
Those who understand the basic principles of Krishna consciousness have no problem understanding and appreciating the essence of spiritual paths promoted by various cultures. If people understand advanced math, they can easily evaluate a grade-school math curriculum. Grade-school students, on the other hand, will not be able to comment effectively on a college math course. This is a crude example but points to the limited value of religious study courses on “comparative religion” led by professors who follow no religious process and understand only some rudimentary tenants of various faiths.
Srila Prabhupada (A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada) taught that real religion is not a type of faith but the science of God and the soul. Vaishnava teachers and scriptures elaborately detail the glorious qualities of God and how to worship Him. Vaishnavism, or Krishna consciousness, is not a sentiment or blind faith promoted by a particular culture or race. In Vedic language, real religion is called sanatana-dharma, or eternal religion. Srila Prabhupada has often defined sanatana-dharma as the intrinsic characteristic of the soul in eternity. He gave various examples: “The dharma of sugar is sweetness. The dharma of fire is heat and light. The dharma of the soul is devotion to God.” Dharma refers to the essential characteristics that define a particular object. Srila Prabhupada elaborately explained that love of God is the intrinsic characteristic, or dharma, of the soul. Revival of our awareness of God and our natural devotion to God is the essence of real religion. God consciousness, or Krishna consciousness, is the eternal nature of the soul. Real religion aims to help us revive our eternal spiritual nature. Srila Prabhupada taught that the merits of a particular religion can be understood on this basis: “How much it inspires and teaches us to revive our dormant love of God?”
The great saint Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura studied the teachings of the major religions of the world, comparing them to principles of Vaishnavism, particularly those taught by Sri Krishna Chaitanya and His chief disciples. After careful study, he determined that the teachings of Christ are the most similar to the fundamental teachings of Vaishnavism. Christ taught that love for God should be the basis of all our motives and desires. He taught kindness and non-violence. He taught by his words and example that we should renounce selfish desires, greed, lust, and aspirations for material opulence. He taught that the goal of life was to surrender to the will of God and to return to the Kingdom of God.
Gradually, however, real Christianity has become obscured due to many omissions and distortions inspired by materialistic social and political agendas. Thus, we find that several misleading ideas have immerged in modern Christianity.
For instance, modern-day Christianity teaches:
1.) The soul is eternal, yet the idea of reincarnation is false. — Modern so-called Christian preachers have no explanation where individual souls existed prior to their present life. “Eternal” literally means existing forever– in the past, present, and future. Some passages still found in the Bible indicate reincarnation, but these are ignored. It is obvious some Bible passages have been cancelled for the convenience of political and social leaders.
2.) Animals have no souls. –Srila Prabhupada often pointed to the absurdity of this idea: Animals eat, sleep, mate and defend, as humans do. They fear death. They reproduce. They feel pain and try to protect themselves and their young. They have all the symptoms of living beings. All living beings are eternal, spirit souls covered by various degrees of ignorance in the form of material bodies. No one will say it is okay to kill one’s brother simply because he is unintelligent.
3.) God is all-merciful. Jesus Christ is the only son or empowered emissary of God. You get only one chance of redemption and divine mercy only in this one life. Jesus is the only vessel for God’s mercy. If you somehow miss this chance you are condemned to eternal hell. –What kind of philosophy is this? Only fear and ignorance cause otherwise intelligent people to buy into such a foolish idea. Srila Prabhupada pointed out that God is unlimited and unlimitedly merciful. The idea that God, for all time, has only one good son or representative, is absurd and contradictory, as is the idea of eternal damnation.
4.) The commandment “Thou shall not kill” only applies to humans. Animals can be caged, tortured, slaughtered, and eaten because they have no soul. –This pure madness. Modern so-called Christians believe they have the right to kill domestic animals like cows in mass slaughterhouses. It is proven that cows are highly sensitive creatures with feelings and emotions, yet fools posing as religious leaders think such mass slaughter of innocent animals is just fine with Jesus. They cite old Bible passages that say man has dominion of animals, and they think this means men have the right to cage them and slaughter them for the pleasure of their palates. Srila Prabhupada has pointed out that parents naturally have dominion over their children but that doesn’t give them the right to kill them. In Vedic culture, domestic animals, especially cows, are always protected like one’s children. In western culture only dogs and cats, and sometimes horses, might be protected. Yet even these beloved animals are neglected or killed by so-called Christians when they become an inconvenience.
5.) Everyone is born a sinner. We inherit the “original sin” of our common ancestors. That’s why even babies are sinners. Unless they are ritually baptized, they go to hell for eternity– even if they are too young to hate, kill, or sin. –Another foolish concoction. The idea of a vengeful, cruel God, who is called “all-good” and “all-merciful”, makes no sense at all. Vedic religion, or Vaishnavism understands that all souls are born in the material world due to their past sins or material desires from previous lives. It has nothing to do with mythical ancestors like Adam and Eve. (Jesus countered idea of inherited sin when asked why a child was born blind.)
These are examples of a few contradictory and illogical ideas taught by pseudo-Christian leaders due to ignorance and incomplete knowledge of God and the spirit soul. Then why did the great saint Sri Bhaktivinoda Thakura consider Christianity the best of many world religions? He appreciated that Christians have the basic sentiment of surrendering to the will of God, understand God is the supreme person, and that we should learn to trust God and love Him by accepting only His pure representative as one’s guide and savior. These principles are the same as the fundamental principles of Krishna consciousness.
Unlike Christianity, however, Krishna consciousness is forever protected by the eternal disciplic succession of great teachers who explain in great depth the science of God, the soul, devotional service (bhakti-yoga), and prema, or love of God. In this fallen age, those who want to be saved from sin and material existence should carefully study the teachings His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the real teacher or guru for this age. In this way, everyone can be saved from false preachers and propensities for ignorance and sin.
Srila Prabhupada’s translations and purports of Srimad-Bhagavatam and Bhagavad-gita (As It Is) teach the full science of pure God consciousness, which he describes in detail in many large volumes. In the Bhagavad-gita, Lord Krishna gives a succinct understanding of the soul and reincarnation:
“As a person puts on new garments, giving up old and useless ones, similarly, the soul accepts new material bodies, giving up old and useless ones.
“This individual soul is unbreakable and insoluble, and can be neither burned nor dried. He is everlasting, all-pervading, unchangeable, immovable and eternally the same.
“The soul can never be cut into pieces by any weapon, nor can he be burned by fire, nor moistened by water, nor withered by the wind.”
(from Bhagavad-gita As It Is [AOE], Chapter Two, verses 22-24)
Elsewhere in Bhagavad-gita, Lord Krishna further clarifies the science of the soul, reincarnation, and the disciplic succession as follows:
“The Blessed Lord said: Many births both you and I have passed. I can remember all of them, but you cannot, O subduer of the enemy!” (Bhagavad-gita As It Is [AOE] Chapter Four, Verse 4.)
“This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. But in course of time the succession was broken, and therefore the science as it is appears to be lost.” (Bg. 4.2)
“That very ancient science of the relationship with the Supreme is today told by Me to you because you are My devotee as well as My friend; therefore you can understand the transcendental mystery of this science.” (Bg. 4.3)
“Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendent of Bharata, and a prominent rise in irreligion—at that time I descend Myself.” (Bg.4.7)
“And when you have thus learned the truth, you will know that all living beings are but part of Me—and that they are in Me, and are Mine.” (Bg.4.35)
“One who sees the Supersoul in every living being and equal everywhere does not degrade himself by his mind. Thus he approaches the transcendental destination.” (Bg. 13.29)
Srila Prabhupada often pointed out that without the direct guidance of God and His pure representatives, who are self-realized souls, and without surrendering to the will of God, religious teachings will devolve to become a type of sentimental faith only. In this way, religion may be misused to promote the mundane agendas of various social or political institutions. This is due, mostly, to the fact that Christian preachers have only a vague and incomplete understanding of the glories of the Personality of Godhead.
Lord Krishna, Supreme Personality of Godhead, gives His conclusive instructions in Bhagavad-gita, Chapter 18, verses 65 and 66:
“Always think of Me and become My devotee. Worship Me and offer your homage to Me. Thus you will come to Me. I promise you this because you are my very dear friend.
“Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear.”
In the Vedic Vaishnava scriptures of the Krishna Consciousness movement, God and the soul are fully described in many large volumes of divinely inspired scriptures produced by many empowered and self-realized souls over the past several thousand years, and particularly in the past 500 years, since the advent of Sri Krishna Chaitanya, the avatar of Lord Krishna for this age.
There is more information about God in just a few verses from Bhagavad-gita, Srimad Bhagavatam, and other Vedic scriptures, such as Sri Isopanisad, than found in the entirety of the New Gospel.
For instance:
“The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.” (Sri Isopanisad, Invocation)
“I offer my obeisances unto Lord Sri Krishna son of Vasudeva, who is the supreme all-pervading Personality of Godhead. I meditate upon Him, the transcendental reality, who is the primeval cause of all causes, from whom all manifested universes arise, in whom they dwell and by whom they are destroyed. I meditate upon that eternally effulgent Lord who is directly and indirectly conscious of all manifestations and yet is beyond them. It is He only who imparted Vedic knowledge unto the heart of Brahma, the first created being. Through Him this world, like a mirage, appears real even to great sages and demigods. Because of Him, the material universes, created by the three modes of nature, appear factual, although they are unreal. I meditate on Him, the absolute truth, who is eternally existent in His transcendental abode, and who is forever free of illusion.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam, 1.1.1)
I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who know this perfectly engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts. (Bhagavad-gita As It Is, 10.8)
Completely rejecting all religious activities which are materially motivated, this Bhagavata Puraṇa propounds the highest truth, which is understandable by those devotees who are fully pure in heart. The highest truth is reality distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all. Such truth uproots the threefold miseries. This beautiful Bhagavatam, compiled by the great sage Vyasadeva [in his maturity], is sufficient in itself for God realization. What is the need of any other scripture? As soon as one attentively and submissively hears the message of Bhagavatam, by this culture of knowledge the Supreme Lord is established within his heart. (Srimad-Bhagavatm, 1.1.2)