Some similarities between dwaitham and Christianity

The word "Philosophy" is derived from the Ancient Greek - philosophía (compounded from phílos: friend, or lover and sophía: wisdom). To quote from WikiPedia, "Philosophy is the discipline concerned with the questions of what is the right way to live (ethics), what sorts of things ultimately exist and what are their essential natures (metaphysics), what is to count as genuine knowledge (epistemology), and what are the correct principles of reasoning (logic).

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Jayashree Ravi
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Some similarities between dwaitham and Christianity

Post by Jayashree Ravi » Mon Apr 04, 2016 12:27 pm

There are schools of thought in Hinduism and their relevant philosophies namely i. Dwaitham 2. Advaitham 3. Visishtadvaitam. 4. Mimasam and so forth...

Of these I found few similarities between dwaitham and Christianity:

1. Concept of salvation only for a few.

2. Concept of eternal damnation to the evil doers.

3. Concept of separation of identity between the individual soul and the divine always. The soul never becomes one with the divine in its literal sense, even after salvation.

--------------Looking for more similarities like this-------------------------------
Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

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Post by eye_of_tiger » Tue Apr 05, 2016 1:37 am

The soul never becomes one with the divine in its literal sense, even after salvation.
Sister,

When I read point number three of your posting, I started to feel terribly sad and depressed. Not only for myself, but instead for the whole human species.

If point number three was true, then my own beliefs and intuition about my soul's ultimate destination are entirely out of line with and totally incompatible with both those of Christianity or dwaitham.

I do not believe I have a soul.

Instead I believe I am a soul, temporarily manifesting and expressing myself through this physical body.

If God lives within me, then any suggestion of a separation between God and my soul honestly offends my intelligence, and does not even begin to agree with my own inner experiences.

If God does not live within me, then my whole life is an absurd and cruel joke played upon me by a heartless and random universe, and by itself without God inside me my life has no other meaning or purpose beyond the reality that I will be born and later die.

So sad!

EoT  :smt010

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Post by Jayashree Ravi » Tue Apr 05, 2016 12:17 pm

I understand EoT ji... but really, that is what Dwaitham (and perhaps Christianity) tell us...

I have tried to understand this concept in depth... it seems that while the soul is accepted to have almost all the traits of the super soul, it is not omnipresent in the sense it is not all-pervasive and this is the only limitation that the soul has.... it is said the soul knows the past, present and future and enjoys all-time bliss just like the supersoul, but only limited in that it is not all-pervasive like the supersoul and this is its only limitation.

I too like the soul to become part and parcel of the Universal spirit, and this is what 'Advaitham' believes in...

Anyway, I was thinking about all this the other day and it seemed to me that there is an overlap of concepts between dwaitham and Christianity and I explored a bit and found the above 3 doctrines between the 2 being the same... not that I believe in them.

Personally my sect in Hinduism believes in another variant of Advaitham called 'Visishtadvaitham'.

I know not much of any of these philosophies. When I tired to read earlier on these philosophies myself, I only ended up getting frustrated over my inability to understand. Way too complicated for a simple mind as mine! But the interest factor remains intact....

:)
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Post by eye_of_tiger » Tue Apr 05, 2016 11:35 pm

but really, that is what Dwaitham (and perhaps Christianity) tell us...
Sister,

I think that the problem here is not with our minds being too simple, but rather it is a lot more to do with the complicated, confusing, and apparently contradictory language in which these religious texts are often written.

Also I believe that much of the intended meaning of the words which appeared in the original document has become lost in the translation. Few Christians these days can understand and speak fluent Aramaic.

I feel that we need to leave this endless debate to the religious scholars (who do often communicate with each other in the source language), and get on with living in this world, until we are promoted to the next.

BTW the super soul sounds very much like what I refer to as my Higher Self.

Your comparison of the basic teachings of these two religious belief systems is both enlightening and also very worthwhile, particularly in the light that they are both at their hearts "Eastern" religions.

EoT  Image

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Post by Jayashree Ravi » Wed Apr 06, 2016 3:12 pm

EoT ji,
I think that the problem here is not with our minds being too simple, but rather it is a lot more to do with the complicated, confusing, and apparently contradictory language in which these religious texts are often written.
Also I believe that much of the intended meaning of the words which appeared in the original document has become lost in the translation. Few Christians these days can understand and speak fluent Aramaic.
So true! I bought a well-acclaimed book on 'Visishadvaitham' and couldn't understand much! After skimming through 50 pages, I kept the book away! It was so hard.... I would appreciate if someone would explain the same text with nice examples and analogies suitable for a kid, but perhaps that would make the book into 1000 pages long.....

I'm so interested in the topic, I wish to learn/research on it... be able to converse these philosophies so well and know the nitty-gritty in them. Since Christianity and Islam are also Eastern, I would assume there is an overlap of concepts between the different schools of thoughts in their gospels and doctrines and I would love to research on them and know them myself.

But, alas, I am not so fortunate, I don't understand much of the things stated in these books.........

I'm exasperated.

Thank you for your wonderful reply.

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Post by eye_of_tiger » Tue May 17, 2016 12:59 am

I'm exasperated.
Sister,

When I was about 16 or 17 years of age (ancient history I know), I did my own personal comparison research into the sacred writings of all the major world religions, and I was equally exasperated.

But I was not feeling exasperated for the same reason as yourself.

Although understanding what is being talked about in these sacred texts can be extremely challenging, I did discover certain principles or teachings which were shared between them.

Especially that we are all children of God (whatever name you wish to call God by) and we are are all equally loved by our Creator for whom we already are (failings, mistakes and all). And that we should love, respect and help each other as we would want to be loved, respected and helped, if our roles were reversed. That life is sacred and nobody including the government has the right to murder someone.

Although the exact words and images used to communicate these core principles of each of the major world religions to the reader are understandably very different from each other, I feel that the intent behind them was identical. These principles are above all not unique to Christianity. You do not have to belong to any specific religion to believe in them, and live them.

At the heart centre of all these religions is a basic set of principles and moral values which if we all followed them to the letter regardless of our religion, would go a long way towards making this planet a heaven on Earth. If everyone faithfully followed these principles, then many of the other human issues presently leading almost inevitably to conflict, revenge and mass murder, would take care of themselves.

What I am so much more exasperated about is that many religious people spend so much valuable time and energy arguing and harming each other with the purpose to either destroy the other person or force them into converting to their own religion, based upon the other 90% or more of teachings among which these core principles have become buried. How many wars have been fought in the name of religion, yet war involves taking another person's life which is in direct contradiction to every life being sacred?

Since I was a teenager there has been a definite move by the leaders of different religions to come together with each other (as well as followers of different interpretations of the same religion), and find what they have in common (which is a lot) and apply these values in their lives, instead of forcing people to accept all or nothing of their respective religious doctrines or teachings.

This is currently happening at the moment here in Australia between followers of the Moslem religion and the rest of our population (primarily Christian), between whom there has understandably been an almost complete collapse of trust and good feelings over the rise of terrorism, and particularly the coming of Isis, Isil, IS or Daesh.

One can only hope that this encouraging trend continues and moves faster over the coming years, before we destroy each other and the planet in the particular name which we choose to give to our Creator, and over the other 90% or more of non core principles in our respective Holy books.

EoT  :smt009

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Re: Some similarities between dwaitham and Christianity

Post by Spirit Seeker » Mon Dec 10, 2018 12:14 pm

I'd like to emphasis one important thing, till we realize our soul! We remain as dvaitīs! After realizing it, there is nothing 2! Dvaita meaning treating Jīvātma / soul who isn't realized & Paramātma (ultimate supreme) are different! Treating different is itself a Māya!
Jayashree Ravi wrote:
Mon Apr 04, 2016 12:27 pm
3. Concept of separation of identity between the individual soul and the divine always. The soul never becomes one with the divine in its literal sense, even after salvation.
The concept of dvaitam is itself fallacy! The above statement is the exact definition of Māya / illusion!!! This is what a realized soul says! You can understand only when you realize it & you can realize it only when you understand the above!
So, one should try to realize our inner supreme! Then we can understand, what exactly things are!
How to understand?
We need to approach the people who're realized!
How do we know that they are realized?
Will our intellect discriminates that? Nope, that discrimination is beyond one's intellect! Time will let us know, things are not easier, should have patience!
Peace!

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