Saccidananda Ashram, Shantivanam

03/07/2024

What is the new law that Jesus gave us?

It was not the mission of Christ to give laws. The mission of Jesus Christ was to invite people to discover the Law written in the heart.

Within himself he inaugurated the New Covenant, the law written in the heart.

In the Old Covenant people will say: the external Law is the way, the truth and the life. When people live in the individual consciousness where selfishness dominates, they need a collective consciousness of external laws that control people and guide people.

In the New Covenant people will say: I am the way, the truth and the life. Here people live in the universal consciousness. Universal consciousness means being United with God, with creation and with humanity and living one's life for the welfare of the whole of creation. Those who live in the universal consciousness do not need external laws. They will say: I am the way, the truth and the life.

So Jesus Christ did not give any laws. He invited people to grow from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, from walking with artificial aids to waking on one's own feet.

23/11/2023

What is the Kingdom of God?

The kingdom of God is ultimately the transformation of life. It is transforming one's life into the life of God, one's actions into the actions of God. It is the transition from ‘I' to God. A person who lives in the kingdom of God says: my life is not my life but God's life and my actions are not my actions but God's actions.

It is transforming our ordinary life into the life of God.

The kingdom of God is the experience of the universal and indwelling presence of God.

The kingdom of God is the realisation of unity with God, with the whole of creation and the whole of humanity.

The kingdom of God is awakening to eternity and transforming Time as the vehicle of eternity.

The kingdom of God is the fullness of the love of God manifesting in the fullness of the love of neighbour that includes the whole of creation.

The kingdom of God is the experience of the unconditional love of God.
The kingdom of God is discovering one's own eternal identity.
The kingdom of God is living the life of unfolding which is the opposite of the life of becoming.

17/03/2023

Is Hinduism as false as Christianity?( A question asked in Quora).

I do not know the reason and the motive for asking this question. Why does one want to label Hinduism and Christianity as false? Hinduism is not false. Christianity is not false.

One needs to say that Hinduism is not one religion( belief system) but a congregation of many belief systems. There are many belief systems within the label of Hinduism but all call themselves Hindus.

There are two things that unite all Hindu systems: belief that life in this world is bo***ge- samsara (birth-death-reincarnation) and the desire for Moksha, liberation from Samsara. The experience of Moksha or liberation depends on what one believes in. For example in Advaita system or non-duality, Moksha is realising to be one with Brahman, in Visista Advaita system, qualified non-duality, Moksha is to be in God and in dvaita system or duality Moksha is to be in the presence of God. The means of liberation may differ: for adviata system it is primarily jnana marga, the path of wisdom. For visistaadvaita system primarily it is the path of devotion and self surrender and for the dviata system devotion and selfless action lead to Moksha.

In the same way we can say that Christianity is not one religion but congregation of many religions. There are many belief systems within the label of Christianity but all call themselves Christians.

There are two things that unite all Christins: belief that life in this world is sin (human beings are sinners) and the desire for salvation or liberation. The means for liberation or salvation may be different: faith or faith and good works or faith manifesting in good works. Salvation, also called justification, is to be in the presence of God and not to feel guilty. For some it is to have a beautific vision of God or to be in paradise- heaven.

What unites both Hinduism and Christianity is the belief that life in this world is sin- samsara- bo***ge and the desire for salvation or Moksha- liberation that is freedom from sin, samsara- bo***ge.

Local business

23/02/2023

f the tree of knowledge was the forbidden tree in Genesis, then why did the tree of life become heavily gaurded and forbidden instead?(Gautam Gohain in Quora)

Our spiritual evolution is from the unconscious unity to the conscious unity. The Garden of Eden represents unconscious unity. Adam and Eve began with that. Eating the tree of knowledge is entering into self-consciousness, desire, effort, good and evil, knowledge and seperation. It is a necessary stage. No one can avoid it.

Returning to the Garden of Eden is coming to conscious unity. What is unconscious becomes conscious. It is the eating fruit from the tree of life.

The area of self-consciousness has to be explored fully before returning to the Garden of Eden, before eating the fruit from the tree of Life.

When Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden, the gate to the Tree of Life was guarded.

The danger is if Adam and Eve find difficult in self-consciousness they may like to return without facing it.

For example when a baby comes of womb and finds difficulty in the immensity of the infinite sky it may like to go back into the security of the womb. This is regression. Regression is not allowed. Human beings have to face the heat of the Sun, the wind. They have to face difficulties. They have to become mature. They have to undergo suffering. This prepares them to eat the fruit from the tree of Life. This prepares them to handle eternity.

Life us not regression. Life is progression.

There is no direct path from the unconscious unity to the conscious unity. We need to go through the process of Time, effort, good and evil and suffering.

Adam and Eve coming out of the Garden is like coming out of the womb of a mother. They can not return into the womb again. The door is closed for them. They need to grow. God wanted them to grow. God blocked the gate so that they do not regress.

When we are in the womb of our mother we are in the Garden of Eden. When we come out we fall into self-consciousness,Time. We need to grow there. When we see the limitations of Time, we break through into eternity, into the womb of God, not into the womb of our physical mother. It is the transition from the limited womb to the universal womb.

Our journey is from the physical womb of our physical mother into universal and eternal womb of God. This is progression. This is eating the fruit from the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life was guarded so that human beings may not regress. Today it is the same. We can eat the fruit from the tree of Life only when we grow in Time, exhaust Time, see the limitations of Time then the gate will be opened. We are ready to eat the fruit from the tree of Life.

14/08/2022

Is it possible that Adam and Eve were never immoral before they ate the forbidden fruit if they had never previously eaten from the tree of life which God had hidden from them?

Our spiritual evolution is a journey from unconscious unity to conscious unity through self- consciousness.
Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, represent our unconscious state. It is not an external.place. When we are in the womb of our mother and when we are born, we are in the unconscious unity. We are in the Garden of Eden. The eating of the fruit from the tree of life represents our conscious unity. In the initial Garden of Eden, it is hidden from us. At that stage human beings are not immoral. They' are innocent and ignorant. Human beings have the natural desire to become conscious of what is unconscious. This desire to become like God is a natural desire to become conscious what is unconscious. But they project it outside in Time and Space. They fall into Time, self-consciousness, good and evil, suffering, effort, becoming, creation of spiritual paths and religions. But Time will not bring them to become conscious of what is unconscious.When human beings realise that Time is not the way, they stop Time and surrender to eternity. Then they eat the fruit from the Tree of Life. They reenter into the Garden of Eden consciously.
In the beginning human beings are in the Garden of Eden, innocent and ignorant. They are not immoral. The tree of life is hidden from them. With the desire to become conscious of their true nature, they eat the forbidden fruit of desire,Time. They take the wrong direction. Unfortunately it cannot be avoided. Later they renounce this path and eat the fruit from the tree of life and reenter the Garden of Eden consciously.
This has to happen in everone's life but most people may remain on the path of desire and Time and never eat the fruit from the tree of life, never reenter into the Garden of Eden.
In the Biblical Tradition Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ represent a consciousness that has eaten the fruit from the tree of Life and reenters into the Garden of Eden.
We all begin with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. We all fall from it, come out of it, like Adam and Eve. Like Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ we all need to eat the fruit from the tree of Life and reenter into the Garden of Eden, which is conscious unity.

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05/03/2019

John Martin Kuvarapu's answer: According to me the the whole of creation comes from the desire of God or infinite. The desire of the infinite is to manifest divine attributes of love and compassion in relatiobships. Fro this God needs human beings who alone are capable to do that. The whole purpo...

05/03/2019

John Martin Kuvarapu's answer: Jesus had an experience of God that was unique and never was in the past. This experience gave him an unique identity. But people were projecting their own identities based on the past and the future expectations. Some thought he was like the old prophets Elija, Jer...

05/03/2019

John Martin Kuvarapu's answer: We should not read the scripture with the mind of finding whether it is true or false. What is important is whether it makes any sense for our spiritual life today. Scripture is not meant to believe but use for our spiritual growth.

05/03/2019

Dear Friends, recently I started to respond to questions put in Quora. I would like to share with you. Br. Martin

John Martin Kuvarapu's answer: Hinduism is basically a tolerant religion. It does not have the ambition of expanding its boundaries and increasing its numbers. Where there is an ambition to expand one's boundary and increase one's numbers there is inherent violence. This inner violence may provo...

06/02/2019

Dear Friends, recently I have been responding to the questions put in Quora. I wish to share with you.

John Martin Kuvarapu's answer: I come from a Christian background. There were many truths that striked me. 1. God is presented as a personal God who enters into relationship with people. This is something different from the Upanishads. 2. Arjuna represented the seeker of Truth who was confused w...

18/06/2018

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