This letter is in response to your article “Is Back to Godhead an Offender?” [That’s the title we gave the exchange between the Federation of Hindu Associations and BTG.] As a young Hindu living in Britain, where the media consistently portrays the religion as fanatical, it is upsetting when it seems that Hindu sects, such as ISKCON [the International Society for Krishna Consciousness], for whom I have great regard and respect, do propound such rigid views which are in direct opposition to the universal tolerance of Sanatana-dharma. When these intolerant views are propagated within the body of this eternal faith, it is even more distressing and worrying.
God is one
I myself am a Krishna bhakta, and believe that Krishna is the Supreme Godhead who takes on different manifestations, is called by different names, but is essentially the one, true Brahman. However, I also truly believe that those devotees who call Him Allah, Jesus, Jehovah, etc., and certainly those who call Him Siva or Brahma worship one and the same God.
Thus, in quoting Gita 9.23:
ye ’py anya-devata-bhakta
yajante sraddhayanvitah
te ’pi mam eva kaunteya
yajanty avidhi-purvakam
in support of your argument, I believe you are grossly misinterpreting what the Lord says here. (I hasten to stress that I myself am in my third year of a Sanskrit degree, and so am not talking without foundation.) I give here another translation of the verse:
“Kaunteya, even those devotees who, endowed with faith, worship other gods (with some interested motive), worship Me alone, though with a mistaken approach.”
Now, I, upon reading this, came to an entirely different conclusion to yours. To me, when Krishna says the approach is mistaken, He means it is wrong to consider your chosen deity as the only Supreme and the others as inferior; i.e., if the devotee worships Siva and does not accept Krishna as one and the same (when they are one in reality) then they are mistaken. I disagree vehemently with, for example, those Christians who believe “Jesus is the Son of God and the only Way and worshippers of other faiths are misled, ignorant, and damned.” God is one and He is not so petty, as you seem to imply, that if you called Him Siva with full faith and devotion (while at the same time accepting that others call him Krishna, etc.) He would be displeased. Indeed, in the Ramcaritamanas, Rama says:
sivapada kamala jinihin rati nahin
ramahi te sapanehun na sohahin
“(He who) has no devotion for the lotus feet of Lord Siva, even in his dreams will not be tolerated by Lord Rama.”
When Krishna talks of “ME” He is speaking of the Supreme Consciousness, not limited by name or form. Krishna even states in the Gita, not that Siva is inferior but in fact rudranam sankaras casmi — “Of all the Rudras, I am Siva.”
What sets Sanatana-dharma apart from other world religions is that it truly believes that they are all equal. The Vedas, whilst referring to 300 million Gods, are inferring the infinitude of the Divine and his forms, not that they really are separate, individual devas. The same Veda states, ekam sat viprah bahuda vadanti: “Truth is One, but learned men express it in different ways.”
Beyond limited forms
Secondly, it is mistaken (not wrong, which is too strong a word) to worship deities such as Lakshmi only in their limited forms (in the latter case as the Bestower of Wealth), thinking that that is the ultimate reality/true spirituality. That devotee, looking at God in a limited form, will only experience God in a limited way, e.g. as wealth and prosperity, and not attain oneness with Him:
yo yo yam yam tanum bhaktah
sraddhayarcitum icchati
tasya tasyacalam sraddham
tam eva vidadhamy aham
“Whatever celestial form a devotee (craving for some worldly object) chooses to worship with reverence, I stabilise the faith of that particular devotee in that very form.”
But that must be the individual’s choice, and I believe it is a much graver sin to proclaim him a sinner or offender.
If I may recount one of my favourite stories. Tulsi Dasji, that great bhakta of Sri Rama (who you accept, as an incarnation of Vishnu, to be equal to Krishna) did not consider Kanha [Krishna] to be of equal prominence to his Rama. He refused even to enter a temple where the idol worshipped was other than Raghava [Rama]. But one day, for one reason or another, he was forced to enter a temple dedicated to Madhava [Krishna]. Lo and behold, what did he see? When he turned his eyes to the murti [Deity] he saw Rama! And thus he understood. “Lord, I perceive you in my narrow fashion as Rama, but you are beyond form, beyond such limitations. You are Rama, You are Krishna, You are Siva, You are All!”
Sanatana-dharma must encompass all
My preferred form of Brahman is Krishna. When I buy pictures, I consistently discard representations of other deities and always choose those that are of my Kanhaiya (as some ISKCON devotee who came to Cambridge witnessed!). When I sing, I sing of Rama and Krishna; when I pray, I pray to Krishna. I believe it is very conducive for imperfect human beings to have an ista devata [chosen deity], whom they see as the Supreme Godhead. But BRAHMAN is not imperfect; Sanatana-dharma must not, cannot be anything but all-encompassing. The various Puranas are written from the point of view of the devotee, but simply because they are not all-encompassing, not universal in outlook, this does not mean that Sanatana-dharma is not. And this is why Krishna also states categorically in the Gita:
ye yatha mam prapadyante
tams tathaiva bhajamy aham
mama vartmanuvartante
manusyah partha sarvasah
“O Partha, howsoever men seek Me, even so do I approach them, for all men follow My path in every way.”
Yours sincerely,
Aarti Sethia
President, Cambridge University Hindu Society
Cambridge, UK
