Let me caution you:
This is not going to be an easy journey.
First I need to tell myself that it is important that we do not lose light of the scope of the discussion in this series of articles. To that end, allow me to reproduce the dedication found in the front pages of this extraordinary book which also states the author’s mission:
Quote:
Dedicated to my revered guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, whose universal wisdom first illumined for me the oneness of eternal truth uniting the teachings of Jesus Christ and India’s ancient science of religion; and to devout souls everywhere, whom I summon to enter the inner light of divine perception revealing the infinite Christ consciousness seeking resurrection within them
Unquote
We should not lose sight of the fact that the one summoning the devout to enter the inner light of divine perception revealing the infinite Christ consciousness is an acknowledged and well recognized Hindu yogi.
That said, let us delve a little bit further into the concept and meaning of AUM which we mentioned in Misc. 49, shall we?
This is a subject we said we would come back to, God willing and by all indications God indeed is willing! As you will recall this study involves a comparison of the person of Christ (including his mission / teachings) and the yogic understanding of Hinduism. So bear with me if we crisscross.
A little repetition first, in order to jog your memory.
Harking back to the great commission of Jesus found in Matthew 28:20: “teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen“. This Amen is interpreted by PY (Paramahansa Yogananda) to be nothing but the Holy Ghost, the third person of the Trinity of Father ,Son and Holy Ghost (Spirit). As detailed below, according to PY, it is the sacred invisible vibratory power of God that actively sustains the universe: (and it is the) word or Aum.
Now, let us look into the Bible
“For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us”.(2 Cor.1:20)
Also
“And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God”.(Rev.3:14)
“The beginning of the creation of God“. ah..ah! I think this makes the trinitarian nature of the Godhead abundantly clear, for we do see Amen signifying the Holy Spirit one with God (the Father) here. In case you are wondering where the Son is hiding in this dispensation, look at
John 1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made” (the him here of course is a reference to the Son, also referred to as the Word or Logos in Greek – the language of the New Testament).
Excuse me?
the Word was God
This puts paid to any excuse you might have had for questioning the divinity or deity of Jesus.
It is of course no surprise that the Bible speaks of the trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But it is quite amazing to discover that PY too talks the same language! PY though, puts it a little differently according to his own illumination:
Quote:
Before creation there is only undifferentiated spirit.In manifesting creation, spirit becomes God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
God the Father, the creator of all creative vibration in the Hindu Scriptures is called Ishwara (the cosmic ruler) or Sat (the supreme pure essence of cosmic consciousness)
The vibratory force emanating from Spirit,endowed with the illusory creative power of Maya is the Holy Ghost: cosmic vibration the Word, Aum ( Om) or Amen. The holy Cosmic Sound of Aum or Amen is the witness of the manifested Divine Presence in all creation.
An analogy may serve to illustrate how the One Eternal Spirit becomes the Holy Trinity: God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, similarly acknowledged in the Hindu Scriptures as Sat, Tat, Aum.
A stands for akara or creative vibration, u stands for ukara or preservative vibration, m for makara the vibratory power of dissolution.
Unquote
Phew! The Hindu scriptures acknowledging the Trinity of Christianity!!
By now it must be evident that the attributes of the Son and the Holy Ghost (Spirit) are used interchangeably.
Going further, the Wikipedia tells us that Om or Aum is a sacred sound of a spiritual symbol in Indian religions;
The consonance of Aum and Amen was well understood by some Christians of yesteryears but today’s followers of Christ will wrinkle their nose and turn away at the above symbol, identifying it quintessentially as Hindu.
Let me illustrate:
Vedanayagam Sastriar, a peerless Tamil Christian poet (who incidentally was my grandfather’s grandfather) (1774-1864) of Tanjore operated before the era of pure Tamil (தனித் தமிழ்) and he was perfectly comfortable in using the word ஓம் along with many others the purists cannot suffer today. His magna carta Jebamalai has a whole section called ஒம்பிரணவம். Here is a sample:
ஜெபமாலை
ஒம்பிரணவம்-இருக்கிறோம்
யாத். 3:14 வெளி. 1:8
பொன்னுல குச்சிதப் புகழ்ச்சி யோம்நமா
பூரண காரணப் புதுமை யோம்நமா
தன்னிக ரொன்றிலாத் தாதை யோம்நமா
தற்பர மெய்பர சுயம்ப தோம்நமா
இந்நிலம் புரக்குமி ரட்சிப் போம்நமா
இசறவே லதிபதி யேசு வோம்நமா
நன்னிலை யிருக்கிறோம் ஓகோம் நமோநமோ
நாயனா ஓசனா நமஸ்த னாதியே
In case you are wondering about the Sastriar’s strange costume, you should be informed that he was a poet in the court of the Maratha king Serfoji in Tanjore (a Christian poet in a Hindu court!) and wore clothing appropriate to the traditions of the Maratha pundits at that time. But that is all another story!
Clement Sastriar – son of Bagavathar Vedanayagam Sastriar (also a descendant of Vedanayagam Sastriar)- gives an excellent explanation for the term ஓம் that buttresses the facts noted above: watch and listen
Many of you may be aware that Bagavathar Vedanayagam Sastriar has been a life long minister of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has greatly popularized the works of his famous ancestor through his songs rendered in his inimitable resounding voice and kalashebams (காலஷேபம்). Two of his children – Sarah and Clement – have also been ordained Sastriar and they carry on their father’s good work. In Sarah’s case her husband Martin joins in her mission; he preaches while she sings!
And in Sastriar’s home base of Tanjore we have the young Noah Sastriar. He was ordained at the tender age of 17 when his sastriar father suddenly passed away due to cardiac arrest. Noah is a great orator and commentator on Sastriar’s works.
Now it is unfortunate that the compilers of the Christian lyrics used for worship predominantly in the mainline Tamil churches were nescient of these nuances of ancient wisdom when it came to use of words like ஓம் . They had no difficulty shoring up the lyric book with plenty of Sastriar songs (in fact the majority are his) but I am afraid they were incorrigible ignoramuses and were completely out of their depth when it came to understanding the wealth of certain terms used by poets of yore.
Here is a wonderful song composed by Sastriar to celebrate the glory of Christ’s resurrection. The pretty singer who renders it with so much passion and feeling is Beryl Natasha and the orchestration is by Clement Sastriar (who also plays the violin).
Please note the words of this exuberant song:
பல்லவி
ஆமனல் லேலூயா மகத்துவத் தம்பராபரா
ஆமனல் லேலூயா செயஞ் செயம்
அனந்த கோடி நரா
அனுபல்லவி
ஓமனாதி தந்தார் வந்தாரிறந்
துயிர்த் தெழுந் தாரே யுன்னதமே
Our lyric compilers had a problem with “ஓமனாதி தந்தார்”; they just could not digest the term ஓம். So do you know what they did? They changed it to தொல்லை அனாதி தந்தார் ! Knock me down with a feather!
Where as the Bible says “the Father …. will give you another Helper (the Holy Spirit) who will abide with us for ever” (John 14:16) it was pathetically rendered to mean something like “the Father gave us TROUBLE!”
Oh these unenlightened revisionists!
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