I had an Indian friend who lived in US for a while. She was working in IT industry like most Indians who migrate to US. She told me an interesting incident.
Apparently, she had an American colleague, a devout Christian. This friend once told her that she was very much concerned about her. The reason was that this Indian friend was not a Christian.
So what if she is not Christian?
Well, according to this Christian friend of hers, anyone who does not accept Jesus Christ as a savior would go to hell when he or she died! Since my friend was a Hindu, her going to hell was almost certain, at least according to this Christian colleague 😉 That was the cause for her worry 😉
These days when atheism is in fashion, this incident may sound like cooked up one. But it is a true incident.
When God created Adam in the Eden Gardens, apparently Adam disobeyed God by eating the fruit from the forbidden tree of knowledge. Adam was misled by Satan in doing that. That was the ‘first sin’ committed by a human and as a result, Adam had to leave the heaven and come down to earth.
Adam not only sinned but his entire progeny inherited that sin down the line! So, all of us – descendants of Adam, are born sinners.
Many dispute this story from Bible and believe that this narrative is a later addition to Bible over a period of time. But many Christians believe in such a concept of ‘born sinner’.
How do we absolve ourselves from the sin that we never committed? Apparently, God sent his own son Jesus Christ to earth to free us from this sin. Jesus gave his life on the cross to nullify the sin that mankind has inherited. Anyone who has faith in Jesus Christ is assured of protection from the inherited sin.
Now, that is the background which made my friend’s Christian friend worry about her. She believed that as long as my friend continues to be a Hindu, she was sure to go to hell 😉
How the original Europeans ended up discovering America, also has a similar background story. Though there are multiple versions of this story, one story that I watched in one of the TV documentaries was interesting.
Apparently, some European Christian missionaries were worried about large population of humans in China, India and other eastern countries. They were worried that these people who are non-Christians would go to hell when they die. The only way to rescue them from such an eventuality was to convert them to Christian faith.
So, they sent some sailors in search of these land masses where vast majority of non-Christians lived. But instead of China or India, these sailors discovered Americas! It was not the spices that they went in search of, as commonly believed, but a holy mission of rescuing the sinners living in those countries 😉
That documentary was a surprise revelation for me!
Quran has a slightly different version of the story. It talks about the angel Iblis who takes on the role of Satan. Apparently, after God created the first man ‘in the exact likeness of God’ he asked the angels to prostrate before the man. All angels except Iblis complied by God’s order.
Iblis felt that since man was created from ‘dust’, unlike the angels who are created from ‘fire’, man was inferior to angels. So, he did not want to prostrate before an inferior being.
But God was not prepared to accept such disobedience. He cursed Iblis and barred him from heaven. At last, God gave an opportunity to Iblis to prove his point that humans are inferior and prone to sin. So, Iblis took on the role of tempting humans to sin and proving his point. That is why humans sin 😉
Stories are different. But the main theme is more or less the same – humans are sinners or at least susceptible to committing sin. There is a quote attributed to prophet Mohammed where Allah is supposed to have told him that all those who die as non-Muslims would go to hell.
On the other extreme end of the world, far from the Abrahamic world, there was an altogether different way of looking at things. Ancient Indian scriptures considered human beings to be inherently divine – far less from being sinners.
There is this well-known statement from the Chandogya Upanishad (chapter 6, “The story of Swetaketu”)
Whatever subtle thing from which this entire world came forth, has also made things in this world alive by entering them.
This is the ultimate truth.
That thing is the Atma.
And in essence, ‘each one of us is nothing but That’.
sa ya EShah aNimaa aitadaatmyam idam sarvam
tat satyam
sa aatmaa, tat tvam asi
The Upanishads believe that each one of us is a form taken by God. So, far from looking at each one of us as sinners, Upanishads look at us as divine replicas of God – inherently pure and blemish less.
This is not some isolated quote that I have picked up. Throughout various ancient Indian scriptures, the soul – our true identity – is considered to be untainted and ever blissful.
Why then do we appear to be less than perfect?
The Samkhya philosophers of India said that it is because of our over association with the body. The body is prone to commit mistakes and the soul that identifies itself with the body arrogates the sins committed by the body. There would be no sin, if you shrug off this mistaken identity.
Yoga said that it is because of the ‘shroud’ that envelops the soul and blurs its ‘vision’. Meditation is supposed to clear up this envelop. When the envelop is cleared, the soul sees itself as pure and blissful.
The Upanishads call it ‘blinding light’ that surrounds the soul, masking its true identity.
The Advaitis like Sankara call it ‘Maya’ the illusive power that confuses.
All the same, inherently each one of us is divine and not a born sinner. Realizing this fact is the ultimate aim of all the Indian ways of spiritual practice. There is no need to beg for the mercy of any God, because we ourselves are forms of the very same God.
What a divergent way of looking at things – ‘born sinner’ verses ‘inherently divine’!
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