Introduction

A Blessing From God!—this is the fervent desire of millions of Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs. They perform daily acts of devotion and worship to obtain that blessing. Do you share their heartfelt yearning?

² Indian sages have long taught the importance of such divine blessings. In the Brahma Purana, for example, they asked: “Which deity shall a devotee desiring liberation worship . . . ? Wherefrom is the supreme welfare gained? . . . Who is the god of gods?”⁠¹ Guru Nanak later similarly inquired: “How shall man become true before God?”⁠² Obviously, if we can answer these questions, we may expect rich blessings from God for ourselves and our families.

³ The Bhagavad Gita tells us that the one thing God asks of us is simply an offering of our love. “[The] highest Person is to be won by love-and-worship directed to none other,” it says.⁠³ The Sikh Granth Sahib agrees: “To serve God is to love Him, if pious men reflect on it.”⁠⁴ We can surely agree with this, but what instructions has God given us to guide us in the way of true worship?

⁴ The purpose of this brochure is to lead you to God’s own revelation of himself so that you may worship him in love and truth. It traces the search for Sruti, the God-inspired scriptures, and shows how you can be among the millions who now benefit from its teachings and receive blessings from God. May God guide you and your family in your search for eternal blessings and happiness, to his praise!

Chapter 1

Loving God in Deed and Truth

“Give me your whole heart, love and adore me,” says the deity in the Bhagavad Gita. He calls this “the deepest of all truths” as far as the supreme religion is concerned.⁠¹ But how can we show our love for God and our devotion to him?

² ‘Devotion implies obedience to the divine will,’ comments Swami S. Radhakrishnan, because everything else we may offer God already belongs to Him.⁠² Guru Nanak likewise asserts that a person who ‘hears, obeys, and loves God in his heart’ has greater merit than one who simply gives alms or practices austerity.⁠³

³ Do you agree with these comments? Most sincere people would. But before we can obey God, we need to know what his divine will is. Where should we look to find divine truth?

Is Self a Revealer of Truth?

⁴ Some Hindu sages maintain that spiritual truth is hidden in our hearts and is revealed through Yogic meditation or by the chanting of mantras. On the other hand, Swami Satprakashananda contends that meditation without previous knowledge of God “is likely to be subject to fantasy, which cannot remove ignorance and reveal the Truth.”⁠⁴

⁵ Highlighting the limitations of human reasoning, Swami Vivekenanda states: “[The] questions, whether there is an immortal soul, . . . whether there is any supreme intelligence guiding this universe or not, are beyond the field of reason. Reason can never answer these questions. . . . Yet these questions are so important to us. Without a proper answer to them, human life will be purposeless.”⁠⁵ Since we cannot answer these questions by human reasoning, where can we turn?

Sacred Scriptures

⁶ Leading Hindu sages have always said that scripture is the means by which God reveals his truth. ‘The scripture is the only source of the truths regarding the suprasensible,’ says Sankaracarya.⁠⁶ The Gita also declares: “Let Scripture be your norm, determining what is right and wrong. Once you know what the ordinance of Scripture bids you do, you should perform down here the works therein prescribed.”⁠⁷

⁷ As a bee that desires nectar must find a flower, so a person who loves God must search out His truth. Swami Prabhavananda says: “God is, above all, truth. The man who loves truth must therefore in the end love God; the man who does not love truth will never love God.”⁠⁸

⁸ In your search for truth, is looking just to yourself the answer? Why not look beyond yourself and examine scripture? But there are many sacred scriptures claiming to be from God. How can you identify the one that contains His truth?

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Can Rituals Perfect Our Love for God?

“We must not confuse [gauni bhakti] with the selfsame rituals, such as repetition of God’s names, hymns, prayers and worship performed by the followers of the Path of Desire. . . . They want something of the sense-world in exchange for their worship. Love cannot grow out of such bargaining.”—Hinduism at a Glance, Swami Nirvedananda, 1979, page 94.

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Is man capable of determining by himself how best to serve God?

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‘The scripture is the only source of the truths regarding the suprasensible’

Chapter 2

How Can You Identify God’s Truth?

How can we distinguish the word of God from the word of men—the true from the false? Well, in any dispute over a merchant’s weights, would we not check the weights’ official seals to determine the matter? Likewise, if we are to worship our Maker in love and in truth, we need to check the basic credentials of holy writings.

² As we have seen, only God can satisfy our spiritual needs, so we can expect scripture from him to magnify God and answer our questions about him, such as, Who is God? Why did he create us? How should we worship him? Why is there so much suffering, and will the human family ever live together in lasting happiness? These basic questions affect each one of us. How does God answer them?

³ Loving parents never overlook the needs of any of their children. Similarly, we would expect God to make his holy writings available to all members of his human family. If those writings were available only in Sanskrit or Gurmukhi, for example, not all people would be able to benefit, would they?

⁴ A kind father, even if highly educated, always speaks to his children on their level of understanding. Likewise, scriptures from God must be easy to understand. Says Paul, a preacher of the first century of our Common Era: “I would rather speak five words that can be understood, in order to teach others, than speak thousands of words in strange tongues.”—1 Corinthians 14:19, Today’s English Version.

⁵ We resent being deceived and told lies. Rather, we are drawn to people who speak the truth. Honesty conveys a feeling of trust and confidence. Since our sense of right and wrong originates with our Maker, he cannot speak falsehood. We expect him to teach true doctrines and morals and to be accurate when referring to historical events.

⁶ How, then, should we view scriptures that present myths as history? As we shall see, myths, unlike truth, differ widely and sometimes portray God as being weak or immoral. God’s word has to be free from myths.

⁷ Many people today look for omens, cast spells, and consult spirit mediums. The spirits secretly invoked by such practices often harm innocent victims, including children. Since God is not evil, can scriptures having connections with such forms of demonism originate with him? All revelations of the true God will be free from demonism.

⁸ We can also tell whether scripture is from God or from men by observing the fruits it produces in the lives of those who follow its teachings. Are they clean, honest, and hardworking, or are they deceitful, dishonest, and corrupt? Do they enjoy warm, loving family relationships, or do they accept the mistreatment of women and other people as normal? Are they people who know God personally, as a friend, or are they guided solely by religious leaders? A book of divine origin should provide solutions for our problems and have a good effect on our lives.

⁹ These seven requirements, taken together, provide the standard by which to test all holy writings. When a book meets all of them, surely it comes from God!

¹⁰ Let us now examine together different sacred writings and see how each measures up. Remember, we are interested in receiving divine guidance. Our Maker, like a caring father, also wants us to know his will so that we may love and worship him.

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Questions for Examination

As you read through this brochure, check to see how the religious writings measure up to all or any of these seven basic criteria:

They should:

1. Magnify God and answer our questions about him

2. Be available to all

3. Be easy to understand

4. Teach true doctrines and morals

5. Be free from myths

6. Be free from demonism

7. Provide solutions for our problems and have a good effect on our lives

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In any dispute over a merchant’s weights, we check the weights’ official seals. What will identify scriptures as being from God?

Chapter 3

Sacred Writings of India

GURU NANAK AND THE GURU GRANTH SAHIB

According to the Guru Granth Sahib, Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, never fully acknowledged the authority of the Hindu scriptures because he objected to Vedic ceremonies, the caste system, and the worship of many gods. Tracing the source of Nanak’s beliefs, however, Sikh writer Khushwant Singh notes: “Even a casual reading of his hymns reveals the influence of the Rigveda, the Upanishads . . . , and the Bhagvad Gita.” So to understand the Guru Granth Sahib, we must examine the sources of its teachings—the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Bhagavad Gita.—The Sikh Gurus and the Sikh Religion, Anil Chandra Banerjee, 1983, pages 133-4.

BRAHMI—INDIA’S ROOT SCRIPT

The scripts of Indian languages, such as Sanskrit, Hindi, Punjabi, Marathi, Malayalam, Tamil, and Bengali, have all “ultimately descended from Brahmi, the script used by the Emperor Ashoka in the 3rd century B.C. in the earliest surviving Indian inscriptions.”—Indian Manuscripts, The British Library, 1977, page 1.

“Brāhmī, the traditional prototype of all Indo-Āryan scripts, may have been introduced in the eighth or seventh century B.C.”—A Dictionary of Hinduism, Margaret and James Stutley, 1977, page 267.

THE VEDAS

The earliest hymns of the four Vedas (Rig-Veda, Yajur-Veda, Sama-Veda, and Atharva-Veda) were composed nearly 3,000 years ago and were transmitted orally from teacher to pupil. “It was only in the fourteenth century A.D. that the Veda was written down.”—A History of India, P. K. Saratkumar, 1978, page 24.

THE UPANISHADS

Over a hundred treatises on Hindu philosophy and mysticism were composed about 2,500 years ago. “Though the earliest Upaniṣads were compiled by 500 B.C., they continued to be written even so late as the spread of Mahommedan influence in India.”—A History of Indian Philosophy, Surendranath Dasgupta, Indian edition 1975, Volume 1, page 39.

THE PURANAS

A class of Sanskrit writings of ancient tales and Hindu mythology. “None of the eighteen main Puranas are earlier than the Gupta Period (AD 320-480), although much of the legendary material is older.”—Hinduism, M. Stutley, 1985, page 37.

MAHAVIRA AND THE AGAMAS

The teachings embodied in the Jain scriptures, collectively called agamas, are attributed in part to Mahavira and his disciples. What was the source of their teaching?

“The philosophy of Jainism draws its inspiration mainly from the atheistic Sankhya system,” notes Epics, Myths and Legends of India (P. Thomas, 1980, page 132). The Sankhya (also Samkhya) philosophy, in turn, is based on the Upanishads and teaches that liberation from suffering and rebirth is possible through right conduct and ascetic practices. So to understand Jain beliefs, we must consider their source—the Upanishads.

THE GURU GRANTH SAHIB

A collection of almost 6,000 hymns composed by various Sikh gurus as well as Hindu and Muslim mystics. “The Guru-Granth was compiled by the fifth Sikh Guru, Arjun, in 1604 A.D.”—Sri Guru Granth Sahib, translated by Dr. Gopal Singh, 1987, Volume 1, page XVIII.

THE EPICS

Ramayana relates the story of Rama, a prince who later ruled from the capital Ajodhya in northern India, and became deified as the seventh avatar of Vishnu.

Mahabharata describes the conflict between two families for the rule of upper India nearly 3,000 years ago.

“Both the Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmiki and the Mahābhārata of Vyāsa must have been completed between 500 B.C. and A.D. 200, the former in the first half of this period and the latter in the second half.”—Advanced History of India, K. A. Nilakanta Sastri and G. Srinivasachari, 1982, page 59.

THE AGAMAS

Jain scriptures compiled in Sanskrit and Prakrit on the life and teachings of Mahavira, who lived over 2,400 years ago. “The Śvetāmbara canon of scripture, which was not given definitive form until nearly A.D. 500, consists of approximately forty-five texts, in six groups.”—Abingdon Dictionary of Living Religions, edited by Keith Crim, 1981, page 371.

Chapter 4

The Vedas—The Search for Truth

Of all the Hindu scriptures, the Vedas are the oldest and the most important. To this day, they are the main source of Hindu ceremonies performed at birth, marriage, and death. Their hymns reveal how worshipers seek God’s blessing and prosperity in everyday life.

² Orthodox Hindus believe the Vedas to be Sruti, revealed by God, and therefore free from error and imperfection. On the other hand, Buddha, revered by many as the ninth incarnation of Vishnu, rejected their authority, describing them as a ‘pathless jungle.’ Between these opposing views, there exist a variety of other beliefs.

³ The rishis (seers) said that they composed the Vedic hymns with their own ‘ability and knowledge.’¹ In a hymn to Agni, a rishi prays: “Inspired with poetry I have fashioned this hymn of praise for you . . . , as the skilled artist fashions a chariot.”² Like poets and artists, rishis were moved from within themselves to compose over a thousand Vedic hymns. How important are these?

Vedic Moral Code

⁴ Guided by their consciences, the rishis point out the badness of immorality. They advise the gambler: “Play no longer with the dice, but till your field.”³ When troubled by a bad conscience, they pray: “If we humans have committed some offence against the race of gods, O Varuṇa, or through carelessness have violated your laws, do not injure us, O god, for that sin.”⁴

⁵ Some of the rishis’ hymns draw upon our qualities of love and kindness. For example, family members are exhorted to be “attached to one another like the newly born calf to the cow. . . . Let the wife to the husband speak words full of honey, ever auspicious. Let not brother hate brother, nor sister sister.”⁵

Rishis Search for Truth

⁶ The Vedas reveal the rishis’ remarkable thirst for truth. They also reveal the limits of their understanding. To discover life’s meaning, they wonder about the origin of the universe: “What was the wood and what was the tree from which [the gods] carved the sky and the earth?” asks one rishi.⁶ Certain hymns indicate that matter existed before God, whereas others state that it was God who produced the matter that formed the universe.

⁷ According to yet another hymn, the gods made the universe from the sacrifice of a cosmic man. “The moon was produced from his mind (manas), the sun (surya) from his eye, . . . from his head the sky, from his feet the earth.”⁷ From him also came the different castes and animals.

⁸ Such explanations, however, did not fully satisfy those rishis who desired to know the truth. Therefore, as they conclude the Vedas, they still wonder: “Who knows the truth? Who can tell whence and how arose this universe? The [Vedic] gods are later than its beginning: who knows therefore whence comes this creation? Only that god who sees in highest heaven: he only knows whence came this universe, and whether it was made or uncreated. He only knows, or perhaps he knows not.”⁸

⁹ The rishis addressed their hymns to such deified natural elements as the sun, sky, wind, and fire. But they did not view any one of these as the supreme deity. Consequently, in the last book of the Rig-Veda, they ask: “What God shall we adore with our oblation?”⁹ In other words, which of the 33 gods of the Vedas is the Creator whom we should worship in love and truth?

¹⁰ At the completion of the Vedas, the rishis had not found the true God so as to worship him. They were still seeking him. The Vedas, therefore, are not a revelation of God’s truth but are a record of the rishis’ earnest search for it. The quest is now taken up in the Upanishads, the next great body of scriptures of India.

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The Vedas—Did You Know?

“The Atharva Veda . . . was not originally recognised as having the canonical status of the other three Vedas. It grew up when the Adhvaryu priest began to cater to the masses and produce spells of magic and sorcery directed against diseases, enemies, demons.”—A New History of Sanskrit Literature, Krishna Chaitanya, 1962, page 33.

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How do the Vedas measure up to these criteria?

They should:

1. Magnify God and answer our questions about him

2. Be free from myths

3. Be free from demonism

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Hindu rituals, such as those performed at birth, marriage, and death (see next page), are based on the Vedas

Chapter 5

The Upanishads—The Love of Philosophy

“All the philosophical systems and religions of India, heretical or orthodox, have sprung up from the Upanishads,” states the book The Vedic Age.¹ It is in these compositions that the cycle of Karma and rebirth—the basic belief of Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs—is first taught. What else do they teach?

Reflecting on Life’s Meaning

² The Upanishads continue the rishis’ search for truth that began in the Vedas. “The sages in the Upaniṣads had already started with the idea that there was a supreme controller or essence presiding over man and the universe,” notes Dr. S. Dasgupta. “But what was its nature? Could it be identified with any . . . new deity or was it no deity at all? The Upaniṣads present to us the history of this quest,” he adds.²

³ In forest retreats, sages meditated on and debated such questions as: “What is the source of this universe? . . . From where do we come? By what power do we live? Where do we find rest [at death]? Who rules over our joys and sorrows?”³ Expecting to find answers through their own reason and experience, rather than by revelation from God, they said: “Tell us this, O you philosophers.”⁴

The Fruits of Philosophy

⁴ The sages attribute the creation of the world to Brahman, who, according to Isa Upanishad, is a being, separate from the universe. (Verse 1) The Mundaka Upanishad, on the other hand, regards Brahman as the universe itself. A third view, based on the Svetasvatara Upanishad, suggests that whereas Brahman is real, the universe is simply an illusion (maya).

⁵ A creation account in the Chandogya Upanishad asserts that the world was born from a giant egg. On the origin of life, the Brihadarayanka Upanishad states that the Creator, feeling lonely and unhappy, “grew as large as a man and a woman entwined, and then divided himself in two, creating a husband and a wife. . . . In this way he created the male and female of all creatures—even down to the ants.”⁵

⁶ What happens at death? According to Katha Upanishad, young Nachiketas approaches Yama, god of death, and asks: “When a man dies, this doubt arises: some say ‘he is’ and some say ‘he is not.’ Teach me the truth.” Yama answers: “Even the gods had this doubt in times of old; for mysterious is the law of life and death. Ask for another boon.”⁶ Nachiketas persists, however, and Yama eventually expounds the doctrine of rebirth.

⁷ Describing this cycle of rebirth, the Chandogya Upanishad relates that at death a person’s soul goes to the moon, and it remains there until his “good works are consumed.”⁷ After that he falls as rain to the earth to be “born here as rice and barley, as herbs and trees.” He then must wait to enter a womb until “some one or other eats him as food and emits him as semen.”⁸ His caste, or life-form, is determined at his rebirth by his past Karma.

The Search Continues

⁸ Like the Vedas, “the Upanishads left some great issues unsettled,” notes the book India. “The individual Hindu is still free to decide whether he believes the one Supreme Reality is an impersonal . . . spirit . . . or a personal God. . . . Similarly the believer may decide that the world is one aspect of Brahman or Brahma, or that it is simply Its or His creation—or he may remain undecided.”⁹

⁹ Although the teaching of Karma and rebirth is today viewed by devout Hindus as divinely revealed truth, in the book The Vedic Age we read that “the Upanishads do not contain ‘superhuman conceptions,’ but human, absolutely human attempts to come nearer to the truth.”¹⁰ Similarly, the book Advanced History of India notes: “The upanishads reveal the nature of guesses at Truth, from different standpoints; these guesses ultimately led to the evolution of [Indian] systems of philosophy.”¹¹

¹⁰ In order to know God’s truth, therefore, you need to continue your search beyond the Vedas and the Upanishads. By so doing, you will demonstrate that you truly love God and want to worship him in truth. So let us next examine the epics and the Bhagavad Gita, the foremost traditional Smriti scriptures. Can they help us in our search?

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The Upanishads—Did You Know?

“Literally, [“Upanishad”] means sitting near devotedly, and so brings concretely to mind an earnest disciple learning from his guru, his spiritual master. It also means secret teaching—secret, no doubt, because a teaching vouchsafed only to those who are spiritually ready to receive it.”—The Spiritual Heritage of India, Swami Prabhavananda, 1980, page 39.

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How do the Upanishads measure up to these criteria?

They should:

1. Magnify God and answer our questions about him

2. Be available to all

3. Be easy to understand

4. Teach true doctrines and morals

5. Be free from myths

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The teaching of the cycle of Karma and rebirth originated with the Upanishads

Chapter 6

The Epics—Truth and Fable

“From the beginning the Rāmāyana and the Mahābhārata have exercised a profound influence upon India,” observes Swami Prabhavananda. Their legends “have supplied poets and dramatists, theologians and political thinkers, painters and sculptors, with their . . . never-failing inspiration.”¹ Doubtless you are familiar with many of these legends. How do you view them?

² Today many Hindus look to the epics as a source of moral and spiritual guidance. Others consider them to have primarily historical rather than religious value. But do they contain truths about God and his worship?

Elements of Truth

³ “The great battle described in the Mahabharata may have a historical basis in the memory of a battle in north India in the tenth century BC,” suggests M. Stutley in Hinduism.² Archaeologists have confirmed that some places this epic mentions did exist between 800 and 400 B.C.E. “The epic substance was enlarged and embellished” over the centuries, however, to include “a mass of legends, myths and fancies mixed up with morality, religion and philosophy,” notes the History of Philosophy Eastern and Western.³

⁴ The Mahabharata’s story of Manu, who saved humanity from a global deluge, also contains some historical truth. The flood was “the most important landmark in the history of the ancient world, and common flood legends suggest that the same event has been described in Indian, Hebrew, and Babylonian accounts,” says The Vedic Age.⁴a

⁵ That same book says that the story of Rama, when “divested of its miraculous, fabulous, incredible and mythological elements, clearly indicates that he [Rama] was a great king who spread Aryan ideas and institutions into regions far and wide.”⁵

⁶ In addition to these historical features, the epics also contain moral and religious principles. For example, the Mahabharata encourages people to be hospitable, saying: “Even to foes who visit us as guests due hospitality should be displayed; the tree screens with its leaves, the man who fells it.”⁶ Elsewhere it says: “Heaven is not so pleased with costly gifts, offered in hope of future recompense, as with the merest trifle set apart from honest gains, and sanctified by faith.”⁷

Imaginary Tales

⁷ In contrast with these fine principles, however, the epics at times reflect the opinions of their compilers. In the Ramayana, for example, the earth is said to be supported by eight elephants who move when they are tired and thus cause earthquakes. The compilers were also unaware of the Himalayan source of the river Ganges. They thought it trickled from heaven.—Ramayana 1:40-44.

⁸ Did you know that the writers of the Mahabharata adopted the prevailing view that women had been created only to corrupt chaste men to prevent them from gaining salvation? (Mahabharata 13:40) Even the Gita views women as of inferior birth and classes them with menial slaves. Do you believe this? Does it seem just and reasonable?—Bhagavad Gita 9:32.

⁹ The absence of inspired Sruti led the epic writers to create fables in order to answer questions. In explaining death, for example, the Mahabharata states that at one time humans multiplied without dying and became so many that “there was no space to breathe.”⁸ Afraid that this would result in the ‘earth sinking into the waters,’ the Creator produced a goddess to bring death to humans either by diseases or by injury.—Mahabharata 12:248-250.

¹⁰ According to Indian scholars, the compilers of the epics also created its legends. In the Gita, Krishna claims that he is God. Regarding this, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan states: “The poet Vyasa [who wrote it] vividly imagines how Krishna as an incarnate God would speak of himself.” Similarly, author M. Hariharan notes that “somebody else must have made Krishna God and made him perform the supernatural deeds.”⁹ In the Ramayana, Rama does not claim to be a god but merely a human suffering for his sins.—Ramayana 3:63, 64.

Epics—The Choice

¹¹ The epic poems were originally sung at the courts of kings during great festivals held to proclaim the fame of the princes. Compilers later added religious fables.¹⁰ “The most brilliant of these additions,” notes D. D. Kosambi, “is the Bhagavad-Gītā, a discourse supposedly uttered by the god Krishna just before the fighting. The god himself was new; his supreme godhead would not be admitted for centuries afterwards.”¹¹ In this way the epics came to include historical truths alongside religious fables.

¹² So as you continue your search for Sruti, a complete revelation of God’s truth, consider next the Puranas, upon which Hindu worship is based today.

[Footnotes]

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The Epics—Did You Know?

“Embedded in one book of the great Indian epic the Mahābhārata occurs the Bhagavad-Gītā, or Song of God, the most popular work in all the religious literature of India. . . . Without fear of contradiction it may be said to be the Holy Bible of India, though, unlike the Upaniṣads, it is not regarded as Śruti, or revealed scripture, but only as Smṛti, or tradition elaborating the doctrines of the Upaniṣads.”—The Spiritual Heritage of India, Swami Prabhavananda, 1980, page 95.

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How do the epics measure up to these criteria?

They should:

1. Magnify God and answer our questions about him

2. Teach true doctrines and morals

3. Be free from myths

Chapter 7

The Puranas and Hindu Worship Today

Present-day Hindu worship is based on the scriptures known as Puranas. Unlike the Vedas, they promote use of images, temple rituals, and pilgrimages to sacred places. Through such practices, worshipers seek God’s blessing in order to break free from the cycle of rebirth.

² “The Purāṇas have been called ‘the Veda of the common folk’, since they present much traditional and orthodox material through myth and legend, story and symbol,” notes Hindu World.¹ Although the Puranas are not generally accepted by orthodox Brahmans and reformers, they are popular among ordinary Hindus. Can they help you to worship God in truth? Consider what they teach.

Creation in the Puranas

³ Influenced by Vedic ideas, the compilers of the Vishnu Purana believed that the universe consisted of seven upper stories, with the earth at the bottom, and seven lower stories, inhabited by a half-human, half-serpent race.

⁴ In the Bhagavata Purana, the sun and moon are thought to revolve around the earth. The moon, because of a higher velocity, is said to overtake the sun during its orbit. The earth, resting on a cobra, is divided into continents that are separated by oceans of water, wine, and ghee.—Bhagavata Purana 5:16-22, 25.

The Search for God

⁵ The Puranas, like the Vedas and the Upanishads, continue the search for the true God. Although the sages adore many deities, they earnestly desire to know: “Which deity shall a devotee desiring liberation worship . . . ? Who is the god of gods?” What important questions these are!

⁶ In reply the Brahma Purana notes that although Brahma, Vishnu, or Siva are worshiped, the true Creator is someone else.² Confirming this point, Brahma states in the Bhagavata Purana that both he and Siva have yet to fathom the Creator’s nature.—Bhagavata Purana 2:6.

⁷ Without a revelation from God, however, it was not possible for the sages to know God. As a result, some worshipers came to imagine him to be a human, an animal, or even half-human, half-beast. The Bhagavata Purana describes Vishnu as a fish “of golden colour, having a horn, and a body extending over ten million Yojanas.”³a The Vayu Purana portrays him as a dark-colored boar with a height of 4,000 miles [6,400 km].

⁸ The compilers of Puranic legends also imagined that the gods had human weaknesses. The Brahmavai Purana states that the wise do not worship Brahma because he was cursed for having committed a gross wrong.⁴b Other Puranas describe Siva as “a bad provider [who] allowed his family to starve, while he himself indulged in opium and other drugs,” according to Hindu World.⁵

⁹ Disturbed by reports of one deity’s relationships with local milkmaids, a king in the Bhagavata Purana asks: ‘How can the divine lord who was born to establish virtue and repress vice, practice its opposite, namely the corruption of other men’s wives?’⁷ To this the sage replies that if superior beings deviate from virtue, then it cannot be viewed as sin, just as blame cannot be attributed to fire if it consumes impure things.⁸

Methods of Worship

¹⁰ Puranic worship centers around carefully designed temples, or shrines. Their ground plans follow a mandala, which, according to Swami Harshananda, “is a geometric diagram with occult potentialities.”⁹ The temple’s most sacred object is the yantra, a gold plate with occult diagrams. In the past it was used by followers of Tantric sects who practiced the sexual rites depicted on the walls of great Hindu and Jain temples.

¹¹ Idols are bathed in water or milk by worshipers who hope to acquire wealth or good health. Then, according to the Brahmavai Purana, tilaks are applied to people’s foreheads to ensure the magical potency of rituals.¹⁰ Lamps are lit and flowers are offered to ward off evil spirits, as mantras are chanted in praise of deities or to seek their favor.

¹² The Skanda Purana traces the use of idols to a curse upon the gods by the goddess Parvati for their intrusion into her privacy. The Encyclopaedia of Puranic Beliefs and Practices states: “This seems to explain the [Hindu] practice of worshipping stone-blocks as gods, and also well carved out idols.”¹¹

What Will You Choose?

¹³ The Puranas are classed as Smriti by Hindus because these writings are not divinely inspired but are of human origin. So if we earnestly desire God to accept our worship and bless us, we must continue our search for Sruti. What guidance can gurus give us?

[Footnotes]

[Box on page 17]

How do the Puranas measure up to these criteria?

They should:

1. Magnify God and answer our questions about him

2. Teach true doctrines and morals

3. Be free from myths

4. Be free from demonism

5. Provide solutions for our problems and have a good effect on our lives

[Picture on page 16]

Hindu temple worship and religious festivals are based on the Puranas

Chapter 8

The Gurus—Their Role in Worship

Swami Prabhavananda writes: “The direction of a competent teacher is essential if one is to attain to knowledge of God, for religion is a practical science to which neither books nor scriptures can be a complete guide.”¹ For this reason many Hindus search for gurus who can help them work out a system of belief and worship.

² We certainly need guidance to understand spiritual truths. Since gurus are not dependent on scriptures, from what source are their teachings and miracles?

The Origin of Guruism

³ Guruism is first introduced in the Upanishads as a challenge to the authority of the Vedas. To replace costly Vedic rituals, the Upanishads promoted ‘secret knowledge’ as the means to salvation.²

⁴ The rejection of the Vedas increased the importance of the gurus. Liberation, it was claimed, could be attained only after a person had been initiated by a guru and received a secret mantra or some other device. Says The World of Gurus: “Being indispensable, the guru also tended to become supreme, even above the scriptures. . . . His own authority, derived from his private mystical experience, was final.”³

⁵ Having supplanted the scriptures, in effect, the gurus soon became identified with God. The guru is also God and it should not be debated, claims the Yogashikhopanishad.⁴ At his initiation, a guru is said to receive supernatural experiences from his deity while in a state of trance and is regarded thereafter as the embodiment of that deity. “The Guru is God Himself manifesting in a personal form to guide the aspirant,” explains Swami Sivananda.⁵

⁶ Claiming equality with God, the gurus then add in the Upanishads: “One should worship with extreme devotion the guru who imparts divine wisdom, who is the spiritual guide, who is the Supreme Lord Himself.”⁶ Thus, notes Hindu World: “Lights are waved before him, incense burned in his presence, hymns are sung and prostrations made. . . . The guru’s feet are washed and the water in which this is done is passed around to his followers who drink it.”⁷

Miracles—From What Source?

⁷ Many people follow gurus because they are impressed by the gurus’ miracles, which the devotees attribute to God.a The Hindu scriptures, however, record that evil persons, such as Ravana, possessed similar supernatural powers. Is there, then, another source besides God for such powerful works?

⁸ Gurus acquire their supernatural powers by practicing Yogic arts. But in the Yoga Sutra, Patanjali, the father of Yoga philosophy, attributes these powers to evil “celestial beings” whose chief aim is, according to Swami Vivekananda, “to tempt the Yogi” that he should not gain perfect freedom.⁸ The swami therefore “warned against striving for such sorcerous powers and stressed the need for totally avoiding them,” notes Tantrism.⁹

Liberation—How Real?

⁹ Ancient Hindus turned to Yoga to discover the ultimate truth that the Vedas failed to teach. The Katha Upanishad says that truth cannot be known through scriptures or by reason but by mystic experiences alone. (1:2:23) For this reason, the Hindu swami Sivananda states: “Intellect is a hindrance. That which separates you from God is mind.”¹⁰ So mystics practice Yogic meditation in order to dull the intellect and to experience trances or feelings of ecstasy. Those attaining such a state are said to have found truth and to have attained moksha.

¹⁰ By emptying the mind and deadening the senses, a Yogi can see and hear strange things. “If, however, [Yogic] meditation has been combined, as it often is, with such other techniques as fasting, drug-taking, extreme isolation, and torturelike activities, the deprived [mental] state can be attended by bizarre hallucinations. It may also be attended by ‘mystical’ events of the kundalini type,” states Understanding Yoga.¹¹b The Yogi is led to believe that these unusual experiences during his nonrational state are both real and good.

¹¹ Following this course, some Yogis claim to experience a oneness with the spirit world, which they say is God. In the book Mysticism Sacred and Profane, R. C. Zaehner warns: “This emptiness is dangerous for this is a ‘house swept and garnished,’ and though it is possible that God may enter in if the furniture is fair, it is equally likely that the proverbial seven devils will rush in if . . . there is no furniture at all.”¹²c For this reason gurus often warn new disciples that Yoga may expose them to demonic influence. Would such warnings be necessary if the true God were involved?

¹² Many gurus promote their personal beliefs, claiming that these are based on reliable scriptures. The Society for Krishna Consciousness, for example, asserts that its beliefs are founded on ‘the Vedic scriptures.’ On the other hand, The World of Gurus states: “No attempt is made to establish the authenticity of scriptures . . . If [the devotees] read the scriptures they would know that the stories of Krishna and Radha are not based on authoritative scriptures, much less on facts.”¹³

¹³ Since gurus are guided by their personal experience and knowledge, where are you to look for God-revealed truth? Obviously, you need to consult scriptures that are truly inspired by God. Where can you find them?