Talk:Interfaith Perspectives:Comparing Hindu Theology with Abrahamic Theology

By Sri Vishal Agarwal

It has become very fashionable in modern ‘secular-Indian’ and ‘Interfaith Dialogue’ circles to suggest that Brahman and Īśvara of Hindu dharm is the same as God of Abrahamic traditions. Although this fashionable claim may be driven by a genuine desire to promote inter-faith harmony, or due to sheer innocent ignorance, it does not reflect the truth. Malhotra elaborates on the difference between Brahman/Īśvara and God, and explains why the former cannot be translated as ‘God’:

The word Brahman comes from the root bṛh, which means ‘to expand’. The all-expansive ultimate reality which creates all, lives in all and transcends all is Brahman. To translate it as ‘Bhagavān’ in the Judeo-Christian sense diminishes its meaning. The ‘God’ whom Moses saw on Mount Sinai and from whom he received the stone tablets is not remotely the same as Brahman. This Judeo-Christian God is the creator of the universe, distinct and separate from it. Furthermore, this God is authoritative, punishes those who transgress rules, and intervenes in history at specific times and places. Brahman, on the other hand, is the cosmos and resides in each one of us, unrealized as ātmā, making us ultimately Brahman. This makes Brahman ever-present and accessible; indeed, enlightened spiritual masters who are in unity with Brahman are always among us, in every era, to serve as guides. The idea of nondual unity with God is absent for mainstream practitioners of the Judeo-Christian faith, though it is buried among their mystics who have often been marginalized by institutionalized churches. In much the same way, the term Īśvara is not the same as the Judeo-Christian notion of God. Īśvara has countless forms of manifestations depending on each individual’s choice of form (iṣṭa-devatā). Each of the terms (Brahman, Īśvara, Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Śiva, Devī etc.) has implications which are distinct from one another. These terms (and various others) cannot all be collapsed into a monolithic concept of God.

The Abrahamic religions simply lack the notion of Parabrahman, and even their notion of Bhagavān is very restrictive as compared to the conception of Īśvara. For one, Īśvara is seen as a derivative of Brahman –

The Judaic God is not the Īśvara of Sanātan Dharm. Īśvara creates differently, it manifests itself differently and its relationship with man and the world are of a very different order. At a fundamental level an Indian seeker looks at a reality that is even greater than the theistic notion of Īśvara. Saints and sages have impelled men to push beyond the limits of a particular manifestation and apprehended the one great truth that exists everywhere and in everything. Godliness or Īśvaratā is only an expression of the Supreme Being who is the ultimate reality and the ultimate truth.

A Western scholar explains how the Hindu adoration of Brahman/Īśvara differs from Abrahamic adoration of God due to this difference in our understandings of the Divine:

….The Eastern mind considers recognizing the Divine in all things to be the purest form of adoration or worship possible, while the Western insistence on making God personal (or human, for that matter) would be to minimize the Divine. In essence, to the Easterner, the transcendent God of Western religion is insulting in that it presumes the Divine might be contained within the parameters of a single entity or being.

He also explains how, from an Eastern (= Hindu) viewpoint, the Abrahamic adoration of Bhagavān is inadequate, because it circumscribes the Infinite Divinity into a limited Personality:

….The Eastern mind considers recognizing the Divine in all things to be the purest form of adoration or worship possible, while the Western insistence on making God personal (or human, for that matter) would be to minimize the Divine. In essence, to the Easterner, the transcendent Bhagavān of Western religion is insulting in that it presumes the Divine might be contained within the parameters of a single entity or being.

The diagram below compares Hindu theology with Abrahamic theology in general terms.