By: William Fabyan

There a few facets of Hinduism mentioned, by Aparna Chawla and Ramdas, Lamb that I would like to argue against based on the truth about Christianity:

Hinduism

“The unique understanding in Hinduism is that God is not far away, living in a remote heaven, but is inside each and every soul, in the heart and consciousness, waiting to be discovered. And the goal of Hinduism is knowing God in this intimate and experiential way. Hinduism is both monotheistic and henotheistic. Hinduism is not polytheistic. Henotheism (literally “one God”) better defines the Hindu view. It means the worship of one God without denying the existence of other Gods. Hindus believe in the one all-pervasive God who energizes the entire universe. It is believed that God is both in the world and beyond it. That is the highest Hindu view. Hinduism gives the freedom to approach God in one’s own way, encouraging a multiplicity of paths, not asking for conformity to just one. It allows people to believe in and pray to their own conceptualizations of the Divine in whatever form they choose, while at the same time elevating all of them to their ultimate reality, which is the singular omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient Divinity, who demands no allegiance, punishes no one for lack of belief, yet provides wisdom, comfort, compassion and freedom to those who seek it. All they need to do is look within” – Aparna Chawla & Ramdas Lamb

Christianity

“The unique understanding in Hinduism is that God is not far away, living in a remote heaven, but is inside each and every soul, in the heart and consciousness, waiting to be discovered”– This is why Hinduism is flawed with regards to intimacy with God. Hinduism takes away the Glory of God according to the gospel of Christ. God is not in each and every person’s soul, but rather lives in our hearts and joins with our inner being and then spreads to our souls. Our soul is made up of our mind, will and emotions. So as we draw closer to God, growing our intimacy with Him, He begins to heal and cleanse our mind, change our will and control our emotions. God dwells in the heart and inner being, and affects a BELIEVER’S soul. God lives in believers and not unbelievers. God cannot just be discovered by choosing to simply begin looking within. The Bible says that our hearts are desperately wicked(Jeremiah 17:9-11) and that the mind controlled by ourselves, our nature, which is a sinful one, leads to death(Romans 8:6). This means that we won’t find God within, we will find wickedness and death. The Bible says that before anyone believes in Jesus Christ they are well below the standard of righteousness because Jesus Christ himself is Righteousness(Romans 3:23). So when we look within we will find the opposite of righteousness. So in order to find God within us, one must believe in Jesus Christ. It is through Jesus that we discover God not by ourselves.

Note: This is my belief and I understand, of course, that some will beg to differ.

Link:

https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/life/faith/2014/08/20/hinduism-many-gods/14247795/