Hello and welcome to episode 51 of The Ask Sri Vishwanath Show. Today I want to talk about the birth of God. When was God created?
Today’s question is from Rodger. Rodger says “I am a Christian and my son keeps asking me if one can only obtain salvation through Jesus Christ then what would have happened to all those people born years and years before the coming of Jesus? How did they attain salvation?”
That’s a really intelligent question. It’s also a common question. Those who came before Jesus did indeed attain salvation. I want to read you a piece by Vivekananda from my book “The Secret of Bhagavad Gita”.
“Those who think their religion is the best need to know all the principals, tenants and spiritual laws they take pride in have been discovered in some form or another and preached millions of years before. Truth always existed before religion.”
This is a really important to understand. Krishna says “Whosoever knows me as being unborn and beginningless and the lord of the three worlds is undeluded among men”
Unborn and no beginning
So Krishna is saying that God is unborn and has no beginning. This is important. I know you are asking “How is this so?” Well, the word “beginning” is very misleading. It implies that there is a beginning and end to everything when this is not always the case. It’s more like a cycle but we’ll get to that later.
Un-manifest and the manifest
Krishna says that to understand spiritual law we must understand two words: the un-manifest and the manifest. When you understand these two words so many doors will open for you.
Un-manifest is a subtle expression of truth. Everything that is un-manifested is unborn and has no beginning.
Let’s say you’re writing a book. The book doesn’t come from thin air. It’s a manifestation of your thoughts and ideas. The thing from which all these ideas spring from which is un-manifestation.
The manifestation is a gross expression of truth. The idea of the universe existed in the un-manifest then the idea was executed thought the manifest. God is the un-manifest where all subtle expressions exist. Within them manifest there are ignorant people and the men and women of God. Many people are ignorant of the consciousness within where as men and women of God are full of the manifestation of the spirit.
What came first Love or Jesus Christ?
All those great qualities like renunciation, detachment, love, tranquillity and peace come from the un-manifest.. What came first love or Jesus Christ? What came first purity or Jesus Christ? All of these great qualities existed before Jesus Christ Jesus came and expressed all of these qualities. He was a manifestation of God.
Krishna says that “whenever virtue declines and religion prevails I manifest myself again and again for the protection of the virtuous, destruction of the wicked, establishment of righteousness. I manifest myself again and again.” God manifests himself again and again. He is the gross expression of truth.
So first came God. Then came the messengers of God like Krishna, Buddha, Christ and all the other manifestations. These great men and women keep coming back to manifest the subtle expressions of truth. Truth existed before religion. Then they came they established religion. Truth is the un-manifest and the un-manifest is never born and has no beginning.
Beginning and end
The beginning and end is only the beginning and end of a cycle but not of the whole cosmos. For example take day and night. Today, there is a starting point for a day and there is an ending point for day. Then tomorrow again there is a starting point for a day and there is an ending point So day and night operates in cycles. However You can’t pinpoint exactly where day and night begin or end because they are part of a cycle.
Don’t confuse a beginning with a starting point. The word beginning is only the beginning and end of a cycle. God is unborn with no beginning. The manifest has no beginning and no end. It’s a cycle.
Think of the life cycle of a plant. A seed grows into a plant which then disperses more seeds that will grow into more plants. The individual plant has a beginning and an end but the cycle as a whole does not.
It’s a circle from un-manifest to manifest but they can also co-exist. Neither have a beginning or an end.
Whenever someone says that you can obtain salvation through a certain method, like a Christian says you must do “this” or a Muslim says you must do “that” just remember that truth existed long before religion was born .It was all there, love purity and joy. It existed before Krishna, Christ, Buddha and every other deity. These deities merely expressed these qualities.
The truth has existed since the time of creation and one is free to manifest the spiritual law. The consciousness was there for the taking from day one. These great men and women came and set an example because they had a great manifestation of consciousness.
Remember we must respect other religions. No one religion is better than another. The differences are only appearances. Yesterday we spoke about essentials. These differences are just non-essentials. Stick to your own religion but also have respect for those great men and women in other religions.
When you acquire all this knowledge you’ll know that god is unborn and has no beginning.
I hope I answered your question. Remember you keep asking questions and I’ll keep answering them.
