Hinduism and Christianity: Monotheistic Paths to One God.

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Trimurti of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva and the Christian Trinity of God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit. In comparing Trinity and Trimurti, religious scholar, Anuradha Veeravali (Indian Philosophies, Encyclopedia of Religion) draws parallels between Brahma and God, Vishnu and the Holy Spirit, and Shiva and Jesus, but persists in the common idea that Christianity is a monotheistic faith while Hinduism is polytheistic. However, Bede Griffiths, a Christian priest living in India, has dared to challenge this firm notion of polytheism, offering comparisons between the Christian Trinity and a different Hindu Triad- Brahman /Atman/Purusha - to conclude that both faiths ultimately share a belief in the One Supreme power. Scrutinizing both comparisons- that between the Trimurti and Trinity and the one between the ‘other’ Triad and Trinity- we can establish that Hinduism, like Christianity, can be considered as a monotheistic faith.

Anuradha Veeravali argues that like the Christian concept of the Trinity of the Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit, a Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva also exists within Hinduism. Outlining the main functions of the three deities that make up the Hindu Trinity, the author parallels their roles with their counterparts in the Christian Trinity. Explaining this stand further, the author says that Brahma is analogous to God (in the Christian concept) as he, too, is regarded as the creator; Vishnu is the all pervading (Holy) Spirit, and Shiva’s like Jesus in Christianity and Mohammad in Islam: Shiva’s function, in her words, is to ‘destroy the duality of unity and plurality. Thus he is the beginning and the end, the first and the last, marking at once the destruction of plurality and the realiza...

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...monotheistic religion. The creation of the world and the comparison of the Brahman with the Word clearly point towards a belief in the Brahman as the One Supreme power of creation. The analogies present between the fundamental concepts of Brahman, Atman and Purusha and the Trinity in Christianity lead us to believe that both these religions follow different paths to the same Universal Truth.

Works Cited
• Triads- Geoffrey Parrinder (Encyclopedia of Religion)

• Indian Philosophies- Anuradha Veeravali (Encyclopedia of Religion)

• The Great Triad- René Guénon, Henry D. Fohr, S. D. Fohr

• Bede Griffiths: An Introduction to His Interspiritual Thought- Wayne Teasdale

• A Survey of Hinduism- Klaus K. Klostermaier

• The Upanishads

• The Bible

• Britannica- http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/45474/avatar

• Wikipedia- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panini

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