Quote (TiStuff @ 21 Oct 2024 14:17)
Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31:“ So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”
if i could find the article on this topic i would post it. basically the article would post the "golden rule" from other religions. they would all basically say dont increase the suffering of others. but the bible scripture tells us to do something about the suffering of others. have you ever seen any other religion that gets involved with charity more than christianity?
christians always talk about that. :)
Basically none do as much as Christians and the same is true of Hindus who practice Hinduism(the old religion). They are unbelievably kind and I've met NONE that wouldn't do ANYTHING for me or a total stranger. That says a lot about their scripture.
When I went to that Hindu temple for the first time just to see what it was all about NO ONE pushed ideology on me at all. The fact that I immediately offered to volunteer to help with landscaping their property, mop the floors, clean the bathrooms, and other things with no expectation of anything in return really probably made them think. "God is enough". Because I had already achieved financial independence at a young age and I was willing to do the "dirty work" because they were helping me strengthen my bond with Jesus Christ through "Karma Yoga" which is "work/action" they knew that I didn't need any more "religion" I was already a good person trying to be better everyday. I already gave my life to Jesus Christ and so how ignorant would their philosophy have been to say, "Drop Jesus add Kali" or "denounce your Catholic upbringing" and read the "Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna". None of that. Vedanta is a philosophy. I've met Christian Vedantist, Muslim Vedantist, Hindu Vedantist, Buddhist Vedantist, etc. etc.
Vedanta literally means the "end of the Vedas" or end of their scripture comparative to Revelation only to the extent that it is the "conclusion" of the scripture. What it subtly is saying is that you could read all the scripture and still be a bad person so it tells you essentially "put down the good book and ACT". Do as Jesus did. ACT as Jesus did. Speak with a FIRE like Jesus did. Fear not death for your eternal bond with Christ can never be broken.
Swami Vivekananda was the KING at telling Buddhist and Atheist and highly intelligent non-religious people things like...
To a Buddhist, "Oh wow you achieved enlightenment GREAT! How does that help anyone else though? Great you're in total bliss! Everyone around you is suffering though??
To an Atheist, "I was an atheist too until I studied all that is GOD and found him in every being, every thing, everywhere at all times". "So there's no God?" GREAT! "What are you doing to help anyone?"
Swami Vivekananda basically was all ACTION and what he did during the course of his life changed all of our lives and yet none know his name. Ironic isn't it? He takes none of the "great accomplishments" he single handedly is responsible for. Why? Because "God is enough". Here are some things Vivekananda said about Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ was God — the Personal God become man. He has manifested Himself many times in different forms and these alone are what you can worship. God in His absolute nature is not to be worshipped. Worshipping such God would be nonsense. We have to worship Jesus Christ, the human manifestation, as God. You cannot worship anything higher than the manifestation of God. The sooner you give up the worship of God separate from Christ, the better for you.”If I, as an Oriental have to worship Jesus of Nazareth, there is only one way, that is, to worship him as God and nothing else.It is my particular fancy that the same Buddha became Christ. Buddha prophesied, “I will come again in five hundred years”, and Christ came here in five hundred years. These are the two Lights of the whole human nature. Two men have been produced, Buddha and Christ; these are the two giants, huge gigantic personalities, two Gods. Between them they divide the whole world. Wherever there is the least knowledge in the world, people bow down either to Buddha or Christ. It would be very hard to produce more like them, but I hope there will be. Mohammed came five hundred years after, five hundred years after came Luther with his Protestant wave, and this is five hundred years after that again. It is a great thing in a few thousand years to produce two such men as Jesus and Buddha. Are not two such enough? Christ and Buddha were Gods, the others were prophets. Study the life of these two and see the manifestation of power in them — calm and non – resisting, poor beggars owning nothing, without a cent in their pockets, despised all their lives, called heretic and fool — and think of the immense spiritual power they have wielded over humanity.Christ was God incarnate; they could not kill him. That which was crucified was only a semblance, a mirage.Father is the existence out of which everything comes; Son is that knowledge. It is in Christ that God will be manifest. God was everywhere, in all beings, before Christ; but in Christ we became conscious of Him. This is God. The third is bliss, the Holy Spirit.I pity the Hindu who does not see the beauty in Jesus Christ’s character. I pity the Christian who does not reverence the Hindu Christ.Let the churches preach doctrines, theories, philosophies to their hearts’ content, but when it comes to worship, the real practical part of religion, it should be as Jesus says, “When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret”Nothing is gained except by sacrifice…. The holiest function of our human consciousness, the noblest, do not make it unclean! Do not degrade it to the level of the brutes…. Make yourselves decent men! … Be chaste and pure! … There is no other way. Did Christ find any other way? … If you can conserve and use the energy properly, it leads you to God. Inverted, it is hell itself ….Remember the words of Christ: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” These words are literally true, not figures or fiction. They were the outflow of the heart’s blood of one of the greatest sons of God who have ever come to this world of ours; words which came as the fruit of realisation, from a man who had felt and realised God himself; who had spoken with God, lived with God, a hundred times more intensely than you or I see this building.