Information Witheld

The Bible speaks of the Supreme as God, Jehovah and Christ, and the Vedic literatures-Bhagavad-gita, Brahma-samhita, Srimad-Bhagavatam-indicate Him personally to be Krsna, a word which means "all-attractive" in Sanskrit. (Rama means enjoyer, and Hare refers to the energy enjoyed.) The Bible is principally concerned with the laws given to the Jewish people by God, the Jews' breaking of these laws and God's subsequent punishments. Christ stressed forgiveness for those who are truly repentant and He supplied a new element-love or bhakti as a means to attain God. Throughout the Bible, however, God is described as "great," "angry," "terrible," "greatly to be feared," "almighty," "the everlasting Father," "Alpha and Omega," etc., but nowhere is the all-attractive personality of God explained. Who is God? Just how great is He? What are His features? His opulences? His activities? Exactly what does His abode look like? What does He look like? What are His various manifestations? Specifically how does He create? How does He pervade His creation? What is the relationship of the individual with God? What is the individual's role in the world, and how does it come about, and how can the individual self transcend it? These and many other questions are neither raised nor answered in the Bible because ancient Judaic culture was not sufficiently advanced to absorb this information. Christ himself told his disciples, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." (John, 16:12) In the Old Testament we hear God's voice from the sky, but we do not see His face. He appears as a burning bush, a dove, a pillar of fire by night, a cloud by day, etc., but He does not appear as He is. Christ appeared as a devotee of God, but He does not reveal His Father to His disciples. With a voice on high the Father speaks of Christ as His beloved Son, but Christ Himself said,

Vedic literatures, which pre-date the Bible, were written in a highly advanced spiritual culture, and they specifically reveal God's form, His features, His pastimes and His personality. Of course God's attributes are infinite, and words can only hint at His glory, but the Vedas supply man's mind with more information than he can accommodate to the point of enlightenment, at which time the Vedas are of no more use "than a pond when everywhere there is a flood." (Bhagavad-gita, 2.46) At that stage man sees God or Krsna everywhere, but that realization is not to be imitated. The point is that the Vedas give a detailed explanation of God and His activities and indicate the Supreme Personality of Godhead to be Sri Krsna. Not only is Sri Krsna indicated to be God, but He is vividly physically described, and His personal activities are narrated.

Lord Krsna Himself sang Bhagavad-gita to Arjuna on the battlefield, and thus His instructions are known as the song (gita) of God (Bhagavan). In the Gita, Lord Krsna characterized the mahatmas or great souls in this way:

The Bible is certainly peopled with many great souls-Moses, David, Paul-and none would have contradicted the essential validity of the sahkirtana principle. This thesis is supported by innumerable passages in books by the prophets and the apostles.