God is meant for everybody. Doesn't matter East or West. Just like Krishna appeared in India, but we are not Indians. We are all Americans and Europeans, so... Just like the sun. The sun may appear over London or England, but it's not English sun. Everyone's sun.

God the Same by Any Name

New Testament in Malay language (click on image to enlarge)

God is one: the principle of religion is one

HANSADUTTA: God is meant for everybody. Doesn't matter East or West. Just like Krishna appeared in India, but we are not Indians. We are all Americans and Europeans, so... Just like the sun. The sun may appear over London or England, but it's not English sun. Everyone's sun. Similarly, when God appears or God's representative appears, it's meant for everyone.

GUEST: Yes. [addressing Prabhupada] So, forgive me if I talk across you, please, won't you?

PRABHUPADA: That's all right, yes.

GUEST: Yes. So now, thinking on the terms that you have just quoted me, if I as a Jew, as a born Jew, seeing also with Christian conviction that according to the Old and New Testament, this Christ will come again in a latter day, and as a Jew particularly I was taught to believe that He's coming to save the Jews in their land when they're besieged. But I, of course I've always understood anyway that all nations will see Him for their own particular reasons but it will still be that one coming, and whilst he may come to, shall we say, the Jewish Jerusalem, He will obviously be going to everybody else's place at the same time. I think. If place and time exists then, that's the whole...

HANSADUTTA: Well, the whole thing is that we can't speculate on God. We simply have to accept the authoritative statements of scripture.

GUEST: Yes.

HANSADUTTA: Just like if we see, just like suppose President Nixon, it's announced: "Mr. Nixon is coming July 7th 1974 to London." So this is an authoritative statement so we accept it. We don't speculate, maybe he comes in August, or what he's going to do. So similarly God is so great, He can make a program over thousands and thousands of years. For instance, this Bhagavatam, Srimad-Bhagavatam, was compiled five thousand years ago, and in the Bhagavatam the appearance of Buddha is foretold, who appeared two thousand, four hundred years after that book was compiled. And Chaitanya is..., that is five thousand years later. And Kalki avatar is yet to come four hundred thousand years from now. So God is so great that He can give His program so many thousands of years in advance and we simply should accept it on that basis. We shouldn't speculate any further.

GUEST: Fair enough.

HANSADUTTA: Whatever is given there in the shastra, in the scripture, we should accept it as perfect, that's all. That is our position. We should just accept the perfect.

GUEST: Unquestioning.

HANSADUTTA: Yes, without, not without questioning, if there is some, but not with speculation or challenging.

GUEST: I didn't mean to speculate, I'm sure you appreciate that. I just am wondering whether the smallness of my perception in seeing Him coming for almost a national purpose whereas in fact He's coming for an international...,

HANSADUTTA: A spiritual purpose, beyond even international, spiritual. Because on the spiritual platform the nation is one, God's nation.

GUEST: Well for instance today, this evening, I have found that what I have always heard of as Krishna is your term for God isn't it?

HANSADUTTA: Yes. God has many names but the chief name, best name, is Krishna. Krishna means the all-attractive. He attracts everyone.

GUEST: Yes. Now in speaking some while ago to some Muslims, they were saying that there is only one God and Allah is His name. Now...?

HANSADUTTA: Yes, that's a fact. God is one. But because He's the supreme, His names are many.

GUEST: Many, right, lovely.

HANSADUTTA: Just like you have two or three names. You children call you "Daddy," your wife is calling you by some name, the boss calls you by another name, the neighbors by another name. So we are ordinary, we have already three, four names. God has millions of names. But He is one.

GUEST: That's a very helpful expression, thank you very much.

HANSADUTTA: And similarly religion is one. Because God is one, His religion, because religion means law of God. Whatever He speaks, it must be the same everywhere. Either in the Bible, Koran or the Bhagavad-gita. Unfortunately we are making so many differentiations or distinctions or contradictions. But actually on principle, there is only one religion. If we actually understand religion, the word of God, law of God, there can't be two religions. Just like mathematics is one.

GUEST: I do feel that. It's because I do feel that so very strongly, I cannot feel impelled to give allegiance to any sect at all. It's repugnant to me.

HANSADUTTA: Sectarianism is the great enemy of...

GUEST: It is, it's a dreadful thing.

PRABHUPADA: From practical life, just like world's principal religion, Christianism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Mohammedanism also, the principle of not killing is there, every religion. Buddhism, they're completely for not killing. No circumstances, at any circumstances killing is not allowed. Similarly, in Vedic religion, killing is not allowed, but at circumstances, it is allowed. Similarly Christianity, they also say, "Thou shall not kill." Mohammedans also, they allow killing, but circumstantially. So the principle of killing is forbidden every religion, every religion. So the principle of religion is one. Take for example, in every religion there is acceptance of God and religion means to abide by the order of God. So how there can be two religions? There cannot be two religions. "I believe like that, we believe like that." These are man-made. But actual religion is that God is one and religion means the orders, the law given by God. That's all. Simple definition. Just like state is one, government is one, and to become good citizen means to abide by the laws of the government. That's all. Those, one who is abiding by the laws of God, he is perfect religionist. It doesn't matter whether he's a Hindu, he's a Muslim or a Christian. Whether he has got proper sense what is meant by God and what is the order of God. Then he is religionist, perfect religionist.

There is only one God

God is one, and God does not belong to this or that religion. In Kali-yuga, different religious sects consider their God to be different from the God of others, but that is not possible. God is one, and He is appreciated according to different angles of vision. In this verse the word kaivalyat means that God has no competitor. There is only one God. In the Shvetashvatara Upanishad (6.8) it is said, na tat-samash chabhyadhikash cha drishyate: "No one is found to be equal to Him or greater than Him." That is the definition of God.