It is not uncommon to have Catholics recite the countless miracles (and resurrection) of Jesus Christ and his holy saints down through the ages and the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin as proof of the validity, presumably exclusive, of their faith. Protestants might insist that one can only be saved by the blood of Jesus Christ for it is necessary to take Jesus Christ as one’s personal savior to be saved from eternal damnation.
Christians don’t believe in reincarnation and thus there’s only one life to make it into heaven or face the eternal flames. Faced with the enormity of this stark proposition, some Christians wisely insert a period after death in Purgatory to clean up one’s soul and have offered others a stay (presumably eternal) in Limbo for those souls caught in between.
But Christianity has produced both great saints and great scandals, violence and condemnation of non-Christians. Is Christianity true, or false? Which is it? Can there really be only one, true religion? One that condemns all others?
Some resolution, some deeper understanding, is needed.
Paramhansa Yogananda, whose teachings I strive to live and share, had a deep relationship with Jesus Christ and his teachings. Yet Yogananda dismissed the literal truth of eternal damnation in hell as an expression of human ignorance. It wasn’t Jesus who was ignorant of the truth, but Jesus, to be effective, could only speak in terms of what his listeners could hear. This is why he so often is quoted as concluding his sermons with “For those with ears to hear!”
In one verbal exchange Jesus explained (and then “updated”) one of the more unfair laws of Moses citing the “hardness of hearts” of those whom Moses taught.
In a similar way, for Jesus to have boldly inserted reincarnation as a dogma would have torqued his teachings in a direction not useful to his message. It was more natural to speak in terms of heaven and hell as it was -the custom in his times to do so. Given a chance to postpone one’s “judgement” who would not have done so given the consciousness of the times.
Yogananda showed in his “Autobiography of a Yogi” that the teaching reincarnation hovered right behind Jesus’ words just as it floated in and out of religious speculation during his times.
In this age as the West confronts the more nuanced and ancient East, and as humanity confronts the incomprehensibly vast reality painted for us by science, the time for a broader view is incumbent upon us.
For example: Yogananda taught that Jesus Christ is A son of God, though not the ONLY son of God. The East teaches that God sends souls into the world from time to time who have previously achieved sonship (enlightenment, liberation, salvation, etc etc) to speak to the spiritual needs of truth-seekers of that time. Those needs vary from age to age and culture to culture. The truths are the same but the level of understanding varies and so then does the emphasis.
In this expanded view of God’s relationship to humanity in time and history, suddenly one discovers saints and saviors everywhere: east and west. One can discern the underlying patterns of worship in a wide variety of rites and rituals. Miracles are now recognized as being expressed by many saints in all traditions.
Beliefs and dogmas begin to take a variety of forms but an interlinking tapestry of meaning weaves them together. None of these expanded visions requires anyone to dismiss their cherished faith or their love for their saints or savior. Instead, one sees their own faith as a large family that speaks a specific language and has its own culture, but which shares overall values and goals with other great families.
Those who cling to their faith and insist theirs is the one, true faith will find this view a threat. But they have little basis beyond their beliefs to demonstrate the validity of their dogma. Paramhansa Yogananda affirms the truth of Jesus’ life, teachings, death and resurrection. But Jesus is not the only one. There are and have been other Christ-like saviors.