Written for my "World Sacred Literature" class in December 2015.
From the East: Hinduism and Islam as Compared to My Western Faith Tradition Through Poetry
By C. Randall Nicholson
Ironically enough, Christianity had its beginnings in the “Eastern” part of the world, yet today is so strongly associated with the “Western” part that it seems to have come from another world than what most people consider Eastern religions now. These religions often seem strange and mysterious to people like me who are raised with a Christian background in areas without a lot of religious pluralism. There were a handful of non-Christian believers in the area, and I saw a few of them at interfaith initiatives that were held at our LDS chapel every once in a while, but there were none at my school that I was aware of and I never got to know any on a one-on-one basis. When I came to Utah I encountered more diversity and took classes on these subjects, and therefore discovered through both personal interaction and sacred texts that we have more in common than we have different. I understand better why Joseph Smith said “We should gather all the good and true principles in the world and treasure them up, or we shall not come out true Mormons.” (Smith 316)
Hinduism has resonated with me since my arrival in Utah over four years ago, when I ended up in an apartment complex mostly full of Indian Masters students. At first I thought they were annoying because they liked to have really loud parties, but when I got to know them I found them to be some of the nicest people I have ever met in my life. Here I was, barely out of high school, and these guys treated me like the coolest and most interesting person ever. As I developed close friendships I naturally became fascinated by their country and their culture. I only knew a few rudimentary details already, but these so impressed my friend Ashwin that he told the others, “Dude, this kid knows a frickin’ lot about India.” In October of that year I had the opportunity to participate in their Diwali festival and learn about the traditions of the goddess Lakshmi. I have been grateful to learn more through my interactions with them and, later on, through courses like this one.
Poetry is an ideal form for sacred texts because its artistic beauty can be seen as a tribute to deity just as much as the words themselves. I think this is why it is found throughout the Bible and other scriptures of the world, including the Bhagavad-Gita. In this latter text we read, “Arjuna said: / 'Say what impels a man to do / such evil, Krishna, what great force urges him, / forces him into it, / even if he is unwilling?'” Here we see
Arjuna struggling with a similar concept of “sin”. Most people would probably consider themselves to be basically good, and try to do the right thing, but nonetheless (and whether they believe in sin per se or not) they do things that are inconsistent with their values and the kind of people they want to be. Christianity teaches that no one on earth ever has been or ever will be without sin (except for Jesus, of course). Arjuna, from his Hindu perspective, seems to be asking why that is the case.
Krishna responds, “'Know that the enemy is this: / desire, anger, whose origins / are in the quality of passion, / all consuming, greatly harmful. / As fire is obscured by smoke, / or by dust, a mirror's surface, or an embryo by its membrane, / so this is covered up by that. / Knowledge is constantly obscured / by this enemy of the wise, / by this insatiable fire / whose form, Arjuna, is desire. / The senses, mind, and intellect / are its abode, as it is said. / Having obscured knowledge with these, / it deludes the embodied one.” This is very similar to Christianity's teachings about the evils of the flesh and of specifically LDS teachings about the “natural man”. Having bodies makes us prone to all kinds of temptations ranging from basic physical needs to less savory things. I think that all religions, while they may have different views of morality or commandments, recognize that humans are born with negative impulses.
The solution Krishna offers is also similar: “When you have subdued your senses, / then, O Bull of the Bharatas, / kill this demon, the destroyer / of all knowledge and discernment. / Senses are said to be important, but mind is higher than they are, / and intellect is above mind; / but Self is greater than all these. / So knowing it to be supreme, / and sustaining the self with Self, / slay the foe whose form is desire, / so hard to conquer, Arjuna.” This is something that we strive to overcome, though probably not quite to the extent of Eastern religions. The Book of Mormon states, for example, “For the natural man is an enemy to God... unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint... and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.”(Mosiah 3:19)
Islam, of course, is a hot topic lately for some unfortunate reasons. I've spent some time trying to wrap my head around why it's so often associated with terrorism. I knew that the vast majority of Muslims were not terrorists because there are well over a billion of them and if they were, America would no longer exist. But I wondered why, over and over, I would hear that an Islamic terrorist had done this or an Islamic terrorist had done that. I never once heard that it had been a Hindu terrorist or a Buddhist terrorist or a Jewish terrorist. To me this was the elephant in the room, so it has been interesting to resolve it by learning about how Muslims interpret things differently and how the radicals are influenced more by certain cultural factors than by their ostensible religion. One of my favorite days of the class was hearing from our Muslim guest speakers about their experiences and perspectives.
The Qur'an, like the Bhagavad-Gita, is largely written in poetry. Unfortunately much of its beauty has been lost in translation, which may be one reason why it is meant to be read in its original Arabic, but still it has lots of enlightening content beyond the handful of verses that terrorists and Islamophobes cherry-pick. I like this passage: “You who believe, be steadfast in your devotion to God and bear witness impartially: do not let hatred of others lead you away from justice, but adhere to justice, for that is closer to awareness of God. Be mindful of God: God is well aware of all that you do. God has promised forgiveness and a rich reward to those who have faith and do good works; those who reject faith and deny Our revelations will inhabit the blazing Fire.” (Puchner et al 862)
It resonates with me for a few reasons. First, the admonition to stay strong in the faith and not waver because of ridicule or persecution is a familiar one. It is important to fear God more than man, because man is powerless in the grand scheme of things. The concept of justice as a divine attribute is also an important one. While many of us nowadays are accustomed to a simplistic bumper sticker concept of “not judging”, the truth is that some kinds of judgment are necessary for the sake of a functional society, if nothing else. People must be held accountable for violating laws. The important thing is to be fair and not swayed by bribery or public opinion. It is only God, however, who can dispense final justice and judge our hearts. Finally, I like also that this passage mentions “faith and good works” together, as I believe that the two are intrinsically intertwined. Because we are all far from perfect, as Arjuna noted, we cannot “earn” our way into heaven, but nonetheless I believe some sort of effort is required. I don't think Hitler is going to heaven just because he was allegedly a Christian and therefore “believed”.
Poetry also serves as a vessel for truth in the works of individual religious adherents outside of canonical texts. The Islamic poet Rumi's sense of humor demonstrates that some things transcend great distances of place and time. He wrote, “Here is a relationship booster that is guaranteed to work: / Every time your spouse or lover says something stupid make your eyes light up as if you / just heard something / brilliant.” This is exactly the kind of thing that I would hear at church in a setting of men joking about how to please their wives and have happy marriages. I hope the advice is not meant seriously; it wouldn't be honest, and refusing to critique someone's ideas does them no favors in the long run. Still, it does have some truth wrapped in the humor. Building someone up instead of tearing them down, even when you disagree or dislike what they have to say, is an important life skill that many could stand to learn today. Social media, in particular, is full of hate and vitriol from people calling each other stupid just because they disagree on things.
Rumi also offers some more traditionally profound food for thought. One short but sweet example: “A good gauge of spiritual health is to write down / the three things you most want. / If they in any way differ, / you are in trouble.” The ending came as a surprise to me and I had to think for a moment to realize that he's saying we should only want one thing. What would that thing be? I don't know for certain what answer he had in mind, but I think it would be something along the lines of loving God and seeking to do His will. This is probably something that all devout followers of God, by whatever name(s) they call Him, have in common. I have been taught many times that God should be my highest priority and that if I put Him first everything else will either fall into place or drop out altogether.
The poet Hafiz also has a sense of humor with important lessons. I love his poem “Lousy at Math”, and not just because the title describes me all too well. In it he says, “Once a group of thieves stole a rare diamond / larger than two goose eggs. / Its value could have easily bought three thousand horses / and three thousand acres of the most / fertile land in / Shiraz. / The thieves got drunk that night to celebrate their great haul, / but during the course of the evening the effects of the liquor, / and their mistrust of each other grew / to such an extent / They decided to divide the stone into pieces. / Of course then the Priceless became lost. / Most everyone is lousy at math and does that to God - / dissects the Invisible One, / by thinking, by saying, / 'This is my Beloved, he looks like this and acts like that, / how could that moron over there / really / be / God?'”
Not only Mormons but many Christians in general could stand to be reminded of this. The Bible clearly teaches that “my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord” (Isaiah 55:8), yet so many people think they are entitled to know all of God's reasons and motivations and modes of operation. On one end of the spectrum, people resent that they need to take anything on faith instead of being able to understand exactly why God commands a certain thing or allows a certain trial to come upon them. On the other end, people put Him into a box and try to limit what He can do; for example, insisting that He could not have used evolution to create the diversity of life we see today. Because they are too closed-minded to imagine it, the God they worship is powerless to do it that way. Everyone who worships God should understand that He is something so great and so far beyond our mortal comprehension that, as Darwin once said, “as well might a dog speculate on the mind of Newton.” (Darwin)
Another of Hafiz's poems has become one of my all-time favorites, religious or otherwise, because it carries such a powerful message in such a brief and simple few sentences. He wrote, “Even / after / all this time / the sun never says to the earth, / “You owe me.” / Look / what happens / with a love like that - / it lights the whole world.” Really, what more can be said about it? It's simply beautiful. In the LDS and probably other Christian traditions we would call this “charity”, the pure love of Christ. That kind of selflessness is the ultimate mortal goal because it goes hand in hand with loving and following God. “When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God.” (Mosiah 2:17)
Certainly, Hinduism and Islam are very distinct from Christianity and their adherents see many things differently. It would be a mistake to pretend that all believers are exactly the same. Nonetheless, I think it is important to notice and appreciate the commonalities, particularly in today’s pluralistic and often antagonistic world, so that we can all get along and work together toward common goals.
Bibliography
Smith, Joseph F. Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. 1977. Deseret Book Co. Salt Lake City.
Puchner, Martin; Suzanne Akbari, Wiebke Denecke, Vinay Dharwadker, Barbara Fuchs, Caroline Levine, Pericles Lewis, and Emily Wilson. The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Volume 1; Beginnings to 1650. 2013. W. W. Norton & Company. New York.
Darwin, Charles. Letter to Asa Gray. 22 May 1860. Darwin Correspondence Project.
Read more of my essays here.
Hinduism has resonated with me since my arrival in Utah over four years ago, when I ended up in an apartment complex mostly full of Indian Masters students. At first I thought they were annoying because they liked to have really loud parties, but when I got to know them I found them to be some of the nicest people I have ever met in my life. Here I was, barely out of high school, and these guys treated me like the coolest and most interesting person ever. As I developed close friendships I naturally became fascinated by their country and their culture. I only knew a few rudimentary details already, but these so impressed my friend Ashwin that he told the others, “Dude, this kid knows a frickin’ lot about India.” In October of that year I had the opportunity to participate in their Diwali festival and learn about the traditions of the goddess Lakshmi. I have been grateful to learn more through my interactions with them and, later on, through courses like this one.
Poetry is an ideal form for sacred texts because its artistic beauty can be seen as a tribute to deity just as much as the words themselves. I think this is why it is found throughout the Bible and other scriptures of the world, including the Bhagavad-Gita. In this latter text we read, “Arjuna said: / 'Say what impels a man to do / such evil, Krishna, what great force urges him, / forces him into it, / even if he is unwilling?'” Here we see
Arjuna struggling with a similar concept of “sin”. Most people would probably consider themselves to be basically good, and try to do the right thing, but nonetheless (and whether they believe in sin per se or not) they do things that are inconsistent with their values and the kind of people they want to be. Christianity teaches that no one on earth ever has been or ever will be without sin (except for Jesus, of course). Arjuna, from his Hindu perspective, seems to be asking why that is the case.
Krishna responds, “'Know that the enemy is this: / desire, anger, whose origins / are in the quality of passion, / all consuming, greatly harmful. / As fire is obscured by smoke, / or by dust, a mirror's surface, or an embryo by its membrane, / so this is covered up by that. / Knowledge is constantly obscured / by this enemy of the wise, / by this insatiable fire / whose form, Arjuna, is desire. / The senses, mind, and intellect / are its abode, as it is said. / Having obscured knowledge with these, / it deludes the embodied one.” This is very similar to Christianity's teachings about the evils of the flesh and of specifically LDS teachings about the “natural man”. Having bodies makes us prone to all kinds of temptations ranging from basic physical needs to less savory things. I think that all religions, while they may have different views of morality or commandments, recognize that humans are born with negative impulses.
The solution Krishna offers is also similar: “When you have subdued your senses, / then, O Bull of the Bharatas, / kill this demon, the destroyer / of all knowledge and discernment. / Senses are said to be important, but mind is higher than they are, / and intellect is above mind; / but Self is greater than all these. / So knowing it to be supreme, / and sustaining the self with Self, / slay the foe whose form is desire, / so hard to conquer, Arjuna.” This is something that we strive to overcome, though probably not quite to the extent of Eastern religions. The Book of Mormon states, for example, “For the natural man is an enemy to God... unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint... and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.”(Mosiah 3:19)
Islam, of course, is a hot topic lately for some unfortunate reasons. I've spent some time trying to wrap my head around why it's so often associated with terrorism. I knew that the vast majority of Muslims were not terrorists because there are well over a billion of them and if they were, America would no longer exist. But I wondered why, over and over, I would hear that an Islamic terrorist had done this or an Islamic terrorist had done that. I never once heard that it had been a Hindu terrorist or a Buddhist terrorist or a Jewish terrorist. To me this was the elephant in the room, so it has been interesting to resolve it by learning about how Muslims interpret things differently and how the radicals are influenced more by certain cultural factors than by their ostensible religion. One of my favorite days of the class was hearing from our Muslim guest speakers about their experiences and perspectives.
The Qur'an, like the Bhagavad-Gita, is largely written in poetry. Unfortunately much of its beauty has been lost in translation, which may be one reason why it is meant to be read in its original Arabic, but still it has lots of enlightening content beyond the handful of verses that terrorists and Islamophobes cherry-pick. I like this passage: “You who believe, be steadfast in your devotion to God and bear witness impartially: do not let hatred of others lead you away from justice, but adhere to justice, for that is closer to awareness of God. Be mindful of God: God is well aware of all that you do. God has promised forgiveness and a rich reward to those who have faith and do good works; those who reject faith and deny Our revelations will inhabit the blazing Fire.” (Puchner et al 862)
It resonates with me for a few reasons. First, the admonition to stay strong in the faith and not waver because of ridicule or persecution is a familiar one. It is important to fear God more than man, because man is powerless in the grand scheme of things. The concept of justice as a divine attribute is also an important one. While many of us nowadays are accustomed to a simplistic bumper sticker concept of “not judging”, the truth is that some kinds of judgment are necessary for the sake of a functional society, if nothing else. People must be held accountable for violating laws. The important thing is to be fair and not swayed by bribery or public opinion. It is only God, however, who can dispense final justice and judge our hearts. Finally, I like also that this passage mentions “faith and good works” together, as I believe that the two are intrinsically intertwined. Because we are all far from perfect, as Arjuna noted, we cannot “earn” our way into heaven, but nonetheless I believe some sort of effort is required. I don't think Hitler is going to heaven just because he was allegedly a Christian and therefore “believed”.
Poetry also serves as a vessel for truth in the works of individual religious adherents outside of canonical texts. The Islamic poet Rumi's sense of humor demonstrates that some things transcend great distances of place and time. He wrote, “Here is a relationship booster that is guaranteed to work: / Every time your spouse or lover says something stupid make your eyes light up as if you / just heard something / brilliant.” This is exactly the kind of thing that I would hear at church in a setting of men joking about how to please their wives and have happy marriages. I hope the advice is not meant seriously; it wouldn't be honest, and refusing to critique someone's ideas does them no favors in the long run. Still, it does have some truth wrapped in the humor. Building someone up instead of tearing them down, even when you disagree or dislike what they have to say, is an important life skill that many could stand to learn today. Social media, in particular, is full of hate and vitriol from people calling each other stupid just because they disagree on things.
Rumi also offers some more traditionally profound food for thought. One short but sweet example: “A good gauge of spiritual health is to write down / the three things you most want. / If they in any way differ, / you are in trouble.” The ending came as a surprise to me and I had to think for a moment to realize that he's saying we should only want one thing. What would that thing be? I don't know for certain what answer he had in mind, but I think it would be something along the lines of loving God and seeking to do His will. This is probably something that all devout followers of God, by whatever name(s) they call Him, have in common. I have been taught many times that God should be my highest priority and that if I put Him first everything else will either fall into place or drop out altogether.
The poet Hafiz also has a sense of humor with important lessons. I love his poem “Lousy at Math”, and not just because the title describes me all too well. In it he says, “Once a group of thieves stole a rare diamond / larger than two goose eggs. / Its value could have easily bought three thousand horses / and three thousand acres of the most / fertile land in / Shiraz. / The thieves got drunk that night to celebrate their great haul, / but during the course of the evening the effects of the liquor, / and their mistrust of each other grew / to such an extent / They decided to divide the stone into pieces. / Of course then the Priceless became lost. / Most everyone is lousy at math and does that to God - / dissects the Invisible One, / by thinking, by saying, / 'This is my Beloved, he looks like this and acts like that, / how could that moron over there / really / be / God?'”
Not only Mormons but many Christians in general could stand to be reminded of this. The Bible clearly teaches that “my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord” (Isaiah 55:8), yet so many people think they are entitled to know all of God's reasons and motivations and modes of operation. On one end of the spectrum, people resent that they need to take anything on faith instead of being able to understand exactly why God commands a certain thing or allows a certain trial to come upon them. On the other end, people put Him into a box and try to limit what He can do; for example, insisting that He could not have used evolution to create the diversity of life we see today. Because they are too closed-minded to imagine it, the God they worship is powerless to do it that way. Everyone who worships God should understand that He is something so great and so far beyond our mortal comprehension that, as Darwin once said, “as well might a dog speculate on the mind of Newton.” (Darwin)
Another of Hafiz's poems has become one of my all-time favorites, religious or otherwise, because it carries such a powerful message in such a brief and simple few sentences. He wrote, “Even / after / all this time / the sun never says to the earth, / “You owe me.” / Look / what happens / with a love like that - / it lights the whole world.” Really, what more can be said about it? It's simply beautiful. In the LDS and probably other Christian traditions we would call this “charity”, the pure love of Christ. That kind of selflessness is the ultimate mortal goal because it goes hand in hand with loving and following God. “When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God.” (Mosiah 2:17)
Certainly, Hinduism and Islam are very distinct from Christianity and their adherents see many things differently. It would be a mistake to pretend that all believers are exactly the same. Nonetheless, I think it is important to notice and appreciate the commonalities, particularly in today’s pluralistic and often antagonistic world, so that we can all get along and work together toward common goals.
Bibliography
Smith, Joseph F. Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. 1977. Deseret Book Co. Salt Lake City.
Puchner, Martin; Suzanne Akbari, Wiebke Denecke, Vinay Dharwadker, Barbara Fuchs, Caroline Levine, Pericles Lewis, and Emily Wilson. The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Volume 1; Beginnings to 1650. 2013. W. W. Norton & Company. New York.
Darwin, Charles. Letter to Asa Gray. 22 May 1860. Darwin Correspondence Project.
Read more of my essays here.
