Enthralled at hearing a guru saying prayers in Latin, his brightest student exclaimed, “No language on earth equals Latin for praying to God!” Amused, the guru said, “Don’t be stupid! God’s language isn’t Latin. It is silence.”
Although all the world’s scriptures reveal so much about God, our world, and deepest truths about life and death, they do not exhaust the Divine Mystery since, to quote Augustine, “God is above God.” This means that whatever we imagine, grasp and express about God through words, images, stories, pictures, epics, myths, rites, rituals, dogmas and the like, though beautiful in themselves, are woefully inadequate; for God is always more: greater, higher, deeper, wider, wiser, broader than all our conceptions and comprehension.
Although all bhaktas sincerely believe that their own scriptures contain the fullest truths for salvation, mukti, moksha, nirvana, liberation, etc., it’s not scriptures which ipso facto bring liberation, but their living out or enfleshed practice that gives evidence of someone being free, liberated or saved.
“The word became flesh and dwelt amongst us,” summarises Christian belief in Jesus Christ; meaning, Jesus mediated salvation not only by his words but “in his flesh” by living out God’s love, joy, peace, silence, compassion, forgiveness, justice, fellowship and sacrifice through his works and witness of his life in the most beautiful way possible.
The Quran sees kalima as Allah’s supreme revelatory word to humankind. Classical Hinduism holds that life’s deepest truths are enshrined in the Vedas with the Gita being the crown of Hindu theism.
Francis Gonsalves is a professor of theology. He can be contacted at fragons@gmail.com
