As I began to learn about the mystical teachings of Christianity, it was pretty clear to me that the essence of the true Christianity is same as the orthodox schools of Hinduism. But I was searching for an explanation of Christian Trinity in the mystical context and I finally found the answer from the Indian Yogi ‘Paramhamsa Yogananda’.
Let me first quote the description by Paramhamsa Yogananda:
“When Spirit manifests creation. It becomes the Trinity: Father, Son, Holy Ghost, or Sat, Tat, Aum. The Father (Sat) is God as the Creator existing beyond creation (Cosmic Consciousness). The Son (Tat) is God’s omnipresent intelligence existing in creation (Christ Consciousness or Kutastha Chaitanya). The Holy Ghost (Aum) is the vibratory power of God that objectifies and becomes creation. Many cycles of cosmic creation and dissolution have come and gone in Eternity (see yuga). At the time of cosmic dissolution, the Trinity and all other relativities of creation resolve into the Absolute Spirit.”
– From http://www.yogananda-srf.org/glossary/Glossary_T_%E2%80%93_Z.aspx#.WMh2dFV96M8
Before we start on further explanations, I would suggest you to read my post on repentance to understand how Bible has lost some of it’s original meaning in the translations and has been misinterpreted.
Now, we can derive clear-cut explanations for each member of the Trinity:
Father
He is pretty easy to explain. Father is popularly known as God by Christians; The Hindu term for the Father is ‘Sat’, a Sankrit word which means ‘Truth.’ Even though truth is neither male nor female, it is personified as a male so that the Holy Spirit can be personified as female. Both of them make the Yin and the Yang or Shiva and Shakthi.
Holy Spirit
This is the aspect of God that is active in creation. It is the vibratory power or force of God.
In the Bible, the word ‘spirit’ has been translated from the Greek word ‘pneuma’, which actually has several meanings: spirit, breath and wind. The exact word for it in Hindu tradition is ‘Prana’, which means ‘life force’ or vital principle. It is the cosmic energy, permeating the universe on all levels. That is why it is also known as ‘Shakthi’, the mother. It is close to the term Maya in Vedanta and Prakriti in Sankhya. Sankhya and Vedanta are two of the six orthodox schools of Hinduism.
This Shakthi has a symbol called ‘Om’. The same sound has been translated into ‘Amen’ and ‘Ameen’ in different religions. Om is also called as pranava. It is interesting to note than both pranava and prana come from the same root.
Another Sanskrit term for this holy spirit or pranava is ‘omkara’. The word has two meanings: ‘beginning’ and ‘female divine energy’.
So, ‘Omkara’ is a word, in fact ‘the Word’; and it means ‘beginning’.
Now, if you read the following Bible verses after understanding this last statement, they will perfectly make sense:
John 1:
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
The following Bible verse is another example:
“These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God” – Revelation 3:14
Son
We have understood the Father and the Holy Spirit, the creator and the creative force. The Son is nothing but the cosmic intelligence or cosmic consciousness.
The consciousness of every individual is one with the cosmic consciousness. But Jesus knew the truth perfectly well while others are ignorant about this, which makes Jesus a special Son of God. (the phrase ‘only begotten’ is translated from the Greek word ‘monogenes’ which actually means special or unique)
The Holy Spirit, the Son and the Father can be put together in one Sanskrit manta ‘Om Tat Sat’
Now, we get to the core message:
The Father is God. (Matthew 6:8, 7:21, Galatians 1:1)
Jesus is God from the beginning (John 1: 1-18)
The Holy Spirit is God (John 15:26, Mark 3:29, 1 Corinthians 6:19).
So, these three are the three aspects of one ultimate reality! There is no three, there is no two, there is only one!
This is the core teaching of Advaita Vedanta as well. The ultimate reality is defined as self-existent awareness, limitless and non-dual.
Shanmugam's Blog 
Hi Shanmugam,
I read some of your articles and mostly they are very interesting and well-researched. However, I found one theme in your posts that seems to be contradictory:
On the one hand you are quick to criticize James Swartz because he criticized your beloved teachers Osho and Ramana Maharshi on the basis that they don’t teach according to Vedanta.
But on the other hand you are quick to criticize Christianity on the basis that it lost its meaning and can only be understood by using the analysis of Vedanta:
“how Bible has lost some of it’s original meaning in the translations and has been misinterpreted.”
“There is no three, there is no two, there is only one!”
“The Holy Spirit, the Son and the Father can be put together in one Sanskrit manta ‘Om Tat Sat’”
What makes you so sure that Christianity can only be understood by the terminology of Vedanta?
How can you compare something if you are clearly biased in favor of Vedanta?
Have you ever wondered if Vedanta could be described in the same way by Christian theologians?
Are you assuming that Vedanta is superior to Christianity? If so, why?
Is your analysis based on a neutral position to compare two very different spiritual teachings?
Or are you assuming that Vedanta is the neutral position on which everything can be compared with?
In my opinion you are criticizing James Swartz of doing something which you do yourself!
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Hi.. I am not biased on any traditions at all… In fact, I have a problem with Vedanta because it bases its whole premise on the fact that ‘vedas are eternal and infallible’ which I don’t agree with… All the holy books in the world are anthology or collection of books written by various authors.. So, some are wise and some are not.. I only choose the good part and leave the part that doesn’t sound reasonable or suitable for modern days… In fact, I see some caste based discrimination in Shankara’s commentaries on Vedantic scriptures which I would never agree with.
My interpretation of Trinity in the light of Vedanta is based on Paramhamsa Yogananda’s books. I don’t claim that it should be 100% true.. It just sounded more reasonable…
I do believe that the original message of Jesus have been lost in the gospels which are not included in the biblical canon. Many people in the world hold this opinion.
This is not about one religion vs another religion. My whole blog is about spiritual enlightenment and cessation of suffering. There are well trodden paths to enlightenment like christian mysticism, sufism, buddhist traditions etc… But I don’t know much about christian mysticism, otherwise I would have written about it.
And this is not about theology or philosophy at all.. I am studying different traditions to come up with a scientific and practical method for enlightenment. But I love to challenge people sometimes based on their own claims of enlightenment, if I find anything odd..
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HI Shanmugam,
yes, that’s an interesting way to spend one’s life: “I am studying different traditions to come up with a scientific and practical method for enlightenment.”
A question I find quite interesting: If consciousness is all there is, as it is prescribed in the infallible Vedas, then why didn’t other religions come up with the idea of consciousness?
I mean we could assume that other civilizations have not been as developed as the mighty Aryans, located in India. Or the Aryans have been corrupted as in Iran with Zoroastrianism. But still, why not at least some mentioning of consciousness in other spiritual traditions?
This to me gives the understanding that there are many ways to understand the world and to become free of suffering. And that’s the goal right? to be free of suffering and to be free of the idea of being a separate, alienated person, right?
Love,
Georg
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Actually, I addressed this question in my previous reply.. Many traditions all over the world talk about it.. They just use different terminologies.. And there are different paths.. But the ultimate goal is to end the suffering
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Eternal Truth does not depend upon of whether a few individuals have a problem with it or not. If something is not within our understanding, the honest seeker or the ‘enlightened’ would say, I don’t know. It is mentioned in the ‘Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna’ that he was not even aware that a province called Assam (Bengal’s next door neighbour) existed!
It is the considered opinion of enlightened masters that there can never be a meeting point of science and spiritualism as long as science does not accept consciousness as the substratum of all that appears in the world. Again, I agree that individual opinions may differ in this respect.
If we are to go by the ‘Adyaropa, Apavada’ logic of Vedanta, there can be nothing right or wrong in the world of objects (including the controversial teachings of great masters), the purport being negation of all that appears to our senses and mind and establish the superemacy of consciousness.
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Interesting and insightful, thank you for this. I was also trying to reconcile the Trinity with the concepts of Advaita Vedanta so stumbled on your Blog post.
Looking at the Holy Spirit as prana or Shakti makes a lot of sense and was an eye-opener to me. Spirit does indeed quite clearly point to breath.
I have some questions/observations with the other parts of the diagram:
Would God in the middle of the diagram correspond to Brahman so Sat-Chit-Ananda or Nirguna Brahman?
Yes, Father would be the Christian personified God. As such, in Vedanta terms, would Father not better correspond with Ishvara or Saguna Brahman?
Finally Son, I would think Son would rather point to the Jiva or the Soul (be it enlightened or ignorant). It seems more obvious and less vague then Cosmic Intelligence. What do you think?
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