People call the eternal One with different names.
For want of terms the Absolute is called “the God beyond creation” who functions as God in creation. In the Indian mythology the all-permeating God in creation is called Vishnu.
In the West he is called the Cosmic Christ or Adam Kadmon, Amadeus or also the Second Logos, the One who pervades and fills all the 7 planes.
Whatever is the term it refers to the same, although the followers of different creeds think they are different and that their own concept of God is the right one.
No matter which names and forms of worship are used, we should have no objections. It is important to understand the basic idea instead of getting confused by names.
The Vedic seers worshipped all forms, colours etc. as a manifestation of the one Lord.
For them Vishnu is the light of awareness which fulfils all. It is like the electric current; we cannot see it, but when we operate the light switch, it is immediately apparent within the lamp.
We realise its presence through the illumined lamp; the light is its manifestation.
Thus in olden times people worshipped the presence of the Lord as the Light beyond the Sun, as the all-pervading principle.
The sages visualised the creation sprouting from the subtlest to the grossest in layers.
They divided the three-fold existence into matter, force and consciousness and symbolically called the planes “Vishnu”, “Vasudeva” and “Narayana”. Here Vishnu is all that appears in shape, colour, number etc.
All that exists as the centre, or as the indweller of a consciousness unit from atom to man, is Vasudeva, and the universal consciousness, which is the one background of the units of consciousness, is Narayana.
With this division Vishnu is the Lord who pervades the name, form and the other objects of the senses and mind with his presence.
Vasudeva is the Lord who lives in everyone and presides over our behaviour. He helps us release the baser emotions of the astral plane, such as lust and anger, that are ever stimulated as we experience the behaviour of others.
In Narayana the devotee finds the ultimate liberation of his individual consciousness.
This third step places the purified consciousness of the soul in its proper abode, the oversoul, the Spirit in all. The Yogis merge in it, nothing else enters their mind.
They remain in this pervading consciousness, which again, is called Vishnu. Therefore, the Indians say, “All is Vishnu”, and the Bhagavatam says we should visualise and worship him in all.
After having found the Cosmic Christ in himself and experienced him as working through himself, Jesus said, “For in him we live, move, and have our being”.
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