Introduction
This reflection continues my earlier essay, Scripture, Canon, and Revelation: A Bhakta’s Dialogue with the Lord and the Bible, where I explored how Scripture took shape and how a bhakta from a Hindu background can read it with reverence and openness.
Here, I move beyond questions of canon and theology to a deeper search: the encounter with God as experienced, not defined. This essay moves from the outer dialogue between religions to the inner dialogue between the soul and the Divine. It is not written to challenge any tradition, but to share how I, as a bhakta of my Guru Muktinath, have come to understand God, Christ, and the Gospel from within my Indic spiritual inheritance.
Outside the Walls
To many, my reflections may sound unorthodox or even heretical. Yet they arise not from rebellion against faith, but from fidelity to experience.
I have often written that to understand the Gospel and Christ, one must turn to the witness of His disciples and contemporaries recorded in Scripture. In the name of accommodating Christ within every worldview, one cannot dilute this central truth. If His immediate followers misunderstood Him so profoundly that He now needs reinterpretation to fit all philosophies or cultures, then we would need to question the very continuity of His revelation.
Yet, when it comes to God, my understanding cannot remain confined within that same framework. The God of the Bible, as revealed through the covenant with Israel and fulfilled in Christ, is indeed a living and historical God. But to me, this cannot be the full story of the Infinite. God cannot be held captive within any one revelation, however sacred.
My own spiritual search did not begin with God. I never set out to find who God is, what His or Her form may be, or how to attain heaven. My journey began with myself—with my inner struggle, restlessness, and the desire to find peace. I have written before that my bhakti does not arise from fear or reward: “Neither fear of hell nor desire for heaven moves me, O Lord; it is love alone that compels me to love You.”
In that search, I realized—true to our Indian tradition—that one cannot find the answer without the help of a Guru. My search ended in Muktinath, who became for me both Guru and God. If I need a God in my life, He is that God. I did not search for Him, but in finding my Guru, I discovered the kind of God I could believe in: one revealed through love, guidance, and inner silence.
Therefore, I cannot limit this God—formless, nameless, without beginning or end—within the theological boundaries of the Bible. The God I have come to know through my Guru transcends all definitions. I have written more about this in my reflections titled Oh My God on my blog, where I explore this unfolding vision in greater depth.¹
Beyond Heresy and Orthodoxy
When I look back at the early Church and the formation of Scripture, I am not sure that their understanding of God was ever uniform before the Canon was finalized. The so‑called “heresies” were often sincere attempts to understand the same revelation through different lenses. Many of these early views were eventually rejected not only for theological but also for political reasons, as church leaders and emperors sought unity and authority through the creeds. The history of the Nicene Creed, as Philip Jenkins narrates in Jesus Wars, shows how political power and theology became intertwined.²
Even so, those debates, shaped by conviction and power alike, remind us that the early Church wrestled deeply with truth. Their struggle was not in vain, though the outcome sometimes reflected institutional necessity more than mystical depth.
Thus, while I accept the biblical foundation for understanding Christ and God, my journey does not begin from that foundation. It begins from experience—from my encounter with the Divine through my Guru. My study of Scripture, Church history, and theology came later, as a backward journey to understand the mystery I had already met. These resources guide me, but they cannot confine me.
If my understanding of God, Christ, and Scripture sounds like heresy, I accept it without shame. For heresy presupposes a system, and I do not live within one. The concept of heresy has no place in the Hindu worldview, which allows each seeker to approach truth in their own way. We often say, “as many souls, so many views.”
In our way of seeing, truth is too vast to be fenced. Each seeker discovers a facet of the Infinite as it shines uniquely through their own experience. Those who follow organized faiths may rightly adhere to their doctrines, but in the name of protecting orthodoxy, no one should claim absolute understanding of God, Christ, or Scripture. Faithfulness to truth should never become captivity to one form.
When my Hindu heritage gives me the freedom to follow the Lord in my own way, why should I trade that freedom for any captivity—however sacred its walls? I gladly respect others’ convictions, but I will not imprison the Infinite.
Conclusion
This reflection does not seek to reinterpret Christ or the Gospel but to locate my own faith within them. As a bhakta of Muktinath, I have learned to see every revelation as a dialogue between God and the soul, not a closed decree.
If my voice sounds heretical to some, let it be so. The same Spirit who inspired the early Church still breathes beyond its boundaries. God continues to speak—in Scripture, in silence, and in the secret heart of every seeker.
The Gospel remains for me not a wall of doctrines but an open gate through which the Infinite walks—into the world, and into me.
Ashram, October 27, 2025
Notes
- Dayanand Bharati, Oh My God (blog series). See Appendix.
- Philip Jenkins, Jesus Wars: How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens, and Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe for the Next 1,500 Years (New York: HarperOne, 2010).
Bibliography
- Bharati, Dayanand. Oh My God (blog series). Available at https://dayanandbharati.in/.
- Jenkins, Philip. Jesus Wars: How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens, and Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe for the Next 1,500 Years. New York: HarperOne, 2010.
Appendix: References to the Oh My God Series
- Oh My God: Part One – https://dayanandbharati.in/oh-my-god/
- Obligation of God – https://dayanandbharati.in/obligation-of-god/
- Oh My God: Part Two – https://dayanandbharati.in/oh-my-god-part-two/
- Oh My God: Part Three – https://dayanandbharati.in/oh-my-god-part-three/
- Oh My God: Part Four – https://dayanandbharati.in/oh-my-god-part-four/
- Oh My God: Part Five – Brahman, Atman, and Jagat – https://dayanandbharati.in/oh-my-god-part-five-brahman-atman-and-jagat/
- Oh My God: Part Six – God and Worship – https://dayanandbharati.in/oh-my-god-part-six-god-and-worship/
- Oh My God: Part Seven – Who God Is – https://dayanandbharati.in/oh-my-god-part-seven/
- Oh My God: Part Eight – God is Love but Love is Not God – https://dayanandbharati.in/oh-my-god-part-eight-god-is-love-but-love-is-not-god/
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