Two Roads Diverging

In the Hindu worldview, all is One. Philosophers call this metaphysical monism of a double kind. All existence is both one in kind and one in number. All distinctions are merely aspects of the One.
As an analogy consider your own person. You are a single human being, not a conglomerate of several humans. Your playful side and your sober side are not two humans that have turns taking over your consciousness. They are two aspects of a single but complex being—namely, yourself.
But eastern worldviews emphasize the one and downplay the many. They hold that there is one ultimate being—Brahman—a World Soul, if you will. This means that, while indescribable in itself, it is helpful for us to think of Brahman as a non-material being, having no size or shape or location.
Human souls are understood as Atman. It appears to us that there are many such souls. But in the end all human souls are one soul—Atman. And Atman, in the end, is identical with Brahman. Hence Brahman is the only existing reality.
This is difficult for westerners to grasp. We tend to think there is a huge multiplicity of things that are distinct—related only by loose associations.
The task of each human being is to return to the One. We live now as fragmented beings, under the illusion that we are separate entities. And that brings suffering to us. Suffering arises when the individual person has desires that conflict with reality. If we could only achieve enlightenment, realizing that all is one, then would we would find release from this world of shadows and be lost in the One forever. The World Soul and our soul would be united. Our soul would not exist as such and our sufferings would end.
Each person, then, must work out his own salvation in his own way. All paths of redemption lead to the same destination—the One. When each of us takes a chosen path and follows faithfully, we will arrive at the same End. It is like getting to the top of the mountain by whatever path and then stepping off the summit and vanishing into thin air never to return—thank the gods! Atman in us has been united with Brahman. We as individuals are no more.
In Hinduism, however, the One can manifest itself to us in many forms, including gods who are demanding and often angry with us. As one woman said to Ruby, a faculty wife here who is having cancer treatments, the gods are making fun of us in our sufferings.
Thankfully the God who came to us in Jesus Messiah is not an abstract featureless being. He is one who knows us and cares about us and about all of his creation.
Suppose there is a house in your town that is rundown—an eyesore. The people in it are on drugs day and night and what goes on there is despicable. The neighbors want it demolished as it affecting their property values and is blot on the area. How can they have a safe and pleasant place to live with this squalor just around the corner?
Suppose that that house goes on the market and you find the money to purchase it. It is now yours. Now everything takes on a new prospect. It is now your mess. The stink and filth is still abhorrent. However you can now do something with it. It has possibilities. You start making plans for its future. You begin to delight in it—not for what it is but for what it will be when you are done with reclaiming it.
This is what God is up to. He has published his architectural design for what we will become.
I am so glad God is not disgusted with me due to the pollution of my sins, making fun of my misery. God delights in me—not for what I am now but for what he will make of me once his transforming plans are complete. I have a hope and a future. He is transforming me one step and a time.
God is disgusted, even angry, with those who are unrepentant, who want to continue in their ways, who are rebelling against the renovations called for in the plans. They choose degradation and delight in depravity.
But I have signed up for the new neighborhood and submit to what I must change to meet the entrance requirements. My personal therapy is paid for by the New Owner—as it is for all who choose to undergo the extreme makeover. There are two roads and I have chosen the one less traveled. But its narrow track leads to the Father's House.
The contrast between the ultimate destiny of those who walk in the dark ways of eastern philosophy and religion and those whose delight is to walk in the light with Jesus is striking.
In India the contrasts are starkly obvious. There is little grey area here. Darkness and light. The difference is unmistakable. God has called us out of our darkness and into his marvelous light.