Q: Do you have a simple definition of what God is in the context of yoga? How does your interpretation of God fit in with various religions?
Shri Yogi Hari: Vedanta teaches « Aham Brahmasmi », « I am that I am ». All the religions teach the same thing. Jesus said : « I and my father are one. He is me, I am He ». All the great saints and the prophets teach that you are the Self, the soul, the Âtman, that you are divine. They also teach that there is only one God, one truth, but we call it by different names. If you want to go up to the mountain peak, there may be different ways to approach it. Some people might be more daring and scale the cliffs, some people might take a more winding path; it all depends on their capacity.
If there is only one God, there cannot be a second. If this God is omnipresent, there is not an atom where He is not. You cannot even say that God is in the atom or outside of the atom : then you would be suggesting that there is a space between the "in” and the "out” where He is not. He would not be omnipresent. So everything is God. This is the teaching of Vedanta philosophy. If you understand that you will see that there is really no contradiction with other religions. The prophets and the saints through whom religions were founded teach the same thing. It is only people’s attempts to interpret it that create problems. When I read the Sermon on the Mount, I become just as ecstatic as when I read the Upanishads, because Jesus taught the highest truth, the highest teaching! Not one of his expressions contradicts any of the Vedas or the utterances of the rishis. When you study Vedanta philosophy and you practice it, you find that there is tolerance for all religion and the place it takes in the evolution of the humanity.
Extract from Yogi Hari's book "Sampoorna Yoga"