Eastern Mysticism: Truth and Error Compared
This article is part of a series examining what various religious movements teach on seven foundational doctrines, compared with what the Bible actually says. Source material for cult positions is drawn from Keith L. Brooks and Irvine Robertson, "The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error" (Moody Press, 1985).
"Eastern Mysticism" encompasses the broad stream of Hindu-derived religious philosophy that has entered Western culture through movements such as Transcendental Meditation (TM), the Hare Krishna movement (ISKCON), Yoga, Vedanta, Zen Buddhism, Bahaism, and the Divine Light Mission. Despite differences in emphasis and practice, these movements share a common worldview: God is impersonal and all-pervading, man is essentially divine, salvation is self-realization rather than redemption from sin, and Jesus is merely one among many enlightened masters. Citations below use abbreviations from the original source: TM = Transcendental Meditation; KC = Kingdom of the Cults (Walter Martin); MM = Meditations of Maharishi.
1. God
What the Bible Teaches
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). God is personal, distinct from His creation, and the only true God (Deuteronomy 4:35; Isaiah 44:6). He is not the universe, not the sum of all existence, and not the "inner self" of man.
What Eastern Mysticism Teaches
"Brahma, the Absolute, other than which there is nothing else — without qualities, unknowable, impersonal, beyond all appearances, changes, differences." "God is all there is. 'All visible objects are but modifications of self-existence, of an unconscious and impersonal essence which is called God'" (Walter R. Martin, Kingdom of the Cults, p. 239). "God is omnipresent and almighty, and is in the heart of everyone" (Transcendental Meditation, p. 61). "In his real nature man is divine. The inner man is fully Divine. Vedanta teaches no other dogma but the divinity inherent in man, and his capacity for infinite evolution" (TM, p. 58).
Current Religious Movements from the East
- Bahaism: This emanated from Persian Islam but is essentially eclectic. All ways are of God, but Baha has the truth for this age.
- Divine Light Mission: Guru Maharaj Ji is presented as the Perfect Master, the Lord of the Universe, who has come to uncover the light of knowledge which is within the disciple.
- Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON): Devotion centers on the god Krishna.
- Transcendental Meditation: Deceitfully propagated as nonreligious, this is undoubtedly Hindu. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is the leader. Mandatory initiatory rites in Sanskrit address the Lord Narayana, Brahma the Creator. Daily meditation focuses on the Source of Creative Intelligence within the individual himself.
- Vedanta Society (Rama Krishna Mission): This group also teaches the Perennial Philosophy — that god is the essence of all that is, and salvation is to "realize" the god (reality) that is within you.
- Yoga: This is one of the six major Hindu philosophical systems to be followed in order to obtain union (yoga) with the Ultimate, the Great All-pervading Soul. Self-realization Fellowship advocates the practice of disciplined Kriya Yoga as the path to realization of the good within, the true self.
- Zen Buddhism: The major Buddhist activity solves eternity's problems by illogical Koan to produce enlightenment — similar to TM.
2. Jesus Christ
What the Bible Teaches
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). Jesus is the unique, eternal Son of God — not one teacher among many, but the only Savior: "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). He died for our sins and rose bodily from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:3–4).
What Eastern Mysticism Teaches
"All religions from times immemorial are just different branches of the main trunk of the eternal religion represented by the Vedas" (TM, p. 19). "I don't think Christ ever suffered or Christ could suffer" (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, p. 123). Christ is considered to be one of a long line of "Masters" who had themselves realized divinity. They are recognized as "divine" and addressed as such. His picture is frequently seen beside that of Buddha, or of Shankaracharya, or Yogananda, or other recognized "Divine Leaders." The "Masters" are considered to be realized expressions of divinity and, as such, are worshipped.
3. Sin
What the Bible Teaches
"There is none righteous, no, not one" (Romans 3:10). "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Sin is real transgression against a holy God that requires atonement, not merely ignorance to be enlightened away. "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23).
What Eastern Mysticism Teaches
The subject of sin per se is given little attention, and forgiveness of sin is unrealistic. By the Law of Karma, "sowing and reaping" — wrong actions inevitably produce punishment, good actions their reward. Salvation consists of doing good in excess of evil in order to evolve to the highest state through successive incarnations. This highest state is Enlightenment — the realization of oneness with the World-Soul, Reality. Sin is not defined. It consists of actions which are contrary to one's "dharma" or "duty." "Sin means wrong doing or wrong thinking due to discontentment. Suffering is the result of some wrong doing in the past." "Past sins might induce an action in the present; some tendency of the past may come to us" (Meditations of Maharishi, p. 121).
4. Redemption and Salvation
What the Bible Teaches
"We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins" (Ephesians 1:7). "By grace are ye saved through faith . . . not of works" (Ephesians 2:8–9). Salvation requires a Savior outside oneself — one cannot save oneself by self-realization, meditation, or moral effort.
What Eastern Mysticism Teaches
"'Be still and know that you are God, and when you know that you are God you will begin to live Godhood . . .'" (Ibid., p. 178). "Go within and experience the Divine Nature!" Salvation comes through "a mystical experience reached by various methods, which blanks out all sense impressions and releases one into a sense of identity with the great All, the only Reality!" "There is no supernatural intervention. We bear the whole responsibility for our actions. If we attain the clear vision of what we are, 'the Divine or Inner Light, and the god within,' we need not go elsewhere. 'All may say, at the moment of Awakening, I am the Way'" (KC, p. 237). "Salvation comes through the realization that there is no duality. God is all-in-all, is all there is, and 'that are Thou'" (Upanishads).
Suggested paths to God-realization include:
- The Way of Knowledge: Usually involving meditation focused within, aided by silent repetition of a personal mantra, or by "knowledge" imparted by a "master" by which the "current of real life" is turned on within.
- The Way of Works: Following prescribed rules of conduct without desire — the more common way of India.
- The Way of Devotion: To a deity, involving continuous chanting of the chosen name, as exemplified by the Krishna-Consciousness cult.
"Transcendental Meditation is a path to God" (MM, p. 59). "Self-realization is entry into the Kingdom of Heaven within, entry into the field of the Creator. 'It is the gradual movement from Matter to Mind, and then to Super Mind. Once we reach the Super Mind, we reach union with the Divine.'"
5. Retribution
What the Bible Teaches
"It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). There is one life, one death, and one judgment — not an endless cycle of reincarnation. The wicked face "everlasting punishment" (Matthew 25:46).
What Eastern Mysticism Teaches
Heaven and hell are not accepted concepts. Karma — "the law of the deed," of sowing and reaping — is allied with Transmigration (Reincarnation) in defining the results of sin and rewards of good. "Suffering (on earth) is the result of some wrong doing in the past, one's own repayment of deeds." "One who has attained union with God, or 'God-consciousness,' has reached the end of reincarnation. As the Buddha is reported to have said, 'There is no rebirth for me.'"
All Bible quotations are from the King James Version. Cult citations are taken directly from the source documents as reproduced in Brooks and Robertson.