I am just trying here to explain whats good about my religion(Hinduism). So basically all religions are the product of a lot of reading through various epics. Its what written in the epics followed that decides what the people follow. So if the Epic says there was a God, people believe that there actually was a God, who did divine things. Let us assume for the time being that there actually exists a God (I have a joke to share in this context. Once there was a war between Russia and USA where Russia claimed that God does not exist and USA believed that God does exist. Both countries sent out their best people - scholars, scientists, explorers, et cetra to find about the truth. A month later Russi called a press conference and said that God does exist. The reason they cited was that their scholars came to India. And it is only by the grace of God that this country is running they cited. So therefore God must exist. I know I'm bad at jokes).
The feature that stands out in the religion is the concept of multiple Gods for different tasks. It is like a whole community of Gods up there in the sky, performing diffenet tasks. Which makes it simmilar to the board of directors concept in any company. So over here the company reffers to the world and each director performs a different task. For example, let us consider Indra. This God is the God of rain. There is Shiva, Rama, Hanuman (God of Monkeys - follower of Rama), Bhramha (God of thought), Lakshmi (Goddess of Prosperity), there is Saraswati - Goddess of Studies/Intelligence. Now it is more logical a framework for so many Gods to be managing people rathere than a unified God managing all activities of all people. Makes more sence to me this way.
All people are not the same. Some like prosperity, some like fame, some like truth. Next feature that stands out in this religion is that people have the free will and choice to choose what God of the relion they intend to follow. For example many people follow Hanuman. They keep fasts for this God. This is done so that their future mate is good, or for other strong good wishes for their families as well. There is Tirupathi in the south and his name is mentioned in the Kannada language scriptures. In our sanskrit text we have references to Ram, Hanuman, Lakshmi, Indra, Vayu, et cetra. So its a more versatile concept. People can choose what God they like most and worship them.
We have different festivals for different Gods, making life all the more exciting, as in we see more happy faces all the time. Not everyone waits for a unified date or season to worship their God the most. For example there is Shiv ratri, Ganesh Chaturthi, Maha Lakshmi Ashthami, then there is Diwali, Holi. All of these festivals are related to different Gods and there are lots of stories about each event. The whole history is not based on one God, but one God reaching out for help to the other God for help to solve a problem. One God blessing someone for something and the other Gods helping him.
People have the free will to switch from one God to another any time. There is no concept of switching your idols or favourite Gods making trouble in your life. So it is a very clean concept as such. The fundamental truth being that God exists within us all.
There is one good thing about our Religin for which I firmly stick to it in all faces of deserting it and that is it taught man that whatever you have is a loan you have from your children and not an inheritance from your forefathers. What you do is to be good for them. Only then will you repay your eternal loan. If every person on the Earth knew this concept then there would not be so much fighting, so much enimity, so much terror. It is painful to know what has already been taught by one religion is not accepted by other religions only because their texts do not speak about any such thing. It is painful to know that we humans are causing our own death due to ignorance and that too ignoring what we will face in our future definately.
Buddhism for instance talks about not hurting or hating others. Hinduism does not talk about this at all. What it says is that you must do what will create enough for your children that they can carry your loan to themselves and repay it off to their children. So this concept was made with the understanding that children does not reffer to your imeediate family. It reffers to an entire generation of people after you. Unfortunately people do not understand it this way because this is hard. It is the right path, but it is hard. So they mess up the entire cycle by believing what they can achieve and in process make lives terrible for other people sometimes. There would be no concept of beggars in todays streets if this concept was followed by the intention it meant.
I hope that clarifies a little as to what drives me to believe my religion is good. But at the same time my God is always changing from one to the other. Some days I worship Vishnu, some days it is Shiva, then there is Saraswati and Bhramha that I worship with all devotion. And with Diwali coming up, I guess Lakshmi also deserves praise this time of the year. So worshiping which God you feel like is a choice and free will, and it makes people be educated more often than not. People love to find out what is the hidden truth at all times even if they intend to find very little. That in process educates them. Since our texts and religious history is so vast, if a person starts following even a little and gets inquisitive, then he/she is bound to learn a lot and become more educated than he could get in school. I mean it is beyond the ABCD that we learn here. So many different languages, ideas and theories.
I wish there was more time. I'd be writing further to this topic. I have made a label called religion in my notes and this post and the further upcoming ones will be classified under it.
The feature that stands out in the religion is the concept of multiple Gods for different tasks. It is like a whole community of Gods up there in the sky, performing diffenet tasks. Which makes it simmilar to the board of directors concept in any company. So over here the company reffers to the world and each director performs a different task. For example, let us consider Indra. This God is the God of rain. There is Shiva, Rama, Hanuman (God of Monkeys - follower of Rama), Bhramha (God of thought), Lakshmi (Goddess of Prosperity), there is Saraswati - Goddess of Studies/Intelligence. Now it is more logical a framework for so many Gods to be managing people rathere than a unified God managing all activities of all people. Makes more sence to me this way.
All people are not the same. Some like prosperity, some like fame, some like truth. Next feature that stands out in this religion is that people have the free will and choice to choose what God of the relion they intend to follow. For example many people follow Hanuman. They keep fasts for this God. This is done so that their future mate is good, or for other strong good wishes for their families as well. There is Tirupathi in the south and his name is mentioned in the Kannada language scriptures. In our sanskrit text we have references to Ram, Hanuman, Lakshmi, Indra, Vayu, et cetra. So its a more versatile concept. People can choose what God they like most and worship them.
We have different festivals for different Gods, making life all the more exciting, as in we see more happy faces all the time. Not everyone waits for a unified date or season to worship their God the most. For example there is Shiv ratri, Ganesh Chaturthi, Maha Lakshmi Ashthami, then there is Diwali, Holi. All of these festivals are related to different Gods and there are lots of stories about each event. The whole history is not based on one God, but one God reaching out for help to the other God for help to solve a problem. One God blessing someone for something and the other Gods helping him.
People have the free will to switch from one God to another any time. There is no concept of switching your idols or favourite Gods making trouble in your life. So it is a very clean concept as such. The fundamental truth being that God exists within us all.
There is one good thing about our Religin for which I firmly stick to it in all faces of deserting it and that is it taught man that whatever you have is a loan you have from your children and not an inheritance from your forefathers. What you do is to be good for them. Only then will you repay your eternal loan. If every person on the Earth knew this concept then there would not be so much fighting, so much enimity, so much terror. It is painful to know what has already been taught by one religion is not accepted by other religions only because their texts do not speak about any such thing. It is painful to know that we humans are causing our own death due to ignorance and that too ignoring what we will face in our future definately.
Buddhism for instance talks about not hurting or hating others. Hinduism does not talk about this at all. What it says is that you must do what will create enough for your children that they can carry your loan to themselves and repay it off to their children. So this concept was made with the understanding that children does not reffer to your imeediate family. It reffers to an entire generation of people after you. Unfortunately people do not understand it this way because this is hard. It is the right path, but it is hard. So they mess up the entire cycle by believing what they can achieve and in process make lives terrible for other people sometimes. There would be no concept of beggars in todays streets if this concept was followed by the intention it meant.
I hope that clarifies a little as to what drives me to believe my religion is good. But at the same time my God is always changing from one to the other. Some days I worship Vishnu, some days it is Shiva, then there is Saraswati and Bhramha that I worship with all devotion. And with Diwali coming up, I guess Lakshmi also deserves praise this time of the year. So worshiping which God you feel like is a choice and free will, and it makes people be educated more often than not. People love to find out what is the hidden truth at all times even if they intend to find very little. That in process educates them. Since our texts and religious history is so vast, if a person starts following even a little and gets inquisitive, then he/she is bound to learn a lot and become more educated than he could get in school. I mean it is beyond the ABCD that we learn here. So many different languages, ideas and theories.
I wish there was more time. I'd be writing further to this topic. I have made a label called religion in my notes and this post and the further upcoming ones will be classified under it.
2 comments:
Hi Sonda, that was an informative post although it was not so in depth. I believe you have just skimmed the surface of Hinduism.
Let me ask a series of questions so that you can deal on the subject in depth:
1. God is supposed to be an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and personal being. So I was wondering why would one god seek the help of another god to do certain task, can he/she not do it himself/herself? If he/she can't then he/she is no longer omnipotent right?
2. You wrote about free will to choose to worship any gods. So do you have the free will to "NOT" worship any of the gods? Is there a free will to choose between right and wrong?
3. What about caste system? The Brahmins, the Kshatriyas, the Vaishyas and the Sudras. In Social science we were taught that hindus believe that they are created from different parts of god's(which god?) body. So the question is who among the 4 castes is more holier/superior and why?
4. What about reincarnation?
5. What about "evil" and "suffering" in this world? How does Hinduism explain that?
6. What does Hinduism say about "Evolution"? Or how does Hinduism respond to and defend itself against the scientific evolution?
7. "It is painful to know what has already been taught by one religion is not accepted by other religions only because their texts do not speak about any such thing." Justify with an example. It was very vague.
@dovesandwolves
Well, though the job of answering the questions in a post is solely the right of the Owner, but I couldn’t resist the temptation of not participating as the posts and the questions posed are too interesting to be ignored. I am sure Anubhav definitely has his opinions on it, but here’s my perception to it.
@1. Doesn’t even Christianity also talks about God having angels carrying out His biddings? Or the Greek Mythology where there is a Demi-God for every aspect of existence including emotions like (Venus is for love and beauty)?
The Demi-Gods are suggested to be superior beings but not as supreme beings. This gives them the capability of making judgments, decisions and free will – in a not-so-perfect manner. This tilts the existence of universe and the beings in it, let’s say – a little unbalanced. How would you imagine a perfect world to be? We do have the fallen angels in Christianity as well as our ‘Devas’ (Dieties) not doing the right thing.
@2. It’s not about ‘NOT’ worshipping a particular Demi-God. But it is about choosing to worship the one who would benefit you the most. Sailors would worship the Seas, while the farmers would worship the Rain-God. But any mortal worshipping these isn’t enlightened enough. For once you are indeed enlightened you would realize that No matter who you worship you’re bowing to the will of the divine One which is Omni-present and it is then when you walk on the spiritual path (Sanyasa) to atain freedom from the Birth-Death cycle.
@3. The Aryan civilization is historically broken into two periods – The Early Aryan civilization and the later Aryan Civilization. During the early stages none of the castes were above or lesser than any other. It simply defined by the tasks you chose to do. In fact, I remember even reading a poet’s remark about the Caste system in my history book (which right now I am miserable failing to remember) where he said that he is a poet (Brahmin) his father being a soldier (Kshatriya) and he married the daughter of a merchant (vasya). This actually suggests that your caste is not just defined by your birth but by the work you choose.
Sadly, corruption seeped in the Aryan Civilization where the richer and nobler castes modified the rules of the caste system to protect the interests of their children.
@4 and 6. Isn’t reincarnation evolution itself? You are born as a lesser-intelligent creature and as you go through the cycle of life and death and a series of re-births that you arrive at the final stage of Birth (The pinnacle of intelligence and evolution). Though I agree our Saints were a little less equipped with the scientific facts but their observations were indeed accurate. We for centuries have had the concept of Zero. We calculated the time Earth takes to go around the Sun centuries before the telescope was invented – Even when the west believed that the Earth is flat. Since, the observation was limited due to the lack of the scientific equipments, for every theory unexplained – we had a religious theory behind it.
Take for instance, The River Ganga. It is believed in Hinduism that taking a dip in the Ganges or drinking from it will wash away your sins (or diseases which are a consequence of your ill-deeds). Since at the time they weren’t aware of the existence of Virus, but had good observation skills said it is because the River is Holy. Holy or not, or whether sins are washed away or not. Ganges water does cure you of certain diseases due to the presence of the ‘X factor’ (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17134270) which is a combination of a lot of things.
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