Views on Hinduism!

[aadil77]

Its not only cows... Hinduism believes that God resides in every living being... be it cows, snakes, lions, dogs , rats, cats etc..
When God descended on Earth as Lord Krishna, He was brought up in a Shepard family.. He used to love cows.. Cows are also the source of milk, which has always been important in India. Thus we respect cows as our 'mother'.. That is why cows are so sacred to Hinduism.. Hinduism also believes in vegetarianism.

Is hinduism only limited to india? it seems that way by hindu demographics

Have you ever wondered why commonly found animals in india tend to have significance in hindu god stories? Animals such as elephants, monkeys, cows etc.

 

[S.Belle]

what is it like inside of a hindu temple (very dumb question but there are some where I live and i've always wondered what it was like inside)
do you have pews or do you seat on the floor and how do you worship is there like a sermon or do people just go there to like meditate?

 

[powerofdharma]

Is hinduism only limited to india? it seems that way by hindu demographics

Have you ever wondered why commonly found animals in india tend to have significance in hindu god stories? Animals such as elephants, monkeys, cows etc.

The history of India begins with evidence of human activity of Homo sapiens as long as 75,000 years ago.. The Indus Valley Civilization, which spread and flourished in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent from c. 3300 to 1300 BCE, was the first major civilization in the world. As a result, there were many scholars and great saints.. they started this way of life called 'Sanatan Dharma' or eternal law which is now known as 'Hinduism'. India was always been isolated from the rest of the world till the BC's and the early AD's(before the Muslim invasion) and has thus been able to retain its culture. On the North, the 3 Great Himalayan chains(Outer, Middle and Inner) separate it from the rest of Asia.. On the west we have the western ghats and on the east we have the eastern ghats. India never invaded any country, as it was against their principles. Because of this this of way of life or Hinduism remained limited to India. But now we have found from many archeological evidences that Malaysia, Bali, Indonesia also had Hindu influence thousands of years ago.

Well, you very well know that Hindus respect every form of Nature as God,so that even includes animals likes snakes which even other religions have considered to be a synonym of evil

So when that is the case,Hinduism has done a great job by even recognizing an animal like snake as a form of God.So all animals are worshiped as God,all forms of nature - Fire,Water ,wind are all treated as God

 

[aadil77]

The history of India begins with evidence of human activity of Homo sapiens as long as 75,000 years ago.. The Indus Valley Civilization, which spread and flourished in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent from c. 3300 to 1300 BCE, was the first major civilization in the world. As a result, there were many scholars and great saints.. they started this way of life called 'Sanatan Dharma' or eternal law which is now known as 'Hinduism'. India was always been isolated from the rest of the world till the BC's and the early AD's(before the Muslim invasion) and has thus been able to retain its culture. On the North, the 3 Great Himalayan chains(Outer, Middle and Inner) separate it from the rest of Asia.. On the west we have the western ghats and on the east we have the eastern ghats. India never invaded any country, as it was against their principles. Because of this this of way of life or Hinduism remained limited to India. But now we have found from many archeological evidences that Malaysia, Bali, Indonesia also had Hindu influence thousands of years ago.

Well, you very well know that Hindus respect every form of Nature as God,so that even includes animals likes snakes which even other religions have considered to be a synonym of evil

So when that is the case,Hinduism has done a great job by even recognizing an animal like snake as a form of God.So all animals are worshiped as God,all forms of nature - Fire,Water ,wind are all treated as God

You don't need to invade any country for a religion to spread. Muslims have never invaded europe (except spain) and the americas, yet people are accepting the faith in droves. Surely as a hindu, you must believe that your way of life is the correct one, is it then not important to spread hinduism for others to benefit?

Don't you think that for a faith to be the truth it would make sense that people from across the world would embrace it, in order for it to be a globaly accepted faith? All I find amongst hindus is that 100% are born into the faith and 99% are from indian origin. It seems the majority of hindu's do not willingly accept hinduism rather carry on the family culture.

 

[powerofdharma]

You don't need to invade any country for a religion to spread. Muslims have never invaded europe (except spain) and the americas, yet people are accepting the faith in droves. Surely as a hindu, you must believe that your way of life is the correct one, is it then not important to spread hinduism for others to benefit?

Don't you think that for a faith to be the truth it would make sense that people from across the world would embrace it, in order for it to be a globaly accepted faith? All I find amongst hindus is that 100% are born into the faith and 99% are from indian origin. It seems the majority of hindu's do not willingly accept hinduism rather carry on the family culture.

well, Hindu saints always believed in the 'union of all regions'.. Hinduism has never been a religion as I have mentioned so many times.. So there is nothing to spread. It is not limited. Every one has a different ideology and perspective. The Shavites say that Shiva is the supreme God who created the Universe and the source of all other Gods while the Vaishnavas say that Vishnu is supreme. Others say that both are devoted to each other (ie Vishnu meditates upon shiva and shiva meditates upon vishnu).. Krishna says that His devotees are greater than Him and thus He meditates upon His devotees. So the concept varies from person to person, state to state.. etc.

So in our scriptures it is mentioned that we should never think that our way is the best way or the only way. They ask us to 'go and enquire' and learn upon all 'varieties of religion'...

But in the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna says:

sarva-dharman parityajya
mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo
moksayisyami ma sucah

which means that even if you abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto God and start loving Him, He will release from all the sins and free you from the cycle of life and death. Do not fear. Surrendering unto God in Hinduism means be a nice person with good morals and develop love for God.

 

[GuestFellow]

Is hinduism only limited to india? it seems that way by hindu demographics

Have you ever wondered why commonly found animals in india tend to have significance in hindu god stories? Animals such as elephants, monkeys, cows etc.

Actually...you can find cows in Britain and many other places. Elephants and Monkey's can be found in Africa too.

 

[aadil77]

Actually...you can find cows in Britain and many other places. Elephants and Monkey's can be found in Africa too.

That was not my point. My point was why do you not find kangaroo's or penguins in hindu god stories? - It seems to me the whole religion and its tales has been made in india. The supposed gods are indian or have never left india. If it was a true faith, it would be global and not limited to a certain part of the world.

 

[Ramadhan]

The Indus Valley Civilization, which spread and flourished in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent from c. 3300 to 1300 BCE, was the first major civilization in the world

That's so not true.
The the first recorded major civilization is Mesopotamia.
Both mesopotamia and ancient egypt beat indus valley by few thousand years.
The first few prophets recorded in Islam were from mesopotamia and the fertile crescent area, a couple of thousand years more or so before the rise of indus valley civilization.

 

[powerofdharma]

That was not my point. My point was why do you not find kangaroo's or penguins in hindu god stories? - It seems to me the whole religion and its tales has been made in india. The supposed gods are indian or have never left india. If it was a true faith, it would be global and not limited to a certain part of the world.

Dude... These Gods are just personifications of good traits like wisdom, strength, prosperity etc by the vedic saints. So obviously these saints will give compare these traits to animals found in India so that the people actually understand and can visualise. I think you donot understand the concept of Hinduism.
Please note: Hinduism in not a faith! It is just a way of living based on good morals and principles. We believe that faith varies from person to person.

 

[Predator]

Let's not insult other people's religious beliefs. There is no need for it. Muslims should have learnt by now how it feels when other people make fun and insult our religion. Let's not become what we hate.

It has nothing to do with insults .

A group of young women were bathing naked in the river yamuna, krishna runs away with their clothes and thus forces them to come out of the river nude. When they emerge from the water bashfully hiding their sexual organs with their hands, krishna tells them that since they have offended the water god by bathing naked, they should ask for his forgiveness with their hands raised in salutation to him, and then they can take back their clothes. Thus krishna deceitfully made them expose their sexual organs to him, and that he was very pleased to see them in their virgin state


If you were a father/brother/husband/Son of those victims in the river , i am sure you would have taken action against him or beat him up
What kind of moral lesson you get out of that story ?

As an avator of God , its his duty to guide people to the right path and he insteads stoops to a level of rowdy. I guess this is where they get their inspiration for their bollywood movies

None of our Prophets have ever committed such an act and have all been role models for us to follow .

Holy Quran 24:31

"Tell the believing men that they should reduce/lower (يغضوا) their gaze/vision and guard their private parts".

 

[Predator]

in addition to Elephants, Monkeys, Snakes,cows they even a worship a phallus.

 

[powerofdharma]

It has nothing to do with insults .

A group of young women were bathing naked in the river yamuna, krishna runs away with their clothes and thus forces them to come out of the river nude. When they emerge from the water bashfully hiding their sexual organs with their hands, krishna tells them that since they have offended the water god by bathing naked, they should ask for his forgiveness with their hands raised in salutation to him, and then they can take back their clothes. Thus krishna deceitfully made them expose their sexual organs to him, and that he was very pleased to see them in their virgin state


If you were a father/brother/husband/Son of those victims in the river , i am sure you would have taken action against him or beat him up
What kind of moral lesson you get out of that story ?

As an avator of God , its his duty to guide people to the right path and he insteads stoops to a level of rowdy. I guess this is where they get their inspiration for their bollywood movies

None of our Prophets have ever committed such an act and have all been role models for us to follow .

Holy Quran 24:31

"Tell the believing men that they should reduce/lower (يغضوا) their gaze/vision and guard their private parts".

Materialistic people like you who have impure thoughts and mind might make foolish and vulgar comments and conclusions about it.

Wonderful are his Acts, myriad are his sports and uncomprehendable are his ways. He is the Brahma-Purusha and Param-Brahma( GOD)..
This stealing of the Gopis’ clothing is treated as a highly devotional phenomena and inspired many of the medieval poets of Bhakti Yuga.

Krishna is God personified. Gopis(young women) loved Krishna but still had the sense of attachment to their own body. Krishna wanted their love but not in the physical sense. The sense of modesty comes from attachment to the body and not realizing that we are the soul or spirit. If only we knew that we and everyone else are soul or spirit - we would see others and ourselves in a purer sense without the hypocricy of appearance, clothes etc.
So, to help them get rid of this he stole the clothes to help the Gopis realize this. What would be unknown to God? So why have modesty or shame or ego in front of God. He knows all our faults and virtues! If we have ego or modesty, then it surely means we do not see or understand God as he really is - omnipresent!

Ps: Krishna was just 7 years old at this time.

 

[powerofdharma]

in addition to Elephants, Monkeys, Snakes,cows they even a worship a phallus.

Shivalinga is a symbolic form of depicting Shiva, who is the Parabramha, the formless one. One who is the source of infinite love, happiness, light and energy.

How does one depict a formless form? The form of one who is "binduswaroopa" ?

The natural and the basic form that of an ovoid comes in handy. hence the formless shiva is depicted in the most basic form of an ovoid in a Shivalinga.

Tantrically speaking Shiva and Shakti are one, in each other and inseperable. They are complimentary to each other and are two functional parts of the same entitiy. Their union is what made this universe happen. The male form of energy depicted by the phallus shape and the female form of energy depicted by the adhaara in the form of a 'yoni', thereby denoting the oneness of the female and the male energies in the form of Shiva and Shivalinga.

The Shivalinga symbolizes energy, creation, fertility, continuance, progress, and also reminds us of the formless by being in a basic ovoid form.

To reduce the meaning of shiva linga to a mere sexual act or representation is to attest our own narrowmindedness and lack of knowledge and understanding of the Supreme One who is ever benevolent and full of love for us.

 

[Insecured soul]

n addition to Elephants, Monkeys, Snakes,cows they even a worship a phallus.

Phallus????????? have they lost thier mind?
well the answer is 'Yes'

 

[S.Belle]

what is it like inside of a hindu temple (very dumb question but there are some where I live and i've always wondered what it was like inside) do you have pews or do you seat on the floor and how do you worship is there like a sermon or do people just go there to like meditate?

answer this please I want to know

 

['Abd Al-Maajid]

My post may be offtopic now but,

In Hinduism, the soul is a part of God. Thus God is not independent of us. There is a relationship between God and His devotee.

I remember when I was in higher secondary school, one of my teachers told me that God is a great soul, paramatmaa and we all are originate from the greater soul, paramatmaa and are called atmaa.
And she drew this on the blackboard,


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

But I already had this in my mind and this was continuously spinning in my head then.

"And there is none co-equal or comparable unto Him." Quran 112:4

 

[Predator]

Shivalinga is a symbolic form of depicting Shiva, who is the Parabramha, the formless one. One who is the source of infinite love, happiness, light and energy.

How does one depict a formless form? The form of one who is "binduswaroopa" ?

The natural and the basic form that of an ovoid comes in handy. hence the formless shiva is depicted in the most basic form of an ovoid in a Shivalinga.

Tantrically speaking Shiva and Shakti are one, in each other and inseperable. They are complimentary to each other and are two functional parts of the same entitiy. Their union is what made this universe happen. The male form of energy depicted by the phallus shape and the female form of energy depicted by the adhaara in the form of a 'yoni', thereby denoting the oneness of the female and the male energies in the form of Shiva and Shivalinga.

The Shivalinga symbolizes energy, creation, fertility, continuance, progress, and also reminds us of the formless by being in a basic ovoid form.

To reduce the meaning of shiva linga to a mere sexual act or representation is to attest our own narrowmindedness and lack of knowledge and understanding of the Supreme One who is ever benevolent and full of love for us.

What you fail to realize so far is that you are giving an image to God and going against the Yajurveda, Chapter No. 32, Verse No. 3 which says,

“Of that God there is no image”

Some of The Hindu Scholars agree that the Vedas prohibit idol worship, but initially because the mind may not be matured,they say an idol is required for concentration while worshipping. After the mind reaches higher consciousness, the idol is not required for concentration.

We Muslims have reached the higher level of consciousness. If an idol is required for concentration only in the initial stages and not later on when the mind reaches higher consciousness then I would like to say the Muslims have already reached the state of higher consciousness because when we worship Allah (swt) we do not require any idol or statue.

So , You are no different from the Christian Pagans who make images of Santa claus and refuse to listen to what he told them in the Bible which was

Exodus 20:4
You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

 

[powerofdharma]

answer this please I want to know

Well in a hindu temple there are idols of gods decorated with clothes, garments and flowers... Every devotee is free to choose his way of worship... there are some who meditate.. there are some who fold their hands in front of the idols.. there are some who bow down before the Gods... some people bathe the shiv linga with milk.. Most of the people get indian sweets which after being offered to the god is distributed to the poor and the rest of the visitors..
so its totally up to u how u wanna worship.

 

[powerofdharma]

What you fail to realize so far is that you are giving an image to God and going against the Yajurveda, Chapter No. 32, Verse No. 3 which says,

“Of that God there is no image”

Some of The Hindu Scholars agree that the Vedas prohibit idol worship, but initially because the mind may not be matured,they say an idol is required for concentration while worshipping. After the mind reaches higher consciousness, the idol is not required for concentration.

We Muslims have reached the higher level of consciousness. If an idol is required for concentration only in the initial stages and not later on when the mind reaches higher consciousness then I would like to say the Muslims have already reached the state of higher consciousness because when we worship Allah (swt) we do not require any idol or statue.

So , You are no different from the Christian Pagans who make images of Santa claus and refuse to listen to what he told them in the Bible which was

Exodus 20:4
You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

u fool.. if u have no knowledge of Hinduism, then u must not speak..
In Hinduism, we believe that every thing has duality.. The Vedas say that one aspect is that God has no image.. and the second aspect is that God has the image perceived by the devotee..

But, nothing is prohibited in Hinduism--in the sense, that ultimately even the worst of sinners will reach the Divine. Hinduism only gives a bunch of guidelines for seekers wanting to reach the Divine soon.
So, the real question is, is idol worshiping a hindrance on the path to the Divine, or is it a boon? The answer is, it depends. Let me elaborate:

1. An idol is a pointer to the Truth. For example, a mother tries to show the moon to her child that she is holding in her arms. She does this by pointing her index finger at the moon and telling the child, "see the moon." Initially the child thinks that the mom's finger IS the moon. As the finger gradually points towards the moon, the child's eyes also move towards the moon, and eventually, the child spots the real moon--at which point the finger is not needed anymore. The finger served as the idol. It was necessary in the beginning, because it helped to point to the Truth. When Truth is discovered, the idol is not needed anymore. That's exactly how Hinduism views idol worship. Seekers who cannot grasp the Oneness and universality of God can worship idols, as idols point to the One Truth. The question is how do idols point to the truth? That takes me to my second point:

2. Each idol symbolizes different aspects of Divine qualities--love, truth, kindness, peace, non-violence, righteousness. As the seeker worships the idol on a regular basis, the intent is that eventually the seeker will imbibe these qualities, practice them in daily life, and realize the divinity within.

 

[Predator]

u fool.. if u have no knowledge of Hinduism, then u must not speak

You retard If you dont know your vedas your most authentic scripture then you should keep your mouth shut

..

1. An idol is a pointer to the Truth. For example, a mother tries to show the moon to her child that she is holding in her arms. She does this by pointing her index finger at the moon and telling the child, "see the moon." Initially the child thinks that the mom's finger IS the moon. As the finger gradually points towards the moon, the child's eyes also move towards the moon, and eventually, the child spots the real moon--at which point the finger is not needed anymore. The finger served as the idol. It was necessary in the beginning, because it helped to point to the Truth. When Truth is discovered, the idol is not needed anymore. That's exactly how Hinduism views idol worship. Seekers who cannot grasp the Oneness and universality of God can worship idols, as idols point to the One Truth. The question is how do idols point to the truth? That takes me to my second point:

This is similar to the example where our child asks us, "Why does the sky thunder?", we reply that the grandmother is grinding flour in the heaven; because he is too young to understand.and Similarly in the initial stages people require an idol for concentration

We don’t believe in telling a lie, even if it’s a white lie. I will never give such a wrong answer to my child because later on when he goes to school and learns that the thundering sound after lightning is due to the expansion of rapidly heated air, he will either think that the teacher is lying or later on when he understands the fact he will conclude that the father is a liar. If you feel that the child may not understand certain difficult things you should simplify the answer rather than give a wrong fictitious reply. If you, yourself do not know the answer, you should have the guts to be truthful and say ‘I don’t know’. But many children nowadays will not be satisfied with this answer. If this answer was given to my son, he would say "Father ,why don’t you know?’ This will compel you to do your homework and thus educate yourself as well as your child.

A very important fact to be noted is that only if the fundamentals of any particular subject is strong, then only will he be able to excel in future for e.g. A teacher of mathematics in standard one teaches the students that 2 + 2 = 4 irrespective whether the student passes school or does graduation or does a Ph. D. in mathematics, the basics of 2 + 2 = 4 will yet remain the same, it will not change to 5 or 6.

In higher standards the student, besides addition may learn about Algebra, Trigonometry, Logarithm, etc. but the fundamental of addition will yet remain the same. If the teacher in standard one itself teaches the fundamentals wrong, how can you expect the student to excel in future?

It is the fundamental principal of the Vedas regarding the concept of God that He has got no image, so how can you even after knowing this fact keep silent at the wrong practice being done by people.

Will you tell your son who is in standard one that 2 plus 2 is not equal to 4 but 5 or 6 and only confirm the truth after he passes school? :hiding:

Never. In fact if he makes a mistake you will correct him and say it is 4 and not wait till he graduates; and if you don’t correct him initially you will ruin his future.