The Vedic Culture - 'Hinduism'

Thanks for your comments. I certainly appreciate a Qatari having such a positive view about Hinduism. I am a Hindu myself but have never gone in to depth of the religion and like to share your thoughts. I think we all have a role to play in eliminating religious fanaticism from society. Could you tell me why Islam is so rigid on non-believers and why are Islamic countries so averse to allowing Hinduism to be practiced ? In Qatar, for example, Hindus are not allowed to practise their religion in public.

...let me take the liberty to respond to your question in your post above. Vedic Religion does not distinguish between religions. Infact in the entire gamut of religious texts related to hinduism;there is no mention whatsoever about any other religion. The reson for this is primarily hinduism believes in the rpinciple of unified humanity and all us humans are looked at as children of the same god. hinduism is more of a way of life for the whole of mankind rather than being for a particular set of people. Hinduism is different from other religions also because it does not have the concept of 'believer' or 'non-believer'. Everyone who has faith in some or other form of God is a believer. It does not impose any penalties or 'no-access' to non-believers. The whole conceept is based on love for your god and his love for you. Hence it propagates non-voilence more than any one else. What we see in India today is impure form of the true Vedic Religion. Impurities have creeped over centuries mostly due to foreign rules by rulers of different religions and ethnicity.

Life is Beautiful...Indeed!

underdog, will you please clarify your understanding of what Swami Vivekananda meant by "a hindu soul in an islamic body" ? this is really interesting, if there could be something like a synergy of two great religions ; hinduism & islam to make a better world, I would like to imagine it happening, although it may not be actually possible with religious fanatics and corrupt politicians ruling our society

I think Vedic Religion and Hindu Culture is more appropriate. Hindus by definition are people residing in the lands between Himalayas and the southern seas,ie,Arabian Sea,Bay of Bengal and Indidan Ocean. Correct me if I'am wrong but the word Hindu itself is formed of 'Hi' from 'Himalayas' and 'Indu' from 'Indu Sarovar' which means the Ocean where Indus river terminates. This would imply that irrespective of religion,anybody staying in those lands is 'Hindu'. So saying Indian Muslims,Indian Christians etc is not correct.

Running is the best thing God ever created!

- Rabbit

well..

Above all a pain in the (somewhere)

YOU DONT KNOW ME, DONT EVEN TRY !!!

he is a useless character and a piece of waste on earth

[img_assist|nid=60386|title=.|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=|height=0]

i dont realy agree with your distinction of relegion and culture. either a relegion creates a way of life that leads to a culture or a culture leads to a way of life that becomes a relegion. as a muslim i welcome such posts about other relegions in a qatar web, there are lot of misunderstangs about hinduism in midleast and west.

just rember what swami vivekanda said, a hindu soul in an islamic body is what we need .

salax85, any way your previous reply regarding my message is useless. In fact I can't under stand. Does any one translate his message to English? Or else you once again try to prove that you have no sense at all.In that case, thanks for proving me right.

HE DOESNT CARE ABOUT U & NEITHER WILL I WASTE MY TIME DISCUSSING U WHEN I MEET HIM/HER

[img_assist|nid=60386|title=.|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=|height=0]

u said... skdkak... u need dat c..oc,k of ur lord up ur a...  o wait u need to give em a blow... j o .. b .. coz u know wot u simply cant speak of someone u don know... lol u pathetic

In this case u are saying i will b .. my god. Trust me, if i even get a chance to that to my god, i will do so. because my god would in this case give me the pleasure of being with him.

Guess what happens to u - he doesn't even know ur existance. leave about he thinking about u.

I THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME THE POSITION OF GIVING PLEASURE TO MY GOD

[img_assist|nid=60386|title=.|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=|height=0]

lol .........

ok but do answer the other questions.

[img_assist|nid=60386|title=.|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=|height=0]

just out of curiousity, if hindus believe in one god then why do they worship different gods?

regarding shias and sunnis we believe in Allah and are muslims but have different interpretations of Quran and Sunnah. it is unfortunate that sometimes these differences get blown out of proportion and cause bloodshed but it doesnt mean that our religion is at fault. i agree with a quote"Islam is the best religion with the worst followers" i wish we muslims can rise above our differences and give our religion a good name.

contrary to what the author said Islam is not just a religion but a way of life.

Mary is called a virgin because she bore a child without ever having been with a man, hence Isa's( jesus) birth was a miracle.

u believe that hinduism is a religion of peace but u still have fanatic political groups (shiv sena etc)who spread hatred and encourage tearing down mosques(babri masjid) and churches in the name of hiduism.

u mentioned a difference between God and lord in hinduism , pls clarify! explain reincarnation and multiple lives.

hi ppl

please ignore this worm Salax

There are some people who cannot fit into any categories of this planet. 

YOU DONT KNOW ME, DONT EVEN TRY !!!

Lord

keep your posts coming on the subject

very informative

YOU DONT KNOW ME, DONT EVEN TRY !!!

salax85. u suck man. u a a filthy, chepo, despo character.

all the shyat put together on this planet is less than what shayt u have inside of u.

[img_assist|nid=60386|title=.|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=|height=0]

god is not born nor he will die.........my religion

but why shiva was searching for Amrit (The nectar of immortality)

And his  his wife parvati, alarmed, stopped it in his throat with her hands..

wht will happen if it was swallowed?

wit respect..

shaheen dear. As a wife she was concerned about her husband. Nothing else to it. If at all Shiva would drink all of it and even 10 times more - nothing would happen to him.

SO, chill buddy. dont dilute the thread by diverting it to something else.

[img_assist|nid=60386|title=.|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=|height=0]

Guys. I pity all of u poor and uninformed people. The problem of arguments starts when u have half baked knowledge.

Shiva is no god of drugs. During the search for Amrit (The nectar of immortality) by churning of the ocean, a deadly poison known as Halahala emerged. This poison threatened to suffocate all living things. In response to various prayers, Shiva drank the poison; his wife Parvati, alarmed, stopped it in his throat with her hands. This caused the throat to turn blue. Due to this, he is called Nīlakantha (nīla = "blue", kantha = "throat"). Then, various treasures (ratnas) emerged from the ocean of milk.

Cutting the long story short, Shiva saved this world by drinking all the poison and hence was associated with drugs. Please enlighten urself and then comment about things.

REQUEST TO ALL: If u do not have complete knowledge, dont misguide others. QL has a lot of people with different religious followings and customs. Give all of them correct knowlwdge or else SHUTUP 

[img_assist|nid=60386|title=.|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=|height=0]

shiva is not god of drugs.

he can be very easily pleased.also u can offer him some joint. thats why people like drug addict are aproaching to him. u don't have to do lot of sacrifices to please him.

he is the one whom follow all "strange creatures "of this world.

also , shiva is worshiped by women so they could get good husband.

Compmad.. u are trying to comment about a non-issue. Dont generalise a whole community.

Dont u know Salax85 gets his knowledge either from wiki and/or (MOSTLY) from his friends. And the best part is, he thinks his friends are the last word on this earth regarding any topic discussed and whether those friends are in any state of mind and some might be educated not more than fifth standard.

 [img_assist|nid=60386|title=.|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=|height=0]

salax85, but a bangladeshi talking non sense is not surprise. Which Bangladeshi has any brain?

Lordreturns will never clarify anything, nor that rabbit he jus copy pasted without

doin any reasearch

hello

in the begging u said that hinduism is not religion, but  vedic philosophy. philosophy and religion are always inter related. just when u start to ask yourself where r u coming from, u r becoming some kind of philosopher. as second question is usually showing up thought' is there a god". and hinduism, or vedic philosophy is actually prepareing u "to go back home", to heavenly planet.

as u know, in bhagavat gita is an verse where lord krishna says"just surrend to me, become my devotee "(i appologize for most probably wrong translation, and also i forgot lot of versies from bhagavat gita).so , also if shape of lord krishna is worshiped(there are different shapes of krishna)how then you can say it is philosophy and not religion?philosophy doesn't invite you to surrend to god, promising you supreme protection.

all vedas, upanishada, mahabarata, srimad bhagavatam is giving knowledge about god, our relation with him and instruction how to purify ourselves and how to become self realized.there are straight instructions.even how to sleep, what to eat, how to pray, how to worship god, u get full image of lord krishna.

it was actually always strange to me that preachers of veda always put stress on veda as philosophy.if i am wrong, please reply

Thought you will explain to me Vamana Puranas

Rabbit too disappeared with just copy paste didnt reply to me, roots of arabic in Sanskrit

When ........... Lord Shiva was wandering in the

Daruvanam forest, the wives of sages lost self control for Lord Shiva was the

most beautiful and attractive man and they at once were seduced by the................

Dear QL's,

It was really cool to see a set of comments of all kinds are coming up and i can answer each one of u one by one...

Well first about SHIVALING,

Some translate "Linga" as penis which is Wrong and this myth is spread wide on the net.

But i would like this opportunity to explain and i am proud to present it to the QL's

The Linga has different meanings - shapeless, without organs.

Penis is called linga by some people due to its shape...the actual word for penis is "Shishna" in sanskrit

Shiva Linga here means, Shiva without form... it is like when we die our soul is called "Linga Sharira"

Shiva being worshipped as Linga means the Consciousness in its primodal form...where Consciousness is entering into the Eternal Energy (Shakti).

Thus shivalinga is the state of god, just before the manifestation of Universe, a little before bag bang.

Shiva is worshipped as Linga...because that is the highest of all manifested gods, formless, attribute less.... simple Consciousness and Energy (shiva and shakti)

Now let me explain more Ql's,

Everybody who worships Siva, the great god of Hindus, or those who have seen Siva-worship, known what Siva-lingam is Shiva lingam, also called as Pindi, is composed of two parts.

A central oval mass standing like a pillar is ‘Bana’ and around this Bana, there is an oval or oblong ‘Salunka’ or ‘Vedi’. By looking at this Lingam no sensible person can imagine a sexual union.

But unfortunately the Western scholars wrongly associated this lingam with the phallus, a male sexual organ, and saw obscenity in this worship. They say that Bana is the penis and Salunka is the vagina a female sex organ; and thus copulation is represented in the Siva-lingam. By any stretch of imagination, I cannot see the two organs in the lingam.

The Bana appears to have come out / upwards through the Salunka; it is not penetrating down into salunka to think of sexual symbolism.

Some Scholars say that the conception of phallism occurred to the primitive people and they started this Siva-worship. It is an established fact that the Philosophy of Upanisadas have made the thinkers of the modern world almost blind by its dazzling light of knowledge.

The people who attained such a high quality of wisdom and philosophy cannot be condemned as primitive. Those philosophers were worshipping Siva lingam. Can that be sexual symbolism? Can a man who has got his own sex organ, ever go to a temple to see the same thing there?

QL's its Impossible.

Those who say of Siva lingam as sexual symbol are themselves primitive, because they cannot see anything else but sexuality.

Ql's, i do go to church to worship LORD JESUS, The comparison i am going to make is just to be taken as an explaination and not to hurt any one feeling or the religion. please!!.

I hope no one will make the below text an argument.. We are just sharing information and knowledge.... please 

If we stretch our imagination to that extent, we can also say that Cross of Christians is also a symbol of sexual union. The horizontal small bar representing vagina of the female and the vertical bar piercing through that the penis.

If Siva lingam is a symbol of sexual union, the cross is also equally the same symbol; the only difference between the two is of art. Siva-lingam is quite artistic while there is no art in the cross. Being primitive they are represented only by lines.

Why do this sense of phallism arise? It is because those people took wrong meaning of the word ‘Lingam’. Lingam is, now, taken as a word suggesting sex, but its original meaning is ‘sign’ or ‘symbol’.

For example, Sir Winston Churchill was recognized by his cheroot while Sir N. Chamberlain by his umbrella. Cheroot & Umbrella were the signs or symbols of Churchill and Chamberlain respectively.

In Sanskrit we would say Cheroot is the lingam of Churchill while umbrella is the lingam of Chamberlain. Similarly lingam of Gandhiji is Charkha. Formerly it was said the lingam of Indra was Vajra, lingam of Brahmadeva was lotus.

Thus ‘linga means a sign or symbol by which a particular person is recognized. This is the basic meaning the word lingam and this basic sense Kathopanisd 2/3/8 says that " The Purusa which is superior to unmanifested Brahma has no "lingam". Later on, with the same basic meaning the word lingam was applied to the organ by which male and female are distinguished; and that meaning later became more popular.

Well by know a clean picture can be drawn about SHIVALING.

Sorry for the long text...because not every thing can be expressed in two lines like the INDIAN -THIRUKURAL.

I will come up with more answers to Amigo, Mir, PM and the rest after this week end...

Have a nice week end pals....Good Night.

Cheers

_+LORD+_

====================================================

"India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition." I am a PROUD INDIAN.

The main reason for success of democracy in India is because of its inherently tolerant nature of Hinduism and its followers. The democracy practiced in India is not perfect but with the country's huge size, hundreds of languages and population (similar to Europe) the credit is for Hinduism.

I can see we now have the cute emoticons  Ops! sorry for the hijack!

It's great 2 b loved!

I dont think so, I must agree w/ PM here. I do respect other religion or if you may call it your culture, then your culture. But to tell me as a muslim, that i can practice the culture of hinduism? its just no sense for me.  It would be difficult for me to believe that one of the cockroach in my house is my ancestor? or let say a reincarnation of my great grand father? I'm sorry but just my opinion though.

Arabic has a lot of words which have roots in Sanskrit

woulld you pls name those words? 

Ieo Vedic is the text describing the "medical treatment"

The art of being wise is to know what to overlook.

PM: u had it now. y did u have to complicate things by saying a muslim has done a book on sex and its act. i can see what will happen to this thread.

I am out of here for a weekend. Keep cool and have a happy weekend man.

[img_assist|nid=60386|title=.|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=|height=0]

i am chill man. u think the author of this thread is a learned man. wotever, dont wanna spoil my weekend.

U enjoy and have a good weekend.

[img_assist|nid=60386|title=.|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=|height=0]

The author of the forum wrote this

Hinduism - is NOT a religion. It is a culture defined in the vedas. A way of living from the ancient India.

I was only inquisitive..........no offence ment. Dont have to be all worked up.Chill

The art of being wise is to know what to overlook.

Amigo66 : dont do it again. Salax did it once.

Indian culture is more than 5000 years old and a lot of research and culture development must and have taken place during this time.

One of the research is Kamasutra .... and we Indians are proud of any research done in our mother land ever. But dont u dare even try to say books like Kamasutra and a million other things like that are religious books.

do write sensibly and to the point about the topic raised. This is a religious topic and not a cultural thread. Clarify ur english and then write. dont get confused between religion and culture.

Its like after 5000 years fm now. people will laugh at the world civilisation when they discover in all parts of the world there was prostitution / adultry / internet sex / actual sex being sold and written about. Will u then include sexual literature written now call it a religous book then (after 5000 yrs fm now) ????????

The source is the same and the most pure.....

    Provided people know how to practice the same....

Despite such great praise for a unique religion, yet there are dalits and quotas in the education system of the Indian society...There are many taboos......

   Yes its the source of all religions may be but the practice has varied to such an extent that people lose sight of the reality and give vent to differences.......

a part of hinduism??...............interesting thing to follow though. Have two very informative & illustrative readings on the subject.

The art of being wise is to know what to overlook.

PM: these kind of topics is generally what i avoid. I am not a learned person on even my own religion leave aside other religions.

I so have read Gita / Koran & Bible and zoorashtrian religious books but that does not make me a master.

Its like half baked knowledge. By reading one does not become a master to comment. And it is this half baked knowledge I dont like others to write and preach.

Salax: u again raised a point, "why worship the penis... "

U reply to some of my questions and i will see that I have the logical answer to ur question.

1. why does Islam not allow worshiping idols when all other religions do

2. why is Mother Marry a virgin even after child birth

3. Buddhism believes (If i am right) in life even in a stone. then y did Mahatma Budh eat non veg.

4. When Islam is one and there is one God. One Allah, Y is there so much hatred between sunnis and Shias.

The list is endless. Just reply to atleast the above 3 points only.

And not by casually asking ur freinds. Give us a reasonable answer.

PM: I never said black stone (shiv ling) is not a symbol of penis of shiva. It is true. But it is the story

""the story is that there was a community , the males of which had gone for salvation to the forest, some sacrifice for  a greater community benefit and while they were out, Shiva lived in their village and was helping out the females and kids. but due to longing affection of the wives of those men.. they kind of got attracted or something to shiva and somehow the men got some info on it and cursed together for Shivas unwell and as a result his tweety was made into stone.""

which is not true. Shiva is only married to only one Parvati. And never ever Shiva lived in a village. His abode is the peak of shivallik. Or a snow covered peak of a mountain. He has children but never lived in a village.

now u are talking abt what u know is all through ur friends. And u also say they talk ill abt their religion. Means they do not know it. Its their choice. But as a normal human, u can judge what is right and wrong. For proof. U need to read and understand fm a knowledgable person and not fm some drunkard friends of urs. Ur friends are not the treasure of knowledge abt the topic

salax85: that was so childish of u.

There are always wrong things and myths abt all the religions. I do not want to get into details but i have heard a lot of things abt Islam / christanity and other religions too including my own Hinduism.

But being a matured person.. all this cannot be written here or anywhere. U are talking like a kido and a cheepo. (SOrry to use that word). But thatz the way u have depicted urself.

If one of the tenets of Hinduism is: ‘Ekam Sat, Vipra Bahuda Vadanthi ‘,

then how can atheists be hindus?

No offense is meant to anyone, just trying to understand. 

Stay safe all.

Perfection does not exist. The question therefore, is: what level of imperfection are we willing to settle for?

Lets see how it takes....

[img_assist|nid=67354|title=.|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=|height=0]

...if he himself desires. A lot of christians and muslims have become hindu in belgrade and other parts of europe and even in Monaco,though Hinduism as a religion does not practice 'conversion' as does Islam and my religion(christanity).

I have been reading quite a bit about this since lordreturns started this thread and you too would be surprised to find some amazing facts about this wonderful religion which we westerns conviniently ignore most of the times . Worshiping multiple deities is an ancient concept which was followed by the Sumerian,the greeks,spartans, egyptians and the Indus valley civilization of harrappa and mohenjadaro. It's not correct to say that it's 'The antithesis' of Islam.It would be appropriate to say that Monotheism is 'The antithesis' of all the ancient religions as Islam and christanity are relatively new religions as compared to all the polytheistic religions including hinduism. And you would be surprised to find that hinduism is the religion from which other major religions have emerged,namely,buddhism ( awesome),jainism,sikhism. Many scholars in the west believe and it has been proved that sanskrit which is the language of the hindus and has been used in vedas is one of the most ancient and scientific languages of the world and is the mother of a lot of other languages. Arabic has a lot of words which have roots in Sanskrit. Vedas are the best written books with very scientific facts on many aspects such as medicine,science and technology. I even found that the vedas have the exact description of the flying machines and the concept of jet propulsion.

If you go out with an open mind and try and find out the facts you will see light. I'am impressed. This religion definately deserves more attention.

Running is the best thing God ever created! - Rabbit

I dont know what colonialism you are talking about.

This caste system developed once the Aryans came to India.

Beofre that there was no caste system as such.

In fact the colonailists made it more rigid thats what I think happened.

It is still there and very prevalent especially in NOrth India compared to south India.

This was because of the Dravidians who refused to accept it as per se.

SOme of the great reformers can be found among the Dravidian though they are mentioned in passing when you read Indian HIstory.

This reply is for Apple,

Use google to search for Nicholas Dirks book, “Castes of Mind…” and commonly known in those who study British colonial history.

What we know as the Caste system is not from ancient South Asia but rather a product of the colonial system…

I

t’s funny how people look at some cultures as being stagnant or backwards, yet anyone who studies cultures knows they are always dynamic.

Colonialism and war are two catalysts that have been known to cause immense cultural change for both parties involved and the caste system is one of the results

Well Angel, to take an example, as soon u think of caste system in India, U think first of a Brahmin,

The Defenison of Brahmin is,

It can be done for anyone who wants to pursue knowledge, and the one who pursues knowledge becomes a brahmin.

The main answer to you angel is

these categorization was required to create expertise in subjects and fields which spans over generations so that the knowledge accumulates.

Example, 

In companies like GE for instance when a person is about to retire in a year or so, he/she wont be given any more new work, but instead he will start documenting all his expertise learnt till date and start sharing his expertise with his junior colleagues, so that the knowledge is put to sufficient use even after the empoyee retires!!

So it was a similar concept in the vedas, that when generations together do the same work then the expertise will be passed on from parents to children and will add on and accumulate over time. But there was no compulsion that a brahmin’s son cant become a kshatriya or that a Sudra’s son cant become a Brahmin.

Saying Hinduism (vedas) preached caste system is like saying, in the modern world we dont allow a watchman’ s son to become an engineer

Hope you got the point in now angel.

Put on more questions to share and learn.

Cheers

_+LORD+_

===================================================== 

"India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition" - I am a PROUD INDIAN

Good to know that this forum is getting hot with topics to discuss and share. Wel Done QL's

I can now see this thread is  been fed up with question on caste system in Hinduism, so thought will write a post on it to clarify things once and for all.

Caste system as it exists in modern hindu society is definitely bad. It is wrong to label a person as inferior or superior based on his birth. No caste is superior or inferior.

Having said that, let me clarify that this has got NOTHING to do with the teachings of ancient vedas. Vedas have definitely said that ‘Brahmin’ refers to a intellectually superior person, but have never said that a person is ‘brahmin (superior) by birth’

================================================= 

Caste system was created to refer / or gendralise their work nature or community they belong. This was done by the modern society to deferentiate within them self.

=================================================

It has been clearly said that ‘Janma Jaat Shudra Sarve, Karmenu Brahman Bhavati.’ - In other words, ‘every person is Shudra (inferior) by Janma (birth) and becomes superior (Brahman) ONLY by his Karma (deeds)’

A brahman or brahmin is a person who understands brahma or brahmand (i.e creation and universe). In other words a person is a brahmin ONLY if he is knowledgeable. Common sense tells us that knowledge is not gained by birth but by our deeds over a period of time.

Note that Valmiki who wrote Ramayana was not a brahmin by birth. Vyasa who wrote Mahabharata was not a brahmin by birth. The great sage Vishwamitra was not a brahmin by birth and yet he became a maharshi. Krishna himself was not a brahmin by birth either! The evil character Ravana in Ramayana WAS A BRAHMIN BY BIRTH i.e he was born to a knowledgeable brahmin father, yet he is said to have been evil and bad.

If ancient vedic hinduism had been discriminating people based on their birth, then would this have been allowed?

Note that a brahmin is also called a Dvija in the vedas. Dvija means twice born. The first birth is his natural birth and the second birth is the new birth he gains through the knowledge he attains. To become a brahmin one has to become a Dvija. To become a dvija one has to gain knowledge. If vedas had said that a person is brahmin by his birth, then they would have never called him a dvija. Note that even if a person is born to a brahmin, if he doesnt get the second birth by gaining knowledge, then he is NOT a brahmin.

 ===================================

QL's - these are vedic quotes

Bhagavata clearly says in 7.11.35 that

yasya yal lakṣaṇaḿ proktaḿ

uḿso varṇābhivyañjakam

ad anyatrāpi dṛśyeta

at tenaiva vinirdiśet

 ====================================

which means “Just because one is born to a brahmin doesnt automatically make him a brahmin. But he has more chances of becoming a brahmin (since his parents can transfer the knowledge and duties to him). But he MUST get all those qualifications of brahmin to become a brahmin. On the other hand if a person born to a non-brahmin possesses all the qualities of a brahmin, he/she should be immediately accepted as a brahmin.”

Varna (called caste today even though they are totally different) system was used where son of a doctor was preferred to be a doctor, son of a warrior was preferred to be a warrior, etc so that expertise gets collected over a period of generations. Knowledge gained in a particular field was passed on from generations to generations, and this kept adding up in every successive generation. But there were no restrictions for children to chose alternate professions.

Remember that vedas have said ‘Vasudaiva Kutumbakam’ which means ‘whole earth is a family’ and ‘Sarve jana sukhino bhavantu’ which means ‘May all humans live happily’

Existing caste system in India is a misinterpretation of ancient vedic system where powerful lobbies have mislead the society over a period of time for their own selfish gains. And now so called backward people want to remain backward permanently in the name of reservations.

theresoon was 100% right,

Unfortunately, India is the only country in the world today where people prefer to be called as those belonging to backward castes due to the benefits and reservations available to them, and are afraid to be called brahmins due to the fear of lack of opportunities. Reservations are creating a second class knowledge society in India.

Now the thread is hottening up with question what our inner mind needs to know...lets travell to gether to make a world with difference.

My reply to the forth comming post only will be tommarrow, as off now i am piled with more papers for the day.

C u tommarrow! 

Cheers

_+LORD+_

===================================================== 

"India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition" - I am a PROUD INDIAN

It was in Sri lanka as well but now practicing very remotely.

caste system is only true in India?

Thanks:)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_caste_system

Caste system has been created by men for convenience, and this has been abused by men to meet their own selfish ends! It is prevalent where there is illiteracy.

kindly enlightened us with the four major caste in Hinduism. each members are required by strict religious laws to follows certain heridetary occupations and to refrain from intermarriage or eating with members of the other caste. 

Why is there NO equality of human being in Hinduism?

Thanks for your parents in respect for their respect in Hinduism. If you really belive and try to compare things with a search and need, u can be able to get the 6th sence of your brain open...

Try to know other religion, compare them, take the odds out that do not fit your way of living , then your life too will become a religion....

Well Rabbit, Try Google Videos for VEDIC MATH's, u can speed up your match with the solutions found on our present calculating system and how the world had forgoten the VEDIC MATH's

To give a jump out of your seat...

You know, INTEL chip uses VEDIC MATH's as its ALGORITHM...

Get your comments and Questions rolling and invite your friends to join us to share more knowledge...

Cheers

_+LORD+_

======================================================= 

"India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition'' -  I am a PROUD INDIAN

your post above is excellent content wise. Its very informative...My parents have a lot of respect for hinduism and they say the same things about tolerance,peaceful coexistence...etc....Amazing!

Running is the best thing God ever created! - Rabbit

Thanks for the wonderful url Geechee_bu, We are a proud Indian!

=================================

I Love these text on swami's speech

The Hindus have received their religion through revelation, the Vedas. They hold that the Vedas are without beginning and without end. It may sound ludicrous to this audience, how a book can be without beginning or end. But by the Vedas no books are meant. They mean the accumulated treasury of spiritual laws discovered by different persons in different times. Just as the law of gravitation existed before its discovery, and would exist if all humanity forgot it, so is it with the laws that govern the spiritual relations between soul and soul and between individual spirits and the Father of all spirits were there before their discovery, and would remain even if we forgot them.

- Swamy Vivekanandar

=====================================================

Excellent approach and a short answer to many other who have questions on Hinduism means - way of living.

I would like to have more discussions , so keep on ur knowledge shares by asking questions and giving answers..

Let us roll this thread empowered by knowledge and peace....

Cheers!

_+LORD+_ 

 ==================================================

"India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition'' - I am a PROUD INDIAN

"India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition" - I am a PROUD INDIAN

Rabbit,

I would like to correct you, Krishna has to be termed LORD not GOD

So while refering him it shoud be LORD Krishna...

I would like to highlight QL readers of this forum, the represtation of God in Hinduism.

The First and foremost, let me clarify that unlike most people think, Hinduism is not a religion in strict sense. It is more of a culture than a religion.

So what is the difference between a culture and a religion?

Before reading below, ask this question to yourself, write it down and then company to myversion ...

Sure a question on above would have raised in your mind now Rabbit!

Religion centers around the God. Where as a culture centers around the way of living. Which is why you find in India for instance Chrisitian or Muslims following the Hindu culture! Even in Bangladesh you can find hindu cultures in muslim life! Chrisitians of Velankani in Tamilnadu follow the hindu culture.

Velankanni - is a Christian pilgrimage center, here Mother Mary is worshipped by Puja like how hindus do, Chariots are pulled like in hindu temples, there is the concept of prasadam (divine food) in the church like how Hindus give prasadam in the hindu temples.. etc

I have taken Velankanni is because i have been there once..and i had no oppurtunity in Qatar.. It does not mean i dont want, had no time...sorry! 

All other major religions of the world have a propounder, a person who founded the religion.

Hinduism has none!

Which is why it is called Sanaathana Dharma - meaning eternal religion!

No debate is blasphemous in Hinduism! Customs can be questioned any time! It does not dictate terms to people saying what woman or men should wear as dress etc. It is always open to debates.

There has never been a ‘holy war’ in Hinduism in the name of God! , (No hates guys my muslim friends - this is just a sharing of knowledge)

The very existence of God can be debated in Hinduism. Many ancient Indian Hindu texts contain such debates!

Coming back to the concept of God in Hinduism, as QL readers may find odd with my long text.. this is just to make the reader understandable.

Unlike other religions like Christianity or Islam, it does not talk about a God who stays outside the universe and creates/destroys this universe.

Instead here Universe itself is the God! Universe is a self aware Paramaatma (the universal soul) and everything else in the universe is a part of this God! We are all Aatma (souls) whose goal is to realize and unite with this Paramaatma (Universal Soul).

Even quantum mechanical physicists like Bohr,Heisenberg, Shcrodinger etc got interested in Vedic texts and Hinduism when they saw that quantum level consciousness of particles was already explained in Hinduism!!

=========================================== =========

QL Readers: a must to read, I will try to get the urls for these... 

For more details read the books like The Dancing Wu Li Masters, The Tao of Physics etc

===================================================== 

The Vedas compare creation to a spider’s web, that the spider creates and then lies within. God is both the container of the universe and what is contained in it.

Which is why the sacred vedic texts of Hinduism say ‘Aham Brahmasmi’ which means I am God. This is because I, you and all are a part of this Universal God! Which is also the reason why you find 33 crore Gods in hinduism!!

Since Universe itself is the God, everything else and everybody else in the Universe is also a form of God! Which is why Hindus worship water, rain, thunder, earth, moon, sun, stars, sky, humans, trees, plants, animals, air, father, mother, elders, light, wealth, knowledge, anything and everything that you find in this universe as God!

=================================================

QL Readers: Have you noticed this?

================================================= 

Which is also the reason why a Hindu if by accident happens to touch an animal or a person or a book etc by feet accidentally, then immediately he/she will do a symbolic gesture by hand asking to be forgiven for having shown disrespect to the God in that animal/person/book or whatever by accident…

 =================================================

The hindu prayer that has to be recited every day early morning as soon as one gets up ends saying “…paadasparsham kshamasva me” which means “Oh Mother Earth, Please forgive me for I will be touching you with my feet for the rest of the day!”. Such a nice concept. Can a culture get any more beautiful than this?

Now comes an even more beautiful part of the Hindu Concept of God. The sacred Vedic texts say “Ekam Satya Vipro Bahuda Vadanthi” which means “God is one. Learned scholars call him/her with different names”. This simple yet so wonderful concept makes it unique among all religions! You cannot be a Christian and say I will worship Vishnu or Allah! Christianity doesn’t allow that. You cannot be a Muslim and say I will worship Shiva or Jesus!! Islam doesn’t allow that.

But you can be a Hindu and still say that I will worship Jesus or Allah! Hinduism has no objection. In fact it says you can worship God in any name! Which is why you can find Hindus in India going to Churches, Jain temples, Buddhist temples, Sikh Gurudwaras etc. If all religions were as open minded as Hinduism there would have been no religious fanaticism or religious hatred on this planet and Earth would have been a better place to live in! There would have been no terrorism either!

Which is also the reason why unlike other religions you will find no missionaries or evangelists in Hinduism who promote Hinduism and want to convert entire world into Hinduism! Hinduism does not believe in religious conversions either by force or by bribing or by appeasement.

You can be a Hindu and still be a Christian or Mulsim at the same time! You can even be a Christian or Muslim and say that you dont believe in Hinduism, and still Hinduism looks at you as a great soul! It does not say that you will be punished or sent to hell or will become a sinner for not believing in Hindu God! You can even be an atheist! You can say that you don’t want to call the Universal soul as a God!

In fact Atheism is like a subclass of Hinduism! Charvaka who lived in 600 BCE was an atheist and pioneered a materialistic movement within Hinduism and even Madhavacharya (he was a 14th century philosopher who wrote a wonderful book Sarva darshana sangraha with a lot of material on atheism, dont confuse him with Madhvacharya of udupi) etc were Atheists and still followed the Hindu Culture!

Infact, the sacred Hindu texts, the Vedas talk more about humans and life than about God!

They say, ‘Vasudaiva Kutumbakam’ which means ‘The entire world is a single huge family’! Look at the beauty, they don’t differentiate between people of this religion or that religion, entire Earth is a single family! The vedas also say ‘Sarve Jana Sukhino Bhavantu’ which means ‘May all the people live happily’. Again here all humans are considered equal, there is no differentiation between Hindus and others!!

God if exists, is after all one and the same. You call a Rose by any name, and still it continues to be a Rose. Why should we fight for the name? It doesn’t make any real sense, does it?

So lets take Hinduism for debate and not to hurt any others belief..

More will follow on your comments and questions.....

Thanks QL for opening a form to speak from my heart in what i belive to share with others...

Cheers

_+LORD+_

===================================================== 

"India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition'' - I am a PROUD INDIAN

It's nice to be a veggie and it is cool to have a love god Krishna to worship...I love lord Krishna and bought one picture of him in belgrade temple of ISCKON...

Running is the best thing God ever created! - Rabbit

I am happy to see a refreshing post on Hinduisum. Thanks lordreturns. In a world full of soul harvesting in the name of religion, Hinduisum stands different.

A truly peaceful way of living. This way of life never forced any thing on other's way of life. No religious war. Gave  Yoga and meditation to this world. Let us proud of being hindu.

What is 'HINDUISM'? I suggest you all to visit below page where they have posted entire speech of Swami Vivekananda at World Parliament of Religion, Chicago on 19th September 1893

http://www.theuniversalwisdom.org/hinduism/paper-on-hinduism-vivekananda/

I am sure no doubt on HINDUISM will remain in anybody's mind.

Thanks for the wonderful link ECO

I am going to have a very good reading tonight before bed.

Its very intresting when u read about various religion and the way of living they have taugh, that we have followed so long in our life.

Pen in more and questions u want to know...We can share and learn

Cheers

_+LORD+_

"India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition" - I am a PROUD INDIAN

‘Nark’ or ‘Hell’ is also described in the Vedas and the Sanskrit word used is ‘Narakasthanam’.

It is also mentioned in Rigveda:

“May the bounteous fire divine, consume them with his fiercely glowing sharp jaws like flames, who disregard the commandments and steadfast laws of most venerable and sagacious Lord.

(Rigveda 4:5:4)

http://www.islamawareness.net/Hinduism/ZakirNaik/part7.html

Hey Buddy Mdyousuf,

If you have read these lines in my post,

God is one and the same for all life on earth! There is no concept of different Hindu God, Chrisitian God, Muslim God, My God, Your God etc…

This is the actual Vedic words.

Most have not understood it well.

So to answer you, The Vedic Hinduism insists on that u can even worship the daemons mentioned in the Hindu epics and still claim that you are a Hindu! You can even be an atheist! You can even have your own definition of being a Hindu!

So Hinduism is a way of living and not a religion.

More to continue ...from your comments. Discussion on knowledge based subject leads to tuning up your living style.

Cheers

_+LORD+_

"India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition" - I am A PROUD INDIAN

IF there is a creator (GOD) then, he should be the only GOD who should have created all that is present in the creation, that we see. There is no such thing as a GOD of Muslims, GOD and GODESSES of Hindus, the TRINITY of Christians and so an. Its the the GODS, and GODESSES which does not fit into rationale scheme of things. So, there is TRUTH in the VEDAS if their Hyms have reached us without corruption over the ages. Men of thought, seakers of truth, should be able to sort out the current conflicts.

Nice to see the post.