food for thought

Swami Muktananda discourse

2010-07-15T08:29:00.001-07:00

Attended the Swami Muktananda Discourse on July 14 in Schaumburg.

He talked about the following.

God is infinite and described the problem of worshipping someone who is infinite.

He described about 5 stages of Bhakti Yoga.

1) God the King. The distance is great. Very infrequent visits and relationship from a distance. Analogies given, meeting the PM or the President.

2) God the Master: master servant relations. Looking to serve God in every possible aspect.

3) God the friend: Relationship that Krishna had with the cowherds and his friends. They are on equal footing. God comes down to our level.

4) God the son: Relationship of Yashoda with Krishna

5) God the beloved: Relationship of Krishna with the Gopis.

Nature of God in Western religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam)

2010-03-17T20:51:00.000-07:00

If you refer to websites to describe the nature of God in western religions you get the following responses

Judaism: From Judaism 101

God is just and merciful.
God is omniscient, omnipresent.

God is one etc.

Christianity: (From God on the net.com)

Supreme being

Unique

eternal

self existence, etc.

However these attributes are given by the religious ministers. If you study the scriptures you find that the nature of God described in the old testament is in direct contradiction.

Let's analyze the different stories of the Old testament and evaluate the nature of God.

1) Adam and Eve: God forbade Adam and Eve to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge. However they still did and hence He banned them from paradise.

The Judaic description of God is that He is forgiving, then why didn't he forgive Adam and Eve.
Also it seems like God is a little insecure of Adam and Eve obtaining knowledge. If God is infinite and omniscient why is He afraid. Also why did He have the tree of knowledge there in the first place and why wasn't it guarded. So too many loop holes, anyway it is just a fairy tale.

2) Cain and Abel: Cain offered grain and Abel offered a lamb as a sacrifice. God did not accept Cain's offerings and only accepted Abel's. This led Cain to be jealous and he killed Abel.

Seems like God bent on killing animals. I think this is probably due to the fact that the Babylonians and Persians would offer fruit and vegetables, in fact even Hindus would do this. Since the Jewish Rabbis didn't want the people to follow these rituals they made this story so they would continue to sacrifice animals. The poor lamb.

3) Noah: God wants to destroy all men and he creates a flood that engulfs the entire planet only Noah's family survives who save all teh animals in a boat (ark).

Again God doesn't seem very benevolent and forgiving here.

4) Nimrod and the tower of Babel: Nimrod builds the tower of Babel attempting to reach the heaven. God destroys the tower and people spread all over the place.

If God is truly infinite, omnipresent then why does He have to be afraid of a guy building a tower. Doesn't make sense.

I guess this was a response to the pyramid building activities of Egypt and the Jewish Rabbis felt it to be a waste of time, so they made this story.

5) Abraham: God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. He stops him at the last minute and he wants all males to be circumcised as a covenant with God.

Richard Dawkins refers to this incident in his book the God Delusion as God being a child molester and a torturer.

The Jewish Rabbis made this story up to make sure that the Jews would do anything that they (God) asks them to do even sacrifice their own son if God (rabbis) wanted.

6) Joshua: God asked Joshua to kill all the Canaanites including male, female and children.

This is clearly a genocide. Richard Dawkins highlights this in his book.

In fact there was a study conducted for Jewish children. Half of the audience was provided a story of the Torah and asked if it was genocide, they said no as it was religious.

The other half was asked a similar story and except for Joshua a Chinese emperor had done a similar thing. They responded that it was genocide.

7) Ten commandments: God indicates that He is jealous and doesn't want people to follow other Gods.

Again here if God is truly great and infinite why is he jealous and insecure.

Thus we can see that the stories indicate a God who is insecure, jealous, genocidal, child molester and afraid of competition.

These are totally opposite of a God who is truly infinite, omnipresent and omniscient.

Negative portrayals of Hinduism among U.S. professors

2010-03-17T09:25:00.001-07:00

These are taken from Invading the Sacred website.

These comics depict the status of Hinduism in the U.S. and how the negative portrayal of Hinduism has created issues for the Indian diaspora.

How South Asian Studies turn off Indian Students
A Tale of Two Professors

Conspiracy to Undermine Indian Civilization
Scene at College Library

Indiana Jones and Hinduism Studies

Purpose of life, The conflict of Dharma and Moksha.

2010-03-16T20:50:00.000-07:00

For a Hindu there are two lower or physical goals of life and two higher goals.

The lower goals are kama (love) and artha (wealth). The higher goals are Dharma (Duty) and Moksha (Salvation).

Westerners typically indicate this being the religious pursuit. However this is not a religious goal but merely a philosophy of life just like you have the human resource theory of Maslow's hierarchical needs which start from the lowest physiological needs to the self actualization need.

1) Kama means love. The love here refers to the physical attraction and doesn't refer to the love or devotion one feels towards God.

The Kamasutra or the book of love making has achieved infamous popularity in the west. Many westerners think of this as being a religious book taught at the temple. The orientalist British would raise their eyebrows and use this as a reason to put Hinduism as a degenerate immoral society. Even Wendy Doniger in her book Hindus, an Alternative History states that this book being very popular among the Indians. She quoted that Brahmins would read the Vedas in the morning and would read the Kamasutra at night with their spouse.

Please note that neither of these are true. The Kamasutra was written not as a religious book but as a book for professionals. This book was primarily read by the concubines and the courtesans of the Kings and the rich noblemen who would practice the principles in the book.

For the ordinary folk especially Brahmins it was and still is taboo. The Brahmin community especially served as exemplars to the rest of the people. This is another example of western scholars categorizing everything written in India as being part of the Hindu religion and attempting to put Hinduism down. There are several books on science that were written outside of the religious canon, such as Ayurveda, etc.

2) Artha: Artha means wealth, but it can also refer to power, status and respect in society. There is a great book called ArthaShastra by Kautilya that documents the science of keeping power. This has been compared to the Art of War by Sun Tzu and the Prince by Machiavelli.

Although the above two are referred to as pursuits, typically they serve as distractions for people who are looking to serve the important goals namely dharma or to perform one's duty or one seeking Moksha. In fact there are many stories in the Puranas of ascetics meditating to obtain Moksha and how Indra would send the heavenly damsels to distract them. Both Artha and Kama are referred to as works of Maya, which means illusion. They are temporary and don't last. The ones who pursue them are not aware of the true nature of reality.

Only the pursuit of Dharma and Moksha are the true pursuits of life.

3) Dharma: Hinduism originally divided the people into 4 varnas or castes. Each Varna had a specific duty to the community and that was the Dharma of that particular Caste.

For the Brahmins, the learned and the priestly caste it was important to perform rituals for the well being of the entire community. Thus it was important that they study the Vedas, perform sacrifices and other rituals, teach the rest of the community, maintain the temples, etc.
They also served as examples for the entire community. They were forbidden from consuming meat and had to keep fasts and several other rituals. They also had to maintain purity both physical and ritual purity. This is because they were communicating with the Gods when performing rituals or as priests they were the ones who would touch the idols, bathe them, perform poojas etc.

For the Kshatriya or the warrior and Kings, it was important to maintain law and order and to protect the kingdom from its enemies. This was an important caste, it even states that without a King it would be the law of the fishes i.e. might is right.

The Vaishya or the business and the trading community, it was important to conduct the business, collect taxes, maintain land etc.

The Shudras or the working people were responsible for various jobs from working in the field to being barbers and shoe makers. There are a number of Jatis within this group and each Jati for one particular function e.g. there is a jati for tailors, potters etc. The advantage being that the trade secrets for the profession would only be known to the members of that community.

Westerners typically condemn the caste system as being too restrictive and oppressive. But in reality, although it is outdated in today's modern world, the caste system provided an amazing stability for the different professions. E.g. only a shoe maker's son could become a shoe maker. Thus he didn't have to worry about finding a job like we have to do in a democratic society.

For women the duty was to raise the family, take care of the house, the kitchen, the elders and so on.

Thus for each member of the community, they had a particular duty to serve and this was his/her dharma. By performing one's duty well, he/she is doing good karma and is expected to be rewarded in this or the next life.

4) Moksha: This is the highest pursuit of life and leads to liberation from samsara or the cycle of birth and death.

A distinct class of people called sadhus in India, started moving away from the cities and villages and dwelling in the forests, meditating and seeking answers to questions. The concept of moksha or liberation came from these people.

Buddha and Mahavira founded Buddhism and Jainism respectively by following the paths of these sadhus or rishis in the forests. Both these religions promoted the aspect of liberation by meditation and by giving up everything one owns. Desire became a key word. As I mentioned earlier Kama and Artha were considered as two desires that one should avoid and seek the pursuit of Moksha or Nirvana (the Buddhist and Jaina term for liberation).

As a result more and more people started leaving their houses in pursuit of Moksha. There was a need to preserve order and continuity in society.

Now I come to an important topic that is the argument of Dharma and Moksha.
There were philosophers or proponents of Dharma who came up with many arguments for the preservation of Dharma.

Here is a story that was told to highlight why one needs to follow Dharma.

The story goes that a man leaves to the forest leaving his family in the pursuit of Moksha. He comes across a place where he finds his ancestors hanging upside down and hanging just by a string with a bottomless dark pit below. His ancestors tell him that since the man left his dharma i.e. his duty towards his community and to raise a family, they cannot be reborn and hence will have to end up in a bottomless pit for eternity. The man goes back and starts a family to preserve his dharma. (It is generally believed that a person is reborn in his own family lineage sometimes also referred to as one's Gothram)

Here is a counter argument from the proponents of Moksha.

The story goes that a man performs his duty very well and is rewarded with life in heaven. He asks Indra if his good life in heaven would last forever. Indra replies that it would only last until the benefits of his Karma last. After that he would have to go back to earth and be reborn as a human being. The only thing that lasts forever is Moksha. Thus it was generally agreed that it was the highest pursuit to obtain Moksha which could be obtained only by meditating in the forest. However it was also necessary to preserve the continuity of the human race and the civilization.

Two alternative philosophies were proposed to address this

1) Varnashrama Dharma: This divides life into 4 stages. The first stage being that of a student and the objective is to obtain knowledge typically for the profession or caste that one will perform. This is the knowledge or the Vidya stage of life. The second stage is that of a householder. One has to marry, start a family, at the same time serve the community by performing the duties or the dharma for his/her caste. The third stage is that of retirement, when one's children have grown up he along with his wife would move to a smaller dwelling and live a humble life, performing prayers and offering devotion to their deities. This is the Bhakti phase of life. Finally one leaves everything and dwells in the forest for pure meditation to attain Moksha. Thus this philosophy allowed for individuals to obtain Moksha at the same time serve the community or the Dharma.

2) Then we have the Bhagavad Gita that prescribes a method to obtain Moksha while obtaining knowledge, performing one's dharma or by performing bhakti.

The philosophy is that one should obtain knowledge selflessly i.e. knowledge for the sake of obtaining knowledge.

It also calls for one to perform one's duties selflessly without attachment to the rewards (which are either in the form of Artha or Kama). It is called Karma Yoga or the path of duty. This is probably one of the most well known and most quoted philosophies of Hinduism.

Finally we have the path of Devotion or Bhakti Yoga, which is worship or any deity or idol with pure love and devotion and without attachments or seeking rewards. There is no particular deity that is specified, any form can be worshipped as long as it is done with devotion and purity. This gave rise to the concept of Ishta Devata, i.e. to worship the supreme God via a chosen image or deity. It also states that formless worship is acceptable but it is extremely hard to perform and to concentrate. This maybe seen as aimed towards the Ten Commandments of Judaism which specifically prohibits idol worship and was written around the same time maybe slightly before the Bhagavad Gita.

The path of meditation is not frowned upon, but the Bhagavad Gita states that it is a harder path and there are easier ways to obtain moksha than to surrender to the forest and perform meditation.

Also if you compare to the Varnashrama Dharma, the Gita states that one can obtain Moksha in the first 3 stages of life itself only if one performs these acts selflessly.

Hindus follow the Bhagavad Gita closely than any other book in the Hindu scriptures. Also a combination of the yogas are followed so one follows the Nyaana yoga and Bhakti yoga as a student and later on follows the Karma Yoga and Bhakti Yoga.

What do Most Hindus Believe?

2010-03-16T16:25:00.000-07:00

This is another viewpoint on Hinduism expanding on the post, Hinduism defined as a family of religions. The following list is taken from Dancing with Siva.

There are nine beliefs, or s'raddha, which though not exhaustive offer a simple summary of Hindu spirituality.

Hindus believe in the divinity of the Vedas, the world's most ancient scripture, and venerate the Agamas as equally revealed. These primordial hymns are God's word and the bedrock of Sanatana Dharma, the eternal religion which has neither beginning nor end.
Hindus believe in a one, all pervasive Supreme Being who is both immanent and transcendent, both Creator and Unmanifest Reality.
Hindus believe that the universe undergoes endless cycles of creation, preservation and dissolution.
Hindus believe in karma, the law of cause and effect by which each individual creates his own destiny by his thoughts, words and deeds.
Hindus believe that the soul reincarnates, evolving through many births until all karmas have been resolved, and moksha, spiritual knowledge and liberation from the cycle of rebirth, is attained. Not a single soul will be eternally deprived of this destiny.
Hindus believe that divine beings exist in unseen worlds and that temple worship, rituals, sacraments as well as personal devotionals create a communion with these devas and Gods.
Hindus believe that a spiritually awakened master, or satguru, is essential to known the Transcendent Absolute, as are personal discipline, good conduct, purification, pilgrimage, self inquiry and meditation.
Hindus believe that all life is sacred, to be loved and revered, therefore practice ahimsa, "non-injury."
Hindus believe that no particular religion teaches the only way to salvation above all others, but that all genuine religious paths are facets of God's Pure Love and Light, deserving tolerance and understanding.

Reference

Dancing with Siva, Hinduism's Contemporary Catechism by Sivaya Subramanyaswamy.

Hindu Phobia among American Scholars in the United States

2010-03-11T19:37:00.001-08:00

In this blog I try to explain the concept of Hindu phobia and why researchers and Americans in general are skeptical and suspicious about Hinduism.

Americans first encountered Hinduism in the 60's during the flower power generation. A lot happened in the 60's, the Vietnam war in particular created a whole class of revolutionaries looking for an alternate form of life.

Some of the Hindu gurus at this time helped create a version of Hinduism that promotes sex and drugs. The hippies (as the people from this generation were called) started using Hindu icons especially Krishna and Shiva as an explanation for their lifestyle of drugs, orgies and sex. This was in complete contradiction to the Hinduism that was being practised in India which is based on conservative family values. The family values were similar to the American family values probably more conservative. These values were being spread by the so called "Gurus" who were promoting such activities and using Tantra as the explanation. These activities of the generation at this time created an atmosphere of skepticism and suspicion about Hinduism. It seems like even today despite the end of the so called 60's flower power generation of drugs and sex, there is still doubt in the U.S. on Hinduism. Recently when Deepak Chopra gave a lecture on Hinduism and meditation, one of the ladies in the audience asked whether drugs were necessary to practise Hinduism and to meditate.

This general phobia toward Hinduism is prevalent in the American society and particularly among the researchers and scholars of Hinduism. For e.g. Jeffrey Kripal, one of the professors and scholars of Hindu Tantra and also one of Wendy's former students, did indicate in his blog that he was heavily influenced by the Hippie generation and motivated by the Tantric teachings.

This phobia has resulted in the negative portrayal of Indians and Hinduism in particular in Hollywood and popular culture as well. For e.g. in The Temple of Doom, Steven Spielberg portrayed Indians as feeding on snakes and monkey brains, and also portrayed the image of Kali as a demonic goddess and her followers as black magicians.

In, "Holy Smoke", an innocent Australian teenager (Kate Winslet) is mesmerized (hypnotized) by an Indian Guru and she goes to India. Harvey Keitel is sent to rescue her from this hypnotic trance of the guru and mysticism, again feeding to the popular stereotype of showing Hindu Gurus as the merchants of the devil.

Most of the works by the American Academy, I would argue have this stereotype about Hinduism and are looking to put the religion down because they perceive Hinduism as a threat to the very way of American life and their research serves as a cautionary tale to avoid the preachings of Hinduism at all costs.

For example refer to the following quote by Wendy Doniger.

“The Bhagavad Gita is not as nice a book as some Americans think…Throughout the Mahabharata ... Krishna goads human beings into all sorts of murderous and self-destructive behaviors such as war.... The Gita is a dishonest book …”

-- Wendy Doniger, Professor of History of Religions, University of Chicago.
Quoted in Philadelphia Inquirer, 19 November, 2000.[ i ]

In fact they would go to any lengths, such as mistranslations and purposeful inclusion of sexuality and eroticism even in the most sacred of Hindu scriptures thereby resulting in hurt and pain to countless religious Hindus. All this to abuse Hinduism and Hindus and to warn the Americans against learning these scriptures as they are afraid of the flower power and the sex and drugs to invade the American way of life. And Hindus and Hinduism become victims of their own paranoia.

Rajiv Malhotra in his blog talks about the Wendy's child syndrome.

Here are a few examples of the blatant mistranslations aimed specifically to warn Americans and to prevent Hinduism from making inroads into mainstream American politics and way of life. These were taken from Rajiv's blog describing the Wendy's Child syndrome.

1. Sri Ramakrishna, the 19th century Hindu saint, has been declared by these scholars as being a sexually-abused homosexual, and it has become “academically established” by Wendy Doniger's students that Ramakrishna was a child molester, and had also forced homosexual activities upon Vivekananda. Furthermore, it has become part of this new “discovery” that Ramakrishna's mystical experiences, and indeed those of Hindu mystics in general, are pathological sexual conditions that need to be psychoanalyzed as such. Furthermore, these scholars have concluded that the entire Hindu society needs to be psychoanalyzed in terms of sexual deviance, in order to understand modern Indian society and politics objectively.

2. The Hindu Goddess is described by these scholars as a sex maniac, with a variety of pathological conditions. Western scholars are busy debating which kinds of pathologies best apply in specific instances, and are hard at work to capture supporting data in the backwaters of Indian society.

3. Other conclusions by these well-placed scholars include: Ganesha's trunk symbolizes a “limp phallus”; his broken tusk is a symbol for the castration-complex of the Hindu male; his large belly is a proof of the Hindu male's enormous appetite for oral sex. Shiva, is interpreted as a womanizer, who encourages ritual rape, prostitution and murder, and his worship is linked to violence and destruction.

4. Hindus are being profiled by these scholars, potentially setting them up for denial of the same human rights as the “civilized West.” For instance, anthropologists have concluded that nursing Hindu mothers do not bond with their babies the way white women do, that Hindus lack a sense of individuality because of their inability to perceive separation in space or time, and that the Mahabharata is best seen as Krishna's Genocide.

If these scholars had reached similar conclusions about Islam, I can guarantee that they would be hiding for the rest of their lives from the Fatwah that would be issued. Hinduism however doesn't have any such position. Our philosophy of non violence helped us win independence from the British however it isn't helping our cause in this case.

Also it has been found that the scholars lack the knowledge of Indian languages and scriptures. Rajiv pointed out in his blog several such examples that Harvard professor Witzel found in Wendy's works.

Wendy responded stating that words in Sanskrit can be interpreted in many different ways. In her book, Hindus an alternative History, she describes that in Harvard there was a joke that every word in Sanskrit means itself, its opposite and a sexual position. Probably she took the joke literally and has been using the sexual angle in the translation of Sanskrit works.

This is an abuse towards the mother of all Indian languages. Also one wonders if locker room jokes such as this are a pre-requisite for getting nominated for the book critics award.

I will conclude stating that the current stance taken by the American researchers is biased based upon the earlier experiences with the fake Hindu Gurus who promoted drugs, sex and violence. The research work is specifically aimed at showing Hindus and Hinduism in a bad light.

Just as a person who has never fallen in love cannot effectively write a book on love, in a similar vein a person may obtain a PhD in Hinduism, but will not understand it fully unless he or she personally experiences it. So I personally believe that the American academy needs Hindu scholars who practice Hinduism in their daily lives.

2009-12-21T12:01:00.001-08:00

Book available for purchase

2009-12-21T11:25:00.001-08:00

I have published a book with the articles I wrote in this blog and other essays and it is available for purchase from the following site

http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/personal-essays/1646920

I appreciate your patronage and support

7-28-2009

2009-07-28T11:05:00.001-07:00

I watched a PBS documentary yesterday called We shall Remain. It was about the Native American history in the United States.

It just made me realize the kind of injustice that was done towards them. The Europeans conquered this land, that is okay, but they almost completely eliminated the native population using guns, germs and steel. When the native Americans would present them with flowers and fruits they would get disease infected blankets in return which spread small pox, malaria, etc. among the local population.

First they came and eliminated the native population. Then in order to cultivate land and to build infrastructure they used slaves from Africa. They fought among themselves and luckily the reasonable people won and they decided to free the slaves, but did not give any rights to non-whites. It wasn't until 1960's that rights were offered to everyone.

They also tend to over react for any injustices done to them.

Japan attacked Pearl Harbor a few hundred died, so they bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki and killed millions.

Bin Laden attacked WTC, 4000 innocent people died. They attacked Afghanistan which maybe justified as they were harboring terrorists, but they also invaded Iraq which had nothing to do with this to steal their oil.

This is like killing a mosquito with a bazooka. It kills the mosquito but also damages the sewage system and then waste water has nowhere to flow. According to me this is sort of the situation that happened in Iraq. For eliminating Saddam there wasn't a need to invade the country and rid the country of the institutions, legal enforcement and infrastructure, which would need to be rebuilt.

6% of the world's population lives in the U.S. and they consume 30% of the world's natural resources and what does it offer in return, that is a good question to ask.

2009-06-07T12:01:00.000-07:00

Thank you for your patronage.

I am in the process of writing a book that combines the ideas I presented in this blog earlier.

I have been putting a significant amount of time and effort in compiling the articles in teh blog.

The book shall be available for purchase and links shall be available as soon as the book is ready.

Chronology of Indian Philosophy

2009-06-07T10:45:00.000-07:00

c. 2500 - 1500 BCE: The Vedic sacrificial tradition, based on ritual actions, was brought into north-west India by the Aryans. This tradition was preserved and administered by the Brahmin priests.

c. 800-500 BCE: The teachings recorded in the early Upanishads, in which knowledge is said to be of ultimate importance, were embraced by the Brahmanical tradition.

By 500 BCE: these two branches - ritual and gnostic- of the Brahmanical tradition coexisted.

5th century BCE milieu: householders and renouncers; in polar contrast to the householders of the Brahmanical religion, were the renouncers - perpatetic, mendicant, and celibate wanderers, in search of knowledge about the world and the self. Renouncers rejected all Brahmanical norms.

c. 485-405 BCE: the lifetime of the Buddha. Texts record that the Buddha challenged Brahmanical practices and teachings, and their claims to authority, and found no satisfactory alternative among the teachings of the renouncers. Based on insights gained at his own Enlightenment, he taught a Middle Way between those of the householders and the renouncers.

4th - 2nd century BCE: grammarians and early exegetes establish what should be 'looked at', In the face of proliferating counter-claims to knowledge of the truth, if the brahmins were to retain their hold on their dominant position they needed to clarify the issues which both justified their practices and confirmed their authority. As the ancient guardians of the sacrificial ritual and the language of Sanskrit, they sought to establish the criteria by which their practices and concerns would be validated, not just for themselves but also to refute the claims of others. In so doing they set the agenda for what each school of thought needed to establish in support of its own position.

Key figures include:

4th century BCE: the grammarian Panini

3rd - 2nd century BCE:Katyayana and Patanjali , commentators on Panini's grammar.

2nd century BCE: Jaimini, author of the first known exegetical text on the ritual section - karma kanda - of the Veda.

2nd century BCE: Badarayana, author of the Brahma Sutra, an important exegetical text on the Upanishads - the jnana kanda of the Veda.

3rd - 2nd century BCE: Vaisesika and Nyaya combine an ontology of pluralistic realism and a formal method by which to arrive at certain knowledge. Kanada's Vaisesika Sutra - concerned with the ontological status of the 'particulars' (visesa) of reality. Kanada sought to establish of what 'particulars', or types of entity, the world is comprised.

c. 3rd century CE: Gotama's Nyaya Sutra - adopting Kanada's ontology of pluralistic realism. Nyaya was concerned with how one can arrive at certain knowledge of that realism - what are the valid means of knowledge? Its main contribution was an epistemological method, based on inferential reasoning.

4th - 1st century BCE: the early Buddhist tradition undergoes division into different schools. Initially based on different disciplinary codes, these gradually developed distinctively different doctrinal views.

3rd centry BCE - 2nd century CE: development of the Buddhist Abhidharma (in Pali Abhidharma) tradition: the scholastic activity of the investigation and categorizing of phenomena (dharmas/dhammas) in order to understand the nature of reality.

1st century BCE - 1st century CE: the emergence of Mahayana Buddhism and the early Prajnaparamita ('Perfection of Wisdom') Sutras.

c. 2nd century CE: drawing on Prajnaparamita literature, Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka Karika focus on the 'emptiness' (sunyata) of all phenomena, and establish the basis of the Madhyamaka (Middle Way) school of thought. Of central importance to Nagarjuna's teachings is the Buddha's doctrine of 'dependent origination'.

c. 4th Century CE: the Cittamatra ('Mind Only'), or Yogacara ('Practice of Yoga'), school of Buddhism establishes an alternative interpretation of the import of the Prajnaparamita teachings, seeking to redress the apparent nihilism of the 'emptiness' school. As suggested by the terms 'yoga' and 'mind', its approach centres on understanting meditative processes, or 'consciousness events'.

3rd century CE: The Yoga-Sutras represent what is known as 'Classical Yoga'. Said to have been written by one Patanjali, in fact their authorship is uncertain. The Yoga-Sutras present a detailed mental disciplinary methodology for attaining liberating insight, a methodology that is compatible with the ontology of Samkhya.

4th - 5th century CE: Isvarakrishna codifies classical Samkhya in his Samkha Karika. Human beings are bound to rebirth because they do not realize what they take to be conscious is unconscious, and that consciousness lies only in ontologically separate and inactive 'selves' (purusha). The aim is to gain insight into this dualism.

5th century CE: the grammarian Barthrhari develops an orthodox darshana alongside the philosophical activity of linguistic analysis. Understanding the role of language, he stated, leads to liberating knowledge of Brahman, the unifying essence of the universe.

7th century CE: the flowering of the Mimamsa tradition of exegesis of the karma kanda (action section) of the Vedas. Principal proponents include Kumarila and Prabhakara.

8th century CE: Shankara's school of Advaita Vedanta, based on a 'non dual' (advaita) exegesis of the Upanishads, 'the end of the Veda' and its jnana-kanda (knowledge section).

11th century CE: Ramanuja's Visistadvaita Vedanta, a 'qualified non-dualism', also based on exegesis of the Upanishads.

Reference:

Indian Philosophy a very short introduction

Religion and Science

2009-05-01T09:43:00.000-07:00

This is to further expand on the topic of Religion and Science.

As I described in my earlier post on Origin of Religions, when religions originated it was the explanation for everything.

There are 4 categories of questions that Religion typically answers how did everything get created or come into existence, how human beings came into existence, what is proper or moral behavior and our goal in life, what happens after we die and how to achieve salvation or get rewarded in after life.

Here is common between all religions,

a) The existence of a supreme intelligence or higher power that has control over everything. Theravada Buddhism however doesn't believe in a God so it is sort of non-theist religion. Carvaka Philosophy also doesn't believe in a God.

b) The existence of a soul or an undying part within all human beings (all living organisms in case of Hindu and eastern cultures) which the essence of life.

c) An after life i.e. the concept of existence after we die. This can range from being reborn or achieving salvation as in case of Eastern cultures or existing in either heaven or hell as for western cultures.

1) To explain Creation every religion has a myth associated with how everything was created. Typically there would be a creator God that is eternal and ever present and with magical powers would be able to create everything.

2) Who we are: This is again an expansion to the creation story.

Western religion preaches that Adam the first human was created by God in His own image suggesting that God also looks human. Science teaches that we evolved from other animals namely simians or monkeys.

One of the Christian preachers who did not believe in Evolution actually said "It is not respectful towards God and human beings to say that we evolved from animals. Where is our self respect and dignity."

Hinduism has many creation stories. However there is humility as expressed in the Rig Vedic Nasadiya hymn which expresses doubt on how everything came into being, probably the one who existed at that time would know or probably He doesn't know either and there is a question mark at the end.

3) Our goal in life: Our goal is to pursue a life and live according to the traditions prescribed in the religious texts.

Judaism believes in following the ten commandments and the Jewish customs and rituals.
Christians believe that faith in Jesus as the Son of God is important to salvation and so forth.

Hindus believe in the pursuit of Moksha by following one of the 4 paths prescribed in the Bhagavad Gita or via meditation.

Now I turn to Science

Science has traditionally played a secondary role in life, with a practical point of view aiming to solve problems that are important. Western researchers prescribe that science originated in the west in the 16th century. However in reality science has been there all along, from the person who invented the wheel to the people who first started agriculture and invented the first tools, etc.

Science has always had this aim of making life better of human beings by solving problems.
It is only later that scientists started theorizing their principles and explaining things.

Unlike religious explanations which were typically done using miraculous events and using God or Gods as explanations, e.g. it was believed that it rained because of a God who controls it.
Human beings quest to control nature and the environment rather than the reverse created these explanations and also created a branch of people who would communicate with the divine beings via rituals to ensure that it rains or cure diseases, etc.

Science on the other hand uses real observations to explain things. In that respect science is humble, there are no preconceived notions and no agendas.

One of the biggest contradiction that science offered to the existing religious view is in creation and world view.

For e.g. Christians and Jews believe that God created the world in 7 days, 6000 years ago.

Science proved that the world was created much earlier and that human beings descended from ape-like creatures. In fact if you dissect a frog you find that the frog has the digestive system as humans. If you look at Chimpanzees the features look very human, the hands, the facial features, etc. This was in stark contrast to the Christian view that men were superior to animals and man is an image of God.

The second aspect science provides is that it questions rituals, such as a ritual to make it rain.

Science however cannot provide an explanation on how we should live our lives or the purpose of life. These are now the realm of philosophy.

Religion offered the entire package i.e. explanations, rituals, cultural traditions, purpose of life, social activity, etc. However it is based on the concept of God.

As science questions God, members of the scientific community declare themselves as atheists or non believers.

All science offers in the religious package are better explanations. However when it comes to cultural traditions or prescribing a path on how one should live one's life science has nothing to offer.

Western religions the religious explanation serves as a purpose for everything that one does. So for Christianity for e.g. it is important to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and in the original sin etc. Thus if you contradict any of these you are asking for a lot of resistance from the religious community.

Thus the greatest resistance to science has come from the western religion.

As I described earlier, Hinduism offers a similar humility that science has. The creation myths, the various mythological stories are not required to be true for a Hindu. The philosophies of the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita are reasonably abstract from science that it doesn't conflict with scientific explanations.

In fact the path of knowledge prescribed in the Bhagavad Gita is the one that true scientists such as Albert Einstein follow. So in that respect it only promotes scientific inquiry and the pursuit of knowledge.

So scientists everywhere, if you are looking to be atheist don't be, turn to Hinduism.

Hollywood and Eastern Philosophies

2009-04-27T13:33:00.001-07:00

Several Hollywood Movies especially Science Fiction movies have an underlying philosophy based on Eastern philosophies.

1) Matrix: Matrix describes an alternate world other than the one that we are living in. Human beings are harvested by robots and we are in fact in a state of ever present dream. In order for humans to be free, they need to wake up from this dream and see reality. This is the same as the Hindu description of the waking stage of consciousness. Matrix in fact is a great way to visualize the Upanishadic concepts of consciousness and realization which tend to be abstract concepts and difficult to understand.

Also the concept of Agent Smith trying to change everyone, might be similar to Christian conversion and converting everyone to Christianity. In the end everyone return back to their original state indicating that even if everyone were converted it would not be stable and people, especially intellectuals, would revert back to higher philosophies

2) Star Wars: The whole idea of the force that connects all living organisms together and being able to use the force is the same as Brahman. Although frequently others have attributed this to Buddhism, this is more of a Hindu concept than Buddhist.

3) Dune: Dune describes a desert planet Arrakis and the struggle for the Spice. This in fact refers to Islamic concepts. The whole idea of the messiah Moa-Duib who frees the fremmon tribes (similar to arabic tribes). Even cultural aspects have been borrowed from Islam.

4) Remains of the Day: This movie depicts the life of a butler who is totally devoted to his work. He is a total perfectionist and has time only for work. Although being a butler for an aristocrat and being present for various political debates, he doesn't tune in to any of these conversations since he is focussed on his work. He represents a true karma yogi or the Bhagavad Gita's description of a person who can achieve salvation from his work.

"You have a right to work, but never to engage in the fruit of work. You should never engage in action for the sake of reward, nor should you long for inaction. " Bhagavad Gita 2:47

5) Avatar: In the movie Avatar by James Cameron, the concept of Eywa is the guiding force and deity of Pandora and the Na'vi. The Na'vi believe that Eywa acts to keep the ecosystem of Pandora in perfect equilibrium. The concept of Eywa as the union of all the souls of all the living organisms is similar to that of Brahman in Hinduism.

Origins of Judaism and Islam

2009-04-27T08:45:00.000-07:00

Origin of Judaism and Islam:

Judaism and Islam originated in between the great civilizations of the east and the west.

Judaism is considered the first religion to promote monotheism. However this is not entirely true. The first person to promote the idea of monotheism was Akhenaten. Akhenaten; meaning Effective spirit of Aten, was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, who died 1336 BC or 1334 BC. He is especially noted for attempting to compel the Egyptian population in the monotheistic worship of Aten.

The idea of Akhenaten as the pioneer of a monotheistic religion that later became Judaism has been considered by various scholars. One of the first to mention this was Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, in his book Moses and Monotheism. Freud argued that Moses had been an Atenist priest forced to leave Egypt with his followers after Akhenaten's death. Freud argued that Akhenaten was striving to promote monotheism, something that the biblical Moses was able to achieve.Following his book, the concept entered popular consciousness and serious research.

Akhenaten appears in history almost two-centuries prior to the first archaeological and written evidence for Judaism and Israelite culture is found in the Levant. Abundant visual imagery of the Aten disk was central to Atenism, which celebrated the natural world, while such imagery is not a feature of early Israelite culture, Although pottery found throughout Judea dated to the end of the 8th century BC has seals resembling a winged sun disk burned on their handles, presumedly thought to be the royal seal of the Judean Kingdom. Ahmed Osman has claimed that Akhenaten's maternal grandfather Yuya was the same person as the Biblical Joseph.

It is widely accepted that there are strong similarities between Akhenaten's Great Hymn to the Aten and the Biblical Psalm 104, though this form is found widespread in ancient Near Eastern hymnology both before and after the period and whether this implies a direct influence or a common literary convention remains in dispute.

In Moses and Monotheism, Freud contradicts the Biblical story of Moses with his own retelling of events claiming that Moses only led his close followers into freedom and that they subsequently killed Moses in rebellion either to his strong faith or to circumcision. Freud explains that years after the murder of Moses, the rebels formed a religion which promoted Moses as the Saviour of the Israelites. Freud said that the guilt from the murder of Moses is inherited through the generations; this guilt then drives the Jews to religion to make them feel better. Also the persecution of this Judaic sect by the polytheistic Egyptians and later on by the Romans may form the historical reason for the hatred towards idolators.

This essentially formed the basis of Judaism. Also after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians the community began to become spread to various kingdoms and other regions. Jews went to Rome, Persia and some even came to India. There was a need to keep the followers of Judaism together in a tight set of rules so they do not assimilate with the local population. Thus there was a need to identify themselves distinct from the rest of the population. Thus the Jews came to put together a historical timeline starting from the very first human Adam and his descendants. There were numerous stories ranging from Cain the first criminal to Noah who built the Ark, Abraham and so forth.

These stories were borrowed from the local myths of the different regions that the migrant population was dispersed such as Babylonian, Egyptian, Persian, Greek and even Indian myths and tales were converted and formed the basis of the religious education of the stories in the Torah or the Penta-teuch. (5 books.)

Also Judaism came about putting a rigorous set of rules for the Jews. The rules started with the ten commandments which were given from God Himself. Also God is very personal to the Jews since He saved their community from the terrible slavery in Egypt and so forth. The rules ranged from eating habits, praying habits, worshipping habits etc. Pork and shrimp was forbidden. Also the animals have to be slaughtered a certain way. A Jew may not worship any God other than Yahweh. There is observance of various religious days such as Sabbath on Saturday since God rested on that day, a Jew doesn't involve him/herself with any work on that day. The rules are extremely detail oriented. No wonder Jews were the first accountants who came up with the double entry book keeping. Thus Judaism was more of a religion for a migrant community to prevent assimilation with the local population. Also the identify of the community was very critical for the future survival. And mixing with the native community was expressly forbidden.

Islam on the other hand started out in a similar landscape but different conditions. Before Islam the middle east was placed in between the great civilizations of the east and the west. They were sort of a gateway between the east and the west. The activities involved selling slaves from Africa and other places to Romans and Persians to looting and robbing the traders who had to pass through their lands.

These communities who were essentially bands of various tribes who would frequently fight with each other as expected in a lawless land such as the middle east. Since they were located in the middle of the Silk route they might have been rich from looting the traders who passed through their lands. Also each tribe had a different idol or a God the tribe would worship and it also formed to be an identity for that tribe. They were ruthless warriors who would rape women, kill innocent people and steal from other people who happened to pass by their lands.

In the book, "Why I am not a Muslim", Ibn Warraq has described the origins of Islam. The ideas of Judaism and Christianity were well known from the traders who would pass by their lands but not very respected in these communities. Muhammad was one of these people, and he wanted to unite these tribes and prevent them from fighting with one another.

When the Quran was revealed to Muhammad, he declared himself as the prophet and the messenger of the final word of God, Allah. Koran did the following, first it established a uniform religion for these ruthless tribal communities, it gave them the list of rules to follow for their daily life like Judaism and it also provided the legal framework which the land originally lacked. Muhammad tried to unify with the earlier ideas of Judaism and Christianity by calling the Arabs as descendants of Abraham but the children of Ishmael whereas the Jews were the children of Israel. Christ is mentioned as a messiah and he expressly forbids associating any God like attributes such as son of God to Christ.
Some scholars state this as the reason why the initial part of the Quran that was revealed in Mecca has more positive tones but the later part of the Quran the one revealed in Medinah happens to be pessimistic. Initially Muhammad may have been optimistic about the acceptance of his religion by the Jews and Christians and the native tribes, but later on as his religion was not well accepted despite the stating that it was the word of God, and he was exiled to Medinah. He formed an army and marched into Mecca and converted all the people in the middle east to Islam.

The various tribal communities thus combined now had a common army and it spread further east all the way to India and west all the way to Spain.

Hindu Gods in crisis

2009-03-18T18:34:00.000-07:00

We are seeing some radical changes in the way the younger generation perceives Hindu Gods today. As is evident in the animated movies available today. We have Ganesha playing a guitar or Hanuman playing Cricket or fighting bullies, etc. Also when did Ganesha convert to a friend or a brother from a God.
I was in India a few months ago and when i go to the temples today I only see people from the lower rungs of society. Most middle class have turned away from visiting temples. They spend more time going to malls, bars and hanging out at cool joints.

Bollywood being heavily moslem dominated also has been putting down Hindu values in its movies. Hindu traditions are openly mocked and made fun of in movies.

Both Bollywood and to a certain extent Hollywood has been portraying Hindus as fanatics. Even the movie Slumdog Millionaire portrays followers of Rama as radical murderers. To be a Hindu today has become synonymous with being a BJP or RSS follower. Due to the growth of Western corporations in India, Hindus feel a pressure to constantly westernize and try to appear accepted in the west.

Hinduism unlike other religions is a very difficult religion to follow with so many different rituals, practices, philosophies, Gods, Sadhus, pundits, books, stories. It is extremely difficult for someone to learn Hinduism. Moreover there has been a steady decline of the practice of Hindu rituals and practice. Cosmopolitanism and inter marriage has led to further confusion in the current generation totally rejecting Hindu values as a whole.

In my own personal experience growing up in Mumbai the religious preaching has been through comics. I learnt stories of the Gods, Puranas, Panchatantra through Amar Chitra Katha. The magnificent artistry and great story telling was a great medium for Hindu followers like me to understand religious beliefs.

For kids of this Generation the medium of choice is Television. There are over 500 channels in every home. This might be the only religious preaching or information that they are going to receive.

Amar Chitra Katha and similar story books had magnificent pictures and paintings and Gods were still Gods they were not friends or brothers or sisters. There was a sense of respect for Hindu images. But looking at images above makes me question whether the younger generation would still respect these icons as Gods to worship when they grow up.

If you look back in the past in the Indian History every time there has been an external influence there have been modifications to the religion.

With the advent of Islam there were huge changes. This can be particularly found in the way Hinduism is practised in the north and south India. For e.g. Islam introduced the concept of head scarves for women and priests and other worshippers had to wear a shirt when worshipping. In the south on the other hand the traditions remained relatively pure and women don't cover their heads and men especially brahmins usually remove their shirts when worshipping. The other change was the introduction of Bhakti movement which also impacted Islam with the introduction of Sufism. Also Sikh religion was a bridge between Islam and Hindu practices. Some saints tried to unify both cultures e.g. Kabir and Sai Baba are considered holy by both Hindus and Muslims.

The British colonization resulted in several prominent Hindus studying abroad and learning about western religion. Some of them tried to change Hinduism to have a western outlook, e.g. Brahmo samaj by Raja Ram Mohan Roy, etc. None of these neo Hindu religions took hold in India.

American influence has resulted in consumerism and excessive marketing. This has unfortunately also affected our religion. Producers are trying to create movies just to sell and will do anything to sell. We will have to wait and watch how the younger generation of today will respond to the images above. It will be unfortunate if Hindu temples also start portraying such images to attract devotees, i.e. with Hanuman holding a bat or Ganesh playing a guitar.

Hopefully this is only a trend and will phase out. Another question is whether this is the only way to reach to the younger audience or is there a better way.

Origins of the term Hinduism

2008-09-14T14:35:00.000-07:00

As far back as the Old Persian cuneiform inscriptions and in the Avesta, the word "Hindu" appears as a geographic term. The Persian word "Hindu" derives from Sindhu, the Sanskrit name of the river Indus (in modern Pakistan). It originally meant a native of India, tha land around and beyond the Indus.

When "Hindu" (or Hindoo) entered in the English language in the seventeenth century, it was similarly used to denote any native of Hindustan (India), but gradually came to mean someone who retained the indigenous religion and had not converted to Islam.

It should be underscored that the term "Hindu" referred to something geographical, not something cultural, though it was, indeed, also used to distinguish indigenous people from foreigners and their traditions:

"Hinduism", as a term for that indigenous religion, became current in English in the early nineteenth century and was coined to label an "ism" that was itself partly a product of western Orientalist thought, which (mis)constructed Hinduism on the model of Occidental religions, particularly Christianity, Hinduism, in other words came to be seen as a single system of doctrines, beliefs, and practices properly equivalent to those that make up Christianity, and "Hindu" now clearly specified an Indian's religious affiliation.

The term Hinduism is not only a misnomer but is also misleading because it carries with the connotation of religion. The terms Indian and Hindu have never been used in India itself to refer to nationality, culture, religion, or philosophy. Indians actually call their subcontinent Bharata, after the ancient emperor Bharata, whose name means "lover of Knowledge," or in this case, "the land that loves knowledge".

Hinduism, defined as a family of religions

2008-09-14T14:09:00.000-07:00

Many philosophers have taken the approach of understanding Hinduism as a family of religions rather than a single religious entity.

By using this definition Hinduism is actually a medley of religious traditions, it is not a monolithic entity but rather a conglomerate of religions that share certain traits in common. These religions go by the names Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shaktism, and many others.

A religion may be considered part of the Hindu family of religions if it espouses some variation on the following principles:

Belief in the divinity of the Vedas, the world's most ancient scripture as well as faith in the "fifth Veda", or the Epics and the Puranas, which are the main holy books of the Hindu religion.
Belief in one, all-pervasive Supreme Reality, manifesting as both an impersonal force, which is called Brahman, and as a personal divinity (known variously, according to whichever particular tradition one adheres to)
Belief in the cyclical nature of the time - that there are world ages that repeat themselves like seasons.
Belief in Karma, the law of action and reaction, by which each person creates his or her own destiny.
Belief in reincarnation - that the soul evolves through many births until all past deeds have been resolved, leading to ultimate liberation from the material world.
Belief in alternate realities with higher beings - God and His manifold manifestations - who can be accessed through temple worship, rituals sacraments and prayer.
Belief in enlightened masters, or gurus - exemplary souls who are fully devoted in God and who as a conduit for others to reach Him.
Belief in non-agression and non injury (ahimsa) as a way of showing love to all creatures. This includes the idea of the sacredness for all life and its concomitant universal compassion.
Belief that all revealed religions are essentially correct, as aspects of one ultimate reality. and the religious tolerance is the hallmark of true wisdom.
Belief that the living being is first and foremost a spiritual entity, a soul within the body, and that the spiritual pursuit is consequently the essence and real purpose of life.
Belief that an organic social system, traditionally called Varnashrama, is essential in the proper and effective functioning of humankind and this system should be based on intrinsic quality and natural aptitude as opposed to birthright.

Reference

Essential Hinduism by Steven Rosen

Ten ways to convert a Hindu: Shocking insight in to a Christian missionary's agenda

2008-09-04T07:54:00.000-07:00

Through friendship Evangelism is usually easy to initiate with Hindus. Most Hindus esteem religion in general and are free and open to speak about it. A sincere, nonjudgmental interest in all aspects of Indian life will provide a good basis for friendship. Personal interaction with Hindus will lead to a more certain grasp of the essence of Hinduism than reading many books. A consistently Christ-like life is the most important factor in sharing the Gospel with Hindus. The suggestions that follow should help to break down misunderstandings and help to build a positive witness for Christ. But learning and applying these points can never substitute for a transparent life of peace and joy in disciple-ship to Jesus Christ.

1. Do not criticize or condemn Hinduism. There is much that is good and much that is bad in the practice of both Christianity and Hinduism. Pointing out the worst aspects of Hinduism is hardly the way to win friends or show love. Criticizing Hinduism can make us feel we have won an argument; it will not win Hindus to Jesus Christ.

2. Avoid everything that hints of triumphalism and pride. We are not the greatest people with the greatest religion, but some Hindus are taught that we think of ourselves in this way. We do not have all knowledge of all truth; in fact we know very little to become “Christian.” (Think of what that means to a Hindu—India like America or Europe!) But we do desire all India to find peace and joy and true spirituality.

3. Never allow a suggestion that separation from family and/ or culture is necessary in becoming a disciple of Christ. To insist or even subtly encourage a Hindu to leave his home and way of life to join the “Christian” way of life in terms of diet and culture, etc., is a denial of Biblical teaching.

4. Do not speak quickly on hell, or on the fact that Jesus is the only way for salvation. Hindus hear these things as triumphalism and are offended unnecessarily. Speak of hell only with tears of compassion. Point to Jesus so that it is obvious He is the only way, but leave the Hindu to see for himself, rather than trying to force it on him.

5. Never hurry. Any pushing for a decision or conversion will do great harm. God must work, and the Holy Spirit should be given freedom to move at his own pace. Even after a profession of Christ is made, do not force quick changes regarding pictures of gods, charms, etc. Be patient and let a person come to fuller understanding and conviction in his own mind before taking action.

6. Work traditional Hindu (and Biblical) values into your life, like simplicity, renunciation, spirituality and humility, against which there is no law. A life reflecting the reality of “a still and quiet soul” (Psalm 131) will never be despised by Hindus.

7. Know Hinduism, and each individual Hindu. It will take some study to get a broad grasp of Hinduism and patient listening will be required to understand where in the spectrum each Hindu stands. Both philosophical and devotional Hinduism should be studied with the aim of understanding what appeals to the Hindu heart. Those who move seriously into work among Hindus need to become more knowledge-able in Hinduism than Hindus themselves are. Some study of the Sanskrit language will prove invaluable. Remember the Biblical pattern from Acts 17 of introducing truth to the Hindu from his own tradition, and only secondarily from the Bible. For example, the Biblical teaching on sin is repulsive to many modern Hindus, but their own scriptures give an abundance of similar testimony. Bridge from Hindu scripture to the Bible and Christ.

8. Be quick to acknowledge failure. Defending wrong practices in the church and Western Christianity only indicates we are more concerned for our religion than we are for truth.

9. Share your testimony, describing your personal experience of being lost and God’s gracious forgiveness and peace. Don’t claim to know God in His majesty and fullness, but share what you know in your life and experience. This is the supreme approach in presenting Christ to the Hindu, but care must be taken that our sharing is appropriate. To shout on a street corner, or share at every seeming opportunity is offensive. What God does in our lives is holy and private, only to be shared in intimacy to those who will respect the things of God and his work in our lives.

10.Center on Christ. He alone can win their hearts’ total loyalty to Himself. In your life and speech so center on him that all see in your life that God alone is worth living for. Hinduism is often called “God-intoxicated,” and the Hindu who lives at all in this frame of mind is put off by Christian emphases on so many details to the neglect of the “one thing that is needed” (Lk. 10:42). A Hindu who professes faith in Christ must be helped as far as possible to work out the meaning of that commitment in his own cultural context. Often a new follower of Christ is ready to adopt any and every practice of Western Christians, and needs to be taught what is essential and what is secondary in Christian life and worship. For example, it can be shown that the Eastern practice of removing shoes in a place of worship has strong Biblical precedence despite the fact that shoes are worn in Western churches. A new believer should be warned against making an abrupt announcement to his or her family, since that inflicts great pain and inevitably produces deep misunderstanding. Ideally, a Hindu will share each step of the pilgrimage to Christ with his or her family, so that there is no surprise at the end. An early stage of the communication, to be reaffirmed continually, would be the honest esteem for Indian/Hindu traditions in general that the disciple of Christ can and does maintain. Approaching Hindus on these lines does not result in quick conversions and impressive statistics. But a hearing will be gained from some who have refused to listen to traditional Christian approaches. And new Disciples of Christ can be taught to deal more sensitively with their contexts, allowing them to maintain an ongoing witness to their family and society. As the leaven of the Gospel is allowed to work in Hindu minds and society, a harvest is sure to follow in God’s own time.

© blue legends., all rights reserved.

Historical timeline of Hinduism

2008-08-12T14:36:00.000-07:00

Stages:

1) Pre-Aryan or Proto-Dravidian: In this stage religion was focussed mainly in the fertility gods and godesses. Phallic image of Shiva was worshipped along with fertility Godesses. There was the jati system of specialization of labour. The activities were primarily agrarian and the political system consisted mainly of various villages with no kingdoms.

2) Aryan: Aryan deities were similar to the Greek Gods and Godesses. Indra was the king of Gods, Agni the God of fire, Varuna the God of the wind and so forth. The sacrificial rituals and hymns were focussed on invoking the Gods to obtain favours from Gods such as the Yajna. Brahma and Vishnu had a relatively smaller roles to play. Caste System of the Varna or the skin color led to 4 distinct roles the Brahmins, the Kshatriyas, the Vaishyas and the Shudras. There were also out-castes, mainly the various tribes who were considered untouchables. The Dravidian Jati system was enforced on top of the caste system to further divide each caste into many Jatis or groups of occupation. Brahmins held a lot of power. The Vedas were the religious texts. Manusmriti offered the model of society and the role of various castes. The key focus was to preserve the natural order of work based on one's birth, following religious rituals and observing the superiority of Brahmins and preserving the community.

3) Hindu Renaissance: During this period several new philosophies and ideas were introduced. Also Hinduism had to compete with alternative religious philosophies introduced by Buddhism and Jainism which may have been the reason for changing the core Hindu beliefs.

The most popular among these is the concept of Brahman and Atman. The Gods were simplified to have 3 major deities being the most superior, Creator - Brahma, Preserver - Vishnu and the destroyer - Shiva. Of which Shiva and Vishnu had a major role. All other deities played a minor role and had limited lifetimes. Vedanta or the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita were the key books introduced in this period. The key focus in this period was the debate between Moksha and Dharma. Moksha or liberation through renunciation and Advaita Vedanta is the key philosophy supporting this. Dharma was primarily with maintaining an individual's role in society. The stages of life concept was introduced as a mechanism to obtain renunciation while still maintaining one's duties. This divided life into 4 stages. The first stage was primarily focussed on obtaining education on the occupation or trade based on one's birth. The second stage was to be a householder and also being specialized in the occupation. The third stage is partial renunciation where one leaves with his wife to a smaller dwelling. And the final stage being the one of renunciation.

The Bhagavad Gita offered an alternative form of achieving Moksha using the 4 yogas. The karma yoga, Nyaana yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Raja Yoga.

4) Bhakti or Devotional movement: This was introduced in several stages. After the Islamic conquest the sufi devotional movement led to a similar devotional movements in Hinduism. There were several Saints who brought about Bhajans and Kirtan movements focussing on a particular deity based on the region. e.g. in Maharashtra Namdeo, Tukaram focussed on Vitthal or Vishnu in Pandurang, in the south Ramanujam had a movement for Venkateswara. etc.

5) Neo Hindu movements: These came about by educated leaders who went abroad to study in the 19th and 20th century. The leaders here were influenced by western ideas and tried to introduce them with Hinduism. Common themes are the abandoning of idolatry and rituals, upliftment of women and so on. Also you can note a revival of Brahmanism introduced in the Vedanta and by Shankaracharya. Key movements are Ram Mohan Roy's Brahmo Samaj, Arya Samaj and so forth. None of these movements gathered many followers and none of them gathered momentum and mainstream Hindu followership remained the same

6) Hinduism today: For the most people religious education is primarily through parents and other elders. And this primarily includes following rituals, superstitions, visiting temples and maybe reading Amar Chitra Katha for various stories from the Puranas. For most people particularly in the west religion doesn't hold much. For second and third generation Indians religion is absolutely non-existent. Most ABCDs would define themselves as spiritual but not religious, whatever that is supposed to mean.

The reason for this decline is obvious. Although there was a huge development in Hindu philosophies and ideas, most people are either unaware or ignorant of these ideas. Very few people are familiar with the concepts of Brahman, Atman and Moksha. Every Hindu knows about the Bhagavad Gita but not many people read it.

There needs to be a Hindu revival to revive the good teachings of Hindu culture with respect to the Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita. All other practices and rituals needs to be changed or eliminated. For e.g. in marriages today the priests invoke chants to Indra, Vayu and all other Gods who have been rendered obsolete. These chants needs to be modified to reflect Brahmanism. Vishnu or Shiva needs to be the only God that is worshipped and the movement needs to be away from Idolatry. If this can be achieved Hinduism can bring about a better society and a better world for all of us to live in.

The origin of religions

2008-06-24T09:31:00.000-07:00

Last updated 3/18/2010

According to Pascal Boyer's book Religion Explained: the evolutionary origins of religious thought, the following is a list of reasons why religion was created.

Religion provides explanations:

People created religion to explain puzzling natural phenomena.
Religion explains puzzling experiences: dreams, prescience, etc.
Religion explains the origins of things.
Religion explains why there is evil and suffering.

Religion provides comfort:

Religious explanations make mortality less unbearable.
Religion allays anxiety and makes for a comfortable world.

Religion provides social order:

Religion holds society together.
Religion perpetuates a particular social order
Religion supports morality.

Religion is a cognitive illusion:

People are superstitious, they will believe anything.
Religious concepts are irrefutable.
Refutation is more difficult than belief.

The following is my perspective on how religions originated.

Man is essentially a social being and distinct from other animals. The social nature resulted in creation of societies and culture and religion. Due to social nature of human beings they could hunt more effectively and in civilized cultures men could start agriculture, and raise livestock and so on.

I divide these as two groups Hunting and Gathering communities and Agrarian communities.

1) Hunting and Gathering culture which was predominantly in the most of Europe before Roman colonization. This was partly attributed to the cold climates and secondly due to the lack of a mature civilization. For these communities there is a strong need to stay together as a community and for everyone to follow the directions of a leader especially for activities such as hunting. These developed further into a code of conduct or a rule of law that everyone in the community abides by. These formed the basis of the western religion, and these rules became the rules from God that everyone has to follow to avoid eternal damnation. Thus we have in Judaism, Islam and Christianity the concept of just one path and the concept of commandments or rules that God has given. These rules were actually created by human beings but to state that these were given by God would imply submission is a must and the total acceptance of these words. The religious leaders were the absolute monarchs who would dictate what the community should do. New ideas were not tolerated and blasphemy was even punishable by death. Even today Islam does not tolerate anything against Prophet Mohammad (although he was only a human being).

These attitudes became the underlying principles of western religions. Thus in western religions for e.g. there is a tendency to prove that their religion is the best and the final. In Christianity, Islam and Judaism for e.g. they use the concept of "direct word from God", that is that their religious books were directly given to the prophets from God and hence it could not be wrong and cannot be denied.

2) Agrarian:
For the communities that became agrarian such as the communities in Central Asia, Egypt and Greece and in India, they were dependent on natural factors especially rain. Also since our understanding of these natural things were limited, and partly due to wishful thinking, the communities created the concept of a divine act that caused rain.
Also it is very possible that there were probably some of the original human beings who created the concept of a divine being that is responsible for everything important e.g. the sun, the rain, fire, wind, etc. All of these became Gods. Since life became so dependent on these random acts such as rain, they created elaborate rituals to appease the God of Rain. e.g. in Aryan literature Indra was the king of Gods and He controlled the rain and thunder. Also since Fire was an important element for life, it was a God as well. In Vedic religion it also became the medium to speak to other Gods. Hence in Hindu religion fire is an important source for rituals even today.

As life became more and more dependable and our knowledge of agriculture became better, it created specializations such as tailors, shoe makers etc. Also it could feed a community of people who didn't participate in the economy and would focus solely on writing books on religious philosophy and forming laws and the rules of conduct. Some of these philosophies contradicted.

In the east they tended to co exist, however in the west contradictions were not well respected.
e.g. in India Hinduism especially in the renaissance period comprises of several contradicting philosophies such as Advaita Vedanta that focusses on renunciation, Bhagavad Gita focusses on Karma Yoga, Carvaka that doesn't believe in a God and focusses on hedonism. In China Daoism, Confucianism and Buddhism coexisted at the same time.

Hinduism started out by defining creationist theories such as the universe being created from the cosmic egg by Brahma the creator, that the first man Purusha was divided into four parts which formed the four castes and so forth. Later on as the understanding of the universe increased, the Hindu philosophers started questioning the different creation theories.

Thus the Nasadiya hymn from the Rig Veda starts with a question indicating doubt on creation.

"There was neither non-existence nor existence then.
There was neither the realm of space nor the sky which is beyond.
What stirred?
Where?
In whose protection?
Was there water, bottomlessly deep?

There was neither death nor immortality then.
There was no distinguishing sign of night nor of day.
That One breathed, windless, by its own impulse.
Other than that there was nothing beyond.

Darkness was hidden by darkness in the beginning,
with no distinguishing sign, all this was water.
The life force that was covered with emptiness,
that One arose through the power of heat.

Desire came upon that One in the beginning,
that was the first seed of mind.
Poets seeking in their heart with wisdom
found the bond of existence and non-existence.

Their cord was extended across.
Was there below?
Was there above?
There were seed-placers, there were powers.
There was impulse beneath, there was giving forth above.

Who really knows?
Who will here proclaim it?
Whence was it produced?
Whence is this creation?
The gods came afterwards, with the creation of this universe.
Who then knows whence it has arisen?

Whence this creation has arisen
- perhaps it formed itself, or perhaps it did not -
the One who looks down on it,
in the highest heaven, only He knows
or perhaps even He does not know."

Even Buddhism has a similar attitude. In one of the stories of the Buddha it is told that one of the monks questioned Buddha on the origin of different things, what happens after death and the cosmic nature.

Buddha replied stating that the nature of human beings is like a person who has been struck by a poisoned arrow. The person can either question why someone struck him or the nature of the poison, etc. or he could seek relief from the suffering by removing the arrow and seeking medication. Buddhism attempts to relieve humankind of suffering and not questioning.

Hinduism is the only religion that has doubt on creation, Buddhism doesn't explain creation at all. This is consistent with science, as science starts with a null hypothesis that we don't know something and experiments are performed to find out, the observations are recorded and a conclusion is reached finally to summarize the observations and postulate a theory.

Western religions however fall into the trap on trying to define everything within their religion and not allowing scientific reason. Christianity, Judaism and Islam have a concept of an eternal God who created the world in 7 days and so forth.

As our knowledge of science became better, we could better explain what was unknown in the past with reasoning and logic and there were better explanations on creation or I should say evolution that resulted in how we are today.

This is one of the issues where the western religions face the most issues. Since the books do tend to give a little too much detail, for e.g. the world being created 6000 years ago, and it was created by God in 7 days and that this was told by God Himself. The Catholic Church up until as recently as the 15th century believed that the earth was flat and to state that the Earth was round was blasphemous.

As our knowledge of science increased and as we could produce better scientific explanations to creation, natural occurrences and so forth. For e.g. today we can use science can explain that the world was created much earlier. As a result the religion loses its credibility and people tend to become atheists since they don't want to believe in anything their religion says. This is a problem especially for western religions which does not accept any change to their scriptures since they are the direct word of God.

Hinduism especially during the renaissance period changed significantly to reject rituals and use abstract philosophies and tries not to delve into the region of science. Also the philosophies are not final and they can continue to evolve as our knowledge increases and we can provide explanations for things that were otherwise unknown in the past. Hinduism also started out as every other religion by trying to explain everything as an act of God. However the key difference was that nothing in Hinduism is assumed to be a final word of God. The philosophies and texts can continue to evolve. Even today there are several Gurus who tend to have their own philosophy and they have a huge following.

East versus West, a religious comparison

2008-01-14T17:28:00.000-08:00

In this blog I would like to compare some of the high level principles that distinguish Hinduism and to a certain extent Buddhism from other western religions i.e. Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

1) Purpose of life:

Some of you may have watched Frank Capra's, "It's a wonderful life". In the middle of the movie the hero of the movie is tired of the life and wishes that he was never born. His guardian angel walks him through his life and the many relations and bonds he had established in his life and why life is a wonderful gift from God. This is one of the key messages promoted by all western religions (Christianity, Islam and Judaism), that life is a gift from God who has created everything including human beings, who were created in His own image. Thus life is a gift from God and is only temporary. After one dies one either goes to heaven or hell and stays there permanently.

Eastern religions viz. Hinduism and Buddhism take a very different approach to defining life. Eastern traditions believe in constant rebirth and life as a soul that has been reborn. Eventually the individual (soul) gets tired of life and constant rebirth and would like to escape from life itself. This is probably the starkest contrasts between western and eastern religions.

Western religions define not being born as a curse; eastern religions believe in pursuing the same as the ultimate salvation (Moksha or Nirvana).

2) Worshipping God: Western religions especially Islam and Judaism prohibit worshipping of idols. There have to be no images of God. The reason can be found in the Ten Commandments which were received from God.

Here are the first 2 commandments

1) “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2) “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments.

It explicitly states in the first 2 commandments that God is jealous, He condemns idol worship and He would punish those who worship idols or place any other Gods before Him and the Jewish community should always remember the deeds that God did for them. (However Christianity especially Catholicism, accepts the concept of idols especially of Christ, Mary with the infant and other saints that can be worshiped. )

The Hindu worldview is different. There is no concept of a jealous God. The supreme God is benevolent, omnipresent and very forgiving. Idol worship is justified, and many idols can be worshiped. Note that Hinduism is not polytheistic, the Rig Veda states this clearly, "Truth (God) is one, but the wise refer to it by many names."

The Bhagavad Gita, which is again a direct word from Lord Krishna, states that it is acceptable to worship idols as it allows one to focus and concentrate (dhyana) while worshipping and thus an individual can achieve salvation.

Compare the following verses from the Bhagavad Gita to the first 2 commandments.

9.23 Those who worship other gods with faith and devotion also worship me, even if they do not observe the usual forms. I am the object of all worship, its enjoyer and Lord.

Thus the Bhagavad Gita accepts all forms and it doesn't prohibit a devotee from worhipping other Gods because ultimately the devotee is worshiping Him.

Jealousy is an emotion and typically refers to the negative thoughts and feelings of insecurity, fear, and anxiety over an anticipated loss of something that the person values.

The God of the Bible and the Torah is defined as a jealous God and it refers to a God who is insecure. If God is truly infinite, He cannot be jealous, thus the jealous nature attributed to Him in the Bible and the Torah cannot be true, thus the ten commandments are not a word of God but the words of the jealous Jewish priests who were afraid of losing their income if the people would wander off and worship other Gods.

The nature of God described in the Bhagavad Gita truly represents the nature of God who is infinite and hence not afraid and hence cannot be jealous and is willing to allow devotees to worship idols as they are just worshiping one of his infinite forms.

The Bhagavad Gita doesn't force idol worship and in fact worship of God without image is accepted. Refer to the following verses

12.3 -4 As for those who seek the transcendental Reality, without name, without form, contemplating the Unmanifested, beyond the reach of thought and of feeling, with their senses subdued and mind serene and striving for the good of all beings, they too will verily come unto me.

However it also states that such a worship is extremely difficult and it is very difficult for an individual to concentrate and meditate without an image.

The concept of Ishta devata, is that one chooses an image that one likes, and uses this image as the image of the supreme self. Even the prayers offered to these idols indicate this. Followers of Lord Ganesha typically recite the Atharva Sheersha Ganapathy Upanishad. The following verses clearly state that the devotee is worshipping the idol not as an image of Ganesha but as the supreme God or Brahman.

Thwameva sarvam khalvidam brahmasi,
Thwam sakshath athmasi nithyam.

You are the supreme God who conquers,
And you are the real imperishable soul.

Thus idols are worshipped not as separate Gods, but as many images of the infinite manifest and a point of concentration (dhyana) so one may perform bhakti (devotion).

3) Who are we ?

Western religions refer to human beings as creatures created in the image of God. Also Western religions typically tend to glorify themselves or members of their religious denomination as special. e.g. Judaism refers to all the Jews as special since they were the only ones who have received the word from God and hence they are superior to all other races and religions. Islam refers to all Moslems as special and that the world was created for man in order for him to enjoy and rejoice. Thus in a way western religion promotes a lifestyle that is wasteful since the world has been created for them and promotes an attitude that can be considered as arrogant and vain, probably because their origins have been glorified maybe to an extreme extent.

Also you would have to ignore the theory of evolution and other scientific discoveries since they conflict with many religious beliefs. Especially educated intellectuals will find the Bible and other western texts to be nothing more than an elaborate set of fairy tales.

Hinduism defines all creatures including man have a soul Atman that is essentially part of the universal soul Brahman. A person can be born as any living organism including human depending on one's actions in his/her past life. Buddhism also defines the world in this way. Eastern religions promote humility and forgiveness and preservation. Thus even if one believes in evolution and the big bang theory it doesn't conflict with the overall religious beliefs.

4) Worldview: Western religion believes in three worlds earth, heaven and hell. Our current life is only temporary and based on the choice we make in the world we can end up in heaven or hell. Heaven and hell is a permanent place where you will spend your time till eternity. Hence it is more important to choose the right path such as believing in Jesus as the son of God or Muhammad as the messiah to end up in heaven. Also there are huge incentives. For Moslems men are promised 72 virgins in heaven. Although it doesn't state what women would get for being Moslem.

Although eastern religions also specify heaven and hell in texts they are only relative contexts. The accepted norm is that heaven and hell are part of this planet itself. The concept of constant birth and rebirth, and the law of Karma applies to simply put all actions result in a reaction. Good actions result in good results and negative actions result in negative reactions.
If you lead a good life you may be rewarded with heaven like amenities in your next life, for e.g. if you desire 72 virgins you may be born as the son of Saudi Sheikh in your next life and you can have hundreds of virgins to your account. However it will only be temporary since you will eventually die and you will be reborn. The only thing that is permanent is to achieve liberation or Moksha. The ultimate salvation lies in escaping birth and death. For Hindus it is becoming one with Brahman the universal soul. For Buddhists it is becoming totally non existent.

5) The path to salvation:

Western religions promote the path as following rituals and their respective messiahs to achieve salvation i.e. heaven.

There is a strong enforcement of what needs to be done and the rituals that need to be followed.
Islam believes in the five pillars i.e. prayer 5 times a day, Hajj at least once in the lifetime, etc. There is a strict code to follow e.g. men need to be circumcised, women need to wear burkha and should not work, men should have a beard, meat needs to be butchered in a certain way, etc.

Judaism does have something similar with the 10 commandments which everyone has to follow.
As in Islam it is a fixed list and it doesn't adapt well to changing technologies and situations. Thus western religion adheres to a fixed set of rules and doesn't mention about meditation or peace of mind.

Eastern religions on the other hand focus on spirituality, meditation and peace of mind. That makes following Hinduism and Buddhism a very rewarding experience especially to hard working intelligent people who are troubled with constant pressure at work.
A Hindu following Bhakti Yoga or the devotional path typically meditates in front of the deity of his/her choice to obtain peace of mind. Here the idol serves as a means to focus or concentrate.

Also the religious texts promote humility, helping others, and doing one's duty for benefiting society and not just for one's personal selfish reasons. Such thinking promotes peace of mind, makes one feel good about him/herself and energizes the spirit.

For achieving salvation Hinduism suggests 3 paths, i.e. bhakti yoga, nyaana yoga and karma yoga. Buddhists suggest monkhood or relieving yourself totally of all your attachments. Some Hindu philosophies also believe in monkhood for relieving one from the constant cycle of birth and rebirth.

Buddhists also believe that Nirvana is not for everyone in their current birth. It depends on the maturity of your soul. If your soul is mature enough or tired enough you would automatically choose to be more spiritual since your soul wants to escape being born again since it is tired of being born several times. And the more energetic people are the new souls who are excited to be alive. Once they get weary they will choose to be more spiritual.

Notes:

a) As a Hindu I subscribe to the concept of rebirth and also that as mankind has conquered the planet and driven many species of organisms to extinction, they are being reborn as human beings since there is no other alternative for them. Thus we have some people who are very aggressive by nature maybe because they were carnivores in a previous birth, and some who are very modest and choose to run away from threats, who might be deer in a previous birth.

b) There is some striking similarity to the older Hindu rituals and idol worship in the temples and the Jewish worship. In Hinduism many different images of God are worshiped after "Prana-Pratishtha" which literally means infusing the life of God or Brahman in the stone. The priests are the only ones allowed to touch the idols and purifying it. This ensures that the God or Goddess stays in the idol and available for devotees to worship.

In Judaism the holy of hollies in the synagogue, is supposed to be the place where God is always present. Judaism doesn't believe in idol worship hence although the holy of the holies doesn't have any idols or images of God, this place in the synagogue is only accessible by the rabbis who are like the temple priests. They ensure that the place is clean and is ritually purified, similar to how the Hindu priests ritually purify the temples, to make sure that God always stays in the holy of the holies.

Also Judaism states that Jews need to follow a lot of rituals in order to achieve God. A lot of them are followed without questioning. This is similar to the earlier Vedic Hindu beliefs which involved a lot of rituals. Thus in a few ways Judaism seems to be in an earlier stage of development from the Brahmanic Hindusim.

6) Abstract versus Concrete:

Western religions strictly follow the stories that are spoken of in the Bible, Torah or the Quran and believe it is true. The focus of study is literal interpretation on the spoken or the written word and offers very little flexibility. Also all people follow the same text regardless of their intellectual or spiritual maturity.

Hinduism on the other hand use stories as guidelines. The underlying philosophy is given more importance. Hindus are typically open to other ideas and changing their practices to adopt any new ideas.

For e.g. The Puranas one of the Hindu texts state that the universe to be a vast cosmic ocean in which all the planets and the stars are floating. This isn't terribly different from some of the earlier scientists who believed in luminiferous ether as the substance that the universe is composed of instead of plain vacuum.

Also the Puranas state that on top of the cosmic ocean there is Lord Vishnu sleeping over Shesha. And Brahma originates from His navel to create all the worlds and so forth.

There are many different creationist theories and there are many stories some of whom conflict. Basically the stories are just guidelines meant to assist one in following the path and also they were a form of entertainment for the followers to make the religious path more interesting rather than some abstract philosophies such as Advaita Vedanta.

7) Many different paths: Hinduism offers not just one path and one set of strong beliefs but several different choices based on one's personal preference.

For e.g. if one believes in Brahmanism i.e. the concept of the universal soul and of all creatures being connected to the universal soul there are several philosophical texts such as the Advaita Vedanta that one can follow. Also Arya Samaj, Brahmo samaj are various organizations that one can become a member of to learn more about some of the philosophies.

For atheists and for people looking to live their life and not do anything else, one can follow the Carvaka philosophy which believes in living one's life to the fullest and doesn't believe in liberation of the soul.

8) (Borrowed from Shashi Tharoor's book, India from midnight to millennium) Above all, as a Hindu I belong to the only major religion in the world that does not claim to be the only true religion. I find it immensely congenial to be able to face my fellow human beings of other faiths without being burdened by the conviction that I am embarked upon a "true path" that they have missed. This dogma lies at the core of Christianity, Islam and Judaism - "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father[God] but by me" (John 14:6), says the Bible; "There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his Prophet", declares the Koran - denying unbelievers all possibility of redemption, let alone of salvation or paradise. Hinduism however asserts that all ways of belief are equally valid, and Hindus readily venerate the saints, and the sacred objects, of other faiths.

Stages of Consciousness

2007-12-08T13:14:00.001-08:00

Since consciousness is the basis of all reality, any shift in consciousness changes every aspect of our reality. Reality is created by consciousness differentiating into cognition, moods, emotions, perceptions, behaviour, speech, social interactions, environment, interaction with the forces of nature, and biology. As consciousness evolves, these different aspects of consciousness also change.

Although every spiritual tradition speaks of higher states of consciousness it is especially in Vedanta that we find such a structured map of these stages of development. The average person only experiences three states of consciousness in an entire lifetime. These are deep sleep, dreams, and waking state of consciousness. The brain functions measurably different in each of these states. Brain biology and brain waves show precise and different characteristics between sleep, dream, and waking states of consciousness.

1) Deep sleep: Deep sleep you also have a certain reality. If I scream at you, you will react. You have a degree of awareness, if your child is crying and you are the mother you will immediately respond. Spirit is in state of surveillance even in deep sleep and spirit creates a physiology for that moment.

2) Dreams: Repertoire of experience. Stories are being weaved by the Karmic software and when we are dreaming it is very real. No one can convince us that is was not real. It is only when we wake up we realize that it is not real and it was only a dream. The insight that is not a dream happens only when we wake up from the dream.

3) Vedanta says when you wake up from that dream you enter another dream that is what is called the waking state of consciousness. Presumably you are in that right now. You are in the waking state of consciousness you are participating in it without knowing that it is ephemeral or transitory. That is why you get caught up in the melodrama and the hysteria and the anxiety of the dream . You will remain in it until you wake up from it and get insight that aha! it was an amazing state.

Spiritual practice or sadhana begins the process by which an individual transforms his or her consciousness from these three common states of consciousness into " higher states" of consciousness.

You wake up from the “waking state” and when you have the first glimpse of the soul. Walt Whitman said I must not be awake as everything looks to me as it never did before. Else I am awake now and all that occurred before was just a dream. Gautam Buddha said “the lifestyle of ours is as transient as the autumn clouds. To watch the birth and death of beings is like looking at the movement of a dance a lifetime is like the flash of lightning in the sky rushing by like a torrent from the steep mountain. Now I am awake (meaning of the word Buddha), waking up from the insubstantial reality and glimpsing into the soul. You can glimpse into the soul. Example turn your attention to who is listening, there is a presence there and it is not your mind. The ever present witnessing awareness is the soul. As you peel the layers even in dreams and even in wakefulness, you see a body out there you can witness it. You can witness it now without experiencing death.

Through of any of the four primary yoga practices (the yogas of being, feeling, thinking, doing) the mind is led past its conditioned states to its pure unconditioned state. Beyond the first 3 states of consciousness are the following four states: Soul consciousness, Cosmic consciousness, Divine consciousness and Unity consciousness. As each state of consciousness unfolds within us, it opens us into a newer more expanded reality. Let's discuss each of these in turn:

1) Soul consciousness is the state we experience when our internal reference point shifts from body, mind, and ego, to the observer of body, mind, and ego. We experience and cultivate Soul consciousness when we meditate. This observer is referred to as the witnessing awareness. During meditation, a person begins to identify with this aspect of the Self which is beyond thinking and feeling, (the silent witness), and then he or she begins to feel more calm, centered and intuitive in daily life. As the authentic core of oneself solidifies, there is less emotional drama in their lives. Relationships are more loving and compassionate and one finds a deeper more caring relationship with the environment and nature. With the experience of the silent witness, the biology will also reflect greater balance and the activation of homeostatic mechanisms. Meditation has been shown to lead to the reduction of stress markers, slower heart rate, lower blood pressure, enhanced immune function, and orderly and precise self-repair mechanisms. Those who practice meditation are less prone to sickness.

2) Cosmic consciousness is the state when soul consciousness gets stabilized and the witnessing awareness is present all the time in waking, dreaming, and sleeping states. This state of consciousness is sometimes described in traditions as being both local and non-local simultaneously. The silent witness Self is unbounded, but the body and the conditioned mind is localized. In the Christian tradition the phrase "to be in the world and not of it," describes this flavor of Cosmic consciousness. In this state, even during deep sleep, the witnessing awareness is fully awake and there is the realization that one is not the mind/body, which is in the field of change, but rather an eternal spirit that transcends space and time. The most remarkable aspect of this state of consciousness is the knowledge of one's nature as timeless and therefore no fear of death. Although Cosmic consciousness is not the pinnacle of enlightenment, nevertheless it marks the critical transition from an identity bound to a conditioned life, to a life of freedom in self-knowledge.

3) Divine consciousness is the expansion of cosmic consciousness where the ever-present witnessing awareness is experienced not only in the silence of the Self, but also in the most abstract qualities of nature and the mind. Dormant potentials such as the awakening of the nonlocal senses (referred to in Sanskrit as tanmatras) begin to be experienced. As the individual mind starts to access these unused realms of the psyche, they will activate extraordinary spiritual abilities previously thought to be unattainable. These include experiences such as knowledge of past and future, clairvoyance, refined sense of taste, smell, sight, touch and hearing, control over bodily functions, heart rate, and autonomic functions. In other words, objects are experienced simultaneously on a gross sensory level and subtle more abstract level. Appreciation of life from this more refined perspective represents the real engagement of the heart and love as the engine of spiritual growth at this stage. By experiencing the patterns and deeper connections that underlie external diversity, we find our soul is stirred by a profound sense of beauty, awe, compassion, gratitude and love. The integrating power of these qualities brings together the polarized world of Cosmic consciousness which is divided between the Self and non-Self. In Divine Consciousness this harmonizing and synthesizing power is felt as the presence of Divinity in our heart. Wherever one goes one feels the presence of the Divine. The Vedic seers would say in Divine consciousness, God is not difficult to find, but impossible to avoid. At this stage, there is an even greater conviction of the immortality of existence, not only as nonlocal consciousness, but also in the knowledge that you are that enduring presence of divine love. Divine consciousness also brings a deeper experience of liberation, as the external sensory world is no longer seen as a kind of spiritual exile which the soul must endure, but rather the world is a manifestation of the beauty, and love of one's consciousness and therefore integral to one's spirituality.

4) Unity consciousness is also referred to as Brahman consciousness. It is a state of consciousness where the ever-present witness is not just recognized as the core Self of one's existence, it is now perceived as the primary reality of every experience. You, as the observer, are that pure consciousness. The process of observation is also that consciousness. And the object of observation is that same pure consciousness. The culmination of enlightenment is the knowledge that consciousness alone exists, that is all there is , was, or ever will be. That oneness, or unity, dominates awareness even as one engages in the same mundane details of life as before. One ceases to identify with an individual body-mind apparatus and sees the whole universe as one's physical body. Of course, there is a personal body and there is a material universe, experienced through the senses, but they are now cognized to be incorporated in that one single reality of consciousness.

Dormant potentials previously mentioned are now fully operative. There is the ability to heal and transform others and everything is experienced as miraculous. A flower is seen as a flower but is also experienced as rainbows and sunshine and earth and water and wind and air and the infinite void and the whole history of the universe swirling and transiently manifesting as the flower. In other worlds every object is seen as the total universe transiently manifesting as a particular object. And behind the scenes one can feel the presence of the same ever-present witnessing awareness that is now in both subject and object. Unity consciousness is the ultimate level of freedom from fear. It is characterized by an abiding sense of joy and peace. There is no "other" outside of oneself to be afraid of, and the constant dance of unity masquerading as diversity is seen as the blissful nature of life itself. All of creation is seen as the play of consciousness or leela.

This state of enlightenment is sometimes compared to the drop of water that is experiencing itself as the ocean, knowing that it was the ocean the whole time. You and God are now one because there is no you left any more. Sometimes when people try to conceptualize this by projecting their current sense of self into Unity consciousness they are afraid that in losing their old identity they will lose their existence, memories and individual perspective. But the enlightened person doesn't' see it that way. They understand that personal identity was an illusion to begin with. They realize that nothing real or valuable is ever lost on the path to enlightenment. They are experiencing their original identity but only now recognizing it in its completeness and its full glory. This state is of course described in the Vedantic tradition but is beautifully captured in the following verses from T.S. Elliot:

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

This brief outline of higher states of consciousness is only intended to give a general sense of the unfolding of human potential. It is important to emphasize that spiritual development is not fundamentally an intellectual or a faith-driven enterprise. Enlightenment is not attained by reading and studying, nor by fervent belief in something outside yourself. The development of higher states of consciousness primarily comes down to regularly and systematically experiencing deeper values of the Self and then integrating that into one's daily life. The specific experiences an individual has on this journey, will necessarily vary, based on the spiritual tradition and practice one follows, but also based upon your own personal history and tendencies.

Reference: Deepak Chopra's texts

Summary of Vedanta - excerpt from Deepak Chopra's video

2007-12-08T13:00:00.000-08:00

In this blog I would like to highlight the Vedantic perspective and provide a summary of the key Vedantic philosophies. Some of the material is from Deepak Chopra's video on God and Buddha.

Vedanta is the great wisdom tradition of India that goes back to at least 1500 BC. Authors are the great rishis who spent several eras of time thinking about various questions and developed sophisticated philosophies to explain the meaning of life.

During the 1st millennium of common era the people in the Indian subcontinent began to discard the simple teachings and stories of Gods and miraculous mythologies and the first level of God. Survival became easy and relatively more organized. Decided that the human being need not fear reality but was at a point where he was able to understand and question reality.

Veda means knowledge and Vedanta literally means the end of knowledge. Vedanta says that there are 5 reasons why human beings suffer, these are called Kleshas in Sanskrit.

Not knowing the true nature of reality.
Clinging to or grasping or holding to that which is ephemeral transitory or not real.
Aversion to, revulsion to, running away from, fear of that which is insubstantial transitory, ephemeral or not real.
Identification with a false and constricted and habitual self i.e. ego
Fear of death.

All other causes of suffering can be somehow related to these five.

And all of these 5 causes of suffering are contained in the first one i.e. not knowing the true nature of reality.

The only cause of suffering is not knowing the true nature of reality.

Essence of Buddhism is the alleviation of suffering and not the abstractions of reincarnation. Buddhism is a practical religion and doesn’t delve into abstractions. Buddhism answers the question "What is the cause of human suffering and what is the way out of it ?"

The true nature of reality: The true nature of reality is Brahman. If you ask someone to describe it, he/she can’t. He/She would refer to it as “that”, or in Sanskrit “Thath”. Vedanta says I am that you are that and that is ... That is infinite, eternal, dynamic, ineffable, silent, infinite intelligence, infinite dynamism.

And this Brahman projects itself as the physical universe (including you and me) through the power of Maya. Maya technically means measurement, although translated sometimes referred to as illusion. Because you are trying to measure is the infinite. Through the measurement of infinite you give birth to the concept of time. Maya, meter, time, measurement, music, matter refer to the womb of creation.

The unbounded womb of creation which projects itself through the concept of Maya to the realm of space time and causation. It does so through the web of karma. Karma is the result of our past actions on an individual level, a collective level and also on a deeper more mythical level. The remnants of Karma, our past actions are like seeds in our consciousness. And these remnants of Karma constantly actualize into our consciousness into our subjective experience. They are just the seeds of the past experience. They are not memories themselves but they are virtual memories, just like you have virtual protons and virtual particles. They are not part of our brain, but are part of the software of our soul.

A person who wrote Reagan’s biography stated one incident, apparently Mr. Reagan came from a therapy session. Someone had left a toy white house. Mr. Reagan tried to clutch onto a toy white house. When asked he said “I don’t know what it is but I think it is something to do with me”.

In Sanskrit it is called Samskara, or potential memory or the remnant of Karma. We all have spiritual alzheimers. We have this faint memory that somewhere there is a soul here, we know it has something to do with me but we don’t know what it is. Bible states “ what good does it do a man to find the whole world but to lose one’s soul”.

Losing the soul we begin to have the experience of suffering.

The karmic software which is actualizing into our consciousness it appears as our thoughts, our own memories, desires, feelings and emotions. During the daytime, rational mind, it weaves stories around the Karmic software, it does so quite logically at least to the rational mind and we live out these stories we call them “everyday reality”. Same thing happens at night but the rational mind is asleep, so there is not a consistent logic to these stories at night and we call them dreams. Vedanta says the mechanics of the dream and the waking state of consciousness is the same.

One is being given a rationalization and other is not. It is just the karmic software that is appearing in your consciousness and is making stories out of them and you are living these stories out and you get so caught up in the melodrama and the hysteria of the stories that you forget who you are.

It is like going to a good movie and getting lost in the movie. The only way to come out of the tangled hierarchy, the seer loses itself in the scenery, the lover loses himself/herself in the beloved, the knower in knowledge and so forth. Never remembering that there is a timeless factor in the midst of the experience. All experience is time bound, a beginning a middle and an ending. In the midst of all this there is a timeless factor it is the experiencer. The Experiencer is the eye inside. Not the personal eye but the collective eye and the universal eye.

There are six stages of Awareness or consciousness. All of reality is a projection of which state of consciousness you are in. Depending on which state of consciousness you are in you project a certain state of reality. If I peel beneath the layers of my soul I will go beyond my constricted fabrication, the constricted self identity that I have and will realize who I really am. And this is the essence of Vedanta.

Vedanta says there are 4 ways to do it

1) Karma yoga: Be always reminding yourself that no matter what you are doing you are not doing it. It is God, God does everything and this is the machinery through which the divine intelligence is working. The essence of Karma yoga is to be established in being and perform action. Yogasth Gurukarma Karmaniyasth as Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita.
2) Through love or the experience of love. This is bhakti yoga or devotion. It is the simplest and the most enjoyable but it gets you to the same place. Love is the ultimate reality and the ultimate truth in the heart of creation. We are all the same being but in different disguises. Once we realize that it becomes impossible to hurt or be hurt. What the Buddha refers to as compassion is really the experiential knowledge of love as the ultimate truth at the heart of creation.
3) Raja Yoga i.e. meditation and its allied disciplines. Different types of ways to dive between the gaps of our thoughts, or go beyond the secret passages and the dark alleys of our minds and find the part of ourselves that does not die.
4) Nyaana Yoga: Intellectual approach, razor’s edge i.e. to use the intellect to go beyond the intellect. That itself is a paradox but it is possible. To go beyond the rational mind.

That is the summary of Vedanta and all the 112 Upanishads talk about these few principles.

If one has gotten close to the event horizon which is called enlightenment then that experiential knowledge of immortality solves all suffering. Because you find out who you really are. As the Sufi poet Rumi said in one of his poems “By God when you see beauty you will be idol of yourself”.