Why Hinduism? Why
not reviving any other religion from
around the world ? It is only the Hindu philosophy which can bring about a
sweeping change in the way people think
around the world.
True Hinduism is not about Idol worshiping, about rituals and about temple hopping. Hinduism is all about self-realization and logical approach to life , which has been influencing us for over 8000 years. Hinduism, in its true and pure form is a way of life that in a nutshell teaches you:
True Hinduism is not about Idol worshiping, about rituals and about temple hopping. Hinduism is all about self-realization and logical approach to life , which has been influencing us for over 8000 years. Hinduism, in its true and pure form is a way of life that in a nutshell teaches you:
1.
Do
not attach yourself to this worldly life, or you will suffer now and in rebirth.
2. Adopt a peaceful way of life. Non-violence approach
to life will only brings peace to the
society.
3. Never kill man or animal, unless
necessary to protect society.
4. Make your mind your weapon to conquer all that you want to,
for mind is the strongest part of any body.
5.
Live
a simple and clean life. Be humble
and respect others. Be tolerant and live on vegetarian diet.
Very few people across the globe knows the true philosophy of Hinduism. The ancient philosophy of Hinduism
are based upon the four Vedas:
The Vedas are the oldest and most authoritative
scriptures of Hinduism. All other scriptures are subordinate to
them. They were not composed by anybody but were ‘revealed’ to the Rishis;
hence they are also called ‘Shruti’, ‘that which is heard’. The
earlier part of the Vedas may have been composed between 2000 B.C. and 1000
B.C. There are four Vedas: Rig-veda, Yajur-veda, Sama-veda and
Atharva-veda. Each of these has four divisions: Samhita,
Brahmana, Aranyaka and Upanishads.
Samhita: This section is a collection of hymns addressed to various
deities. Many of these hymns have deep mystical significance.
Brahmana: This
portion deals with various rituals and also with moral principles.
Aranyaka: This
portion contains various meditations. Some of these meditations are
mental recreations of external rituals.
Upanishads: These
are the records of the transcendental experiences gained by Rishis by following
different contemplative techniques. These experiences are actually
revelations about Atman, Brahman and other eternal, universal truths regarding
the ultimate Reality.
These eternal truths and principles of the
spiritual world, lying scattered in the Upanishads, were brought together and
codified by Badarayana in the form of sutras or aphorisms in
the 5th century B.C. These sutras known
as Brahma Sutras form the foundation of the system of
philosophy known as Vedanta-Darshana.
Vedanta
Thus the term Vedanta stands for three inter-related
things:
(a) the Upanishads collectively, which form
the last and the most important part of the Vedas;
(b) the eternal truths and principles of the spiritual realm;
(c) the system of philosophy based on Brahma Sutras.
(b) the eternal truths and principles of the spiritual realm;
(c) the system of philosophy based on Brahma Sutras.
However, it is mostly in the last sense of Vedanta
Darshana (Vedanta Philosophy) that the term Vedanta is commonly
used.
In this connection it should be pointed out that
five more systems of philosophy arose in India in the early centuries of the
Christian era. These are:
1) Mimamsa, founded by
Jaimini
2) Vaisheshika,
founded by Kanada
3) Nyaya, founded by
Gautama
4) Sankhya, founded by
Kapila
5) Yoga, founded by
Patanjali
These five systems of philosophy always remained
confined to small groups of intellectuals. They never became identified
with the mainstream religion of the land and, in due course, they ceased to be
in vogue. Vedanta alone remained the main philosophy of India from the
Vedic period, and Vedanta alone got identified with the religion of the
land. As already mentioned, Vedanta is both philosophy and
religion. This combined religious and philosophical tradition of
India came to be called Sanatana Dharma, “Eternal Religion” and,
still later, as Hinduism.
The greatness of Hinduism lies in the following few
words:
“Vasudhaaiva Kutumbakam” means
the world is a one big family.
“Ayam bandhurayam neti ganana
laghuchetasam,
Udaracharitanam tu vasudhaiva
Kutumbakam”
(Maha Upanishad: ch6, verse 72)
Which means, “One is my brother and the other is not- is
the thinking of a small minded person, for those with a broad noble mind, this
world is a big family”
“Yathum Oore Yavarum Kelir”
Which means “every place is my
home town; everyone is my kin”
(Song 192, by Kanniyan
Poongundran 100BC)
Tell me, which religion or philosophy across the world
can compare with the mind and heart
of a true Hindu? Nevertheless, who is a true Hindu? Unfortunately, I have no answer to this. Hindus are not the true Hindus anymore, they have been corrupted
mentally and culturally by the alien invaders in course of these few thousand
years. With the repeated alien invasions came new
and unwarranted culture and
lifestyles. With the alien invasions, one Hindu was used against another Hindu to pass on secret
information to the invaders. This ultimately made the Hindus corrupt who got the taste of easy money by helping the invaders by providing information on another Hindu in order to
weaken the once ruling Hindu Kings and regions. This trend continued and is
still in vogue today. This is why we see
so much corruption and decay in the
Hindu culture today.
When we think we are advancing and progressing
by imitating the Western culture, we are in fact losing too
much on improving upon our spiritual values. There is a craze for new cell
phone, new cars, new computers and tablets and designer clothing. Universally,
we human like to lead a superficial
life by getting attracted to luxury, comfort and super
gadgets. This has happened to the Hindus too. With alien cultures came intense
meat eating , smoking and alcohol , ignoring the cardinal principles of Ahimsa
and self control. With the passing of
time Hindus totally lost their philosophical
origin and not only did they accept alien cultures but also corrupted
their own philosophical values, religion and culture. Hindus are mostly
influenced by the Gods and Goddesses from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
Instead of taking a lesson from the dialogues and words from these Epics, they
instead built temples to worship the images of these Gods and Goddesses. Huge
amount of money are collected by these
temples and huge amount of money and time are wasted on religious activities. These are
mostly a deviation from the original Hindu philosophies of self-realisation that one can find in the
Upanishads/Vedanta.
Hindus today are
confused lots, with the alien cultures and religions left behind by the alien
rulers for India to nurse and nurture them, Hindus, with little persuasion and
material attractions are quickly being converted into different religions, completely losing their
identity and culture. They do not even know their own religious philosophies.
Ignorance of their rich religious philosophies and taking advantage of the many Gods and Goddesses that Hindus
worship, the alien religions try and prove why the Hindu religion is a myth and
theirs’ true, as Gods remain unseen in
their religions.
Unless the Hindus
are educated in their own culture and religious philosophies, they will
continue to convert into different religions and in time turn a minority in
their own country. The Hindus are only
bringing this upon themselves by not inculcating the essence of Hinduism into their own people.
I speak to Hindus
from different regions of India about religions, their versions are varied and
different too, except for the historical facts from the Epics.
Hinduism needs to
be revived in order to survive the test of time and to spread its philosophical values across the
globe. In today’s world it is only and only
Hinduism that could bring back the
glorious peace across the length and breadth of the globe. In order to revive Hinduism we need to consider certain facts and resolve upon the following:
1. Stop spending money and
time excessively on rituals, pujas and religious occasions. Collect those
monies and use it to penetrate into every little inch of Indian land and teach
the people, our philosophical values.
2. Compulsory education in
Bharatiya philosophy from kindergarten until High school. The teachings of Upanishads, Jainism and Buddhism should form a compulsory subject.
3. Instead of building temples
and religious places, those monies should be used for the construction of
better public facilities, like homes for the senior citizens, schools, colleges
and centers for Indian philosophies, where laymen could attend free lectures on
the ancient Indian philosophies, a certificate of attendance could offer them a
better job or facility.
4. Active and educated
people from the Bharatiya dharma should preach their philosophical teachings
among the ignorant Indian people. Indian people should know what the “educated”
white people think about our philosophies instead of blindly converting to
another religion. Our Indian philosophies are rich in logic and meditation. It
is a gift to the world. Unfortunately, we have not been able to spread those
across the globe.
5. It is better for an
Indian to follow any one of the three religious philosophies- Hinduism, Jainism
or Buddhism, instead of following any non-Indian religion.
6.
Remember, the
first religion in the world that was sent to mankind was Hinduism, some 8000
years ago. It came from the heaven, right into the hearts of the Rishis and the
Seers, who could not read or write. Reading and writing came some 1000 BC ago,
when the Vedas were compiled in a written form. The Rishis and the Seers were
enlightened and the words of the God were sent to them, who in return, spread
it amongst their people from the words of mouth. So the first heavenly set of
books are the Vedas; last one being the most important-The Upanishads.
7.
We
are witnessing a strange phenomenon across the world; violence. Violence in the form of terrorism, organised
crimes, senseless mass shooting, rape, murder, loss of emotion, sentiment and
values, which are all in the news all
the time all over the world. Strange enough, there is one thing common to
all the violence all over the world;
people involved in all these crimes are those eating animals, birds, fishes and
other living creatures. Killing,
torturing and eating creatures, all goes
a long way in conditioning our minds. It is not necessary,
those eating meat would turn violent and
killers; the same way not all the students studying in the same class in
the same school ranks first, second and
third in the group. With the practice of
killing, torturing and eating living creatures, some turn killers, some violent, some
arrogant, some angry, while
some remain calm but victims of diseases and terminal illnesses.
Unfortunately, our ancient Indian
doctrines of Ahimsa and Re-birth
as preached by the Bharatiya Dharma comprising of Hinduism, Jainism and
Buddhism, are yet to be understood and
accepted by the people across the world. For example, take for instance any
remote Indian village in Rajasthan and Gujarat, with the absence
of non-vegetarian people, the animals and the village people, practicing
vegetarianism, live in harmony. The
doctrine of Ahimsa clearly
forbids us from torturing and killing
any living being, eating any living being, spilling blood or showing
anger. Once we learn to practice and respect the doctrine of Ahimsa, we learn
to respect and value lives in all forms. We learn to control our emotions and practice
non-violence, road that leads us to
peace and harmony in our
lives. In the same way, Re-birth a cardinal principal in the Bharatiya Dharma (comprising of
Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism) believes
in the rebirth of every living being in this world, in the form of human or any
other living creature, which are reborn here
to live for a specific period of time. When we believe in this basic and
primary principal, we also believe in the
right to life for each such living creature, who is re-born in this world
as a living creature for a specified time period . When we prematurely forfeit the lives of these living
creatures and turn them into our food, we bring
upon ourselves the curse of those living beings, which manifests itself
in the form of such heinous crimes all
around the world. With the
premature killing of living
beings, we dangerously turn the balance
of birth and rebirth against the wheel of time. This disturbance in the natural rebirth process is the cause of all that evil, violence
and sin that man is committing
all over the world. With the passing of time the intensity of
such crimes are becoming severe and
frequent. This is evident from the nature and the frequency of the crime
rates all over the world, between now and 50 years ago.
8.
An ideal India needs to be established
immediately introducing the richness of our ancient philosophy. Our motherland,
which feeds, clothes and shelters us, has all the right to ask her citizens to
know her ancient past and her philosophies.
9.
Indian indigenous religions, comprising of
Sanatana Dharma(Hinduism), Buddhism and Jainism should immediately sit and
resolve issues and form “Bharatiya Dharma”. With unity and effective planning,
every inch of India should be reached and the ancient Indian philosophies
preached to the people and with some economic and social incentives, reconvert
them into the folds of Bharatiya Dharma. I am positive, with the right
approach, many Indians who converted themselves from indigenous religions to
foreign religions due to economic or social attractions, would readily
reconvert themselves to one of the indigenous religions, if they got same or
similar incentives.
10. The money that lies in the religious treasuries of
Temples, Monasteries and other religious sansthas, should be used for spreading
the ancient Indian philosophies and for financing the reconversion process of
the Indian people who may have gone astray due to financial conditions or
social stigma.
11. Indians are becoming more religious by the day. People
from each community are actively engaged into religious rituals and gradually
letting themselves into the whirlpool of rituals, customs and ceremonies. An
occasion, which was never celebrated some 50 year ago, today finds a national
holiday in the Indian calendar. This is an unhealthy trend and to appease the
Indian public the ruling government bows down to the pressure in recognising a
given event or religious occasion.
12. The true Indian
doctrine of “Ahimsa” and “Re-birth” should be reintroduced in our constitution
and Indians should uphold the beauty and the dignity of both these cardinal
principles on which the ancient Indian philosophies are based; India needs to
be compulsorily a vegetarian country.
13. Today the
misery, suffering, malady and hopelessness the majority of the Indian people
are experiencing, is due to the conflict between what they are supposed to
follow and what they are actually following in reality. Indians are supposed to
be spiritually strong, knowledgeable, vegetarians, peace loving, merciful, compassionate
, loving and forgiving. In reality, with the alien invasions, influence of the
Greeks, the Huns, the Barbarians, the Arabs, the Turks, the Moguls and the
British, Indians have forgotten their roots and got into following a mixture of
cultures of the alien invaders and many of them even take pride in following
the superficial life style and culture of these aliens, which are mostly
violence based and void of philosophy and compassion. They find it below their
dignity and pride to practice the humbleness of our Indian philosophies. Many
of them even find the humbleness weak and humiliating. For instance
“vegetarian” foods are regarded as weak while “non-vegetarian” foods are
regarded as manly, tasty and strength giving. Such myths are ignorance based,
only compulsory introduction of vegetarianism in India could eradicate such
thoughts from the minds of the ignorant Indians.
14. Superficially, the temple hopping, spending billions
of rupees on deities and pujas are all very impressive and glamorous. Did anyone
of you ever stop to think, with the passing of time you are immersed into
worshipping while squandering the wealth you accumulate for unproductive
purposes? If you realise what I am saying you will immediately recover from the
intoxication you are immersed into and straightaway stand to attention to my
alarm and realise that while all of you were immersed into performing the pujas
and deriving pleasure from it, wholesale, many of your brothers and sisters
converted themselves into different religions which are not a part of the
Bharatiya Dharma. If you still keep yourselves immersed in the pujas and
worshipping and keep squandering the wealth that your religious bodies
accumulate for religious purposes instead of spending it for spreading the
Bharatiya religions, you will find in another 50 years from now the Bharatiya
Dharma will almost not exist and by then repentance will be terminal.
15. The ancient Indian philosophies are for all the seven
billion people across the world and not only for the Hindus, the Buddhists and
the Jaina. Each and every one around the globe needs to, at least, take a dip
into it and turn up knowledgeable and rediscover himself or herself. There is
no shame if I profess another religion; knowledge is for each one of us and
there is no end to gaining knowledge. Unless we take a dip into it how will we
learn what we are missing. It is the duty of the active people from the
Bharatiya Dharma to approach the people first in India and then across the
world to spread the message of our saints and seers which is incomparable and
filled with love, compassion and mercy. The miracle of our philosophies will
humble those sword wielding, clenched fisted tyrants, once they take a dip into
the ocean of knowledge that the ancient Indian philosophies offer. Only a dip
can be taken into this vast ocean of knowledge because one lifetime is too
small to acquire the eternal knowledge that the Indian philosophies hold.
16. Every Indian should know the atrocities of the alien
invaders upon India and Indians and the basics of Indian history before they
are issued with an Indian Passport.
It is time we standardise the Sanatana Dharma in order to spread its teachings and philosophies across the world and humble the violent and destructive minded people, making them believe in themselves and in controlling themselves spiritually rather than the urge and desire to control the world and its people. Success in each one of us lies in our ability in controlling our desires, greed , passion, expectation and ambition instead of seeking to control other people, land and the world at large. This is true Hinduism in its truest form. If this knowledge and spirit is inculcated into each and every person across the world, this world will itself turn into a heaven. In our hands lies our ability to turn this world into a heaven for all of us, just by following the Ancient Indian Philosophies in its truest form.
Other websites by the same author:
www.peacefulindians.co.in, www.compassion.net.in, www.vegetarianmuslims.org
Ershad Hossain-Author
Please write and express your point of view so that I may clarify your questions.
Please help me by registering as many email addresses of vegetarian people across the world, whichever religion they may belong to. This will help unite a large section of people in order to fight for animal rights. Right now we are all scattered and there is no co-ordination among the vegetarian people.
peacefulindians@gmail.com
Other blogs and websites by the same author:
www.universaltruth4u.blogspot.com,
www.vegetariansuperpower.blogspot.com,
www.indiaspastb4passport.blogspot.com,
www.compassion.net.in,
www.peacefulindians.co.in,
www.vegetarianmuslims.org,
Other blogs and websites by the same author:
www.universaltruth4u.blogspot.com,
www.vegetariansuperpower.blogspot.com,
www.indiaspastb4passport.blogspot.com,
www.compassion.net.in,
www.peacefulindians.co.in,
www.vegetarianmuslims.org,