Aneesh's Hinduism thread

[aneeshm]

In the spirit of the other religion threads - as one of the forum's few Hindus , I post here my thread where I will entertain queries on Hinduism . Ask without fear , and without prejudice , and I shall answer to the best of my ability .

 

[skadistic]

Can you explain the gods to me. Whats up with cows? And why is the Gangies (SP?) river so filthy?

 

[El_Machinae]

Should I be afraid of Thuggees? Or should I be afraid that a Hindu MIGHT be a Thuggee?

 

[Bozo Erectus]

I admire your courage aneeshm

Heres one: How old is Hinduism?

 

[Abaddon]

Seen people have gods of almost everything in hindusim.. which do you think from a westerners perspective would seem the most foolish

(im thinking rat temple atm.. could be wrong religion there though! lol)

 

[aneeshm]

Can you explain the gods to me. Whats up with cows? And why is the Gangies (SP?) river so filthy?

Hindu thought holds that there is only one universal god , and that all the gods we worship are the represtntations that humans are capable of comprehending ( as God is without attributes which we can understand , as he is not bound by the laws of this universe ) .

As there are different types of people , there have to be different types of gods to appeal to them . That is why you will find that no matter the type of person you are , you will find a God you can like in the Hindu pantheon ( after all , the pantheon was constructed/evolved pricisely to meet this need ) .


As for why the Ganga is filthy - it is because of two reasons . The first in industrial pollution - the biggest , AFAIK , reason for filth . The second is because there are just so many of us and just one river .

 

[aneeshm]

Should I be afraid of Thuggees? Or should I be afraid that a Hindu MIGHT be a Thuggee?

The thuggees died out long ago . Have no fear of them .

 

[aneeshm]

I admire your courage aneeshm

Heres one: How old is Hinduism?

No precise date has been found . According to the alignment of start given in the Vedas , Hinduism must be far older than previously thought . The oldest ruins ( of huge cities ) found till now lie in the Rann of Kutch , in Gujarat , where flooding occured before 7500 BC .


Here is a link to a guy's article about the age of the Vedas . He has written it for a different purpose - to refute the Aryan invasion theory , but I leave him to grind his own axe . What is pertinent here is that he gives some rather convincing data about the age of the Vedas , and consequently of Hinduism ( as the Vedas are the earliest scriptures of Hinduism , the bedrock upon which the whole of India in built ) .

 

[skadistic]

So the elephant with 8 arms is the same god as the chick with 8 arms just a diffrent version.


Why are cows so special? And if you don't eat the tasty beast do you use it for milk?

 

[aneeshm]

Seen people have gods of almost everything in hindusim.. which do you think from a westerners perspective would seem the most foolish

(im thinking rat temple atm.. could be wrong religion there though! lol)

Yes , a temple to rats does exist , but that is an aberration . Because there is no prohibition on anybody building a temple to anything , quite a few wierd temples exist . They're isolated instances of wierdness , but also monuments to the tolerance of Hinduism .

 

[punkbass2000]

Great thread, I'll try to keep up with it.

 

[Xanikk999]

Odd. I always thought hinduism was polytheistic. I knew the main god ( forget his name ) had other forms which were called different names. But i always seen so many gods i didnt realize they all were one. Am i getting this right?

 

[aneeshm]

So the elephant with 8 arms is the same god as the chick with 8 arms just a diffrent version.


Why are cows so special? And if you don't eat the tasty beast do you use it for milk?

Exactly . Think of it as different front-ends to the same server software . Clearer now ? Each person has his own preferences in the interface , but the back-end is the same . All these are mainfestations of God , tailored to suit the devotee .

And the elephant is only a human form with an elephant head . And yes , you got it right about the elephant and the goddess .

It is probable that the sacredness of cows evolved for three reasons . One was economic , the other moral , and the third religious .

Morally , it was gratitude to an animal that was the source of five good things ( the panchagavya ) ( milk , curd , ghee ( clarified butter ) , cow dung ( used as fuel , and to keep mud huts cool in summertime ) , and cow urine ( used in the medicine of those times as an antiseptic ) ) .

The economic reason was that cows were a type of seed capital - if the crops failed during one season , the farmer ( who was the mainstay of the economy at the time , and still is now ) could survive with his cow , but if he killed the cow , he would be left with nothing . Cows and bullocks served the same purpose farming machines do now - if you ate your machinery , there would be nothing left for you next time on .

The religious reason was the influence of the child of Hinduism - the Buddha . Buddhism encouraged complete non-violence to living beings , specially forbidding the deliberate inflicting of violence when a non-violent path would suffice . The emperor Ashoka's adoption of Buddhism convinced the nobility and the upper classes to become vegetarian . Soon this spread downwards along the social and economic ladder .

I'd say that this is a good thing - it is far easier to sustain a vegetarian population that a non-vegetarian one , in terms of resources required . But that may just be the vegetarian in me spaeking .

 

[Bozo Erectus]

No precise date has been found . According to the alignment of start given in the Vedas , Hinduism must be far older than previously thought . The oldest ruins ( of huge cities ) found till now lie in the Rann of Kutch , in Gujarat , where flooding occured before 7500 BC.

Im sure its even much older than that. Thats just when it emerges out of the fog of prehistory.

Great link

 

[aneeshm]

Odd. I always thought hinduism was polytheistic. I knew the main god ( forget his name ) had other forms which were called different names. But i always seen so many gods i didnt realize they all were one. Am i getting this right?

The only differences that exist are academic debates about which god is the primary mainfestation ( of which all others are sub-mainfestations , at least for this universe ) . As everyone agrees that it doesn't matter to the genuine seeker which form god is worshipped in , I consider that debate to be useless nit-picking .

 

[Capulet]

So you are saying that Hinduism is monotheistic?

I've always heard there were three major Hindu gods, Vishnu the Preserver, Shiva the Destroyer, and Shakti the Great Mother, and that there are individual incarnations of these gods, not of one God. Whats the deal? And what God is mostly prayed to?

 

[El_Machinae]

it is far easier to sustain a vegetarian population that a non-vegetarian one , in terms of resources required . But that may just be the vegetarian in me spaeking

I agree with this as well!

Are Sihks violent due to their religion?

 

[skadistic]

I like this thread. Knowing much about the "big three" religions and little about hinduism this an educational read for me.

Thanks Aneesh.

 

[punkbass2000]

Odd. I always thought hinduism was polytheistic. I knew the main god ( forget his name ) had other forms which were called different names. But i always seen so many gods i didnt realize they all were one. Am i getting this right?

All the different gods can be referred to as "avatars" of the "main god", if I'm not mistaken.

 

[GeneralZed]

Were Hindus at war apart from the Pakistani-Indian war over Kashmir? To be more precise about religion? Like Christians conquering back Jerusalem in the crusades?