karthik

<a href="http://www.sulekha.com/column.asp?cid=245733" target="_blank">http://www.sulekha.com/column.asp?cid=245733</a>

Radcliffe Emerson

The web link cannot be displayed

Grizzly

Hi Radcliffe,

I can open the link just fine.

Grizzly

Radcliffe Emerson

I tried again, and it's opening now for me also.

Oh, and of course Western studies will be prejudiced against Hinduism. Western studies are prejudiced against just about everything else in the world not Western, in my opinion.

[ September 24, 2002: Message edited by: Radcliffe Emerson ]</p>

never been there

Now there's a syllogism that fell apart between ought and is.

But their point is well-taken, if only that you don't have to be as careful in describing a religion that takes ahimsa into practice (well, some of the time).

Primal

That's absurd "the encyclopedia is just biased against us" I can't remember anything that silly since my older brother said that the encyclopedia was biased because it said that the earth was about 4.8 billion years old instead of his cherished belief that the earth was 49,000 years old.

Sarpedon

I agree that modern scholarship is biased against non-abrahamic religions. To reduce the beliefs of a religion of a billion people to a statement about two heros and one god is ludicrous. A far better description of hinduism would be "hinduism is the belief that all things are a manifestation of the Ultimate God and Enlightenment consists of reaching a unity with that God." The hindu belief in the "god man" such as Rama and Krishna, though important, is merely an accessory to a more fundamental belief. T

The fact is that Europeans and Americans tend to mock all differing beliefs, whether they be that the world is young, or that everything, including cockroaches, is a manifestation of God. I think there is merit to the argument.

hinduwoman

The problem is they chose Wendy Doniger as the author, because she has managed to convince the academia that she is very good. Doniger is sexmad. Whenever she looks at any Hindu god, symbol, religious ritual and myth she sees it as representations of homosexuality, incest, castration, anal intercourse and fantasies of having a bigger penis.

However there are some good books on Hinduism:

<a href="http://www.sulekha.com/allcomments.asp?cid=245733" target="_blank">http://www.sulekha.com/allcomments.asp?cid=245733</a>
One readers provides example from Stepehen Cross' book to illustrate the difference:

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2. Fundamental principles

Hinduism has no fixed minimum of doctrine. There is no Hindu creed and no central authority, no Vatican or Pope. Hinduism is not a tightly defined religion but rather the way of thought of an entire ancient and populous civilization. Naturally this makes it difficult to define Hinduism, yet this is characteristic, for Indian thought mistrusts too great use of exclusive definitions. Whereas in the West the tendency is to analyze, define and differentiate, in Hinduism it is to synthesize, and the emphasis is on continuity and common ground.

Paraphrasing now for brevity :
The Vedas are central for Hinduism. Their prestige derives in part from their great antiquity and in part because they include the Upanishads. The Vedas are an authority in spiritual matters but in other areas of life, those open to sense perception and the other valid means of knowledge recognized by Hindu thought, the Vedas are not an authority; Shankara writes that a hundred shrutis may declare fire is cold, but they possess no authority in the matter.

3. On supposed contradictions :
Like other religions, Hinduism is divided into many sects and movements and no one would claim that religious rivalries are unknown. Yet the worst traps of dogmatism are generally avoided. Personal choice in religion is universally respected. And the understanding of the provisional nature of religious forms extends to other creeds. Hindus see these as alternative paths leading to the same mountain summit, and so as a rule they do not feel the need to proselytize. To eager followers of other faiths this may appear as a mark of weakness or indifference, but this is to misunderstand. It is the logical outcome of Hindu metaphysics : all forms are provisional and ultimately unreal and this applies to the forms of religion as to everything else. Even the Vedas themselves become valueless on the attainment of moksha or liberation - of no more value than is a well in a land which is flooded, as the Bhagavad Gita puts it.

Karma is no more than the idea of causality applied to the moral sphere. Most people accept that nothing in the physical realm happens without a cause, Hindus merely extend this principle to the moral sphere. Every action we carry out leaves a trace on the mind. These unconscious mental impressions are called sanskaras, and in time they build into deep-seated patterns, called vasanas. Vasanas limit our freedom of action; they determine our character; to a considerable extent they are the individual self. But it is not correct to see in Karma a doctrine of absolute determinism. There is always some freedom of choice within the limits the vasanas impose. How we use that freedom determines our future situation. The real problem that Karma poses is not that it gives us no choice, but that it is self-perpetuating, giving rise to an endless cycle of lives and deaths.

8. Durga :
Durga is first and foremost a slayer of demons, who are often shown as her victims; they are said to have usurped the role of the gods, and she restores the natural order. She is the goddess of warfare, and in medieval India military campaigns were commenced on the last day of her festival. In Bengal and some other areas, blood sacrifices are made to Durga and to Kali, although, as the only blood sacrifices to survive in Hinduism, they are regarded with distaste by the majority of Hindus. Yet at the same time Durga is the all-merciful Mother who nourishes the universe and bestows both material and spiritual wealth... The image of Kali, with its pulsating vitality, springs from a more primary level than that of conscious interpretation. It is the recognition of an intuitively grasped truth : Kali is life, seen with all its dangers, bloodshed, suffering, fierce competition and inevitable destruction
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Dr. Jagan Mohan

That is what I would call mature understanding and straight grasp of concept of God in Hinduism.

<a href="http://www.altairiv.demon.co.uk/troll/trollfaq.html" target="_blank">A Troll?</a>

[ October 03, 2002: Message edited by: Dr. Jagan Mohan ]</p>