What is Hinduism? A Personal View

""The Hindus never built any holy city or temple or regarded any river in the current Pakistan sacred.

Hmm, how come the temples of Ketas Raj exist then? This ofcourse dispite an attempt to destroy / deface them after Pakistan came in to being. I know that Hindu influence over what constitutes Pakistan now is anathema. Fact is that the Punjab had a significant Hindu and Sikh populace which was ethnically cleansed in 1947.

Laddu, Nangapir & nkg

Thanks for adding value to this discussion.

NHK

If muslims were to reject Mohammad and accept the "formless" Nirvikara Brahman or Allah then the entire issue of mullah Islam would be solved and we would have an entire muslm community reformed of its current problem of hatred towards others!

Re: # 216 Urstruly wrote: ["... He wants us to be jealous.

If you in a true love with your beloved, it is you who will get jealous if someone tries to tell you that there is another one who is better than your beloved.

This is the test of your devotion. ..."]

Smart and eloquent as you are, you also have a great talent to stick your foot in your mouth rom time to time. This is one of those times.

Your concept of what it means to be jealous in a lover-beloved context, is the most bizzare one that I've come across. You have either not been in love or never experienced jealousy.

If someone tells me that there is another who is more worthy of love to him than my beloved, my reaction will be one of relief... not jealousy.

Thank God, I'll think to myself, he's also not after my beloved.

On the other hand, if he were also seeking the love of my beloved and there was a risk that he would also be favoured by my beloved, yes, THEN I would be jealous. This is how jealousy works.

As far as my beloved being jealous is concerned, that will happen when I start showing fondness for another. That is when I can expect my beloved to be jealous. This is what DM meant I am sure.

You, by contrast, said something that is utterly convoluted. According to you, it is my beloved who would expect me to feel jealous if this other guy (who also claims loves my beloved) is showing affection for an outside third party instead of being totally devoted to my beloved?????

From where do you come up with these absurdities?

What you could reasonably claim is something different altogether.

If you said that my beloved expects me to be incensed, outraged, or pissed off (but not jealous) at this other guy who goes out and sings the praise of some other beloved and claims that this other beloved of his is better than the one I love. Okay, that will make sense. Such an act could upset and irritate me because to my mind, obviously, no one can be better than my own beloved and anybody who makes that assertion would be worthy of my contempt, but I will have no jealousy against him.

It's all in the meaning of the word "jealous" ... perhaps you just made a typo.

...SR

Re: # 204

"Now given the choice, every Hindu choses, will refuse to follow One Straight Path to One Absolute God, but instead will chose the paths that lead them astray. If it is not arrogance then what is it? If it is not mutiny against One Supreme God then what is it? Just like the Third Commandment of Moses (pbuh) every Hindu is forbidden to make the idols or "likeness" of Him yet Hindu will do it knowingly?"

Truely Saheb,

Islam may talk about "formless" God - but it could never show the way to attain it . Only the sufis could attain it to some extent- but that was mainly by rejecting Mohammad as showing the way to 'formless' God.
Formless God by very definition is DEVOID of predicates - to say "this formless this is ____ " is abolutely false.
Mohammad misused the concept of formless God and has led muslims to the false path.
If intelligent muslims like you love "formless" Allah then they have to reject Mohammad's description of that deity and accept the Upanishadic 'indicator' of "Neti-Neti".
Only then can muslims attain peace of heart , otherwise they would aways be full of hatred - which is a sure way to lead to the path of regression into their karmic hells!!
I hope you understand that "formless" deity can only be "experienced" and not talked about like mullahs do all the time!! (and like Mohammad used to do)

Re: # 206

"Another aspect of paganism that baffles civilized people is the pagan's penile fascination. "

Infact , Islam and Abrahmic religions have a penile fascination - the first sign of covenant is implanted by mutilating the penis!!

And one's faith is measured by the existence of that penile mutilation!!
I remember Zee Bhai mocking SR and asking him to get his son circumsized first before he can claim to speak about him!!

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Any one trying to descrie formless Brahman is an idiot and a charlatan!!

Nirvikaara Brahman cannot even be described.

Re: # 223

Only a SAKAARA Brahman with positive qualities can be worshipped- Shri Ramanujacharya has so clearly stated in his Vishista-Advaita Vedanta. Nirvikaara cannot be worshipped - that is why there is NO (I repeat - NOOOOOO) idol of formless Brahman.
Nirvikara can only be attained in formless or nirvikalpa samadhi - after that there is no return for that realized soul on the mrtyu loka!!

Re: # 223

DMji,
"Formless" God or any deity can NEVER be even "thought" of , let alone some body try to ascribe human like 'intentions, , 'motives' , ''jealosies' and other predicates to it.
That is why Islamic notion of a "formless" God is a CONTRADICTION!!!
"Formless" God can even NOT be 'worshipped' because it has no predicates - it can only be negated as it is rightly done in Upanishads -neti neti'!!!
Islam has got it ALL wrong- it is this mis-contruel of the nature of formless brahman that segregates the ASURA view from the Sura view!!! This is clear in Chandogya-Upanishad where even the Asuras mistook the formless Brahman for something it is not -same with Islam - it ascribes all human qualities of jealousy, hatred etc. to that "formless" Allah!!

QED!

Urstruly#215:

Rig Veda praises Indra and other gods and has invocations to them. Upnashidas, also known as vedanta or the end of vedas, do describe God as formless but you have not provided any example of any scripture banning idol worship. At the same time, you would be right if you said that no Hindu mandir has any idols of Om, Ishwar. Bhagwan, Parmeshwar or any other name by which the absolute is known in the Hindu literature.

You have provided an intersting definition of jealousy. If I understand you correctly, God does not hate me for shirk but you are supposed to hate me for doing so because my worshipping any other god is unacceptable to you. Am I correct?

[Are you in Pakistan these days?]

Proly, Upanishads represent only one of the schools of thought. Heterodoxy has been the forte of India. As DM rightly showed that Hinduism encompasses varying schools of thought including agnostic and atheist ideas.

Nkg,

(The pet animals in the temple are maintained in healthy state. )

I presume you are referring to the rats at Karni Mata mandir in Deshnkok, Rajasthan?

Regards

Re: # 215
Idol worshipping was basically part local/dravidian culture and has started post vedic era.
The nice example of the mixture of both Vedic and post vedic culture is pujas performed in most of the regions include both "HOMA- burning fire and offering" as well as creating MURTI and prasing in front of the MURTY.

Re: # 212
On the negative side the worship of rats leads to plague not to speak of score of other things.

Ans: The pet animals in the temple are maintained in healthy state. Temple animal is so far not a source of any epidemic. Please enlighten me, if you know of such circumstance.