What is Hinduism? A Personal View

"Kautilya, the Hindu Machiavelli, spoke of the "thousand Yojanas (leagues) of land that stretch from the Himalayas to the sea" as "the proper domain of chakravartia patha (a single universal emperor)". This north-south (vertical) lay-out of the land of Bharata has been well summed up in the famous aphorism: Himalachala stu paryantum, i.e. from Himalayas to the end of land (Rameswaram). Vishnu Purana (11. 127-9) gives the geo-political reason for the vertical lay-out of Bharat; it states:

On the east of Bharata dwell the Kiratas (the barbarians); on the west, the Yavanas (the outlandish Greeks/ Bactrians); in the centre reside Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaishayas and Sudras.

To protect the blue-blooded Aryans from the contamination of the 'demonaic' (Ashuras), 'wild' and 'carrion-eating' (Paisachas) and outlandish (Yavana)--people of the western wing and the 'barbaric' and 'boorish' Kirates, Pundras and Vangas of the eastern marginal land, the Hindu shastras laid down strict rules. The Dharma Sutra (II, 1.2.2) of Baudhayana states:

Who visits the country of the Arattas (the Punjab), or of the Pundras and Vangas (Northern and Eastern Bengal) must perform a purificatory sacrifice. "

These aholes now have a claim on Indus civilization!

HP,

Have you never heard of Multhanaspura or the Saraswati River?

nature_lover#117:

I agree with you entirely about the Sikh religion.

"I wonder why India failed to adopt more simple, evolved and practical message of Sikhism and why approx 1 billion people of this earth follow very complicated Hinduism..??"

I believe the answer would be that Sikhism is not an actively prosleytising religion, although it is willing to accept anyone in its fold.

The Sikh gurus preached their message in Punjab and that's where it had its impact. And their impact is larger than the number of Sikhs in Punjab. Most Punjabi Hindus hold Sikh gurus and scriptures in great reverence. I am in Delhi these days and there are more TV channels broadcasting Sikh shabads and gurbani than even Hindu bhajans. And in every Punjabi village, you will find Hindus more likely to visit a gurudwara than a mandir.

Yes, it is a pity that more Hindus did not follow the Sikh religion; it retains all of the nice features of Hinduism but none of its negative features.

As far cow urine, like Shoresaheb, I do not know any Hindu who imbibes cow urine. However, I understand that it is used in some ayurvedic medicines.

nature_lover#117:

I agree with you entirely about the Sikh religion.

"I wonder why India failed to adopt more simple, evolved and practical message of Sikhism and why approx 1 billion people of this earth follow very complicated Hinduism..??"

I believe the answer would be that Sikhism is not an actively prosleytising religion, although it is willing to accept anyone in its fold.

The Sikh gurus preached their message in Punjab and that's where it had its impact. And their impact is larger than the number of Sikhs in Punjab. Most Punjabi Hindus hold Sikh gurus and scriptures in great reverence. I am in Delhi these days and there are more TV channels broadcasting Sikh shabads and gurbani than even Hindu bhajans. And in every Punjabi village, you will find Hindus more likely to visit a gurudwara than a mandir.

Yes, it is a pity that more Hindus did not follow the Sikh religion; it retains all of the nice features of Hinduism but none of its negative features.

As far cow urine, like Shoresaheb, I do not know any Hindu who imbibes cow urine. However, I understand that it is used in some ayurvedic medicines.

Dear Dost

I liked it and am fascinated with the subject. I guess the belief in ancient times was considered a personal affairs & was never defined. The scietific age brought in the need to define everything.

Beauty of Hinduism is in its simplicity, universality, vagueness, acceptance of other beliefs & its total voluntary aspect. You may believe in a Diety or you may not. You may pray or you may not pray. But it provides plenty of stories & tales to emphasise the good & evil - and a guidance to coalse within a society & live a peaceful life.

Modernity has automatically killed some distateful ancient cultural or ritualistic aspects assciated with Hinduism - like sati, caste system etc.

Since ages, the ignorant & confused man looked towards the nature & tried to find an answer to all this.

Two main theories got propounded - Dharmic & Abrahamic.

Dharmic followers (Hindues, Jains, Budhists, Sihks) believed in re-incarnation. Add Karma to it.

Abrahamic followers(Judaism, Christianiy, Islam) believed in heaven & hell & day of judgement. Add Satan to it.

Rest all was local variations, reformations, additions, changes by followers as the time passed. In most cases, the
belief was made more miserable for the followers.

Though muslim by Birth, Dharmic faiths strongly appeal me. My forefathers may have been poor, uncultured or uncooth but they were not dogmatic.

regards

NHK

The most important thing of how you to define a Hindu:

You can say "Oye Bagwana tu phuddu hai, painchoo ha etc".

Late on u can say sorry and then say "Boss sorry, shraab vadh ho gai si".

Sikhs and esp Khalsa are no longer full Hindus as they cannot say this.

One who is not Muslai, Isai, Parsi or Jew is Hindu.

Sanatani

Re: # 133
Modernity has automatically killed some distateful ancient cultural or ritualistic aspects assciated with Hinduism - like sati, caste system etc.

Ans: First of all, there is nothing called religion, what Indians follow. There is nothing like holy book. Nothing like prophet.
Dharma means 'duty'. It should not be mixed with religion.
BTW, there is nowhere in Indian classical books, the terms "Hindu " is written.
Somebody was talking about sati, cow urine etc... These are rituals and varies with time and place. These rituals, which we are supposed to follow from Rigveda and Sumveda is not followed properly.

Re: # 82
Karachi is the dirtiest city on earth...
Moslems are despised by Indians for being dirty ( mlechha)...

Re: # 27
"You mean you did a head count?? What about the certitude of millions who walk all the way to Tirupati or Vaishno Devi??'

Ans: Most of the tamples constructued in mediaval age (post islamic/barbaric invsastion) are on the hill top not to be looted/destructed by barbaric moslems. The temples, which were constructed in areas like Orissa and South India are mostly in crowded locality (where barbarism/islam was not able to reach). The story of Thirupati Balaji is written in the temple itself. ( to avoid descretion by barbarians/moslems, it was shifted to the current location and the seven hill area is property of TTD board.
After the british had kicked out moslems, people started constructing temples on crwded localities closed to pond or river or some form of waterbody.

#117 &132 DM Saheb, You’re very gracious in accepting others’ opinions, however insignificant. So I permit myself to contradict you on Shoresheb’s comment: "I wonder why India failed to adopt more simple, evolved and practical message of Sikhism and why approx 1 billion people of this earth follow very complicated Hinduism..??"

Religions were always social laws, invented, or ‘communiacted by God’ to respond to a situation where the existing laws were not judged sufficient by some free thinker of the time. To make them acceptable by general public as Vatsyayan says – ‘ Mahajano yen gatah se panthah’, they were given a divine sheen.

Mohammed saheb, a peace preacher in earlier part of his life became a warrior, much like Krishna, when he did not succeed peacefully. Sikhism and Guru Nanak and other gurus who followed were no exception. Heteroclitic society of Buddhists and then later Bhaktiyogis were buckling under the organized aggressivity of Invaders. Society of that time naturally threw up sikhism,copying some of the traits and rituals of agressors to face them; like a divine book….which can bind together locals.

If the society today is not folowing Sikhism, it is probably because Kripan, Kara, .. etc are no more required. If one could live without making clans, then individual free thinking takes over after a while.

Earlier Advait Vedanta of Shankar was also invented to face off monotheistic faiths and it adopted some of their traits. One indication may be that Shankar and other such Advaitis were born and active on the Malabar coast of India which we having regular exchange commerce and … Ideas across arabian sea with M. east.

Re: # 3
Laddu, NKG and anti-Islam others; why are you silent NOW?

Ans: I have nothing against any faith ( that is the beauty of Indians. I stay in a place, which follows rituals totally different from our side. With curiosity, I try to learn that and ask people, what is the reason/story behind such rituals).
Islam is very harmful to humanity. You should learn from the problem Islam has created in Afghanisthan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Thailand, Philipines, Spain,UK, France...
Jihad/Crusade is living proof of how dangerous Islam and Roman Catholicism is?
Please read the following link http://www.caip.rutgers.edu/~kanth/jwz/mbm/sv/svindex.html

Re: # 19
I take the Abrahmic faiths' definition of religion because the concept itself is Abrahmic, in my opinion.
Why must Hindus insist upon theirs being A Religion?

Ans: Foreign rulers has started this and Congress has tried to institutionalise it.

The people of this land, I believe either didn't try to differentiate or weren't aware that they were practicing a religion. Some of the south indian temple festivals require Muslim's to be given the 'first respect'. They would have to kick start the celebration.

For instance, pilgrimage to Iyappan require the devotees to offer their respect to a Muslim, before visiting the protoganist himself.

Nobody gets bewildered on why you would have to worship two people of different religious affiliations.

Hinduism has never said 'quintessentialism' is the only way to live.

Re: # 141
Disclaimer:

The post should not be used to construe that I subscribe to the idea of humongous pilgrimages. Actually I believe, the very act could have psychological problems as the cause.

In short, the pilgrimage destination is polluted by humans to a level that it beomes extremely dangerous for the place's fauna and flora. The devotees pollute the water bodies a lot :(

If any of the Christians feel left out, then just visit Velankanni's Mother Mary Church. You will find Hindus in majority.

"Nobody gets bewildered on why you would have to worship two people of different religious affiliations."

Vengatramanan, in India - in and around Sindh, and in and around Punjab, exactly like in and around Andhra, Kerala, and Tamilnadu - we never had the practise of exclusive "religions" until Islam brought that kind of thinking in from the outside. So following one path, two paths, and all at the same time, all made perfect sense. If you look at India's basic ideas, that is the only way it could be.

It's a tragedy that we did not lean the distinctions that became necessary later on. What was our greatest strength also imposed upon the largest possible cost.