Defects and merits of Christianity , Hinduism, Islam
Defects and merits of Christianity , Hinduism, Islam
Hinduism has two defects. The first is that all the rituals are not conducted in the mother tongue. The rituals involve hymns in Sanskrit. In the ancient days, Sanskrit was the mother tongue of the sages. They understood the meaning of the rituals and were very much interested in God. Every ritual explains about God only directly are indirectly. Today the rituals are like the dead bodies without life. Their real aim and purpose is lost. Not even a trace of devotion is developed through any ritual. At least the priest should translate the hymns and should create interest in the ritual. If you observe the other religions, this defect does not exist because all their rituals are performed in their mother tongue.
This is the reason for the sincere devotion in Christianity and Islam. Added to this, like Ghee for fire, the concept of only one present human birth in the other religions has developed tremendous interest in God due to fear. In Hinduism the belief of several future human births brought lenience towards spiritual field. If you allow the candidate to pass the examinations in several attempts, no serious view can be developed. If you say that one has to pass the examination in single attempt, the education system will be perfect. Observing the other religions must rectify these two defects.
Christianity and Islam have their own defects. They should also rectify their defects by observing Hinduism. Selfishness, pathetic scenes and fear develop their belief in God. If you want to develop interest in God by saying that Jesus suffered for your sins and by showing the pathetic scene of crucifixion, it is not real and pure love. When you get interest in Jesus since He suffered for your sins, your love to Him is only based on selfishness. Your love to Jesus should be based on His divine personality and knowledge without any trace of selfishness. Similarly, these two religions try to create fear in the minds of human beings by mentioning the permanent hell. Fear should not be the basis for the love to God. The love should be spontaneous and without any selfishness in a free atmosphere. The reason for this deficiency in the foreign religions is due to absence of metaphysics in the scriptures.
Those scriptures mainly deal with the development of proper human behavior to balance the society. Such scriptures are mainly dealing with ethics only and not with the philosophy of God like the nature of God, path to please God etc. The analytical development in the spiritual knowledge is not much in these scriptures. They have confined God to the path of Pravrutti only and God is simply an administrator bound by His own rules. He is just a judge to deliver the judgment and a jailer who jails the sinners. He is just a mechanical examiner without any freedom or love to devotees. He cannot go beyond the rules of justice. Of course, all this is good for the initial development of the human beings.
Mere happy life in a society is not sufficient because such life is not eternal. The life after death should be also analyzed. Mere judicial procedure is not the ultimate of God. The love towards God, the sacrifice for the sake of God, the concept of contemporary human incarnation for the sake of most beloved devotees etc., are points of higher importance than mere limitation to the petty family only. The view is at the best generalized to the service to the society. Society is only a large family of your colleague souls only. God is beyond society. You must transit from the service to family to the service to the society and finally to the service to God. These three are the subsequent steps in ascending order. The foreign religions are mainly confining to the first two steps only and not to the third step. In the name of the third step they are only staying in the second step (social service) only.
The basis for this deficiency is lack of the concept of contemporary human incarnation. They criticize the idol worship of Hinduism. But they are doing the same in another form in their churches and Mosques. The exploitation of the devotees by priests is common to their religions also because the concept of the contemporary human incarnation is completely eradicated from the root in these religions because the selfish priests do not allow this. The same thing happened in the case of Holy Jesus. Hence, Holy Mohammad did not allow this concept for the fear of such horrible jealousy towards the contemporary human incarnation.
In Hinduism also the selfish priests oppose the contemporary human incarnation. However in Hinduism, this concept is at least partially alive since Gita says that God will come again and again (Yada Yada hi…) and that God will come in human form (Manusheem tanumashritam…).
Hinduism has two defects. The first is that all the rituals are not conducted in the mother tongue. The rituals involve hymns in Sanskrit. In the ancient days, Sanskrit was the mother tongue of the sages. They understood the meaning of the rituals and were very much interested in God. Every ritual explains about God only directly are indirectly. Today the rituals are like the dead bodies without life. Their real aim and purpose is lost. Not even a trace of devotion is developed through any ritual. At least the priest should translate the hymns and should create interest in the ritual. If you observe the other religions, this defect does not exist because all their rituals are performed in their mother tongue.
This is the reason for the sincere devotion in Christianity and Islam. Added to this, like Ghee for fire, the concept of only one present human birth in the other religions has developed tremendous interest in God due to fear. In Hinduism the belief of several future human births brought lenience towards spiritual field. If you allow the candidate to pass the examinations in several attempts, no serious view can be developed. If you say that one has to pass the examination in single attempt, the education system will be perfect. Observing the other religions must rectify these two defects.
Christianity and Islam have their own defects. They should also rectify their defects by observing Hinduism. Selfishness, pathetic scenes and fear develop their belief in God. If you want to develop interest in God by saying that Jesus suffered for your sins and by showing the pathetic scene of crucifixion, it is not real and pure love. When you get interest in Jesus since He suffered for your sins, your love to Him is only based on selfishness. Your love to Jesus should be based on His divine personality and knowledge without any trace of selfishness. Similarly, these two religions try to create fear in the minds of human beings by mentioning the permanent hell. Fear should not be the basis for the love to God. The love should be spontaneous and without any selfishness in a free atmosphere. The reason for this deficiency in the foreign religions is due to absence of metaphysics in the scriptures.
Those scriptures mainly deal with the development of proper human behavior to balance the society. Such scriptures are mainly dealing with ethics only and not with the philosophy of God like the nature of God, path to please God etc. The analytical development in the spiritual knowledge is not much in these scriptures. They have confined God to the path of Pravrutti only and God is simply an administrator bound by His own rules. He is just a judge to deliver the judgment and a jailer who jails the sinners. He is just a mechanical examiner without any freedom or love to devotees. He cannot go beyond the rules of justice. Of course, all this is good for the initial development of the human beings.
Mere happy life in a society is not sufficient because such life is not eternal. The life after death should be also analyzed. Mere judicial procedure is not the ultimate of God. The love towards God, the sacrifice for the sake of God, the concept of contemporary human incarnation for the sake of most beloved devotees etc., are points of higher importance than mere limitation to the petty family only. The view is at the best generalized to the service to the society. Society is only a large family of your colleague souls only. God is beyond society. You must transit from the service to family to the service to the society and finally to the service to God. These three are the subsequent steps in ascending order. The foreign religions are mainly confining to the first two steps only and not to the third step. In the name of the third step they are only staying in the second step (social service) only.
The basis for this deficiency is lack of the concept of contemporary human incarnation. They criticize the idol worship of Hinduism. But they are doing the same in another form in their churches and Mosques. The exploitation of the devotees by priests is common to their religions also because the concept of the contemporary human incarnation is completely eradicated from the root in these religions because the selfish priests do not allow this. The same thing happened in the case of Holy Jesus. Hence, Holy Mohammad did not allow this concept for the fear of such horrible jealousy towards the contemporary human incarnation.
In Hinduism also the selfish priests oppose the contemporary human incarnation. However in Hinduism, this concept is at least partially alive since Gita says that God will come again and again (Yada Yada hi…) and that God will come in human form (Manusheem tanumashritam…).
Every religion suffers from drawbacks, as all are created by humans. Regarding Sanskrit as vedic language, I have one point. Quran was not written in local languages, so was also Bible. But they were successful in translating it to local languages which Hindus lack. Predominant scriptures are still in Sanskrit, and nobody learns the language.
ReplyDelete॥ शब्द-ब्रह्मणि निष्णातः परं ब्रह्म अधिगच्छति ॥ - मैत्रायण्युपनिषद्, प्रपाठकः ६, कण्दिका २२ । महाभारतम्, शान्तिपर्व, अध्यायः २७० । This Vedic statement is in Upanishad as well as Mahabharata. What this means is "shabda" शब्दः (an understandable verbal utterance) - into which, if one who dwells deeper and deeper, one would eventually reach the Ultimate. The word "Shabda" in different context means different things - Vaak, Vaani, Naada, Sphota, Varna, Aksharam, Padaikadesha, Padam, Vaakyam, Mahavaakyam, Geyam, Artha (corresponding of Vaachaka, Laakshanika, Vyanjaka, Naataka), Bhaava, Rasa, Vaachaka, Jnaapaka, Dyotaka, etc. etc. - thus Linguistically, Phonologically, Psychologically, the Sound vibrations operate at various levels - and all are collectively called as "shabda" in Sanskrit. So it is not necessary that we need to know the meanings for Veda Mantra in all instances - at one level it can just operate phonetically, at another level acoustically at another level through the swara, and another level through "artha", and so on. As Swami Vivekananda says the mere pronunciation (properly) itself has the capacity to give us strength - for each person the strength differs based on his/her capacity to receive. So lets us not get into the futile and meaningless activity of translating the mantras (for recitation) - a particular 'sound form' should be produced in its original form, sequence, stress, metre, swara, resonance, etc. - This is why for the Swaroopa Samrakshanam of Vedas our Rishis have devised various methods and error correction tools. Quran is never recited in any other language other than Old Arabic. To learn the meaning of verse one can always approach a scholar, but reciting the translated form will not give the same effect.
ReplyDeleteI think it is a valid criticism that the Hindu rituals are being performed without any understanding of the meaning behind. Catholicism had faced similar challenges with Latin and many Churches have since started to hold the Mass in local languages. The Vedic chants are a different story. The sounds and enunciation are important. If there is a need to chant, it must be done as established. What is needed is a transmission of meaning in local tongue, not necessary a transliteration.
ReplyDeleteThe criticism offered on Christianity and Islam are not accurate. Let s not forget that they also have a greater depth to them than what we see outwardly. We do hear the same kind of misinformed, superficial criticism about Hinduism too :-)
People have not taken any effort to understand the meaning- this is nothing but laziness - the first thing the child does is ask questions - it is best to keep an inquisitive child next to us while performing rituals. 80% of our rituals are Sankalpa and Upachara (16) - the main things are so simple and profound.
ReplyDeleteI post a question here about Navaratram - we do it at 3 levels - Custom level (sampradaya - there are multiple ), Cultural level (samskriti) - here pooja is with Kalasha, or with Mukha, or with Yantra, etc. Vratam is observed, abstaining from some foods are observed, some kind of Japa is done - does anyone care to find out ?) and Philosophical level (taatparyam) - can any one explain the purport behind the alibis and the truth behind the Navaratram. Does people know this festival at these 3 levels - even our own grand parents know them? - did we ask them - did we make an earnest inquiry?
Who is Mahisha ?, why there is no 'Devi' on the 10 day? why worship Saraswati on the 9th day? and not in the beginning ?, why it is not called as Dasha raatram - in North it is wrongly called Dasharatra then it is corrupted to dashara, why it is ratri and not day?, why pulses are only (you're supposed to) eaten on all the 10 days?. what is the deep significance?
The seeker has to find out and approach the teacher - only then the shraddhaa will be there. Even in Geeta it is said that don't teach the one who doesn't have shraddha. 100s of teachers are there countless books are there - one has to search his/her sampradaya and find the suitable one . If at all one reads the books by Sri. Anna Subramanium published by Ramakrishna Mutt in Chennai - many of the rituals are explained in such a detail - it can by itself become an encyclopedia in that topic.
As I said we simply don't care enough - be it Veda, be it Sanskrit, be it our dharma, be it anything - we don't have shraddhaa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Anna_Subramanium
Those who know should do what Buddha did. Take the knowledge to the people and not wait for them to come for it. Those who have Shraddha will benefit and those who don't will at least get a chance to build it. In the spirit of Gita, let those who know keep sharing the knowledge and not be over concerned about the futility.
ReplyDeleteThe first big follower of Buddha - King Ashoka - for the first time in the history of Bharatam instead of fighting in a designated area (battle field) - entered human settlements in the sovereign country of Kalinga and ransacked the entire nation killing non-warriors like Priests, Elders, Ladies and Children. Then he forcefully made everybody to adopt Buddhism - he entered Sri Lanka with a big army and knowing his so called credentials from Kalinga people got scared and surrendered and adopted Buddhism - read the discussions between Ashoka and Upagupta. Where as his grand father Chandra gupta mauria didn't do any of these kind of great (!) deeds and he left his Empire and came to Shravanabelagola alone and stood in fasting and died doing a penance. Buddha never wanted idol worship and his idol is what is maximum worshiped in the world. Buddha preached Ahimsa - in Buddhist countries people don't even leave out Dogs and Cats - they eat anything and everything. So it is not preaching that will change anything.
ReplyDeleteInstead of 'Learning from Vedas' community if this is a community named "Latest Gossips Photos from Bollywood" we will be having about 300,000+ members instead of 300+ members. We can only write in such forums it is upto people to come and read - whether they agree or not is entirely another thing, then whether they debate bring in more perspectives is another thing, whether they deepen their understanding and make others also deepen their understanding is another thing, then whether they putting their understanding into practice - all these are entirely different things. We are not talking about creating a fan club - Veda, Shastra, Samskriti - all these are things that need certain kind of inquiry, maturity and receptivity and most importantly patience to explore and understand. I am not here to discourage anyone - please feel free to write - also invite people to this community and make them read.
Hari Om. We cannot change anyone person by preaching. That is where religions have failed over and over again. Wrt. Hinduism caste division (as is prevalent today), blind-folded ritualism (though lesser intense in nature than the previous ones) are the major failure points, there are many others. Likewise Islam faces lot of troubles from so called "protectors of religion", Christianity also faces troubles.
ReplyDeleteThis is to happen in Kaliyuga. People will have their independent thoughts, mostly negative in nature. People will prefer shortcuts than original ones, even if there are advantages. We cannot blame religion for everything. As and when peoples thought changes their habits/behaviour also changes. These then influence the society. The good deeds whereas doesnt spread like the other ones.
Therefore in a forum like this what we can do atleast is to 'cleanse' ourselves from negativism and spread peace and love. This should be and will be what religions were born.
Considering how Budhism, Islam, Christianity spread to other areas was not by who preached the religion and its ideas but by its followers who wanted to dominate others. This trend cannot be changed. Today it is money is the religion that is spreading.
Couple of final comments:
ReplyDelete1. As Gandhi said, be the change you want to see. The rest will automatically happen. There is plenty of work to be done with our own selves before helping another to change.
2. We have to value wisdom and equally respect all sources of it. To insist a single source of wisdom is orthodoxy and not the way of the Rishis.
3. Compassion born of love is the right attitude to have towards those who suffer and not contempt. We can never win over or help those who we denounce.
Found this on Twitter : "Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself." ~Rumi #quote
ReplyDelete