As an individual who does not fully believe in God, I feel that a God who threatens to cast non-believers in the burning lake below OR would send great floods to kill almost all of humanity (even innocent children) because they did not pray to him, does not deserve to be worshipped. Even if I believed in God, as a vegetarian I cant bring myself to worship a CARNIVORE who rejected Cain's offering of grain / fruit & accepted Abel's offering of flesh. Any movement that seeks to promote faith in such a 'God' is not a religion according to me. I would rather be a Hindu, Jain, Buddhist or Sikh. I have great regard for the Parsis too.
I am glad to see columnists like Rajeev Srinivasan bring out issues that seem to be "out of fashion" or favor with the highly irresponsible, largely leftist dominated English media...Many kudos to rediff for providing a balanced & credible forum.
ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) could be a new religion.
If nations ratify ICT as religion, it will "not impede" with existing religions and their practices.
Instead would · Give "hope" to people · Define "roadmap" for coming generations · Balance social, cultural and economic aspects in "hierarchical" society.
It is imperative that people practicing ICT religion must not indulge in sarcasm or hypocrisy.
This refers to Rajiv's article. Over a period of time, the government and the people who claim to represent us have provoked feelings of guilt in Hindus and made them defensive. The media gladly laps up a genuine human error and turns it into a major issue. I doubt if they spend the same amount of time and energy in televising/debating issues that involve other religions. Many people believe that Christians do not have a caste system. One must observe how people arrange marriages in christian communities to understand how vigorous the caste system is. How is it that people who claim to have been "born again" happily classify themselves into SCs/STs/ RC and CSI Nadars and so on? Have Jesus and his apostles really not blessed their followers well enough? I wuold say that we Hindus have been more sinned against than the follower of any other religion
Hinduism is receiving the treatment because it deserves it owing to our own weakness.
In the days of Mahatma Gandhi & Vivekananda Hinduism was respected. They were Vedic Hindus.
We are not.
India survived by nobility of Vedic Hinduism? May I know if any Government school in India teaches nobility through Vedic Hinduism as a sure foundation?
India can start rapidly becoming noble in just four years. Muslims are waiting for nobility to rejoin Hindus. But Hindus banished nobility & Hinduism by article 28(1) of the Constitution. It reads, (1) No religious instruction shall be provided in any educational institution wholly maintained out of State funds.
Are we not making a fool of ourselves by such articles as this one?
Think, please think There is an easy scheme with the help of noble Muslims for revival rapidly of nobility.
But the pride of scholarship, history of greatness, of majority vote & everything irrelevant to nobility doesnt want any nobility. Hindus worships ignorance of nobility in article 28(1) for 55 years.
RE: Bigotry and Prejudice
by S V on Feb 06, 2006 03:53 PM Permalink
It is sad that the founding fathers of modern India decided not to have a state religion (which would have been Hinduism). Thus they gave away too much -
A separate state was created for those who wanted nothing to do with Hindus, and total freedom was given to those who chose to stay on with the Hindus.
They were short-sighted, they did not see how this freedom could be abused in the long-run. They acted with typical large-hearted Hindu generosity and trust and openness.
Hi Rajiv, The crux of the problem lies in the history of depicting Hinduism as a paganistic religion and the publicity given to the bad ritualistic practices like sati and rigid caste system over the last few centuries. There has been practically no effort to portray the better side of our religion and the government of India's apathy to such things in a fear to appear non secular or whatever reasons. Our religion also talks of lofty things like Sanatan Dharma and personal God which cannot be so easily grasped by other religios entitites who prefer only prophets. Moreover the other religions rode the more recent drives of industrial revolution etc giving them an upper hand in recent times. Add to that the fact that there is no one voice of Hindus because of the respect of alternate views which our religion permits which is the reason that these offensive views and acts are performed with impunity. Thanks for this article.
Call me sceptic/skeptic but i have always seen that any article to do with Hinduism is quickly transferred to the bottom of the page. Can rediff please explain how the articles are handled in terms of their life cycle? This article came out today and is already at the bottom.Correct me if i am wrong
Let's have an open discussion about that among Hindus itself. I'd say if Lord is right(a yadava), then that fisherman Valsyayana who wrote his teachings for us in Bhagavatgita is the True Brahman!
But will Hindus in India teach this Hinduism as it is. No, we still need Thiyyas and shoodras and destroy GOD's name by twisting beautiful books like Bhagavatgita. Why not Hindus work for Hinduisms image in India itself, then try to change others!
Do we know hinduism?
by Ravi on Feb 04, 2006 05:11 PM Permalink
Many concerns about the community in this discussion, but how many of us Hindus actually understand Hindusim? We might be born into hindusim but are we hindu by practice?I dont think so. Pls pardon my attempt to provoke.
RE:Who is Brahman?
by Raj on Feb 13, 2006 06:39 AM Permalink
Mr. Ravi I don't know to whom your question is directed at. Anyways, A lot of times people say, Hinduism is a way of life, and that's it. Well if you try to get into that, it'll be a long discussion. But let me try, Hinduism is spiritual, celebrational, Karma, Bhakthi and Jnana Yoga practice all that for those who want to chose what they like....Now, the entire purpose of the vedantateachings, which ofcourse doesn't have one author(so can never be claimed that it is Brahmana writings, because Valmiki, Valsyayana etc were all low castes), is to make you a better person. How? through the control of your sense organs and mind, you come to a state of single pointed mind where you can meditate on the self.
