Is Hinduism a cultural religion or a religion for the world?

[BOY_4ROM_BENGAL]

Hello Indian....do you want to discuss the question raised. And also I am willing to discuss and answer your questions on Islam.

To those members who want to insult Indian, this is not the posting to do it under.Thank you.

Lets start our discussion Indian.

Is Hinduism a cultural religion or a religion for the world?

[Indian]

Well, I normally do not participate in religious discussions mainly because of two things.

1. I do not believe in the concept of God.
2. I think religion is one's personal belief and should never be dragged into a public place.
3. Religious debate ends up with acrimony and bitterness, throughout the history of mankind enough blood has been shed in the name of religion; men have misused it to meet their selfish ends and the trend is still going on. Let our religious faith remain in our heart and illuminate us in the hours of darkness.

However I'll try to answer your queries within my little knowledge on Hinduism.

I frankly do not understand what is meant by cultural religion. Each religious belief gives rise to some culture, tradition, norms etc. It happens in Islam, it happens in Hinduism too. So please elaborate.

I also could not understand what is meant by "religion for the world". Or do you want to say religion for the people? I see it in this way:
All religions lead to the same eternal truth, they are just various means of attaining this.

Hinduism has not spread like Christianity or Islam because it does not believe in conversion. One can only be born as a Hindu, cannot be converted. (Nowadays anyone can get converted to Hinduism but that is different.)

A few misconcepts are to be cleared. Actually there is nothing called Hinduism, it should be better called Sanatan Dharma,the eternal truth.

In our scripture Vedas and Upanishads, God is defined as formless, nameless much similar to the concept of Allah. Then why do we worship idols? We try to conceive God in various forms and various expressions like idols, in totems like sun, rain, earth, water. They are all seen as creation of God. This is our major difference with Islam. Our religion allows worshipping the idols as well as the formless God. And yes, Hinduism acknowledges the atheists too.

And cow worshipping is not part of Hinduism. Cows are considered sacred due to economic reasons and this came up much later. In Upanishads and other holy scripture, we find our saints offering cattle qurbani to our Gods.

I'll be happy to answer your queries if my knowledge permits plus I want to ask you a few questions on Islam too as we move on.

[islamicboy]

indian i wont start a new session as u seem to have eplained certain facts about hinduism on this forum. so i await ur response.?

[Abdur_Rahman]

'Indian'
My first question, what are you doing in a Bangladeshi site and specially in the religion section, since you have clearly said that you do not belive in the concept of God....and implied that religion leads to all problems, so why are you here? No offence but curious!

I do not want to discuss anything about religion with you as you have made it clear that you do not believe in God but I want to raise an issue regards to your third point:

"3. Religious debate ends up with acrimony and bitterness, throughout the history of mankind enough blood has been shed in the name of religion; men have misused it to meet their selfish ends and the trend is still going on".
My point is you have said Religion has been "MISUSED", in that case why blame religion, you should be blaming the people who have "Misused" it?

The point about "enough blood has been shed in the name of Religion"
You have basically blamed religion for world sufferings and it being the cause of wars and conflicts, but the reality of the matter is it is not religion which has caused all these problems rather it is the Lack it.
Religion any religion for that matter preaches and teaches Peace, Equality and Justice. It is religion that starts the sparkle of respect in ones conciousness. It is the Belief that teaches man to distinguish the Good from the Bad.
Billions of earths residence see Secularism as the root cause of world problems because secularism stands for Capitalism (both go hand in hand). Capitalism is all about obtaining wealth by any means with-out any regrds for human values and feelings. This is the cancer in the body of Humanity that needs to be taken out and buried so that Justice can prevail for all people.
The fact that some Hindus want to live according to their religion in India is a good thing for the Hundus, why sholud they adopt another culture and ideology? Religion my friend is not the problem but it is how some people use it in order to supress the people.

Many say 'where is god when 1000's are dieing of starvation'. And thinkit is the fault of God! No
No it is the man who brings upon himself what he gets. You need to think more deeply and analytically to find such answers. While thousands of people die and strave around the world why does the Western world dump millions of tonnes of food in the sea or burn them every year? How many third world countries do you know that have been making Weapons of mass (or small) destructions, do you think these little and weak countries can produce such things, even if they do do you think they will be allowed to use them? how is it then that they are busy fighting wars? Who supplies them the Weapons? Surely God has nothing to do here, it is the secular masters mainly in the West who sponsor wars around the world and dump food stuff in the sea!


Some think that they can solve world problem just through education, while education is an important factor and people need to be educated but are't the West more educated than other hemispher but why are they then been sucking the blood and wealth of the world's helples people for centuries? why is their 'educated'society crumbling with high crime rate, teenage pregnancies, moral decadency... and little or no family values?
I am not trying to blame all on the west but just trying to show the implication of your statement!

AR

[BOY_4ROM_BENGAL]

Hello Indian.

First things first, thank you for your participation in this forum.

A cultural religion is for a specific geographical area or region or type/kind of ppol etc.

You said
"One can only be born as a Hindu, cannot be converted". Does this qualify to suggest that Hinduism is a cultural religion.Or is it an elite religion?

A religion for the world, that is it is the universal religion.

How can Hinduism explain ppol of other regions such as Africa, South America and Chinese etc.How were they created and what will happen to them?

Does Hinduism have the necessary economical, political and social structures?

I have not understood this, I thought your Gods come in the form of idols.Then they are not formless.

My understanding of your religion is that you have one supreme God.Then you have a lot of Gods that are worshipped for things such as Money, Happiness etc.

Now, please carefully consider this. Why cant one God be worshipped. Bcos he can overule all the others. Does that mean the one God created the other Gods, if not who did?

Then sometimes someone might want money and happiness, isnt there a confusion of which God to worship?

Also, how do you know how your Gods look? And then you are actually making them?

Please can you provide an analysis on what happens to you when you die? In other words please explain recarnation.

At this point of our discussion, we will have to go through a number of questions. This is done so to understand your religion.

You are most welcome to ask questions about Islam.

Thank you.

[This message has been edited by BOY 4ROM BENGAL (edited 06 September 2000).]

[Pacific]

Religion should be practiced, not preached.

Indian, any religion, which you can’t convert to, but have to be born in, is like Monarchy. So, since I wasn’t born a Hindu, I’m destined to go to hell (sorry, I don’t know what Hindus call hell or if you all believe in it)? Please clear me up on this. I know Hindus believe in reincarnation, how many times do we all come back? What happens after all our lives are used up? Sorry, I’m not too familiar with Hinduism, but who is this God so much like Allah, the Islamic God?

“(Nowadays anyone can get converted to Hinduism but that is different.)” (Indian)
Why has this rule changed? Who has changed it? Who has the power to change it?


One more thing, do you think the ancient Greek religion would still be practiced if technology hadn’t gone to the clouds and proved that Gods in the clouds don’t exist?


Please, I’m curious about your religion and would like some of your input into my questions Indian.

http://www.geocities.com/sabs2379/samourai.gif http://www.geocities.com/sabs2379/SSgenjurostand.gif


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Hmmmmmm........
Close your eyes, I'll take you away from this pain.....

Pacific Your Enemies, I’ll take em to their knees.
(Formally Pac_If_I_1)

[This message has been edited by Pacific (edited 07 September 2000).]

[Indian]

Abdur Rehman, I reiterate that I normally do not participate in religious discussions due to my lack of knowledge on this subject and the bitterness associated with it. I only joined here because I was invited by BOY 4ROM BENGAL who wants certain clarification on Hinduism. I partially agree with what you say, we can take up your issue after answering BOY 4ROM BENGAL's queries.


Posted by BOY 4ROM BENGAL

A cultural religion is for a specific geographical area or region or type/kind of ppol etc.

You said
"One can only be born as a Hindu, cannot be converted". Does this qualify to suggest that Hinduism is a cultural religion.Or is it an elite religion?

A religion for the world, that is it is the universal religion.

How can Hinduism explain ppol of other regions such as Africa, South America and Chinese etc.How were they created and what will happen to them?

Ok. Hinduism is definitely a world religion.
Yes, it flourished at this corner of the world and while other religions of the same age faded away, it has flourished and is still spreading its eternal message of peace, tolerance and happiness.

Hinduism does not divide people based on nationalities like Africa, America etc, it says "Vasudhaivo Kutumbakom" means the entire world is our relation. In Upanishad it is written "Srinnantu Vishwe Amritsawa Putra" where it recognises the entire human race as the son of immortality.

I'd rather say Hinduism is a universal religion because it is a synthesis of approaches.

Does Hinduism have the necessary economical, political and social structures?

Not only Hindusim, but some social, political economic structures grew up with most of the religions. It is more marked in Islam and some Talebanic regimes are hell bent to follow it.(I'll elaborate it later when I come to Islam). The problem with these structures is they were adopted when the social dynamics was entirely different, they were gradually corrupted by men and now no one in his right sense would try to implement them. The result would be disastrous. The Hindu equivalent of your Shariat is Manusamhita, but we give a damn to it. We cannot build a modern nation based on worn out concept. So we believe in secularism and democracy to build a strong India. There has been plenty of aberrations on our way but that is a separate issue.
But I think the core issue of religion is not these obsolete structures, they are only regressive.

My understanding of your religion is that you have one supreme God.Then you have a lot of Gods that are worshipped for things such as Money, Happiness etc.

They are the various forms of the same God; the one and only Supreme Almighty. It is just like energy having various forms. That's why you'll see so many Gods and Goddesses in our religion.

Now, please carefully consider this. Why cant one God be worshipped. Bcos he can overule all the others. Does that mean the one God created the other Gods, if not who did?

Certainly it can be done and it is being done. Many Hindus worship God as nameless, formless just the way you worship Allah. The
Aryasamajis do it, some devotees of Ramakrishna Mission do it. I have repeatedly said there is only one Supreme God, so I think you've already go the reply.

Also, how do you know how your Gods look? And then you are actually making them?

It is a very important question. Idol worshipping is for those who want to worship God in a form. Through our own imagination and devotion, we describe these various forms of worshipping God. The question is not whether we are making them or how are we worshipping them, the question is whether our love and devotion to Him is absolute.
God is pleased with any name or form we give Him. He doesn’t care what we call Him, but rather how we feel about Him.

I've already said that our Vedanta says that God has no name or form. So we find it hard to communicate with Him. Due to our limitations, we can never comprehend something without a form. For that we try to understand God through forms and names. These forms are conjured up through our love and devotion for the Almighty.

You too treat the stone at Kaa'ba to be holy.
The Christians worship the Holy Cross. I think it is the inner desire of human beings to worship the Almighty in forms. Hinduism exquisitely applies it. Here you can worship trees, stones, water, rain, sun, animals as all forms and manifestations of God.

Please can you provide an analysis on what happens to you when you die? In other words please explain recarnation.

Reincarnation is a big issue. We can take it up later. I can only say that Hinduism believes in the concept of Atma (spirit). This spirit is like a form of energy, it can neither be created nor destroyed. Bhawadgita says , "You haven't come from anywhere, you'll not go anywhere, you'll only change your state. The spirit that has created you is immortal, it cannot be destroyed by natural causes nor it can degenerate. So do not express sorrow or grief over any loss because only the mortal remain perishes."

More on it later. Hope I've been able to satisfy your queries.