| Author | Message | ||
     Der_schuler Comedian Username: Der_schuler Post Number: 1530 Registered: 01-2009 Posted From: 24.0.97.120 Rating: N/A |
the first 2/3 rd's of this article is outright trash and amlost a lie......manaki kanipinche lines unte chaalu...see I am being validated and called intelligent....cheap mindsets ki nidarsanam.... NO WELL CAN TELL YOU WHAT TO DO ane statement tho the premise of the article is established very solidly........ another craver for hedonism in the making | ||
| Anand_n Side Hero Username: Anand_n Post Number: 4830 Registered: 02-2008 Posted From: 68.206.110.236 Rating: N/A |
 There in lies the key- the clash of scriptures..that most people do not want to recognize and reconcile to .Vedanta was a break from Vedic ritualism not a continuity of Vedas..
Could also be the reason for dynastic rule kada - we may replace a God with another of the same family but not a totally new one I think it is immature to say Hinduism is the factor for retaining democracy - ala aite prapancham lo only Hindu countries should be democratic aa chal ke tujhe main leke chalu ik aise gagan ke tale jahan gam bhi na ho, aansoo bhi na ho,bas pyaar hi pyaar pale | ||
| Ustad Comedian Username: Ustad Post Number: 1998 Registered: 07-2008 Posted From: 67.163.198.130 Rating: N/A |
The beauty of being a Hindu lies in your freedom to be who you want to be. Nobody can tell you what to do, or what not to do. There is no central authority, no single leader of the faith. No one can pass an order to excommunicate you, or like in some countries, pass a decree that orders your death by stoning for walking with a strange man. We donât appreciate our freedom because we canât feel the plight of others who arenât free. Many religions have a central authority with awesome power over the individual. They have a clear chain of command, from the lowliest local priest to the highest central leader. Hinduism somehow escaped from such central authority, and the Hindu has miraculously managed to hold on to his freedom through the ages. How did this happen? Vedanta is the answer. When the writers of Vedanta emerged, around 1500 BC, they faced an organised religion of orthodox Hinduism. This was the post Vedic age, where ritualism was practiced, and the masses had no choice but to follow. It was a coercive atmosphere. The writers of Vedanta rebelled against this authority and moved away from society into forests. This was how the âAranyakasâ were written, literally meaning âwritings from the forestâ. These later paved the way for the Upanishads, and Vedanta eventually caught the imagination of the masses. It emerged triumphant, bearing with it the clear voice of personal freedom. This democracy of religious thought, so intrinsic to Vedantic intelligence, sank into the mindset of every Indian. Most couldnât fathom the deep wisdom it contained, but this much was very clear. They understood that faith was an expression of personal freedom, and one could believe at will. Thatâs why Hinduism saw an explosion of Gods. There was a God for every need and every creed. If you wanted to build your muscles, you worshiped a God with fabulous muscles. If you wanted to pursue education, there was a Goddess of Learning. If it was wealth you were looking for, then you looked up to the Goddess of wealth â with gold coins coming out of her hands. If you wanted to live happily as a family, you worshiped Gods who specially blessed families. When you grew old and faced oncoming death, you spent time in contemplating a God whose business it was to dissolve everything â from an individual to the entire Universe. Everywhere, divinity appeared in the manner and form you wanted it to appear, and when its use was over, you quietly discarded that form of divinity and looked at new forms of the divine that was currently of use to you. âYad Bhavam, tad Bhavatiâ⦠what you choose to believe becomes your personal truth, and freedom to believe is always more important than belief itself. Behind all this â was the silent Vedantic wisdom that Gods are but figments of human imagination. As the Kena Upanishad says, âBrahma ha devebhyo vijigyeâ¦â â All Gods are mere subjects of the Self. It implies that it is far better that God serves Man than Men serve God. Because Men never really serve God â they only obey the dictates of a religious head who speaks for that God, who can turn them into slaves in Godâs name. Hindus have therefore never tried to convert anyone. Never waged war in the name of religion. The average Hindu happily makes Gods serve him as per his needs. He discards Gods when he has no use for them. And new Gods emerge all the time â in response to market needs. In this tumult, no central authority could survive. No single prophet could emerge and hold sway, no chain of command could be established. Vedanta had injected an organised chaos into Hinduism, and thatâs the way it has been from the last thirty five centuries. Vedanta is also responsible, by default, for sustaining democracy. When the British left India, it was assumed that the nation would soon break up. Nothing of that kind has happened. The pundits of doom forgot that the Indian had been used to religious freedom from thousands of years. When he got political freedom, he grabbed it naturally. After all, when you can discard Gods why canât you discard leaders? Leaders like Gods are completely expendable to the Indian mindset. They are tolerated as long as they serve the people, and are replaced when needs change. Itâs the triumph of people over their leaders, and in this tumult, no dictator can ever take over and rule us. Strange how the thoughts of a few men living in forests, thirty five centuries ago, can echo inside the heart of every Indian. Thatâs a tribute to the resurgent power of India, and the fearlessness of its free thinking people. * 3 Comments * Post your comment Latest Comments Submitted by PraveenTummala on Sun, 16/08/2009 - 2:23am. two words, simply beautiful...... * reply Submitted by Vinod Kumar Mahanti on Sun, 16/08/2009 - 1:36am. It is one thing to be proud of being a Hindu but another to say Hinduism is the cause for democracy to survive in India. I come from a family of Niyogi Brahmins. I do not find Mr. Shanker's claims to be true. I have recently been very concerned about what the Chinese said to break up India because of Hinduism. But in reality what they said about Hinduism is true because India as a single identity was unknown because of caste barriers that had kept different kingdoms separate. The status of women and children and deplorably the lower castes and tribes were not even given a humane status to live as human beings. Basic human rights were denied to them. Even cows and dogs were treated with gignity in the vedic and medieval times. Todays killing of Christians over a man who dignified cows over the minorities in Orissa is case in point. So what brought about the real awakening among educated Indians happened in late 18th century. That happened after Foreign Europian nations came to India for trade and especially with the Christian missionaries. Crdeit should be given to missionaries where it is due. Though Hindus will deny this, it is true that many Hindus even today will probably send their children to English medium schools for education rather than be proud of their vernaculars. Raja Ram Mohan Roy, BC Chatterjee, Pandit Ramabai and so many others had worked together with the Dutch, Portuguese, French and of course the English who united the country as a single unit through education, eradication of Sati, child burning to appease Hindu gods and goddesses, separation of widows from main stream of society and the discrimination of Dalits were eradicated to some extent because of British Govt. policies undertaken by Lord Bentinck and Lord Rippon and many others. Please, do not ever consider Islam or Hinduism to be the real factor behind the "democracy" that prevails in India. Indian Constitution writers have borrowed heavily from the UK for the Parliamentary system that exists in India and so do the origins of the Fundamental Rights an Duties that have been lifted from other Countries that unfortunately have been denied to the minorities because of this age old discriminatory evil called Hinduism that kills minorities in India even today. Freedom in the real sense and democracy in actuality is on paper and not practical as it exists in USA and UK and Switzerland as we all know it. http://www.deccanchronicle.com/blogs/hinduism-responsible-su staining-democracy-india-919 Struggle is nature's way of strengthening |
