KNOW OUR HINDUISM J.K. SIVAN
Ours is the most ancient surviving religion in the world. It dates back to more than five thousand years. There is no particular prophet or creator for this.
The ancient seers and sages, out of their severe and strenuous contemplation and meditation found out and revealed certain eternal truths which forms the Vedha manthras. It was created in a a peaceful situation, in a well developed civilization when the ruling kings were mostly philosophers. It is like a banyan tree which grew up over a period of time with several branches and aerial roots.
Hinduism is a unique religion evolved from philosophical reasoning and talks of universal evolution, formation of the living beings, formation of human mind and senses. Our Hinduism alone propagates a person to think and reach beyond the religious texts and discover one’s self, the self introspection and self search known as Athma vicharam and Athmanubhava..
Hinduism is not averse to God being worshipped in any form i.e. in the shape of a yantra (a diagrammatic representation on a metallic sheet), mantra (spoken words), idol or symbol of any type. These are only a medium for achieving concentration and purification of mind..
It should not be assumed as worshipping of different Gods, but should be clearly understood as freedom to contemplate on the same Truth, with no form, in desired various forms.
Hinduism internally transforms a person, removes the ego and thus become Brahman oneself. It advocates that the individual is nothing else than the Supreme Brahman.
Religion and ritual are accepted as a lower degree of reality. Philosophical doctrine and knowledge of the Self are the highest degree of reality.
It teaches that Dharma, though called eternal ethics, is flexible. Dharma has some unchanging aspects such as truth, compassion, non-violence, etc., but there are changing aspects in human behavior in different situations. The texts of Dharma differed according to demands of the situation in different periods. The Manu smriti was the Code of Conduct during Krita Yuga, the earliest time.
Our present time, the Kaliyuga, has ‘Parasara smriti’ as the smriti. The Vedhantha doctrines concerning Jiva, Iswara and Brahman are not affected by the changes in Dharma. There is no need for any conversion in Hinduism, as the Religion permits worshipping different forms of the Truth.
We are proud that the greatest treasure our India possesses and what is her greatest heritage, is the Sanskrit language and literature and all its contents. It is indeed a great and rare inheritance. It occupied the place what English is occupyng today in our day today life.
The whole culture of ancient India is known only through Sanskrit. Sanskrit is a rich language with all works in sciences, astronomy, mathematics, literature and arts. All the scriptures were written in Sanskrit, not for the reason that the common man should not know them, but for propagating their ideas all over the country and for preserving them for posterity.
Vedas are the basic texts of Hinduism which was studied by all scholars from Kashmir to Kerala at one stage. In the past, the scholars all over the country interacted with each other in Sanskrit just as we do now in English. The universities of Nalanda, Takshasila, and the traditional schools of Kashi and Kanchi had scholars from different parts of the country who discussed and debated in Sanskrit. There was no communication problem.
At one time the whole of India knew Sanskrit and people talked and communicated in that language. Adi Sankara was able to travel everywhere and debate with the scholars in the North, West and East apart from South in it. It was a curse that our holy land was invaded by others who thrust their culture and belief and ruled us for centuries slowly polluting our culture, and erasing Sanskrit slowly from our life.
While as a result of the influence made by English in our way of life, we are still stuck to it, the westerners are keen to learn our Sanskrit and many in the world are interested to learn it because of its beauty, divinity, richness and wealth of scriptures.
Hindus as Swami Vivekananda observed, in general, do not bother to know about their religion. We are innocent followers of rituals. We will be able to survive only when we know our roots properly and feel proud about it. Hindu texts are like an ocean. It is the duty of every parent to coach the children about our tradition, help them learn sanskrit and have belief and faith in our custom. For this, the parents should first learn the fundamentals of Hinduism. Visiting temples, listening to some puranas, spiritual stories, Pancha tantra tales and then the epics Ramayana and Maha Bharatha etc., can be done in a casual and natural way which will help in educating the children about Hinduism in general.
Hinduism internally transforms a person, removes the ego and thus become Brahman oneself. It advocates that the individual is nothing else than the Supreme Brahman.
Religion and ritual are accepted as a lower degree of reality. Philosophical doctrine and knowledge of the Self are the highest degree of reality.
It teaches that Dharma, though called eternal ethics, is flexible. Dharma has some unchanging aspects such as truth, compassion, non-violence, etc., but there are changing aspects in human behavior in different situations. The texts of Dharma differed according to demands of the situation in different periods. The Manu smriti was the Code of Conduct during Krita Yuga, the earliest time.
Our present time, the Kaliyuga, has ‘Parasara smriti’ as the smriti. The Vedhantha doctrines concerning Jiva, Iswara and Brahman are not affected by the changes in Dharma. There is no need for any conversion in Hinduism, as the Religion permits worshipping different forms of the Truth.
We are proud that the greatest treasure our India possesses and what is her greatest heritage, is the Sanskrit language and literature and all its contents. It is indeed a great and rare inheritance. It occupied the place what English is occupyng today in our day today life.
The whole culture of ancient India is known only through Sanskrit. Sanskrit is a rich language with all works in sciences, astronomy, mathematics, literature and arts. All the scriptures were written in Sanskrit, not for the reason that the common man should not know them, but for propagating their ideas all over the country and for preserving them for posterity.
Vedas are the basic texts of Hinduism which was studied by all scholars from Kashmir to Kerala at one stage. In the past, the scholars all over the country interacted with each other in Sanskrit just as we do now in English. The universities of Nalanda, Takshasila, and the traditional schools of Kashi and Kanchi had scholars from different parts of the country who discussed and debated in Sanskrit. There was no communication problem.
At one time the whole of India knew Sanskrit and people talked and communicated in that language. Adi Sankara was able to travel everywhere and debate with the scholars in the North, West and East apart from South in it. It was a curse that our holy land was invaded by others who thrust their culture and belief and ruled us for centuries slowly polluting our culture, and erasing Sanskrit slowly from our life.
While as a result of the influence made by English in our way of life, we are still stuck to it, the westerners are keen to learn our Sanskrit and many in the world are interested to learn it because of its beauty, divinity, richness and wealth of scriptures.
Hindus as Swami Vivekananda observed, in general, do not bother to know about their religion. We are innocent followers of rituals. We will be able to survive only when we know our roots properly and feel proud about it. Hindu texts are like an ocean. It is the duty of every parent to coach the children about our tradition, help them learn sanskrit and have belief and faith in our custom. For this, the parents should first learn the fundamentals of Hinduism. Visiting temples, listening to some puranas, spiritual stories, Pancha tantra tales and then the epics Ramayana and Maha Bharatha etc., can be done in a casual and natural way which will help in educating the children about Hinduism in general.
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