Re: Hinduism...
i have heard somewhere that when u read and inquire about other religions, u become aware of ur own religion more, but it does not mean that u change ur religion or take it to be less effective.
Re: Hinduism...
I had the same discussion years ago with a girl in my class, and she gave me a similar reply. She said God has embedded a little of His own divinity in each person, and those who are attuned to this divinity and cultivate it become enlightened and escape reincarnation. The rest are born again and again (endlessly??) until they escape the cycle of birth and death. She also made the point that while humans are manifestations of the Divine, they are separate from God, she gave the analogy of "sparks to a conflagration".
Questions I wanted to ask her but never got to, I hope you or someone can answer me-
Does reincarnation apply only to humans or to all creatures? Since only humans have the faculties to distinguish right from wrong, how does someone who is reincarnated as an animal or some other creature get liberated from that existence? I read what you said about not retaining memory of a previous life, but the soul remains the same? It's not a new soul like someone suggested below?
I guess Hinduism means different things to different people, I could swear she told me there was a heaven and hell. But then I keep getting conflicting pieces of information from different folks, it gets confusing.
Re: Hinduism…
according to hinduism, every living being is a soul covered in a material body. The soul takes one body then quits it to take another and so on. Going through all the various species of animal kingdom and then finally taking a human body. The human body is the highest and most elevated of all bodies
Now, answer to your specific question:
Once we attain the human body, if we misuse or fail to utilize the higher consciousness then we again fall down in the animal kingdom. Then again we have to go through the evolutionary process, moving from one body to the next and again finally as a human
http://hinduwebsite.com/reincarnation.htm
There is concept of heaven and hell (not in usual or literal sense of the word). Only thing is it’s not there somewhere up. It’s all here on this earth or where ever there is life. you will reap what you sowed ,all here. For more, do your own research or contact some learned person.
Re: Hinduism...
I don't want to get into philosophical discussions about re-incarnation. I just want to descrive an actual account of re-incarnation. In our muhalla in Mumbai, a 6 year old boy was run over by BEST bus and killed. His parents were of course devastated. The boy's mother claimed that the boy came in her dreams and promised her he will be re-born to her and his death was to clear some accounts. He told her she will recognize that it was him. The woman gave birth to a child two years after and when they examined the child, they saw on his back clear red tire marks. When I saw the boy few months later , the mark was not clear but you could still see the rectangular patta on his back. You decide if this was re-incarnation.
Re: Hinduism...
There is concept of heaven and hell (not in usual or literal sense of the word). Only thing is it's not there somewhere up. It's all here on this earth or where ever there is life. you will reap what you sowed ,all here. For more, do your own research or contact some learned person.
You explained it well... re heaven and hell... reap what you sow in this life itself.
Re: Hinduism...
y does this only happen to hindus, interesting story nonetheless.
Re: Hinduism...
Imagine a BIG BLOCK OF STYROFOAM. Nothing exists, but that block of Styrofoam.
Now, the universe exists as the styrofoam. So every lil atom of the styrofoam block is something, a cow, a house, a leaf etc.
So basically, There is ONE matter (the styrofoam block) and everything that exists is made up of that STYROFOAM inside that block.
so when you die, you become styrofoam again, and then get created again, its a cycle.
This all happens within that styrofoam block. Everything is styrofoam block :)
Yes I also kind of agree with that. One can be born in 1984, but the molecules constituting his body existed in 1974, 1884 and thus they existed at the time of the earth's creation. The molecules constituting him even existed as either mass or energy at the time of the Big-Bang.
That is called Brahmand (not Brahmin, which means learned one).
Re: Hinduism…
not true. it happens also to buddhists and also you should see discovery channel for such instances from other parts of the world
check these link out if you want and also from other sources
http://www.ial.goldthread.com/personalaccounts.html
http://www.probe.org/content/view/838/65/
http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=65-0684851938-2
http://www.healpastlives.com/aboutus/comment/isreibio.htm
Re: Hinduism...
In hinduism a lil of God is embedded in oneself and the re-occuring of life oneself is depend on a person that how much of a good deed he does on the face of this planet..right? and the better and good deeds u do ..the higher level u get in the matter of species.
My question is If God is in you then why can't you actully stop urself from doing bad things? (God has greater power than devil..no?)
Re: Hinduism...
My question is If God is in you then why can't you actully stop urself from doing bad things? (God has greater power than devil..no?)
I will explain this to you from what i read from one of the books.
Even though god is present equally in everyone, he is "not equally manifest" in every being. To explain, consider 4 light bulbs of 100watts each. If turned on, each one will give equal amount of light. Now, cover the first bulb with one layer of paper, the second with two layer of paper, the third with 3 layers of paper and leave the fourth uncovered. when the bulbs are turned on they will not give same amount of light. and yet, it cannot be denied that same amount of light is present in each one. Similarly god is present everywhere, but not equally manifest. and it is our job to remove these layers one by one or to manifest this divinity present in each one of us. That's what hindu scriptures keep stressing again and again. Those who commit mistakes are ignorant about this divinity present in them.
Re: Hinduism...
Thankyou soo much ssingh for explaining..I hope you don't mind me constantly asking questions. I am not questioning ur faith ..just eager to learn about it :)
You said that God is manifested equally in each and every individual and then that everyone does have a different layer on them, which then differenciate the levels of God menifestation in oneself.
My question is that when a hindu child is born..how do you teach him/her the teachin of hinduism b/c if I was a child and you tell me that God is present in each person at different level.. I will be stunned to find out if He is less in me compare to someone else..so wat do u refer to actually that convince the kid (besides examples) like any miracle...of one divine book of hinduism or any particular human figure?
Re: Hinduism...
My question is If God is in you then why can't you actully stop urself from doing bad things? (God has greater power than devil..no?)
Yes you can stop yourself from doing bad things. The responsibility lies with you. God dosent make you do good things and the devil makes you do bad things.. you decide to bahave badly or well.
Re: Hinduism...
^ but then is there any guideline as if what is wrong for ur faith and wat is not?
Re: Hinduism...
You said that God is manifested equally in each and every individual and then that everyone does have a different layer on them, which then differenciate the levels of God menifestation in oneself.
My question is that when a hindu child is born..how do you teach him/her the teachin of hinduism b/c if I was a child and you tell me that God is present in each person at different level.. I will be stunned to find out if He is less in me compare to someone else..so wat do u refer to actually that convince the kid (besides examples) like any miracle...of one divine book of hinduism or any particular human figure?
SSingh is more learned than me so he may have a better explaination.
This is mine. You tell kids about the stories and mythology and beliefs that are part of Hinduism. These stories have instances of people behaving badly and well and all degrees in between. The example to children would be... look all these people are capable of being good and just, they had to make the effort to do so and had to take the responisibility to do so all by themselves. You can too. You have the capability and all the tools to do that within yourself. You can be as good as you want to be. Believe in yourself. That wattage that SSingh talks about can be lit up by what you do in your life.
Re: Hinduism...
Part of the guidelines regardung what is good and bad is based on culture. For example, respecting parents is part of culture. The religion gives some guidelines on the very basic things of life... respect, kindness, being dishonest etc by examples in stories, mythology etc, but there is no... you will be damned forever if you do this or that.
In classical Hinduism of Vedic times meat eating even by Brahmins was fine. Cultural and economic evolution over the years discouraged this practice. Now Brahmins are encouraged to be vegetarian. The religion is constantly evolving and rules are being defined according to the needs of the time and era.
Re: Hinduism...
That means it is not a religion in the true sense! If a religion needs to be modified, it is not at all a religion :o Quran/Hadith were written long back but everything holds relevance even now. Hinduism can't explain a lot of things- (1) why do Hindus worship idols- something considered disgraceful in Islam (2) Why a man is not allowed to have more than one wife (3) There is only god god but hindus have like 3 crore gods or so... anyway, the list is loooong and I am not going into that.
Re: Hinduism...
hey bro don't just jump (take it easy..slowly and gradually, no bashing stuff) ...let them believe what they believe..we need to respect regardless.
Now since you already jumped on a religion part..now I think I should also ask the same thing as quas asked about religion. Mograkali you said that it depends on a culture and you admitted that it does change time to time. My question is that if it does change according to time and era then what good does it leave for the people in last century to the current one? Does God(s) changes too? and how is it religion? Im confuse since now culture is also playing a part that you mentioned...what really is a defination of religion in ur opinion and understanding?
Re: Hinduism...
so there isnt any book ...as an holy book? If not then where does these guidlines..even cultural comes from?
[quote]
In classical Hinduism of Vedic times meat eating even by Brahmins was fine. Cultural and economic evolution over the years discouraged this practice. Now Brahmins are encouraged to be vegetarian. The religion is constantly evolving and rules are being defined according to the needs of the time and era.
[/quote]
y is that?
Re: Hinduism...
y is that?
I will not go into concept of sin or good or bad. I was thought only one thing and this is thought in every hindu house and probably throughtout the world.
"Never do things on others which you dont want that to happen on yourself".....if you do it, be ready to face the repurcussions. That's doctrine of karma.
and there is no comman definition for hinduism. The word hindu itself is not there in our scriptures. We are not refered by some name in our scriptures. Strictly speaking we should be called vedantists. Regarding definition of hinduism "believe in doctrine of karma, believe in doctrine of reincarnation and believe lowest worship through images to the highest omnipresent imageless worship"....of course this is my definition.
Regarding holy books:
vedas and upanishads are called shruti's (revealed scriptures). and since bhagavad geetha is called crux or cream of vedas, you can also call it as a shruti.
regarding food, hinduism does discourage eating meat. Infact hindu scriptures go on to say, that whatever a man eats, it has it's own effect on human nature or character.