Is Hinduism a religion or a way of LIFE? A scholar on Asian religions told me that Hinduism does not belong to the same category as religion as Islam and Christianity. Hindus do not follow a strict rules like praying five times a day or going to church every Sunday.
Hinduism is more of a Way of Life, he says. What are your thoughts?
let me not beat around the bush much! what is hinduism is something that is prone to interpretation. What i feel as a hindu is that it is a something that can be said to be in common to the vast diversity of people in india...It surely isn't a religion.If it were, then how is it that half of the hindus worship cows and the other half can eat cow's meat and still be a hindu?? How is it that some hindus advocate vegetarianism while many others serve meat to their gods as offering? There is more difference in culture,language and features among hindus itself( north indian and south indian) than between, say, north indians and pak muslims...So i'll state hinduism to be just a virtual feeling that holds the people of india together! It is nothing like what religious fanatics make it sound!! Believe me, more hindus hate these "hindu fanatics" than muslims since, these r the people who try to divide indians by turning hinduism into just a mere religion !
Hindism, a distorted form of what was preached by krishen, the prophet of allah, is a religion as well as a way of life. this part of the world got its share of prophets and books, the teachings of which were distorted thru time, like all other religions including islam and christianity, and today exist in a form not comparable to the one taught by the founder.
So be on watch for a day when heaven shall bring a manifest smoke
covering the people; this is a painful chastisement. 'O our lord remove thou from us, the chastisement; we are believers.' How should they have the reminder? seeing a clear Messenger has already come to them, then they turned away from him, and said,' A man, tutored, possessed!"
( the koran, verse 11-14, chapter 44, Smoke, the nuclear explosion.)
Dear Jewel,
that sure was funny…but what u wrote about hinduism isn’t true 
Hinduism dates back to the indus valley civilization…clay seals bearing images of an ancient “hindu” god, supposed to be an ancient form of shiva have been found!! Hinduism is older than islam or christianity,( doesnt mean that it is better than islam or worse 
) !!The aryans from central asia came along and erected their religion which bears a lot in common with the religion of ancient Rome…this was the beginning of proper hindu religion with caste diversification…but they imbibed a few gods from the local religion into their own! …Islam was introduced into the subcontinent very late…so there is not much of a chance that hinduism was what was preached by “krishen” …even if he was “krishna”, hinduism dates to even earlier times
I agree with u when u say that none of the religions - christianity, hinduism, islam…even budhism…conform to what the founder had taught!! Budhism is a really classic example …it initially advocated simplicity, no idol worship and sacrifices etc. and now have a good deal of all these
dear queer,
"krishna" was the last of those prophets of allah which were sent for the indus valley civilization. Thus saying that hinduism was preached by prophets before him, is as stupid as saying moses preached christianity!
i have studied the indian history as a subject, and am more inclined to talk about what is evidently true. please be more rational in your approach towards this matter. if i said something, i did it after a long personal research on the matter, and a great deal of study. unlike you, i am more inclined towards logic and reasoning, rather than sitting at home and finding faults in what people say. my mother migrated from gurdaspur in india, where my grandfather and his family converted from hindus to ahmadi muslims.
The indus valley civilization, like all other civilizations, has been getting its share of prophets since it has came into existance. a brief study of history of religions reveals that it is the last of the prophets that came to that particular civilization. i related hinduism to krishna in the same way. thats how normal people relate it to krishna. if you have some other theory, please go forth and present it to the world.
as far as your second paragraph is concerned, i have no idea what it was about. when or how islam came to this part of the world, has nothing to do with my post at all. please be more clear on what exactly you were trying to prove.
barah-e-mehrbani, bhoriyaan maarnay say parhaiz kerain!
Dear Jewels,
i mean no offence, but I've studied indian history as a subject for 5 years and i have a pretty good knowledge of hindu mythology too...especially since i am an indian living in india ;)
I appreciate your call for rationality...understandably origin of any religion is a very debatable item :)but may i draw your attention to a very important point? The Indus valley civilization flourished around 5000yrs B.C. ! Islam was atleast another 3000 years to begin in any rudimentary form!! At the time of the Indus valley civilization, the only other civilizations in asia were the ones in modern Iraq (mesopotamian) and in modern Egypt (ok not asia but almost ;))! Surely , you agree that these civilizations had different religions no where similar to Islam ? So where could the prophet of allah have come from??? And Krishna's legends haven't been dated for until the aryans had established a proper ground in India! A good 2000 years later!!!
Sorry about confusing you...i am also confused by your using "allah's prophet"...i guess what you mean must be "God's prophet " then?
And coming back to Krishna....krishna is just one of a hundred thousand gods in hinduism!! and nowhere in hindu mythology is krishna mentioned to be a prophet !! He never preached anything except to arjuna in mahabharatha! Hinduism isn't like christianity where u can say for sure that Jesus is your Lord! In hinduism, there are so many gods...u cannot link hinduism to any one of them!
Hindu religion is an agglomeration of the religions of all "tribes" of indians!! This argument is supported by the fact that many hindu gods are extremely "localized" i.e. known only in a particular part of India!!
:) :)Religious topics do raise tempers...hope Urs doesnt go up after reading this...i dont want to start a fight with someone like you :)
Dear Jewels,
check out this page for more info on hinduism - Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos
It offers a pretty good overview of hinduism!
hope u’ll let me call u a friend by now
ok
Dear queer,
seems like we are confused about the point i was trying to make :)this is a mistake on my part that i was not clear enough to explain my point of view. below is a little explanation of what i was trying to say.please read the essay carefully, before criticising it, :)you previous record is very bad :)lol..j/k
As the human race passed thru the stages of evolution, with a step by step mental and physical development, a time came when the human beings were mentally developed enough to understand their origin, and live in a civilized way, taught by the creator.
the first step, in this regard, was to send a prophet called adam. Adam was the first civilized human being, who came with messages for a mentally highly developed human race. he came to teach them civilized ways of living, which the human race had now become capable of.
immediate consequence of this step, was the formation of two parties. those who believed in him, and turned to civilized living, were lead by adam. those who disbelieved in him, rejected modern concepts , and insisted on following the ways of their forefathers. they were lead by iblees.
the process of step by step development of human mind, thru evolution, is a continuous process. thus as the human mind developed, more prophets were sent, to cater the needs of this more developed brain, and teach them modern ways of living.
prophets from allah came everywhere in the world. abraham, ismael, jacob, jonah, noah, hood, moses, jesus, and krishna , buddha, confucious, zoroaster... no civilization was left, which did not get prophets, one after another, teaching them new and modern ways of living, which suited their developed brains.
However, each time god sent someone, the people repeated the story of adam. the modern and civilized concepts of the prophets and messengers of god, were rejected by some. others stuck to the old ways of their forefathers, and hated those who change their religion.
is it not but logical to believe in all those selfless and piuos people, who spent their lives for no monitory or worldly gain? for me, the true faith is the one, which compells me to believe in the truth of ALL prophets. thats the religion i follow now.
Thus according to my beleif, all prophets, all religions, belong to the same creator behind them. prophets came and foretold, messengers came and taught, preachers came and preached, as the time passed, the teachings got dostorted. the developing minds seeked new peophets, and kept getting them. each new prophet taught modern ideas, and new ways of living. and each time a new prophet came, a party disbelieved in him, wanting to stick to the distorted teachings which were conveyed to them by their forefathers.
So the indus valley civilization, developing thru stages of evolution, got its share of teachers, from the same god , allah or ram, whatever you may call him, who sent, send, and will keep sending teachers to all civilizations in all parts of the world.
those who disbelieve in modern ideas, will stick to the distorted teachings od the older prophets, thus making more and more religions, out of one which is in the base of all of them.
Thus as human mind developed to an extent, where distances no longer remained long, the final religion, the final civilization was taught by mohammad, sent by the same god, as the one who sent krishna buddha or jesus. mohammad , like all other prophets, induced modern ideas, and introduced new and more civilized ways of living in his people.
as the world reaches its final stage, as the world nears its end, their came another man, the promised messiah, who would , like all other prophets, teach new concepts, and preach modern ideas. Mirza ghulam ahmad, of qadian,from a small village near gurdaspur, in india, was chosen by god, and appeared as the promised saviour, who would fight off, by logic, the old and distorted believes that have made way into the tru religion, preaching new and modern concepts. like all other prophets, a large party rejected him, and wanted to stick to the believes of their forefathers, and preached to kill anyone who changes the religion of his forefathers.
in short, it appears to me, that logically speaking, all religions as but distorted forms of one religion.
now, based on this view, my stand on hinduism is, that it is a religion, as well as a way of life, like all other religions. however, this way of life belonged to human beings much inferior to us as far as mental development is concerned. with developing minds, we need modern ways of living, thus my grandfather rejected hinduism, and believed in the prophet of his time, mirza ghulam ahmad sahab, of qadian.
i think my stand is very clear now. sorry for creating a confusion and an unnecessary argument
So be on watch for a day when heaven shall bring a manifest smoke
covering the people; this is a painful chastisement. 'O our lord remove thou from us, the chastisement; we are believers.' How should they have the reminder? seeing a clear Messenger has already come to them, then they turned away from him, and said,' A man, tutored, possessed!"
( the koran, verse 11-14, chapter 44, Smoke, the nuclear explosion.)
Dear Jewels,
Ur explanation has resolved my confusion :)
In fact,i couldn't agree more on what u said about changing religions with changing times! (or rather changes in the same religion with time ) . This is one thing that if everyone understands, would lead to a more peaceful society! It's pretty clear that adhering blindly to a religion because it was one's forefathers' makes no sense...but that's what people do! And what's more, they condemn other religions!!
Hinduism, as u told, has a lot of details that are irrelevant in modern times...idol worship, polytheism,caste diversification , useless rituals....probably, they might have had their use in ancient times...but if u look at the inner core....the vedic philosophy...it is very much applicable in today's world too...maybe with a bit of intelligent interpretation though :)U'll be surprised to hear that the vedas preach monotheism (in spite of hinduism having a hundred thousand gods)!
Islam surely must have been more "attractive"(i know that's not the word but cant think of a better one ) when it was introduced to the hindus who were frustrated by the "loopholes" in hinduism...and i dont think it's wrong to change one's faith if one wants to!
However, i am content at being a nonbeliever in any conventional religions - i've got my own personal religion which imbibes the spirituality of hinduism, the love and compassion of christianity, the strength of Islam and the simplicity of Budhism! :) :)
Dear NYahmedi,
u seem to be grossly misinformed regarding "ism"s in general! ;) :)
Dear queer,
it was nice to find out that we agree on most of the topics. Both of us realize the importance of a progressive change in the ways of living, with developing human minds. both of us also agree that people like to stick to the old beliefs of their forefathers, and are biased against modern ideas. both of us also want to have a religion which imbibes the spirituality of hinduism, the love and compassion of christianity, the strength of Islam and the simplicity of Budhism!
the only difference is, you have to be a nonbeliever to believe in all this. while for me, believing in all this is being a believer!
but it is all because of such modern and logical beliefs, that my community has officially been announced to be a nonmuslim sect, and is forbidden by law, in pakistan, to great, pray, preach or practice our religion in any form. this is another example of how people reject the modern ideas and new concepts introduced by the prophets of their times. you will see some strange and illogical essays in this forum which would argue that there could be no prophet after mohammad. Is this not what has happened with all the prophets who came? people always hate modern ideas, while i love them. so i chose to live a dangerous and unpredictable life in pakistan, then to let go my modern ideas.
may god bless you with everything you do in your life. my good wishes are with you. :)live long, and prosper!
So be on watch for a day when heaven shall bring a manifest smoke
covering the people; this is a painful chastisement. 'O our lord remove thou from us, the chastisement; we are believers.' How should they have the reminder? seeing a clear Messenger has already come to them, then they turned away from him, and said,' A man, tutored, possessed!"
( the koran, verse 11-14, chapter 44, Smoke, the nuclear explosion.)