So, we will try to have regular question/answer form members of other religions. This week its hinduism & our Hindu brothers will hopefully answers them. Please be respectful when asking questions.
Here I will start:
What are the core of Hindu beliefs?
Is Hinduism, like Islam, a religion or a way of life?
What does the world "hindu" means?
What is the concept of life after death & what role does caste system plays in that (who/what you are reborn as)?
I will add some more…
Re: Religion this week: Q & A about Hinduism
and, who is supposed to answer these questions? i think you should invite a GS member belonging to that religion as a guest to answer these queries.
i suggest you invite Arleiter as guest this week to answer these questions.
Re: Religion this week: Q & A about Hinduism
^^^ Its an open forum, but you are right…
@Arleitter @Southie
Re: Religion this week: Q & A about Hinduism
I am not that proficient in the matters pertaining to religion but I will definitely come back with my answers.
Indeed,thanks a lot Shamraz Bhai for this thread. 
:k:
Re: Religion this week: Q & A about Hinduism
Bold initiative indeed
Re: Religion this week: Q & A about Hinduism
Re: Religion this week: Q & A about Hinduism
Is it true that Hindu scriptures prohibit eating spices after the age of 25?
Re: Religion this week: Q & A about Hinduism
This is purely from general knowledge, no uncle google used …
The core Hindu belief is that life is a transitional mechanism of reaching the Divine.
Hinduism is not one system, but a multifaceted system of beliefs that are allowed to be borrowed and exchanged between people. Mostly anecdotal … Stories are either to provide reasons behind their cultural celebrations or wisdoms for operating in daily life. Worship is undertaken through mediaries and forms depending on which sub-culture or persuasion a person is from. Ultimately a single Godhead is professed to, but lesser beings are worthy of praise according to them. The fluidity of Hinduism allows modification, so one can be Hindu so long as certain ideas are upheld, but within Hinduism there is no strict dogma … It is unlike Islam from the core concept of Monotheism.
Hindu means person born in the vicinity and flood plains of the Indus River.
There is no fixed belief of caste system to reincarnation … However some believe that Brahmins are closer to their final journey … Caste system in reality is a form of population order and control. Giving it a religious twist makes it quite potent.
Re: Religion this week: Q & A about Hinduism
No.There is no such prohibition.
Re: Religion this week: Q & A about Hinduism
Psyah Br has explained much better I could have.
Hinduism has different branches of thought.According to one branch called `Advaita Adarsha’,it emphasis a single power/God.
Re: Religion this week: Q & A about Hinduism
What is the concept of charity in Hinduism?
What are the reason of coexistence of other religions along with Hinduism?
What are major sins in Hindusim?
Re: Religion this week: Q & A about Hinduism
you are probably talking about Jainism. Jains don’t eat anything grown underground like garlic, onions, ginger etc.
btw, Jains are NOT Hindus. they do not consider themselves to be Hindu as far as i know.
Re: Religion this week: Q & A about Hinduism
There is no such religion called Hinduism - we just call it to refer to people who follow principles of Sanathana Dharma - many do not even know this because it is a VERY individualistic set of practices, though underlying principles exist. So we will continue calling it Hinduism for convenience.
The most fundamental of these is the concept of Samsara, which is the cycle of ‘life’ (not exactly, but good enough for here). Souls are in a constant state of varying degrees of agitation to get liberated from the bonds of Samsara - when such liberation is achieved, Moksha is attained. Moksha is the state where the soul merges with (or bceomes additive to) the Super Soul (it is too difficult to translate Purusha, so Super Soul is good enough for here).
The way such liberation is accomplished is by acting in a way that the effects of such action are ‘good’ (aka cause effect …karma). How do I take on the correct ‘acts’ without knowing what ‘good effects’ are?
The above is pretty common across all schools and sects and subsects. Ofcourse each creates a slight variation in rituals, rites, Gods and Goddesses and so on. For example mountain men start worshipping trees and thus cause least damage - over time some special tree acquires special status, even God’s abode or something. That’s what makes it all so interesting - stories, fables, miracles, wonderful celebrations, …
Two other lose ends to tie up: so does a soul become one with or just become a additive in the vicinity of the Supreme Soul (Purusha)? The advaita philosophy says there is no such duality and the they become one (Jeevathma and the Paramathma); the dwaitha philosophy says otherwise. Either case, it doesn’t matter - just get there!
So all that brings us to Purusha. What is that? It is all that is was will be and is not was not and will not! The term used is nirguna (losely translated to devoid of attributes). Gods, souls, time, space matter, energy, elements all come from that. (sound familiar? that’s why Hindus generally find it possible to accept theories such as big bang, string, evolution etc without fundamental conflict).
Hope this helps.
Re: Religion this week: Q & A about Hinduism
if there is emphasis on a single power/God, then how are there so many gods that are worshipped by hindus?
Re: Religion this week: Q & A about Hinduism
Because that is the natural order of human beings. Hindus know it (or atleast act as such!) , IMO others don’t. Regardless of whether one knows it, doesn’t know it, act as such or not, that fact about human beings is fact. Explanation follows.
Take any element, say water. Water regardless of where it is, is water. But people can only experience water through some attributes of water - such as its fluidity, temperature, weight, pressure etc. A different combination of these attributes makes the same water suitable for different uses; like water as ice helps preserve things; same water when hot cooks food! The change in the form (attribute change) is necessary depending on the circumstance, not for the benefit of water, but for the benefit of the humans..
Even so called ‘monotheist’ religions involve these attributes but simply do not take cognizance of it. For example the monotheist god of the Jews underwent attribute changes as the Christians perceived for their circumstances; and then underwent further attribute changes as the Muslims perceived for their circumstances. And as the next ‘monotheist’ religion emerges there will be further ‘changes’.
But the Jewish God and the Christian God and the Muslim God etc are such only for the respective groups, in reality not three different!
Same thing with how Hindus perceive God - the difference being as each new school emerges, they don’t throw each other out (some have tried but failed!) but rather end up accommodating each other (in most parts at least). Such accommodation leads to many new God forms appearing o0ver time. And given how ‘old’ Sanathana Dharma has been (from teh very beginning of time), it is no wonder there are so many new forms.
And as one worships one form, many don’t feel any issues with worshipping another form as well - whatever gives them peace of mind and harmony in life. In every Hindu household it is quite common therefore that the father has a favorite form, mother had another, uncle has a third and the grandma a fourth and so on!
Re: Religion this week: Q & A about Hinduism
@Samir_Mirchandani bro thanks for answering the questions. Just curious to know life and death cycle and how do you reach final stage or is it continues and never ending?
Re: Religion this week: Q & A about Hinduism
This is an answer that is so personal that I can only give you mine; perhaps once you read it you can think about it your (you have already done that partly, given you asked the question).
The math wizard has a duty to not just get an A, but also to explore the body of knowledge and work at expanding it. Just getting an A in that case would mean stealing because he has stolen from others the progress in knowledge that his wizardry entailed.
Say he pursued that work and found better proofs and methods, his next job would be usually at a better university right? But once he joins there, the duty expands further - expanding bounds of the knowledge becomes an expected duty. To excel and distinguish (the word used in Sanskrit in this context actually is translatable to discrimination but that is a bit to fully explain here) you will then find him adding on things like guiding juniors, questioning his own ideas a lot more etc.
Progress through the ‘cycle’ as you call it, is changing duty with expanding impact. I quote ‘cycle’ because I am on optimist and think of it more as ‘phase’ with very little regressive steps.
It absolutely is not endless. Whether dwait or adwait, the state of conclusion is different but there is conclusion
Hope this helps
Re: Religion this week: Q & A about Hinduism
my quick question for the Hinduism experts:
The Upanishads and Vedas talk about Oness of God and not worshipping of the “images” or “forms”. How does a Hindu understand that?
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They do? hm may be you you understand hinduism better than them. i for one will be very thankful if you can point me to the ‘not worshipping images or forms’ in Vedas
Re: Religion this week: Q & A about Hinduism
Can anyone explain the terms Nirgun au Niaray this was in the song “Oh Palanhaaray” from Lagaan!