Re: What has Hinduism given to the world?
Lahore...you know what...when you mentioned hinduism is 'nothing'.....from Dr.Radhakrishnan's quote. I knew what he meant. But was not really very confident about it...you guys must relish when you say "hinduism is 'nothing'
I will tell what they all meant......hindu scriptures talks about every aspect, good or bad, right or wrong, it says there is god, but at one point it even says there is no god, it simply covers each and every topic that is out there in this universe. It keeps questioning itself. thereby defying itself. What conclusions can be drawn from it?....It tells you 'nothing'(means no conclusions). It is that 'nothing' Dr. radhakrishnan meant. it is left to the people to draw any conclusions about their observations. It's just a question of choice and reap karma's according to the choice you made.
You know what conclusion I have drawn from hindu philosophy "just throw a stone into a pond to some point, the waves that are created by it will come back to the same point from all directions".
It's sometimes also referred as "law of karma".
You also wanted us to answer what is "hinduism:a way of life"......i have an answer for that.
It simply means "not associating yourself with any religion, but still taking bhagavad geetha and the vedas as your guides of life". You know what... hinduism again can be questioned and defied "by adding other religious scriptures also along with bhagavad geetha and vedas". In this paragraph itself you might find contradictions. But thats a part of it. It all depends on what you choose. If you cant understand what i have said, i can understand.
My interest has been hinduism and it's philosophy...always. May be because by birth i am a hindu. I am kinda proud of it also. You know what.... if i present a paper on hinduism in some composium or symposium what ever..., i will not forget to mention these threads name as reference. But i will do that without associating myself with any religion but still keeping bhagavad geetha and vedas as guides. That's hindu "way of life". here itself there is a contradiction. I hope you can see that. If you are not able to .....remove the word 'hindu'. I think it's just a "way of life".
Regarding...sati. I have not read vedas. The meanings of verses "could be different". There could be many interpretations. Everyverse will tell you many meanings. That too...when it's sanskrit...things become even more difficult. Very few guys know sanskrit. Highly scholared people in sanskrit are very less. The problem becomes even more complicated when you translate from sanskrit to english. i hope i have explained. But no matter what...i have explained we defy it in this age. I have made this even more...in a way glorified sati in post 118. i have no regrets for this.But i am simply against sati...or whatever in this age. The vedas might have quoted some verse on sati. But you simply cant ignore what other things it has to say. As swami vivekananda said "you will have to see vedas through the eyes of evolution".
Regarding the cow worship you mentioned "what's wrong in it? if some people do it what's wrong in it? no matter what they do , they do it in the name of god...i am sure creator of this universe will not find fault with it. why?.....because he cannot be humiliated....these emotions are there only to humans. No matter how we pray...he will accept the prayers. That's my strong and sound belief.