but you didn't answer my question of what you would do if you encountered a life or death type situation, would you just let death come since there is absolutely no way out?
Answer is in my post, there are two type of Death Situations
1) Immediate
E.g. Your are at point blank range of say a robber in this case i will just shut my eyes and except what will come next.
2) Near death situation
E.g. Suppose i am stuck on a deserted island (Hopeless situation) my chances of survival is more if i am mentally strong in this situation if i have faith in divine power (God) my moral will be high hence my survival chances.
I am mostly agree with what you say and I think the same way sometimes but on the other hand I have been brought up always beleiving in the "God" stuff so no matter how much science advances to prove everything in the world, there will always be a small corner in my mind which will believe in "God" and its divine power......But again I wish there was more proof that God existed. Being a lover of science, over the recent years I have been drifting away from the "God" stuff, but it is totally hard to take it off my system.....as some things still remain unanswered by science.
Siddhu once said "You cannot prove God by logic" i don't know how far this is true.
Have you seen "The Birth of Earth" on national geography it has only made my believes concrete.
But in some corner of my mind i have started to believe that there is some power that is behind the existence of life.
Siddhu once said "You cannot prove God by logic" i don't know how far this is true.
Have you seen "The Birth of Earth" on national geography it has only made my believes concrete.
But in some corner of my mind i have started to believe that there is some power that is behind the existence of life.
I guess we both are almost in the same state......... Near to be Atheist. Just blame it on Science....I will check out the Birth of Earth documentary...lemme know if you have any links for it. Its totally wierd....whenever I hear abt ppl's last life's experience or NDE..it make me beleive that there is some kind of system setup after life but if you look at it in a scientific way there shd be Zilch after you are dead. Not only that, the funda of spirits and the concept of intution sometimes defies science and I think that there is more to room for science to define things in order. I have read many religious/Holy books to find answers but all of them are flawed if you look at them sporting scientific spectacles.
I guess we both are almost in the same state......... Near to be Atheist. Just blame it on Science....I will check out the Birth of Earth documentary...lemme know if you have any links for it. Its totally wierd....whenever I hear abt ppl's last life's experience or NDE..it make me beleive that there is some kind of system setup after life but if you look at it in a scientific way there shd be Zilch after you are dead. Not only that, the funda of spirits and the concept of intution sometimes defies science and I think that there is more to room for science to define things in order. I have read many religious/Holy books to find answers but all of them are flawed if you look at them sporting scientific spectacles.
I used to tell some of the missionaries that tried their hardest to get me to convert to Christianity about how we believe only in science and that we don't put that much faith in religion. Many times science just seems so reasonable and logical but you're right even science doesn't have all the answers.
I'm totally in love with this new book that I read and i was just wondering if you've read it too....it's called "am I a Hindu?" and i've mentioned it before and I feel like a broken record but just wanted to know what you thought of it, if you did come across it. It's a cool book and not so much of a holy book but alot of it makes sense :). It's more of a comfort book when I feel lost. Anyway, it would be fun to discuss certain aspects of the book.
Bramha was cursed that no one will worship him or build his temple. he is the only major deity who is not worshiped. there is only one temple of bramha in the world and that is in pushkar (if i am not wrong)
why/how was God cursed?...sory i was just tempted to ask
so what is the final conclusion?
Would an atheist ever get mental strength from faith in God so his/her chances of survival are high in a hopeless situation?
They say that the most frustrated people are the ones that are the in betweens like us:D. A complete atheist and a complete religious person are the two kinds that are in total peace with themselves.:hinna:
What mantra do you say in your mind when you meditate? Does it really give you inner peace?
One mantra which one saint told me.
When I started meditation, I really didn't start it seeking peace of mind. It was for something else. But more than any mantra, it is about reaching a state of "nothingness". A feeling as though there is "nothing". Feeling as though "I" have vanished from this "universe".
When I started meditation, I really didn't start it seeking peace of mind. It was for something else. But more than any mantra, it is about reaching a state of "nothingness". A feeling as though there is "nothing". Feeling as though "I" have vanished from this "universe".
I really hope that I am always there forever though:D....But looks like because of my karmas created in my mind, my mind comes back :D or looses that state of "nothingness"...
I used to tell some of the missionaries that tried their hardest to get me to convert to Christianity about how we believe only in science and that we don't put that much faith in religion. Many times science just seems so reasonable and logical but you're right even science doesn't have all the answers.
I'm totally in love with this new book that I read and i was just wondering if you've read it too....it's called "am I a Hindu?" and i've mentioned it before and I feel like a broken record but just wanted to know what you thought of it, if you did come across it. It's a cool book and not so much of a holy book but alot of it makes sense :). It's more of a comfort book when I feel lost. Anyway, it would be fun to discuss certain aspects of the book.
The book you are talking abt "I am a Hindu".....I bought a copy of it way back in 1996-97......I remember, I was in school and was visiting the book fair at the pragati maidan in Delhi. I did not know that book was popular or not. I was totally impressed by that book back then.....I remember parts of it about a ABCD asking his father questions abt Hinduism. As a teenager, I was pretty much impressed with the Tantra/Mantra chapter and wanted to learn abt tantric practises(hey what more do you expect from a super curious adoloscent teenager). One of my friends borrowed that book from me and never returned it. That was the only book I had ever cared to highlight the paras which I liked....Never thought even in my wildest dreams that I would be discussing that book twelve years later that too on a paki forum.......I am pretty sure, If I read the book again, I may have a different view abt it....I guess, that's were I got that Hinduism is more of a way of living than religion itself. As far as I can recall, that book had a chapter on evil practises(Sati system) of Hindusm too.Anyways, I loved the book, especially the author showed the Hindu practises in mordern light rather then preaching Hinduism. He also said that caste system made sense back in the days because ppl were charecterised by the work they do...I think that there might be answers to all my questions in Hinduism or Islam or Christanity....but the real thing is that if I am conviced with those answers or not.....On the other hand, I feel believing in science is a lot easier or I guess that's the way I was groomed to believe since childhood. During the early years of education you are taught religion and science seperately and you don't have the maturity to mix them, but once you learn to use you individual thinking both the concepts clash......For most, religion beats science and for some science beats religion.....and then of course there are ppl like us stuck in the middle.
^^^it was written in '97?? Wow, I actually thought it was a new book written by vishwanathan. Wait....are we talking about the same book here? The book i'm talking about is "Am I a Hindu?" not "I am a Hindu". I think we're talking about two separate books here right? Anyway, i'm an Indian American so the book by vishwanathan is exactly what I was looking for in terms of religion and plus the awesome thing about it is that the author shows so many similarities between Hinduism and the various religions of the world and never puts any of them down.
I also loved that he said that since God is everywhere that a Hindu should be able to pray in a church, a mosque or any other place of worship. Plus, he also talks about various scientific issues as well including evolution explained in Hinduism.
*I absolutely love what he writes here. I think i’ve posted this b4 but it’s accepting of all faiths, so it’s an awesome quote for me. I have a better view of religion now than I had b4::biggthumb
"NO RELIGION, NO CULTURE, NO NATION HAS MONOPOLY ON GOD.To say that, is exactly like saying, “Sun rises only at New York and sets at Honolulu beaches.” The Sun that shines on the New York Mansions and Honolulu beaches is the same Sun that shines the dark Ghettos of Calcutta, dry deserts of Saudi Arabia, killing fields of Rwanada. Similarly the God in the Koran or Bible is the same God that one sees in the pages of Hindu Bhagavad Gita. ONE GOD MANY NAMES…
God also wrote in the Bhagavad Gita:
CALL ME BY WHAT EVER NAME YOU LIKE;
WORSHIP ME IN ANY FORM YOU LIKE;
ALL THAT GOES TO ONE AND ONLY SUPREME REALITY
So You can worship Almighty, which is formless and timeless, as Krishna, Jesus, ALLAH, Moses, ANY-ONE or ANYTHING. As long as you have faith in that form of the Almighty, you will befollowing a true religion and you will ultimately realize THE TRUTH, even if you are following a crude form of worship."
you bet…I am talking abt the same book “Am i a Hindu” by Vishwanathan. I guess I bought it the first year when it was released, As far as I can recall, In the initial pages its got a chart of world religions and how they were linked and evovled over time…I just checked out the cover of the book on amazon and its the same one. As a teenager, I was kind of obssesed with Hinduism and its practises after reading the book but thankfully it wore out. I remember it also said somwhere in the initial chapters that every ideal hindu was entitled for a virgin spouse…and the chapter on tantra described tantrics having group sex in a graveyard to increase their dark powers. I remember few parts of the book in bits and pieces…That year I was totally obsessed with tantric practises and wanted to learn till I read about their activitivites in this book…I guess that what stopped me from being a famous tantric… !
indopak
oh g8! i find KPs quite hot! :P
i think KP brahmins and Bengali brahmins are quite un-orthodox.
actually, the caste system was never created to divide the ppl into lower and upper-class.
caste or varnas were just what you wud say ways to categorise ppl on the basis of their profession. in the Vedic time, you would find a priest(now a brahmin), a warrior/soldier (now kythriya),a merchant (vaishya caste) etc all in one family. later ppl chose to follow their parents profession and it became heridetary. and slow and slowly it became what is it today. which is quite sad.
but atleast you know your caste. by what i searched on the net, there are 4 main castes(brahmin,kythriya,vaishya and sudra). i am from the Kayastha caste and it doesnt appear in the list! i wikipediaed it, and it says Kayastha is a caste 'between' the brahmin and the kyathriya castes. like it is both the priest and the warrior caste!!!
i think KP brahmins and Bengali brahmins are quite un-orthodox.
actually, the caste system was never created to divide the ppl into lower and upper-class.
caste or varnas were just what you wud say ways to categorise ppl on the basis of their profession. in the Vedic time, you would find a priest(now a brahmin), a warrior/soldier (now kythriya),a merchant (vaishya caste) etc all in one family. later ppl chose to follow their parents profession and it became heridetary. and slow and slowly it became what is it today. which is quite sad.
but atleast you know your caste. by what i searched on the net, there are 4 main castes(brahmin,kythriya,vaishya and sudra). i am from the Kayastha caste and it doesnt appear in the list! i wikipediaed it, and it says Kayastha is a caste 'between' the brahmin and the kyathriya castes. like it is both the priest and the warrior caste!!!
Well the descendants after migration don't speak koshur(kashmiri) or have the same subculture as them so they don't call themselves KPs. They've adapted to the subculture of where they migrated to and speak completely different languages since it's been so many years.
That's pretty cool that you fall in the middle of both castes. How did that happen? Actually, I would love to do research on my ancestors just to find out more about them.
The last part of your post is soooo funny!! :CareBear: I didn’t even finish the whole book yet so I think I haven’t gotten to this part of it:eek:. That’s another cool thing about Hinduism in that sex isn’t taboo at all and it’s openly spoken and written about. It’s a part of science and so there’s nothing sinful about it. Whenever anybody in the States says anything about Hinduism, if they’ve even heard about it, the only thing they know about is the Kama Sutra and/or caste system, yoga. Hey atleast they aren’t completely ignorant about it, that’s a good thing:)
indopak
oh g8! i find KPs quite hot! :P
i think KP brahmins and Bengali brahmins are quite un-orthodox.
actually, the caste system was never created to divide the ppl into lower and upper-class.
caste or varnas were just what you wud say ways to categorise ppl on the basis of their profession. in the Vedic time, you would find a priest(now a brahmin), a warrior/soldier (now kythriya),a merchant (vaishya caste) etc all in one family. later ppl chose to follow their parents profession and it became heridetary. and slow and slowly it became what is it today. which is quite sad.
but atleast you know your caste. by what i searched on the net, there are 4 main castes(brahmin,kythriya,vaishya and sudra). i am from the Kayastha caste and it doesnt appear in the list! i wikipediaed it, and it says Kayastha is a caste 'between' the brahmin and the kyathriya castes. like it is both the priest and the warrior caste!!!
Nope....I guess you are a little bit confused over here. Kayastha caste comes under Vaishya Category. They are usually business class ppl and some of their most common last names are Verma, Saxena, Srivastav, Mathur, Asthana,Nigam...etc During the royal days they used to handle accounts...just like in the old hindi movies you see the Muneemjees(Shylocks from the SS Stories)
KP's are usually non-veggies because of the climatic reasons. In Kashmir it is hard to find veggies in the Winter months so they have to survive on cattle.
The fish eating brahmins are mentioned in the Ramayana too and it talks about apparent relationship to the bengali brahmins…cool!!:
However, the Gaud Saraswat Brahmins residing on the western coast of India (primarily in Maharashtra, Goa, and Karnataka) are thought to have descended from these Kashmiri Brahmins. Substantial evidence has been set forth by several historians relating that the Kashmiri Brahmins migrated to Goa by the eleventh century AD. To trace the Gaud Saraswat Brahmins ancestry from Kashmir to Goa, one must begin with the story of the famous seer, Saraswata. When there was a famine in northern India, he continued to recite the vedic texts by consuming the fish that the goddess Saraswati had given to him. The brahmins of later generations who accepted fish as a part of their diet were often known to have referred to this story to justify their full-fledged status as Brahmins despite their acceptance of fish. Since the acceptance of fish was also prevalent in the culture of many Bengali Brahmins and because of the apparent similarities between the languages of the two groups, many Gaud Saraswat Brahmin scholars suggested that their ancestors were from the same place, and they maintained some of their religious views while modifying others. In the year 1708, a small group of these migrants had established their own unique sect and initiated a guruparampara. The teachings of the gurus and their dedication to the devotees strengthened the unity of the sect members which has survived till the present day. Gaud Saraswat Brahmins’ fish eating habit finds mention even in Ramanyana. Before performing Rajasuya yagna, Shri Rama asked Lakshmana to invite all the Brahmins for the yagna. Lakshmana invited everybody, except Gaud Saraswat Brahmins. When asked, Lakshmana explained that he observed them eating fish, which was considered non-vegetarian and therefore, they could not be Brahmins. Shri Rama was puzzled and asked Lakshmana to elaborate what he saw. Lakshmana explained how the Brahmins would catch the fish, separate the head and tail from the fish, then using vedic mantras rejoined the head and tail. They would then release the fish in water. The fish would live again. The Brahmins ate the middle portion of the fish. Shri Rama was impressed. Since the Brahmins were not killing the fish, he felt that no sin was committed. Shri Rama instructed Lakshmana to invite Gaud Saraswat Brahmins to the Rajasuya Yagna.
Hey, What more do you expect from a curious teenager atleast this book did its part in guiding me to the right career. On my last trip back to India, I met a French Caucasian girl in her mid 20’s, she boarded the aircraft from London…She started the discussion about the Ajanta-Elora caves and Kama Sutra…Well it seemed like she knew more about India thru books than me. And these taboo subjects remain to be a great selling point…Atleast these points are promoting tourism.
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