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Being Hindu is much different in the US than in India
Hindustan Times ^ | 3/9/06 | AP

Posted on 09/04/2006 8:36:21 PM PDT by voletti

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To: CarrotAndStick
No, it's far more complicated, than that kind of generalisation.

Thanks for posting this excerpt. I was talking about the Vedic origins of modern-day Hinduism, but there's no doubt that by the time the Bhagavad-Gita and the Upanishads were composed, Hinduism had progressed far beyond those origins.
21 posted on 09/05/2006 12:08:15 AM PDT by AnotherUnixGeek
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To: RobbyS
There was still is an astonishing amount of concern for personal ritualistic cleanliness.

In Judaism, that is. I can't remember now, but this applied especially to some important temple in Israel. Saw it right here on FR.

Some would say even the Catholics are ritualistic. Whom am I kidding? They are ritualistic...with the kissing of preserved bodies, feet of statues, and blood in vials, and the like.


22 posted on 09/05/2006 12:27:52 AM PDT by CarrotAndStick (The articles posted by me needn't necessarily reflect my opinion.)
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To: CarrotAndStick

One of the products of classical paganism was philosophy, which was a kind of criticism of Greek mythology. There were the mystery religions which came out of Persia and Egypt, and then on the fringe, the Celtic and German gods. You may be failing to throw these into the mix. The population of the Empire was probably 50 million people, a good portion of the human population at the time.


23 posted on 09/05/2006 6:22:47 AM PDT by RobbyS ( CHIRHO)
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To: sagar
Hinduism was never a monolithic religion with one doctrine.

Heh...much as Christianity wants to be, it's not that either...though it's still much more uniform than Hinduism.

24 posted on 09/05/2006 6:30:34 AM PDT by Oberon (What does it take to make government shrink?)
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To: Sir Francis Dashwood

I know but a little drop of the truths of the Vedas, but what a drop! A drop is enough to drown a small soul in happiness that nothing in the world - not even everything in the world - can give.


25 posted on 09/05/2006 7:22:21 AM PDT by little jeremiah
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To: Oberon

It's more of a culture than a religion in the US.


26 posted on 09/05/2006 7:26:44 AM PDT by AppyPappy (If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
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To: AnotherUnixGeek; CarrotAndStick

Thank you for the Bhagavad Gita excerpt!

Note to Another: the Gita was spoken 5000 years ago, and the speaker - Bhagavan Shri Krishna - states that He spoke the same truths countless eons ago but the knowledge had become lost.

The historical (western derived) accounts of Vedic history are basically all erroneous; in fact, early British indologists knowingly fabricated recent dates for Vedic history in order to belittle the ancient Vedic based religion and culture of India and make European history look superior.

The truth is just now starting to be understood by open minded historians. The truth being that the Vedic culture is the mast ancient in the world, and predates all others.


27 posted on 09/05/2006 7:28:28 AM PDT by little jeremiah
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To: CarrotAndStick

Man is both spirit and body. Humanity loves, needs ritual . Singing and group prayers is ritual; the inauguration --the very name tells, us--is ritual. The only Christian denomination that forsakes ritual entirely is Quakerism, which is one reason why there are so few Quakers. IAC, cultic worship tends to neglect /ignore the personal and moral aspect of religion.


28 posted on 09/05/2006 8:53:20 AM PDT by RobbyS ( CHIRHO)
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To: Oberon

There is far more unity of doctrine in Christianity, even Protestant Christianity. than one would infer from the multiplication of sects and the constant argument. We all get it from the Jews and the Greeks who were always squabbling so they had excuses to keep talking.


29 posted on 09/05/2006 9:01:28 AM PDT by RobbyS ( CHIRHO)
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To: RobbyS

Yes.

One man's ritual, to another it's superstition, and to the third, vice.


30 posted on 09/05/2006 9:19:31 AM PDT by CarrotAndStick (The articles posted by me needn't necessarily reflect my opinion.)
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To: CarrotAndStick

The only "vice" in a ritualistic religion is doing the rubics incorrectly so as to appease the god. If you are an Aztec priest, you must kill victims to keep the heavens from falling.


31 posted on 09/05/2006 9:31:21 AM PDT by RobbyS ( CHIRHO)
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To: RobbyS
In the Mahabarata it's pretty clear that Hinduism has some roots that are remarkably like those of Judaism and Christianity, right down to the Messiah(s), the slaughter of the infants, the flight across "water", the evil king, the virgin "birth" (yes "birth", since Krishna/Ram gets conceived in the ordinary way, but he ends up in a different womb, and it goes on from there.

Then there's the story of Ma-Nu (Noah). You get the "Great Fish" who saves Ma-Nu on Mt. Ararat.

Although the identities of the participants in the story are different, the numbers used are the same, 2&5 together, and 7 souls, and so forth.

Simply amazing stuff.

32 posted on 09/05/2006 10:13:30 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: JerseyHighlander
The Roma traditionally adopt the religion of the nation they live in. For Alexandria's Jewish community, look to Medieval Moslem Spain.

They didn't just disappear ~ that was not allowed. They moved.

Jews always move.

33 posted on 09/05/2006 10:16:29 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: Bethaneidh
Pretty far off ~ Hare Krishna practice was invented in New York by an American. It's since traveled to India as yet another Hindu sect.

About half the doctors in India are Jains. They know exactly how the immune system works, but they feel guilty about it ~ if they weren't so heavily tanned you could say they were the original bearers of "white Liberal guilt".

Jainism is part of the Buddhist tradition but they have 24 different Buddhas.

34 posted on 09/05/2006 10:22:11 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: MeekMom
It's not evil ~ it depends on some of the same revealed truths you do and therefore serves as an amnesty from oblivion until you undertake a Christian mission to them.

Then, of course, they'll all go to Hell.

35 posted on 09/05/2006 10:23:17 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: little jeremiah
It's still later than the Sumerians.

No doubt there was a back-flow from Sumer into India, but Sumer was first.

36 posted on 09/05/2006 10:26:38 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: RobbyS
They sit there in the meeting house waiting for the spirit to move them.

That's akin to deep contemplation ~ and makes it just another fundamentally ritualistic religion.

37 posted on 09/05/2006 10:27:43 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah
Jews always move.

A comedian -- I think it was Rita Rudner -- posed the theory that they spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness because Moses was too stubborn to ask for directions.

38 posted on 09/05/2006 10:28:53 AM PDT by ReignOfError
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To: voletti
An American Hindu
39 posted on 09/05/2006 10:31:47 AM PDT by JZelle
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To: muawiyah

Given that the Biblical "myth" posits that all men are the sons of Noah, common elements are seen as consistent.


40 posted on 09/05/2006 10:32:02 AM PDT by RobbyS ( CHIRHO)
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