Tuesday 15 May 2012


Harii_Puttar 
What you say about -
Baba Log (So called Godmen) come on TV daily and tell do this, do that.
Many have built Huge Ashrams, Some found exploiting women, children, Some travel in Business Class, Stay in 5 Star Hotels and ask others to live simple.
These (except respectable persons like Morari Bapu etc. ) Baba's no where fit in criteria of Saint given in Hindusm.
So, what you think, they are doing something good for religion or harmful for religion?
This factor depends on the type of baba....... for example, I applaud the Sri Sri, Ramakrishna Math, Bharat sevashram Sangha, Patanjali etc. which work for betterment of people by opening schools, collages, hospitals and provide rescue from natural calamities......etc....
but when giving to these God men we should check very thoroughly about to whom we are giving???? if these you have seen these people to have luxury then these are NOT saadhus.... as that is the primary requirement to become one ..... leave out luxuries...... and how are the funds going to be handled........ all well known religious institutions who take money for chairty have taxation and auditing systems.... so the in exchange for the money you are giving you can track their expenditures if you want....... Ramakrishna Math even publishes it financial info every year in their magazines.....

so if these are not Saadhus and you usually find these out easily enough then why pay them anything???? but I feel people pay because they have tendency to pay to God as to buy forgiveness for their sins..... so they are not giving to charity but selling paaps..... in this case most good saadhus will not take your daan....... only the bad ones will..... cause its only money for them...... but I dont know why they dont realise this money is going to waste.... Paap punya cant be sold or bought....... if you have done paap do some charity involving yourself..... may not require any money at all......

Coming to TV etc. in itself is not bad..... that is just spreading of knowledge...... that should not be related to what they have done in their ashrams....... as in any group of entertainers/reporters some will always do bad (e.g. Barkha Datt etc.) ...... does not mean their job is not important......

ipspunjabi 
well u see..i am a sikh...i dont much about hindu mythology...i am just trying reason wid u on human nature as u have put up this question..i have watched ramayan and mahabharat as a child...i used to like watching it..this was my opinion on that episode..!!


now about this question..my thinking is if i m correct..in those days i think girls didnt had much say in concieving or not...u see those were the periodic times and as all of us know ladies(even if shes a princess) didnt used to get that much respect as they would have deserved in those times...now u have to admit male egos were bigger than anything (in those days) and ego of a king was much much bigger, bigger than the whole state..!!

if kans can put his own biological father in dungeon just for the throne n power..well i think killing his nephews to save his own life wouldnt have been a much of a problem for him..and secondly he wanted her sister to give birth to the child so that he can kill him..his male ego was at stake that a kid will kill amighty king...it was more about satisfying his ego then conquering death..!!
Actually if you read the books the Ramayan and Mahabharat, they feel like a description of the current times......for example: some women are powerful...... others are not........ as in this case, you see that Yashoda is very powerful..... even without having many children etc.... but Devaki is weak and helpless.......... may be due to having a bully as brother...... also her husband is a good for nothing (in my view).......... I bet there are these characters in our societies now.... in your surroundings you can easily find these characters right now!!!
I have no idea about other religions.... in the Brahm Supergroup of religions, meditation is one of the primary aspects of our religions... when you are taught meditation your taught of focus on an object.... the rock in front of which we are praying is just such an focus.... and if a focus has been used by a lot of people .... it can give you more focus than you yourself have...... so with prayers we are increasing focusing power of the object we are focusing on...... I will tell you something you might not like..... many saadhus teach to consider Muslims as Air worshipers..... and Chiristians as Cross worshipers.... as they feel that is their focus of praying......

similar is true for samadhis and dargahs..... a sage's tomb contains the focusing power that he/she earned during long prayers..... and this power enhances your own meditation when prayed there..... and of course popular saints have a lots of payers focused on their tombs...... growing powers with each prayer........ and this is the reason famous sages in Hindu/Boudh traditions are also entombed not burned.....

we are not confining the prayer to anything!!! Dunno how else to explain to you..... as the power of meditation is something I cant explain.....
a_decent_1 
I  am not talking about "My Feelings" ..
I am talking about what my Religion asks me to do.
It is in our Religion to offer Prayers when someone dies for "Aatma Shaanti" .. Not just once, A Lot of them.. Since we are Brahmins, there are many more Rituals.
your religion does not ask you to pay a pandit..... it asks you to do certain rituals which can be done by you.... if you want to be very correct a book describing the rituals can be used..... a pandit is only a knowledgeable guide, and he should only assist, his dakshina only is a payment for that..... God will never ask payment from you..... why would god need money??? so when next time a pandit asks to put some money somewhere during a pooja tell him that I will pay you for the whole thing and your time but I will not do God the insult of offering money......

a_decent_1 
Ankhi,
Are you not aware of the concept of giving Food and Dakshina to Pandit on Shraad..?
Are you suggesting that a common man can understand each and very Ritual that needs to be followed..? With his busy Schedule..?
I know and that is what I said.... think about it.... Food and Dakshina is given as daan in behalf of the departed..... I am not saying that is wrong.... but I am saying not to offer money in all the swahas and stuff like you were describing the Pandit in Haridwar made you to do.....

And none of the people are talking about sharddh here but even for that..... if the exact book is available and it is.... it mostly a matter of reading a 20 page book twice.... one to find which stuff are required and gathering them..... and second while the ceremony for the mantras.... some of the parts can not be done if you are not a brahmin and dont have yagyopawit but other than that and the daan brahmins are not required...... and believe me..... mantras spoken by a relative with love in heart are much better than a impartial paid pandit.....

My fathers friend and collegue acted as the Pandit for us During my fathers vatasarik, as he is a brahmin and he did NOT make all those put one rupees here and two rupee there gestures... and he explained that professional pandits act like that to make more money and that has nothing to do with the ritual.....
Roger69 
Whether God live in Temple/Mosque/Church?
If yes, then Go to any Hindu religious place like Mathura, Kashi, Tirupati etc. where Pujari and other management and surrounding people are only target - how to loot this devotee?
In Tirupati, you are pushed in temple to go fast, but if you give Rs. 50/100 to the attender, he will keep you in side for couple of minutes. Muslims are not far behind, go to Ajmer Dargah, you will find how everyone one want to loot you.
Some places may be exception to this.
When God can't correct his surrounding people, why others visit there?
Surrounding people??? of God!!!..... if God is everywhere there is no specific people who Surround God....

On the topic of temples, and people charging/looting for a visit..... all depends who is willing to pay..... and who there as a tourist... and who came to see/feel god..... I feel all temples /places of God which are overcrowded now as people can afford to visit them are the worst...... they are thinking visiting famous temples/holy places is only a matter of money and status!!! they shouldn't come!!! I believe that is the same thing somebody wrote about govt sponsored Hazz......

In Kashi (Hometown example again!!!) When people come there are always two ways to get darshn in Viswanath Temple... the same as you described..... and I have found the people who pay are the people who want to show that they can.... otherwise it is considered paying to dodge the line as sacrilege and so is pushing people in a line to hurry up!!! dont come to visit Shiva if you are in a tight schedule....Bhola Baba does not have a watch to his name.....

..... a person who sells Religious stuff in that area and quite a good panda Himself once told me that one sphatik mala for jap costs about 100 Rs.... the real deal too... but the people who come from far and wide will feel cheated if he quotes less than 500! they will walk off if he says its the real price! and I have seen this happen in my own eyes too..... so do these people come so far to get cheated???
Roger69  I would like to share my views on Rebirth-

Concept of Rebirth is accepted in Hindu literature. You have to take birth/form again and again unless you reach to Moksha level. Many religions don't believe in rebirth concept. Their view is after death men (including women) goes to heaven or hell according to their deeds. 
In Geeta, when Arjuna asked Krishna how he can kill his own relatives. Krishna replied that You can't kill anyone. because Atma is not destructible. It can't be killed, cut, burnt etc. So, no one can get killed only changes forms. (Mind you, this is purest knowledge, to understand Truth. Not for taking legal stand after killing someone)
In every knowledge book it is emphasized that 'You are not body, you are Atma' By this principle, you are here when the world came into existence and you will be here till the world is existing. You will only change forms. 
This makes concept of swarg and Narak as imaginary concepts prepared for genral public so they can do good things in the greed to go to heaven/ Swarga.
The concept of Atma is same as Energy. As energy can't be destroyed, it can transformed from one form to another. Atma is energy. 
When a person realize at his own (not by other's experience) that everyone is Atma or consciousness and part of Universal Consciousness or paramatma. He is said to attained Enlightenment. Then he can say that I am part of Parmatma -Amah Bramhasmi. At this stage, his energy becomes part of Universal consciousness and he is freed or attained Moksha.
And a possible explanation of rebirth in terms of present population blast..... has following points..... the total number of soul at a given time is constant in total number of living forms..... so as Humans are increasing they are doing so at the expense of souls in other forms..... and that is why we are facing a mass extinction..... 

a_decent_1 
Agreed.
Question arises when a Disaster takes place.
Take the example of 9/11 Terrorist attack. A LOT of people died. Did they all have it in their Karma to die at the Same time, Same Place and Same Misery..? Too co-incidental to be true. When there was TSunami, did each one of them deserve to die..?
I believe that Karma is not only effected by what you do...... in a chaotic system..... state of each component is effected by all other components states.... even if they are not in any contact..... any student of chemistry will tell you when precipitation starts many particles not having the precipitating tendency in those conditions also precipitate due to this effect....... take death as precipitation.... its like death around them is attractive ... so there is a domino effect......
What are these Rahukalam and Yamagandam ? Why not any good important things should not do in these time ? Any scientific reasons ?
These are Astrological terms... even if most karmkandi rituals follow astrology, it is not a must for Hindus.....

Hindu Astrology is a set of correlations based on passage of time as measured by stellar movements...... then stories were made to explain them..... they are as good as the correlation factors measured...... which means not 100% or even 90%..... so... these are more complex statistics than physics..... 


f God themselves say to forgive people for their mistakes then why our God has so many weapons with them.......no mercy for them
Which Hindu God said Forgive people ...... you are confusing with Jesus ... I think.... our shaap Saadhus and Dev jyada dete hain.... Shiv seedhe khatam...... 
I am a Hindu but I don't like such extremism. Do you really think shaaps n all are ok
Where is the extremism in this dear??? just the fact of life or the scriptures.... Should we change the scriptures to suit modern sensibilities........???
Ofcourse we cant change them but may b we should stop propagating such feelings...just a thought
Sensibilities chance from time to time..... I would say nothing is wrong about talking about scriptures that they teach the same thing always in different ways...... what you learn is a different thing...... and I like the shaap idea.... as they show swift justice....... something we certainly need in the modern times......
Swift justice is ok but wat abt its misuse
You see from the same story different people get different things.... some people get that if you do bad things you will get punishment.... but others will get that as those kinds of Saadhus are rare now there are few to punish us...... jo bhi misuse karenge wo dono cases mein karenge whether or not you are telling nice stories.....

Aadmi hain anginat Devta hain kum...... 
Still u cant justify shaap coz its way away from reality. 1000 of guilty can b set free but a single innocent shud never b punished
That is the text book answer.... rarely comes true....
Fine but what shud v pass on to the coming generations even if it rarely comes true.truth is alwayz a truth.
we should pass to the future generations that there is no absolute truth...... and truth is never a truth in all senses..... it changes by the point of view.......

Does that Solve the Purpose...?
A Kid is born and Dies.. If your explanation is to be believed, Should he not get a Chance before he is Killed...?
What Purpose does it Solve when a Kid dies..? Plus, What Wrong did the Parents do...?
For the Dying children I think the best explanation is the Chaos Theory one..... in a statistical set of n children born there would always a number who will not flourish.... this number will be dependent on the social status, money and just plain chance....... no fault to anybody this is just the way things are....
About atheists......

The fact that a Brahm-dharmi (which means in the religion of nature) believes in the supremacy of it means there cant be any atheists....
if you believe that everything around you if important and deserves to survive and grow....... you are a nirakari.....
if you think natural balance should be maintained...... you are a vaishnav
if you think chaos is life... you are a shaiv......
there are other sects of Brahm-dharm which believe in other things than this..... and Sikhism, Jainism and Buddhism come into this group too...... but no matter how you define your beliefs you are never an atheist..... even
if you believe only in yourself or in nothing..... then you are a Sanyasi.....

Ahum Brahmasmi......
This is the reason why Hindu Creation myth is considered the most scientifically possible.

Brahm or everything, Divided in its Male and Female form as Siva and Shakti have both familiar and chaotic faces.... The Good Faces are Annapurna and the Visweswar..... The Chaotic are the Rudra and the Kali....

Rudra and Kali together they represent the oldest being, the chaos..... from chaos came order (this is possible to have order in a chaotic system, to have order to at least a small part of it... from statistics)..... This small part of order was the Vishnu who is the keeper of the balance as inside chaos the order is fragile to maintain....... from this order creation was born... the Brahma......

So the Brahm was subsetted in a ordered part, the visible universe and the beautiful things we see are a even smaller subset of creation of the subset of order.....

So in most of the Scriptures these three only in male and female forms are called God or Bhagwat (Female form Bhagwati).....

From Brahma, first created were the Devis Lakshmi (well being) and Saraswati (learning)...... notice I didnt say God/Goddess..... as they were a part of the creation.......

From the Brain of Brahma, nature was created in form of Dev/Devis...... Dev/Devi words were mistakenly translated to English as Gods/Goddesses as a parallel to roman Mythologies, but their Correct Translation would be more like Ang
els (or Farishte)... as they are also beings and mortal (with a very large life span....) and represent one or the other forms of nature... Varun-water, Indra-rain etc.

After creation of Nature Brahma went to sleep..... from his tiredness (or bad feeling...) Asurs were born...... who are powerful but destructive by nature....

after this Brahma created Humans with a mixture of Devs and Asur materials, which is why we have mixed character.......

so you see most of the Puranas are stories of the Devs, hence not about God at all but rather about nature .......

We worship Devs because they are more powerful beings than us..... not because they are God..... They themselves ask God's help when in trouble......
1. What exactly is the Shivling and how did it come into being?
2. There are several stories about Brahma being incestuous and a liar (once Shivaji branded Brahma a liar). What are your views on that? 
you have asked very general question and the most fundamental one..... 
1. Shiv is the male form of Brahm or God.... the Female form is Shakti or Power... he is the Adi dev (meaning the oldest)... so his symbol is the oldest male symbol... yes that means the Penis..... so Shivling Means Shiv as the rudimentary form of his malesness......his ****........ Similarly the Female form is Kundalini or the Vagina....

2. those stories are refering to the fact that Brahma gave birth to all srishti... i.e. even Saraswati is his Daughter... and he is shown married to her.... hence the incest......
it represents that learning was created by God but learning was needed for further creation......

But y worshipping the penis and the vagina?? Isnt it too primitive and uncivilised a concept?? Shiva as a whole can be worshipped.
Being primitive is not a bad thing.... its just basic.... and as nature worshipers the base of nature is what Hindus worship....
1. Ok agreed. But Shiv as a whole could have been worshipped, why his penis? 
Moreover as far as I knw the origin of Shiva ling was an incident where Shiv was trying to seduce sages' wives and the sage cursed him due to which his ling fell off!! Is it true??
Shiva is the male form of Brahm..... meaning he is the matter whereas the female form is Shakti or Energy..... together they are nothing..... so if we worship shiv we are worshiping one form and as Shakti we are worshiping the other.............and rest is just a joke..... we joke about our Deities a lot..... 
Joking with god is the best part?? I didnt expect such a statement from u! Is it ok to joke with our parents too? (dat too of sexual nature) 
Well sexual joking was once a very accepted thing in India.... and even now.. if not with your parents then it is quite acceptable with your grandparents if you are an adult..... at least in most places/families I have seen....
One question that bothers me- 
People visit to holy places for betterment. To get wealth, property, happiness etc.
But, we read in Newspapers daily that Car/Bus going to/coming from Tirupati, Shirdi etc places had an accident and people died. How can people who just prayed and visited died. 
How can people die in temples because of stampede? In Maharashtra, around 400 people died at a place called Mandhardevi some 3 years ago.
You know what is the definition of a temple?? a holy place where people have worshiped before, where you feel God is close.... but what we are doing nowadays is something reverse... Temples are where you go to show look I can go there and you couldn't..... Temples should not be gone to like that..... 
and stampedes occur because people run... go to temple go with the flow..... why run because you are going to be harmed?? and to have killed people running from something??? that is even worse..... (coming from a Banarasi Panda...)
and for the people who died... I think there is a description of Rebirth for apghat Mrytus somewhere.... if I remember will tell you..... as far as I remember it says that where/if you will be born depends on what you were thinking when you died..... not how you died..... 
God is "Almighty" . Knows everything. Past, Present, Future...? He made this World..?
Then why is there Evil in this World..? Why does God not Create a World without Evil..? Why are Girls Raped, People Murdered...? Does God like what is happening..? Misery is Pleasure...?
as I said before God in Hinduism is everything........ Good or Bad..... they are not different things making up God..... we are God and we are making the misery because we are harming God...... because we are not believing that the person we are harming is God too...... 
Osama-Bin-Laden was God..? 

Sorry for the Sarcastic remark there. But Ankhi, I guess what you wanna say is that Nature is God. Everything and Everyone is God.. !! Then, Who created Nature/God ...?
It is Swayambhu.... it created itself... and it will destroy itself...... and will rise again from the remains.....
I think all these Ramayan, Mahabharata are just stories,right ?......not that close to reality.....
I think there was some truth in them in the beginning..... but they have evolved over the centuries as they were told and retold..... for example..... Tulsidas Ramayan and Valmiki Ramayan are not exact matches as Tulsidas took some liberties while translation..... he even mentions where..... I think.....
a but still I dont see why others do......and I dont have choice...I m born Hindu....and when mom does puja in dusshera...I have to sit there and join.....and also enjoy watch ravan die.....

I remember a movie "Lajja"......its just an awesome movie about women....watched many times...and it showed that even today men like Shree Ram exist that doubt their partners and humiliate them.....

Yes.. and that is why you should understand that Ram as good or bad is still in ourselves, in you and all males Hindu or not...... so is Sita, in all Women... still burning......

these are stories that show however modern we have become, we are still the same..... a story thousands of years old is still happening..... today......



How Human became the God, walking among us............ 
About Hinduism:
Q. We used to have Flying Carts in Ramayan/Mahabharata. Where did they go..? Why do they not exist anymore..? If we had that Technology so long ago, why don't we find them now..? Why did we need to make those Airplanes when we actually had Flying Carts to begin with....?


A silly but important question..... ... ok for a simple answer... tell me if you want a longer one..... 

Well it is said that this is the Kali Yug and a lot of what we knew in the Yugs before have been lost in this..... this is the Yug when our capacities are the minimum and so is our life cycle..... as Ramayana and Mahabharata are representatives of a Dwapar and Treta Yugs respectively, Humans might have had other capabilities then than we dont have now...... or may be that we are building them all over again..... 

I agree that we are in the Kali-yug. 

But, I find it very hard to believe that Valmiki ji had the time to write a whole story on Ramayana, but did not find enough time to pen down the art of constructing those Flying Cart. Is there an explanation to these Flying carts and Flying Horses other than plain "Magic" ..? 

Another point to mention is that if a "Book" written by Valmiki ji made it through all the "Yugs" , why did not a single Flying Cart, made of Iron, make it through..?
Well do you know how long is a yug??? a very long time...... and Valmiki didnt really write down the book.... that is a misnomer..... that is because till about 1000 CE nothing was written in India... only spoken..... all arguments were verbal only.....

so as long as one person who knew all the knowledge by heart survived the transition to the next yug so did the information.... but metal, my friend, does not survive even a 100 years out in the open...... 




About Hinduism
Qs:
1. In Vedas, it's clearly written that GOD's no image, no statue, no idol, and no picture then why still worship idols? your own holly book stops you from it? 

2. Now In other Hindu's holly book, Yajurved .. It's clearly written that "GOD's only one and nothing 's like him. not at all not at all not at all."


Ans: Firstly the question themselves are misguided and from people who did not read the whole thing and hence are not in context..... so as I do not want to be quoted out of context please read the whole thing and ask me any questions.

Hindus do not have a concept of a separate God..... God For Us is Brahm..... it is everything and everybody... so that is what is written in the Ved (even if there are four but no plural should be used for it......), it says God is nothing but everything.....

But our Philosophy means we are to worship everything..... and it does not give a definition which..... we can worship fire, water, air anything that is around us..... as by our definition anything which you think is God, is God.... even a rock, a piece of Wood.... does not mean we are worshiping different Gods.. specifically in Sanskrit and all Indian languages derived from Sanskrit there is no plural to the all names for God...... we will say Bhagwaan, Prabhu, Thakur... I dont think a plural exists for them......

Our mythologies confuse the uninitiated as they dont get the basic thing..... they are written in Upma Alankar, (ie Similies), so they are implied by the internal meaning, they are not only stories.....

For example, when we say Vishnu (more on these later), as a representative of Balance of the world is married to Lakshmi the Goddess of Money/wealth/well being, it is meant that the to maintain the balance in the world the well being of the creatures inside should work together like the husband and wife work together for their family...... one sentence in Sanskrit can have meaning in 100s of sentences.....