Hindus assert their religion is monotheistic, even
though they honour a number of Gods, including Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the
Preserver, and Shiva the Destroyer. Hindus claim these various Gods are
all manifestations of the oneness of the universe. Hindu religious
practices vary from place to place, but they frequently include yoga, physical
and mental discipline to harmonize body and Soul, and ritual bathing.
Belief in multiple Gods, The worship of idols; the worship of
images that are not God, The worship of sacred images, , ancestor worship,
pilgrimage, priest craft, the belief in avatars or incarnations of God, the
hereditary caste system on the grounds that all these lack Vedic sanction.
Hinduism indulges
non-Vedic beliefs such as idolatry, ancestor worship, pilgrimages, priest craft, offerings made in temples, the caste system, untouchability and child marriages. All these lack Vedic sanction therefore Hinduism
is not Ancient Vedic religion or Santana Dharma.
Realizing the universe is
created out of single stuff and that single stuff is the Soul which is present
in the form of consciousness leads non-dualistic or Advaitic ‘‘Self’’-awareness.
‘‘Self’’-awareness is freedom or Moksha. Moksha is unity in diversity in the
midst of duality.
*
It is very difficult to talk to people about ultimate truth or Brahman
because everyone thinks he knows the ultimate truth or Brahman. This I know
business is dangerous. And whatever his
reached conclusion is second hand stuff.
Therefore, accepting accumulated knowledge without verification will
lead the seekers to hallucinated realization based on the ego. One may have some flashes of truth when
someone tries to indicate it through fewer words. But it takes nearer to truth
not realization.
The Santana Dharma was pure Vedic religion prior to
the existence of the present day Hinduism. Hinduism is not pure Vedic religion;
it is hotch potch mixture of many ideologies adopted by other
ideologies, cultures and traditions.
Most people from the west think
that Hinduism is a religion but it is not so. The Indus (Sindhu) valley culture
is named as Hinduism by the Muslim invaders in the past. Muslim invaders
who were not able to pronounce Sindhu they called Sindhu culture as Hindu
culture. Thus name Hindu came into existence. Hinduism is mere culture not
religion. This Hindu culture consists of different caste, creeds, ideologies,
beliefs and way of life in different regions of India.
Hinduism, is not a religion. Rather it is a
group of religions found within India that share common beliefs while still
remaining very different. Many may even argue that it is not a religion but
more a way of life. The term "Hinduism" was not developed by the practitioners,
but by groups outside of the religions as a means for labeling the
entire Indian people. thus Hindu means Indian.
There are many groups within Hinduism that claim a
sort of "going back to the Vedas". While these groups are attempting
to create a bond with the Vedas, they will never be followers of Vedic relgion
while they still hold their core ideals.
These core beliefs are at odds with those of the
Vedas. Many followers of Hinduism do translate the Vedas to fit into Hindu
thought by changing the translation to reflect the beliefs of monism,
reincarnation, the caste system and absence of animal and human
sacrifice.
As one goes deeper in annals of
the history he becomes aware of the fact that, the so called present Hinduism
has adopted many things from Buddhism, religion of Abraham, Jainism and Islam.
If one goes deeper enough he will become aware everything is mixed up and
messed up in time.
No one is taken pains to rectify
it because; because people have been inherited them, from their ancestors and
they think it is blasphemy even to hear anything against their inherited
religion and belief. Once one gets involved with the religious class it is the
end of the pursuit of truth.
J.K
and Osho went deep in to it and exposed their fallacies to some extent, but it
is only in surface level. Maharishi, Dayananda in his book Satyarth Prakash
clearly mentions what is Vedic and what is non-Vedic. But the orthodox class
still wants to maintain the inherited falls legacy as supreme truth. Thus, there
is no use of arguing or convincing the people who accepted their false legacy
and propagate them as truth. Since, the pursuit of truth is a very personal
journey; and it is not the pursuit of argument, there is no need for to indulge
in convincing others, seeker of truth has to get convinced for him-self to drop
all conditioning, which he has inherited from his belief system.
Prior to Sage Sri,
Sankara in 8th century there was no Advaita in Santana Dharma or Vedic religion has no founders whereas Advaita and qualified
Advaita and Dwaita and all other sect and caste identified as
Hinduism are identified with their founders. All of them have non-Vedic
rituals barred by the Vedas. The dualism came only in 12 th century. The orthodox
Advaita and Dwaita area based on Abrahamic frame work. Both Advaita
and Dwith schools based on Vedas and they condemn each other with Upanishads
and Puranic citations and try to prove they are right and others are wrong. The
orthodox Advaita is nothing to do with the ultimate truth or Brahman because
they worship idols, human worship, and symbol worship and indulge in non-Vedic
ritual barred by Vedas.
Sage Sri, Sankara
varied his practical advice and doctrinal teaching according to the people he
was amongst. He never advised them to give up their particular religion or
beliefs or metaphysics completely; he only told them to give up the worst
features of abuse: at the same time he showed just one step forward towards the
truth. Sage Sri, Sankara was extremely precise and careful in his choice of
words.
That is what
Yajurveda says: not to worship the things which are part of the falsehood.
Translation
1.
They enter darkness, those who worship natural
things (for example air, water, sun, moon, animals, fire, stone, etc).
They sink deeper in darkness those who worship
sambhuti. (Sambhuti means created things, for example table, chair, idol etc.)- [Yajurved 40:9]
Translation
2.
"Deep
into shade of blinding gloom fall asambhuti's worshippers. They sink to
darkness deeper yet who on sambhuti are intent." -[Yajurveda Samhita by Ralph T.
H. Giffith pg 538]
Translation
3.
"They are enveloped in darkness, in other
words, are steeped in ignorance and sunk in the greatest depths of misery who
worship the uncreated, eternal prakrti -- the material cause of the world -- in
place of the All-pervading God, But those who worship visible things born of
the prakrti, such as the earth, trees, bodies (human and the like) in place of
God are enveloped in still greater darkness, in other words, they are extremely
foolish, fall into an awful hell of pain and sorrow, and suffer terribly for a
long time."-[Yajur Veda 40:9.]
So,
Yajur Veda indicates that:~
They sink deeper in darkness those who worship
sambhuti. (Sambhuti means created things, for example table, chair, idol etc [Yajurved 40:9]
Those who worship visible things born of the
prakrti, such as the earth, trees, bodies (human and the like) in place of God
are enveloped in still greater darkness, in other words, they are extremely
foolish, fall into an awful hell of pain and sorrow, and suffer terribly for a
long time." [Yajur Veda
40:9.]
The
religion of the Veda knows no idols:
Max
Müller says:~ "The religion of the
Veda knows no idols; the worship of idols in India is a secondary formation, a
degradation of the more primitive worship of ideal gods."
Therefore, there was no individual god or temples
and worships in Vedic religion, which existed prior to Buddhism. Thus the
individualized gods and temples must have been built later on, when the
worships of idol were introduced. Thus the Vedic religion which existed in the
past was free from idol and nature worship and idol worshiping rituals.
Thus, the present day’s worship of individual gods,
created things, nature and human are against Vedic teachings, and it looks like
it has been fabricated and introduced by priest craft. Since it, has passed on
from one generation to the next it is hard for the people to believe the truth
of their own religion, because they have sentimentally and emotionally involved
in it and they refuse to accept anything else other than their inherited
beliefs.
