Sunday, June 30, 2013

Some great videos on Hindu Philosophy

Today I was trying to understand the differences between different schools of thought in Hinduism. I just came across some great videos of talks given by Dr. Nicholas Sutton, from The Oxford Center for Hindu Studies. There are not many of them, but the ones that are out there provide a really good introduction to Hinduism. I would suggest both a Hindu and a person who is interested in knowing about Hinduism to go through these videos. He is a really good orator. In his talks, you can see his passion for the quest of knowledge and his excellent delivery style. This is one such video:



I have put all his videos on youtube in the same playlist. There is another video which you may find quite interesting. I could only find this on vimeo. In this video (of two parts) Dr. Sutton and Prof. Patrick Olivelle discuss the ideas described in Vedas and Upanishads and how they are perceived by different Hindu philosophical schools of thought.


Prof. Patrick Olivelle and Dr Nick Sutton discuss the Vedas and Upanishads from Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies on Vimeo.


Prof. Patrick Olivelle and Dr Nick Sutton discuss the Vedas and Upanishads. Part two from Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies on Vimeo.

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Hinduism: A monotheistic religion!!!

One common thought that arises in every mind when one thinks about Hinduism is that "How can there be millions of Gods: Shiva, Kali, Vishnu, Indra etc etc?". I was jokingly asked by one of my friend "How do you remember the names of so many Gods and worship them. Will you go to hell if you forget to worship any one of them?". A common perception of western society towards Hinduism is that it is a pagan religion with millions of Gods and deities. Let's now explore this view in this article and see up to what extent is it true.

So is Hinduism a polytheistic religion? Well, partly yes. What do I mean by partly yes? If I worship multitude of Gods then why would I not call it a completely polytheistic religion? Well, the reason is that Hinduism is not that simple. There are many Hindus who believe in every religion and the respective Gods and would not even mind praying to them. What?? Yes, It's true. Hinduism is a pluralistic religion i.e. there are many ways to think of One God. What does this mean now? If you look at the ancient texts, you will see a very beautiful but complex concept of that of Brahman. Brahman is described as eternal, formless and genderless being. I like to describe it mathematically in terms of zero and infinity. If you divide any number by zero, the result approaches infinity. In other words, Brahman is infinite yet it is supreme nothingness (0). Also, 0 divided by 0 is undefined. Same way, Brahman cannot be defined precisely.

So now if Brahman is supreme and infinite then who are the other Gods? Here, I would like to cite a famous verse from Isha Upanishad which roughly translates to:
"That(Brahman) is infinity, this(everything else: Gods, humans, worms, etc) is infinity. From infinity comes infinity. If you subtract infinity from infinity, what remains is infinity"

(Well I am mathematically wrong here :) But anyways..) What I mean here is that all the Gods, humans, plants, animals, worms, etc, etc; everything and everyone in this universe is nothing but a part of that Brahman. So technically there are billions, trillions or centillions of Gods. No matter what or who you worship, you are worshiping the same being. (It is advised in the Upanishads, that one should focus on ones own soul and try to identify itself with the Brahman)

I may have written so much about the Brahman here and in my previous posts, yet even I find these concepts difficult to understand. It has been rightly pointed out by the Rishis of the Vedas that no one can ever understand the concept of Brahman completely. It was the same reason why pluralism was brought into existence. When wise men like the Rishis, who devoted their entire life in knowing this Brahman, couldn't understand it completely, then how could a layman understand and appreciate it? It was the same reason why they tried to describe these concept to laymen by giving examples of Gods and other deities. When the laymen began appreciating these concepts, due to their lack of understanding of the formless nature of this being, begun worshiping these deities. Thus came the polytheistic angle to Hinduism. You can clearly see this if you compare the Upanishads and the Puranas, the former being the philosophical texts and the latter texts explaining the concept of divine through stories)

What I find saddening is that this beautiful concept of Brahman is diminishing from the current Indian society, where a majority of people are moving from "pluralistic form of Hinduism"(which is the true form) to the "Religion of Hinduism". I would encourage the readers to explore this concept of Brahman in more detail by going through the Upanishads or even the Bhagvath Geeta.


Saturday, March 2, 2013

Discussion on God: Similarities of Hinduism and Abrahamic Religions.


Just like Abrahamic religions, Hinduism also has the concept of "The One God" - also called Paramatma(Sanskrit: Param-Supreme, Atma-Soul). Christians call it - Jehovah, and Muslims call it - Allah. It is eternal and infinite. It has no form. One cannot define it with words because It is perfect. If there is only one God in Hinduism just like the Abrahamic religions, then who are Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Indra, etc from the perspective of Abraham religions. Below, I will post my views i.e.  how I relate these entities to the Abrahamic religions. This is just my personal view and some people may disagree with this. I do not mean to offend anyone, My aim is just to show that all religions are just different ways to reach the same God and they are not that different. So I don't see any point in fighting over religions or in claiming that one religion is superior over other. If, by any chance, I offend anyone by this post then please accept my sincere apologies.

Let me start by discussing the Trimurti's in Hinduism i.e. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Brahma is the creator of all the material beings/things, Vishnu is the protector or the maintainer, and Shiva is the destroyer. I personally feel that, if you compare these entities with the Abrahamic religions, you can relate them to the Arch-Angels. For example, the story of Raphael signalling the beginning of the Armageddon, is comparable to that of Shiva doing the Tandava Nritya. Similarly it is said that Michel is the protector, leader of the Gods armies against evil; and thus is comparable to Vishnu. It is said that whenever there is degradation of moral values in the society, Lord Vishnu takes a human form to protect the righteous people from the evil and restore morality. Gabriel is said to have revealed the Koran to Muhammed and as far as I know he is associated with birth. I see him as Brahma, 
 the creator of the material world and the one who revealed the Vedas to the mankind. 

You can think of the Demi-Gods or the Devas (Indra, Agni, etc) as Angels(like Uriel, Ridwan, etc) . It is said that they live in the Swarga, which is similar to the heaven of Abraham religions. People like Buddha, Adi -Shankaracharya, Madvacharya, and other Gurus or Yogis who taught the people the moral principals and showed them different ways to reach God can be thought of as Prophets/children of God just like Mohammed, Jesus etc .

To summarize,

Hinduism == Abrahamic Religions
Paramatma == Jehovah, Allah
Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva == ArchAngels (Gabriel, Michael, Raphael) 
Indra, Vayu, Agni, etc == Angels(like Uriel, Ridwan etc)
Avatars == Angels taking human form
Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Adi Shankaracharya are all Gurus or Prophets or children of God .

To conclude,

All religions are nothing but different ways to reach same God and they are not that different if you look at it with an open mind. I would appreciate if you provide your views on the same.