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Articles: Devotion | Let us understand our religion
- Mr. Sarat kalyana sastry pochampalli
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Let us understand our religion, This is an attempt to make you think over what we do today and what our ancestors used to do. How many of us know that modern day Gods whom we worship were never worshipped by our ancestors before 10th century AD? The gods and goddesses worshipped now-a-days in our homes and temples are not Vedic. The Vedic gods like Agni (fire), Surya (sun) Usha (dawn) are completely rejected and the gods and goddesses mentioned in the Puranas are worshipped by modern Hindus.
'Hindus' are inhabitants of land beyond the Indus(Sindhu) river. The word was never used in Indian literature or scriptures before the advent of Muslims to India. The Muslim rulers used the term 'Hindu' to mean Indian non-Muslims only. The Brahmans gladly welcomed it as it brought all the non-Muslim Indians under a single umbrella and thus provided them with a rare opportunity to expand their social, religious and political influence over them in the name of religion. The British rulers maintained it with one modification. They excluded the converted Christians from those covered by the term 'Hindu'. Attempts were made to define the term but could not succeed. Faced with this dilemma, Hindu scholars sometime use the word Sanatan Dharma (eternal religion) and sometime Vedic Dharma (religion of the Veda), etc. for their religion.
POLYTHEISM
Hindus believe in Many gods and goddesses(some may come up with concept of Demi God, but it doesnt make any sense). Our vedas clearly tell us as I will disclose later that giving any form to God is not acceptable in hinduism, then whom do we worship as Gods or demi Gods? Some of our Gods are human (e.g. Krishna, Rama) some are animals (e.g. fish, monkey, rat, snake), some half animal half humans (e.g. Ganesh), and some others are natural phenomena (e.g. dawn, fire, sun). Their number is generally believed to be 330 million. According to our belief, god incarnates, i.e., takes the form of human being and other animals and appears in this earth in that form. Gods and goddesses were born like human beings and had wives and children. No god possesses absolute power; some of the gods are weaker than the sages and some others even weaker than the animals. Another aspect about our gods is that the status of their godhood is not fixed. One finds that some gods were worshipped for a time and then abandoned and new gods and goddesses were adopted instead. The gods and goddesses worshipped now-a-days in Hindu homes and temples are not Vedic. The Vedic gods like Agni (fire), Surya (sun) Usha (dawn) are completely rejected and the gods and goddesses mentioned in the Puranas are worshipped by modern Hindus. Similarly, Rama who is currently receiving increasing acceptance among Hindus in India because of the wide propagation of the official and other media was never worshipped as a deity until the Eleventh century. Did we see any one worshipping Brahma in any of our homes? he is the sustainer, then why dont we worship him? Why did we abandon him?
AUTHORITY OF THE VEDAS
It is generally believed that the Veda is recognized as an absolute authority in Hinduism but the so-called low- caste (non-Aryan) Hindus have no access to the scripture because they are considered impure by birth. So the Veda is far from being an authority for these people. The only people who are allowed to read and listen to the scripture are the Aryan Hindus. The Brahmans, the sole custodians of the Veda, too hardly benefit from it because it is written in Sanskrit, a dead language, 'its content has long been practically unknown to most Hindus, and it is seldom drawn upon for literal advice' [NEB,20: 581].
It is interesting to note that the cow used to be slaughtered by the ancient Hindus to enjoy its beef, entertain the guests and offer it as sacrifice to our deities. Modern day brahmins (most of them) are vegetarian, does that make them do less sins? Plants have been found to have life, they do express feelings, its just that their voice is not in audible range of humans. It has been found by converting inaudible frequencies to audible ones that plants express feelings. Just because we cant see them does not mean we are not committing sin in that sense. If some one kills a person who has one sense less than a normal human (like deaf, blind or dumb)it is taken more aggressively by society than if a normal person is killed. Then why do we have a different openion about plants? God has created everything for us to enjoy, our tooth structure itself tells us that human is supposed to be carnivorous. Our ancestors were carnivorous and i dont see any reason why we shouldnt be. Why did we abandon eating beaf? because it is the primary food for muslims, our hatred towards them has gone to the level that we declared cow as sacred and abandoned eating beaf.
Mahatma Gandhi himself says, 'I know there are scholars who tell us that cow-sacrifice is mentioned in the Vedas. I... read a sentence in our Sanskrit text-book to the effect that Brahmins of old [period] used to eat beef' [M.K. Gandhi, Hindu Dharma, New Delhi, 1991, p. 120]. He, however, refrained from showing enough courage in clearly speaking the truth, may be because he did not like to hurt the sentiments of the people who were the main source of his political strength.
There are clear evidences in the Rig Veda, the most sacred Hindu scripture, that the cow used to be sacrificed by Hindus for religious purposes. For instance, Hymn CLXIX of the Rig Veda says: 'May the wind blow upon our cows with healing; may they eat herbage ... Like-coloured various-hued or single- coloured whose names through sacrifice are known to Agni, Whom the Angirases produced by Ferbvour - vouschsafe to these, Parjanya, great.protection. Those who have offered to the gods their bodies whose varied forms are all well known to Soma' [The Rig Veda (RV), translated by Ralph H. Griffith, New York, 1992, p. 647]. In the Rig Veda (RV: VIII.43.11) Agni is described as 'fed on ox and cow' suggesting that cattle were sacrificed and roasted in fire. Another hymn (RV: X.16.7) mentions the ritual enveloping of the corpse with cow flesh before applying the fire on it.
In the Brahmanas at 1.15 in the Aiteriya Brahmana, the kindling of Agni on the arrival of King Some is compared to the slaughter of a bull or a barren cow on the arrival of a human king or other dignitary. Similarly, at II.1.11.1 in the Taiteriya Brahmana and XXXI.14.5 in the Panchavinsha Brahmana, the rishi Agastya is credited with the slaughter of a hundred bulls.
In verse III.1.2.21 in the Satapatha Brahmana, sage Yajnavalkaya asserts that even though the cow is the supporter of everyone, he would eat beef 'if it is luscious.' At IV.5-2.1 in the same Brahmana, it is said that a barren cow can be slaughtered in the Some sacrifice. Not only for religious purposes, but also for other purposes one could kill a cow and eat beef. Thus at II.4.2 of the same Brahmana, it is suggested that a fat bull or fat goat should be sacrificed in honour of an important guest.
Similarly, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishada (VI.4.18) advises a couple to take an evening meal of beef or veal pulao, if they desire to beget a son who is learned in the Vedas [Robert Trumbull, As I see India, London, 1957, p.241].
WHO ARE THE BRAHMINS?
The word Brahmin incorporates all the upper-caste Hindus of India. They claim that, because they were made God Brahma's head, they are the chosen people of God. Worshipping a Brahmin is akin to worshipping God incarnate. Serving a Brahmin and offering him alms is like serving God himself. These are in the beliefs that are included in the minds of all other people, especially in the low caste Hindus. As a result 5% of the Indian population have psychologically enslaved the other 95%.
The Brahmins are the 'ARYANS' invaders of India who entered the country thousands of years ago via the Khyber Pass. Over the centuries they have established themselves firmly on Indian soil by ruling over, and enslaving, the country's original inhabitants.Brahmins always criticize, condemn and mock other Religions. Their criticisms and mocking is unreasonable and unacceptable.
In his autobiography, Dr. Charles an American scholar says that it is very simple to define a Hindu. He says a Hindu means 'one who believes anything and everything if said in the name of God and shall never question its authenticity.'
The Brahmins claim that Lord Rama is incarnated (came in human form) to study and understand the difficulties of mankind. Is it really necessary for a god to incarnate Himself? Can he not understand his creation? Why should God become a Human or an Animal to understand its problem in order or to understand the sufferings of these creatures? he is so powerful that he doesn't require. The original book of dravidians vedas have been suppressed to such an extent that it is not considered religious book of majority of hindus, bhagavadgita which is self creation of Aryans is made holy book and their pseudo gods Rama and Krishna were made indian gods.(Think over it more carefully, this thought hasnt come to me one fine morning, i have been researching about it for a while now).s
CASTE SYSTEM IN HINDUISM
Hindu society is divided into several thousands of caste and sub-castes. Caste is a highly organized social grouping. A Hindu is born in a caste and dies as a member of that caste. As caste is determined by birth, one can never move from one caste to another. Castes are not equal in status but arranged in a vertical order in which one caste is at the top and is the highest (the Brahman), another at the bottom and is the lowest (the Dalit) and in between them there are the Kshatriya, the Vashya and the Sudra in a descending order. This inequality in status is said to be an outcome of a person's deeds (good or bad) accomplished in his previous life. Caste differences find their expression largely in connection with marriages and eating together. In the words of S.D. Theertha, '... the Hindu social order is simply a menace to freedom, unity and peace. The three thousands and odd castes and the larger number of sub-castes, into which the Hindus are irretrievably divided, keep nearly ninety-five per cent of the Hindus in perpetual disgrace and permanently condemned to an inferior social status [Ibid., p.209.]. On the other hand majority of the world follow Islam and Christianity because for them everyone is equal before God, religious leader is there only to lead the congreation and has no special importance in reaching God, you strive to reach God and there is no one in between you and him. Did you know Dargas of muslims are contribution of hindu culture? When a muslim goes to Darga, for him darga is the grave of some one who has been a good muslim and muslim goes there to honor the person in grave that he was a good muslim. When a hindu goes to darga, he consideres that grave as God and prays it, is this not a sin? That is a grave of a person who lived among us some time ago and truely doesnt deserve to be worshipped as he is not your creator.
ORIGIN OF THE CASTE SYSTEM
'Caste' is a Portuguese word, used by the Portuguese as equivalent of 'varna' (a Sanskrit word, which means 'colour'). They used this word to designate the peculiar system of religious and social distinction which they observed among those who are called Hindu. Caste originally was a colour-bar, and in India, as later in America, served at first to separate free men from slaves. Gradually, the Brahmans made it a religiously ordained social fabric for the Hindu society. Manu, a Brahman, gave in his book, Dharma shastra, details about the caste system.
When the fair-skinned Aryans invaded India, about two thousand years before Jesus Christ, they defeated the dark-skinned indigenous people, Dravidians, who were the founder of the Indian Civilization. The Aryans subjugated them, learnt many things from them and built up another civilization which came to be known as the Ganges Valley or Hindu Civilization. To perpetuate the enslavement of the original inhabitants of India, the Aryans created the caste system, and thereby excluded them from their own society with the name of Sudra (which means slave).
In the words of S.V. Theertha, 'When the ancient priests set themselves up as an exclusive caste of Brahmans in order to establish their self-assumed superiority, they had to inflict degradation on all other Hindus (i.e., original Indians) and press them down to various layers of subordination. They had to keep the people divided, disunited, weak and degraded, to deny them learning, refinement and opportunities of advancement, and permanently and unalterably to tie them down to a low status in society. The Hindu social organization based on hereditary castes was evolved by the Brahmans with the above object and was enforced on the people with the help of foreign conquerors.' [Theertha, p.1 64.].
I have only one concern, our religion is not different from the religions followed by rest of the world offered to mankind through revelitions by God. Our authentic religious books are vedas. They tell us clearly that God doesnt have any form and according to vedas it is predicted that humans will abandon its essence and digress to such an extent that they do exactly opposite to what has been told to them. The advent of prophets to make humans realize their mistakes is also predicted, we are sinners and lets get back to our vedas, our primary book and abandon idol worshipping, because God never wanted us to worship him in any form. Modern Gods like Rama, Krishna etc are human contributions. God is one and treat him the way he needs to be treated, dont associate human creations to him in worship (demiGods). Dont prepare your self to be fuel for hell fire. May God forgive us all. Finally i would like to apologize you if i had hurt anyones feelings.
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