Hindu by birth only?

12-26-2005, 07:39 PM

Someone has just told me that a foreigner cannot become a Hindu because people are Hindus by birth... True?

12-26-2005, 08:01 PM

the word hindu is a word used for many hundreds of years now to refer to the people of Hindustan (India), popularized by the Persians. It was used regardless of religion to refer to anyone from that part of the world.

-----if so, then no, foreignors cannot be Hindu. Only those born in Hindustan would be.

If a hindu is someone practicing a form of religion, then anyone can be Hindu. All one has to do is follow a practice that is of Indian non-Buddhist, non-Jain, non-Sikh, non-Muslim, non-Zoroastrian, non-Jewish, non-Christian practices.

12-26-2005, 09:03 PM

Then it seems that Hinduism is defined by elimination. Hinduism is not this religion, is not that one, it is what remains.

I am interested by the high metaphysical theories of Hindus (Dvaita Vedanta for instance), but I don't believe in free will, nor in reincarnation. I don't believe in the law karma either, that is, that the law of karma applies universally: it applies only in some cases. People who behave badly are sometimes unhappy. In fact I don't claim to know what happens to souls after death.

So can I be a Hindu all the same?

12-27-2005, 03:40 PM

u ask can u be hindu then.....

are u indian? do u follow indian religion?

i think, either way (depending on which definition of Hindu u take) you can call yourself Hindu....

as for ur beliefs....

i dont believe in dvaitam. i am more compelled to advaitam and find a suitable ground in ramanuja's vishishtadvaitam.

i do believe in reincarnation. if one looks at our physicality. we as human beings are made up of cells that form every part of our body. tiny tiny molecules make up everything. they are so tiny we dont see them, only their finished work (which tends to be much bigger). But these molecules are there and they do not die. Upon death and decomposition, they only break the bond they had during life. But they dont disappear.

They eventually form other bonds and create new things. So in this sense, reincarnation does exist. And our minds are a result of our brain, which is a result of our body, which is a result of our molecular bonds. our individuality is our soul. That soul will change from body to body as the molcules that make up our body shift, change and form new things.

Truthfully, i too, am having trouble with free will recently. Im reading a book called Beyond Freedom and Destiny by fames psychologist B.F. Skinner. He was a very bright man and claims that no one has free will since every decision that is ever made by anyone is based on the environmental cues and factors that lead us to make that deicion. Therefore, he is saying, there is no free will. It is our surroundings that help us make the decisions that we call "our free choices".

If this is so, and i dont believe in free will, then i will also have a hard time with karma. God cannot judge based on our karma if our karma is not our own free actions or choices. How just is it for God to punish or reward us for things that were decided upon by the environment we happen to be in?