Gaea

anyone?!?!

In addition to jndas' comments, Avatars may have taken place the world over but not reognised as such because only the ancient Vedic civilisation attributed God to God-like men/women. Others may have just been seen as great leaders or warriors or peace-makers or sages - who knows? That is the humility of the Lord - He doesn't need to show off, He just comes and enjoys His creation and shows us the right way.

Hari Bol All! I just wanted to start off a discussion about Krsna's pastimes with Radha. How did they meet? What was it like? Refs to SB/other sources would be great! What was the relationship like - intimate, friendly? What about the other Gopis and Gopas? I really want to get a feel of what those first few years were like!!!! Hare Krnsa!

The operative words in my reply were "not many" - very few Hindus, at least the ones that know anything about the Vedas, will deny reincarnation. That said, I read your question with respect to my own beliefs about Hinduism itself. You ask "essential" belief. In my opinion, the only essential belief is Love and Devotion to God. Doesn't matter if a devotee does not believe in reincarnation, know the 64 subtle marks of an incarnation, know the Vedas inside out, etc. etc... The only thing that matters in the end of the day is Love and Devotion - THAT is the essential belief.

These are interesting points. Whilst I won't say that Hinduism encompasses all religions, I will say that if you do away with the belief of the absolute word, the seeming contridictions become no more. What i mean by this is that the words of the Bible/Koran/etc can never fully describe God and His infinite lila because He cannot be contained by language or grammar. So with that in mind, let's answer some of your questions: Absolutely. Is it not concievable that these concepts of resurrection and judgement are a direct synonym for reincarnation and karma alike? Why not? The "Son of God" phrase is widely accepted as a synonym for incarnation (Avatar). Yes, God is unique. He is the original. And being as such, there is no possibility that He had parents - if you are original, you have no predecessor. So yes, Hinduism holds this true. God is One without a second. Following my explanation, Hinduism would hold that Jesus was an incarnation of God (or perhaps a prophet - i won't say either way, i don't want to get into that argument). So that is now reconciled. You may argue that an Avatar has parents and that Islam says God cannot have parents. I would ask you to open your mind - The original supreme Lord has no parent. If He wants to appear in this Earth (which, by the way, Hinduism holds as a grand illusion anyway so anything that happens here is not really real) He selects parents. Are these His "true" parents? No. Of course not. They are just His "tools" with which He acts in this world. All a bit confusing, no? That's why when you first posted on this forum my reply had an emphasis on Love and Devotion. If x amount of effort is put into finding contridictions (which are unavoidable and inevitable) then x amount of effort must also be put into finding commanalities - fair is fair. So, Love and Devotion - the universal Truth of every religion - is the unifying factor.

Hi I can only answer your questions from my viewpoint so please forgive me if i'm not more expansive... This can be the case. For example, the Shiva Purana will have a teaching that many Dvaitins will find antagonistic. You see, you it must understood that there are different teachings for different people. Imagine your body is a vessel. Different people have different sized vessels. Moreover there may be some substances that the vessel might not be able to hold because of its material. Therefore the Vedic people of old, realised souls, evolved beings (whatever you want to call them) taught an ideology that was relevant for the time and the place and for the people who were listening. So, Christ taught his Teachings, Mohammed taught his Teachings, etc. etc. - the teachings were relevant for the time/place/constitution of the people who "needed saving". The one thing you will find constant is LOVE AND DEVOTION for God, whatever the intracacies of philosophy. I would ask you to see this unity in diversity. Hey, why not? "Hindu", as Avinash alluded to, is just a label for the body. If it makes you happy, good for you, use it. Spirituality is universal to everyone. Some will say God has a form/name, some will say not. Some will say everybody is God, others will be disgusted by this thought and say God is above us. Very different, as you can see. However none of them will say "Hate God", "Hate people" etc. All realise the importance of Love. This is a popular misconception encouraged by those who know nothing about Hinduism and try to write text books about it. Hindus are not Idol worshippers in the sense that the Ten Commandments forbid (OTHER POSTERS - if you have a quiff with this start off a different thread please!). Why we use Murtis ("Idols") is a whole different story. But essentially yes, there are many Hindus who do not use Murtis in their regular practice. There are also some Hindus (but not many) who don't believe in reincarnation. Are they gonna burn in hell for this? No, i don't think so. The most important thing is LOVE GOD. That is the essence of Hinduism. It is the essence of almost every religion on this planet (at least in their original states). G.

That's a tough one! - mostly because there are so many schools of thought in the Hindu religion. In fact one might go as far as to say that Hinduism is not by itself a religion but a collection of religions. The only commonality is that all of these sects get their ideas from the Vedas, which are a HUGE repository of knowledge. The scripture is written in Sanskrit, which is pretty much a dead language now, rather like Aramaic, which means there are always disputes about meanings etc. This forum is mostly made up on Vaisnavas, a sect that will predominantly preach Bhakti yoga (devotion to God, God being Visnu/Krnsa/Rama). If you want to know more about Hinduism on a wider scale you might be interested in other schools of thought (google things like "Dvaita and Advaita", "Shaivism", "Vaishnava"). I hope you have alot of time on your hands because it will be impossible to learn everything in one lifetime Hope this helps.... do you have any specific questions? Perhaps we can be of more help that way.

i absolutely whole-heartedly agree with that! Hindus need a strong foundation.

yep. well, its a good job i made my suggestions in light of a knowledgeable position then isn't it? I am, so please do engage. I understand. I have also seen/felt the horrible side of this. But Krsna gives me the will to smile in the face of it Are we not humans over here in England? We might not have pakistan next door, but we did have northern ireland. Do i need to be in Kashmir to understand their plight? Probably. Do i need to be in Kashmir to understand and think logically about the situation from the point of view of a spiritual aspirant. No. haha - your post made me smile, thank you (even tho i don't agree with anything you said). Vijay, if you had it your way there would be no one left in India. That's the way Kaliyuga is - face it. Prabhupada knew he couldn't do what Parasurama did (i.e. kill the evil-doers) because that would not only be counter to his philosophy and soft heart, it would also elimate the entire population! He thought cleverly - convert the demons into angels. That does not mean religious conversion - it meant conversion to supreme Bhakti for God. What a beautiful, God-inspired plan! See the difference?

This initial anger is temporary - like 9/11 many americans and many people all over the world felt very angry. The immediate response was war and more hatred. And what did it beget? I dare you to watch 30 mins of News tv and all you will see is the consequence of hatred and intolerance. So, you see, you must try to get over that initial hatred. You will see that more hatred - fighting fire with fire - does not work. As one who has knowledge of Veda and Vedanta one should strive to set an example.

That is just hilarious! can just picture it - type of thing i would expect in a mel brooks comedy!

Just need some clarification on the names of places where Krsna was as a young boy: is Vraj (Brij?) the same as Vrindavan? is Gokula the same as Vraj (Brij?)? where is Govardhan in relation to these places? where is Mathura in relation to these places? Thanks all!

I don't see what evolution has to do with migration of soul amongst the species. Due to my last comment, i don't see how this conclusion can be made. Yes, this is ok - but it does not exclude the existance of evolution. Sorry, guest, i'm lacking the capacity to unerstand your reasoning - probably because i'm hungry /images/graemlins/smile.gif anyway, i'll have to leave it at that because i don't have internet access. So, folks, have a very merry Christmas and happy new year to all!!

these numbers aren't quite right. There's actually just less than a trillion (1,000,000,000,000) cells in the body, most of which are actually clones (i.e. they have identical proteins because they're all cloned from the original embryo). I haven't read the article you posted but yes - the odds are sometimes stupifying.

(i'm replying to Don Muntean's post, but also this is in reply to guest poster who started the thread) no i think he is saying that the distress/happiness that one may get from being critisized or complemented is just temporary. It's actually quite clever and mature - the type of attitude i would expect from a Vaishnava, in fact. And wow, may i say i am truly surprised there is an entire thread here dedicated to denigrating a contributor to this forum. Yes, FORUM - a place where people discuss stuff. No where in the code of conduct does it say "Vaishanavas only". If he wants to speak, let him speak. Sometimes people can be insulting but i don't think 11_7 has said anything that should provoke such a reaction.

which basic structure do you speak of? The basic structure of evolution is selection and survival of the fittest, but you have dismissed these in your next statement: Not true. If you will with me to a lab i can show you evolution in a day. I can put bacteria on a petri dish and watch them grow. Then i can subject them to a selection pressure, e.g. an antibiotic. Most will die but some will survive because of mutation (survival of the fittest). By the end of the day the dish is well on the way to being full again, despite the presence of antibiotic. Everyone must understand that just becasue sometimes it is referred to as "evolution theory" doesn't mean it is just a theory, it does indeed have some basis in fact (though, perhaps not ALL fact). i don't understand why ID and evolution are mutually exclusive. There can be an intelligent designer. a supreme controller, where evolution is merely the controllers' mechanism. I agree with you on one point in that these kids should be taught ID as well as evolution and see how they can go hand-in-hand.

i know, i understand that. My original question was that if mayavadis say "everything is God", how does that make them atheists? Atheists don't believe in God. But obviously mayavadis believe in God because they're saying everying is God.

this is still a contridction for me - i don't see where this implication logically comes from, except that Prabhupad said it alot.

but that doesn't really explain it.

can anyone explain it? if a mayavadi says absolutely everything is God (i.e. God is omnipresent) then how can that mean atheism? How can one conclude that there is no God? It sounds like something out of ancient Greek philosophy.

From a bio perspective the KPCOFGS taxonomy system is of course far superior to just labelling things as "kind". When you use such generic terms there is no buffer for ontological distinction, which leads to ambiguity and mis-knowledge, which is of course counter to science..... have i misunderstood your question???

tho some may argue you cannot apply it to anyone but Krsna or Visnu.

hi. I don't think we should take the angle of "we are small/ignorant/children, how can we know if we're being lied to". We all have a God-given intelligence - we should use it. In the case that some people are refuting man's endevours to the moon, for example, we have to look at facts - everything points to the fact that it was done (ok, the first moon-landing seemed a little dodgy though). Agreed. Not all objections are based on this, but point taken. Yes, this is important.

i'm afraid 1 + 1 always = 2 !!! when (literally) thousands of independant scientists and academic bodies agree on calculations and confirm astro-events, including man-made ones like probes, it's difficult to believe that they're all part of some big conspiracy. In fact, it's pretty much impossible to keep a secret like that, don't you think? The fact is that your phone, the internet you're on, your tv etc. just wouldn't work if there wasn't a satellite in orbit - the physics and maths adds up perfectly. There is too much hard evidence to prove that it all really is out there. I've met devotees that have trouble with this also - how can the SB be so "wrong"? We can talk about symbology or matter-of-factness until the cows come home, but one has to be willing to accept the evidence "As it is", just as you would the Gita "As it is".