Hindu Philosophy and Religion

[Guest guest]

Hinduism has six systems of philosophy called the six Dharshanas.

Advaita Vedanta is one of them. The systems of philosophy do not deal

with worship of any particular God.

 

But unfortunately the systems of philosophy and worship of particular

God has become confused especially in the Western mind.

 

This has lead to some popular misconceptions.

 

Misconception 1: All worshippers of Vishnu are followers of Dvaita or

derivatives of it.

 

Fact: The followers of Advaita Vedanta also worship Vishnu. Two of the

most famous temples of Vishnu at Puri and Badrinath are not

Vaishnavite. The priests are Smarthas. In Kerala where there are

hundreds of Vishnu temples, there are very few Vaishnavites. Swami

Chinmayananda who spent his entire life giving discourses on

Bhagavad-Gita was not a Vaishnavite. He constructed many Shiva

temples. He was a follower of Advaita Vedanta.

 

Misconception 2: All followers of Advaita Vedanta are Saivites or

worshippers of Siva.

 

Fact. Most of the pure Saivites do not follow Advaita Vedanta. The

Sankaracharya Maths are Gurupeeda for the Smarthas. Adi Sankara was a

Smartha.

 

In most books on Hinduism when the sects are mentioned, one of the

most prominent sect is not mentioned. This is Smarthas.

 

According to HinduismToday.com

Smarthas worship the Supreme in one of six forms: Ganesha, Siva,

Sakti, Vishnu, Surya and Skanda. Because they accept all the major

Hindu Gods, they are known as liberal or nonsectarian. They follow a

philosophical, meditative path, emphasizing man's oneness with God

through understanding.

 

Just because he propounded Advaita Vedanta it does not mean Adi

Sankara was against worship of Sakthi. Being a Smartha he was neither

for nor against any God or Goddess.

 

In fact most of the Hindus are non-sectarian. Unfortunately many

people ( especially the sites on the net) would like to divide

Hinduism into sects and talk of sectarian conflict. This is the mind

set of one of the minority sects. A balanced view of the sects of

Hinduism is given here.

 

http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/2003/10-12/44-49_four_sects.shtml

 

SRI SRI CHANDI or Devi Mahatmya is a text which was written to unify

all the different sects. MAA is the Sakthi of all the Gods and

Goddesses combined. She is Samashti MAA.

 

Jai MAA !!!

[Guest guest]

, "Sankar Viswanathan"

<sankarrukku wrote:

>

> Hinduism has six systems of philosophy called the six Dharshanas.

 

 

Thanks sankarrukku ji,

 

This post would be quite beneficial. Hindus today are quite unaware

of their own religion and philosophy. they are either blindly

following rituals or doing nothing.

 

Unless we hindus first understand our own philosophy, which is the

only logical and sane philosophy on earth, only then we would be

able to tell our children about our culture...and to reply to others

who mock at our religion.

 

with love