Why do Hindus name themselves after gods?why do they "worship" each others?

[Guest guest]

Hinduism has many unique things which are punishable by death under other religions.They are as follows

 

1)Hindus naming themselves after god.People carry name of Ram,Krishna,shiva,Uma and so on.Muslims dont name themselves as allah.Christians dont name themselves as jesus.Only Hindus do so.

 

2)When a Hindu meets another he does "namasthe".This is similiar to what he does in temples.he does namasthe to god.he does it to anyone he sees on road.

 

3)He falls at the feet of elders.THis is unheard in any other religion.

 

4)Hinduism says that for a married woman "Husbnad is god,more powerful than any god.A woman need not worship any god except her husband.She need not do any vradhas or prayer to god.Its enough if she worships her husband."

 

in thirukural there is a kural "Dheivam tholal,khzolunan thaan thouluval,peiyana paiyum maghzai" meaning

 

"She who doesnt worship god,but only worships her husband,if she says "pour" rain will pour immediatly.

 

Why is this unique in Hinduism only?

 

If a muslim woman says "My husband is god to me" she will be stoned to death by her husband himself.

 

If a christian calls himslef jesus,he will be laughed by the whole christian world(Except in some south american countries)

 

So now the question arises.

 

1)To a married woman who is parabhrammam?Husband or Lord Hari?

 

2)If a son carries name Hari and his father abuses him as "hey you fool hari.." isnt that an insult to lord Hari?

 

What is the asnwer to all this?

 

ADVAITHA.

 

Hinduism wanted people to subtly remember that they are gods.So it became a norm to name people by god.So whenever anyone call you as shiva or hari you remember that you are hari.

 

Whenever you worship anyone by falling at his feet,he remembers that he is shivam.The worshipper also sends his worships to the nirguna bhramman.

 

You dont abuse hari by calling your son fool,since a fool is also hari.

 

Similiar is the case with married women.Husband too is a part of nirguna bhramman.Just like how the prayers told to the idol reach god,since the idol too is a part of god and is god by itself,husband himslef is part of god.

 

So it indicates that advaitha was the founding base of Hindu tradition.

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

1)when one is called govinda, the real complete name is govinda das.. servant of govinda.. christians do not name after god because they do not give any name to god. God is not a "name"

 

2)namaste means generically "i give homage to you"... if i homage you or i homage god there's difference

 

3)every religion teachs depp respect for the elders... in christianism "honour father and mother" is one of the most important ten rules

 

4)not god.... representative of the autority of god (if he's a good and religious husband)

 

...

 

1)obviously lord hari

 

2)the father knows that he's not chastising god but his son

 

..

So it indicates that advaitha was the founding base of Hindu tradition.

 

or a reason of corruption of sanatana dharma

 

[Guest guest]

1)when one is called govinda, the real complete name is govinda das..

 

How can you define a real complete name of another person.even for argument sake ur point fails

 

servant of govinda.. christians do not name after god because they do not give any name to god. God is not a "name"

 

 

christians will totally disagree with you, go and ask any father or pastor they name of their god its "JESUS" for them and none other than that. Its funny their god has no name but u can find the picture and statues of the nameless "Jesus".

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

The saints are the historical possibility to live as Jesus in the faith of chistianity, as preached by Catholicism. So the parents name his children by the name of the saints, as Antonio, Joao, Lourdes, Fatima, etc.

 

In christianity, there is a very complex concept. The trinity:

Father (God), Son(Jesus) and Holy Spirit (Almost like, but very different of Brahman)

 

So you are not God himself, but the son of Him, a brother of Jesus, who incarnates the Holy Spirit. And if you can express this in Its all shape, you will live a life of santity.

 

I use to say that the trinity in christianity is so dificult to understand as the concepts of dvaita and advaita in hinduism.

 

But this is the key to understand that people are different and similar to God at the same time in Christianity.

 

Hari Om,

 

Jaydev

 

[Guest guest]

1)when one is called govinda, the real complete name is govinda das..

How can you define a real complete name of another person.even for argument sake ur point fails

••• the great majority of people knows that when they gives the govinda, gopala, shiva, radhe, devi to a baby they are dedicating this baby to god or to the devata or declaring that he's the servant of the deities.. not that he's an incarnation of govinda, gopala, shiva, radhe, devi and so on

 

christians will totally disagree with you, go and ask any father or pastor they name of their god its "JESUS" for them and none other than that.

••the proper christian terminology is that christ is the name of the SON, that he's also god... but when it is said simply GOD, it is understoood that we are talking of the "father". And the father has no name.. if not god, omnipotent, the highest.. that they are not names but definitions comparing us with god

 

Its funny their god has no name but u can find the picture and statues of the nameless "Jesus".

•••already explained

[Guest guest]

So you are not God himself, but the son of Him, a brother of Jesus, who incarnates the Holy Spirit.

••not exactly... simple souls do not enter in the trinity. Father, Son, Holy spirit are all god and these realities have nothing to do ontologically with creatures.. the son can be an avatar.. actually the only avatar admitted and recognized by christianism. And here you have a concept very similar to advaitism of a father (vishnu) evanescent, bodyless, fromless, almost impersonal and confused with brahman.. and avatara/s more human than divine (that for vaishnava bhakti is a total concoction)

 

of course there's some dvaitist flavour in saying that human nature and god's nature do not have nothing in common

 

I use to say that the trinity in christianity is so dificult to understand as the concepts of dvaita and advaita in hinduism.

•••trinity is not difficult to understand because, sadly it is full of incoherency.... dvaita and advaita are easily conciled in the acynthia beda abeda tattva concept by sri chaitanya mahaprabhu

 

we are god because we are his parts and parcels, our sat, cit, ananda nature does not comes by us but by god's mercy and power

we are separated by god because as everything, the absolute is not missing individuality.. and individuality makes possible to exercite two of the ontological quality of god and us.. consciousness (cit), and bliss (ananda)

 

if there's no variety in the absolute, there would be nothing to be conscious of and there would be no bliss. Bliss comes from variety, action, relationships.

The oneness and lack of activity in brahman impersonal realization do not give us the possibility to feel consciousness and bliss..

[Guest guest]

The Name of God, and the Personality of God, are identical. They are Absolute. Unlike any material sound vibration, which is different from it's substabce. "Our father who art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy Name". God's name is Holy, it is Transcendent, it is non-different from Him". Wherever two people are gathered in my Name, I am there, said Jesus. Disregarding or minimizing the glorification of the Holy Names of the Lord, or His great Son, is blasphemy, and has caused Christianity to splinter into a thousand sects. We would feel a lot more the presence of Jesus, if we regularly organized prayer , or meditaion sessions, in which we congregationally sang the Names of the Lord. If we did this regularly, we would realize that we could not call oursleves a Christian if we still ate meat. Our consciusnesswould become purified. Christ is present, where His names are called. "Just call , on my name, and I'll be there ", as the popular song goes. "Call upon the Name of the Lord, and Ye shall be saved " Luke Praise God from morning to night with drums and timbrel....Psalms of David

 

Last point is that even an ordinary mundane man is known by many different names, yet is the same person. To his kids he is "daddy", to his wife, "Honey", to his friends "Billy", to his mother, "William", to his employess, "Mr. Jones", this is because God, Lord Krsna, also likes to be known by names in relationship to His devotees, like Yasoda-nandana, the son of Mother Yasoda, Paratha-Sarathi, the chariot driver of His dvotee , Arjuna, so please never minimize the Name of the Lord. "By chanting the names od the Lord, you'll be free", Geroge Harrison

[Guest guest]

Do people name themselves as "govind doss?'

 

Only harijans havve to do so according to vedas.Only ramanuja in 12th century started this tradition of naming as "doss.."Before that bhramins called themnselves as sharma.So when you name him as govind,he is govinda sharma and not govinda doss.

 

Dont go and tell christians who their god is.For them its jesus.Its a long time since christianity became hinduism.They worship idols,(of jesus) and have become polytheistic(father,son,mary,holy spirit)

 

 

[Guest guest]

dont you think the bhagavath geetha says in chap7 verse 20.....

all those whose intellegent has been stolen by worldly desire worship many gods .....and there is no praitma of god i mean his form ....he is imageless

[Jahnava Nitai Das 1]

Since this thread has been revived, I will just make one clarification regarding what one of the guests has said:

 

 

Do people name themselves as "govind doss?'

 

Only harijans have to do so according to vedas.

 

In the Vedas there is no such thing as untouchable or harijan. Actually all living entities are children of God, and a sage with equal vision respects them all equally (pandita sama darshanah).

[sporkubus 0]

Oookay, I know many guys named Jesus... it is a very common hispanic name.

[Nataraja 0]

Dear guest,

 

you are trying to play off high philosophy of sanatana-dharma against folk-piety.

Why??

That philosophy and folk-piety is something diffrent is not unknown. Why do you compare two things, which are not compareable?

 

Greez

 

Nataraja

[Yegan 0]

Hi friend,

 

Hinduism has many unique things which are punishable by death under other religions.They are as follows

 

1)Hindus naming themselves after god.People carry name of Ram,Krishna,shiva,Uma and so on.Muslims dont name themselves as allah.Christians dont name themselves as jesus.Only Hindus do so.

I guess hindus is unique, so we do things in unique way .

 

Anyway to answer your question, naming someone after the names of GOD Almighty is something very beneficial because of the special sound vibration that are produced when you say the names of GOD, i.e Krishna, Ram, Jesus Allah.. The special sound vibration has the potency to deliver the soul from the material existence.

 

Let say for example you are calling your son(i.e: Krishna, my boy come to papa ) you have just purified yourself by simply saying the word Krishna (doest matter if you were refering to your son). Not only you have purified yourself but your son also has been purified just by hearing the name Krishna.

 

A little story to backup the whole idea:

There was once a brahmana by the name of Jamila. However he has been degraded due to his attraction to a prostitute. Anyway to cut the story short, Jamila got a son from this prostitute and called him Narayan (name of Vishnu). Jamila was very attracted to his son. At the time of his death, he was calling "Narayan , Narayan , Narayan my son ". Once he died, the angels of Maha Vishnu quickly came in to take him to the spiritual world even though he has been a very sinful person.

Jamila asked why you are taking me to the spiritual planet, im a sinful man. Then the angels told him that just prior to his death, he has been calling the name of Narayan(even though he was thinking only about his son) and that is enough for Maha Vishnu to have mercy and compassion for you.

 

In conclusion, GOD is very compassionate and merciful to anyone who can only say his name(whether it be Krishna, Ram ...) regardless whether you are actually refering to GOD himself or your son.

 

Im planning to call my son Krishna, that would be nice. I can be saved just by calling his name. Who says that having kids are troublesome???

 

3)He falls at the feet of elders.THis is unheard in any other religion.

 

Yes, so? What is your point? I just told you that hindus is unique and we do things in a unique fashion. This is our tradition to fall at the feet of elders.

 

Whether in islam or christianity and as a matter of fact any other religion, we do have unique traditions that are characteristics only to that particular religion. That does not mean because these traditions are unique to one religion and other religions do not have similar tradition that you cannot perform your tradition.

 

A little example here is when muslims refer to prophet Mohammad(PBUH) they would always say Peace be Upon Him (PBUH), after his name. Thats a sign of total respect and is unique to muslims. It cannot be found in other religion. That doesnot mean that muslims should stop saying so because other religion donot have any similar saying. Christian crossed themselves at church, and is unique to christianity. That doesnot mean christians should stop crossing themselves because other religion do not cross themselves.

Similarly hindus touch the feet of elders as a sign of respect and is unique. In every religion there is a unique way of showing respect .I hope you get what im trying to tell you.

 

Ok, a little background of the signification of touching the feet of elders:

 

Touching the feet in general means: I pay my respectful obediance unto you

 

Touching the feet of your mother means : Oh mother I pay my obediances unto you, for having brought me up. To have cherished me with your motherly love all the time. I will do my very best oh mother to honour you.

 

Touching the feet of your Guru/Teacher means: Oh Learned one, please accept my obediances unto you. You are imparting knowledge unto me so that I can also be a wise. This knowledge that you are imparting to me would make me better spiritually. This is the best thing that could happen to someone miserable like me.I am ever grateful for this.

 

Touching the feet of the Almighty GOD: Oh my Lord, accept my respectful obediances unto you. You are the cause of all causes. Noone is greater than you. I am your humble servitor, Please have mercy unto my miserable soul. Let me serve your lotus feet. Allow me to take refuge unto you. Give me the opportunity to worship your lotus feet. I surrender completely to you my Lord.

In short touching the feet is a way of communication , a silent way of saying things, which is much more powerful and evoke lots of emotions , humility and respect than verbal communication.

 

2)When a Hindu meets another he does "namasthe".This is similiar to what he does in temples.he does namasthe to god.he does it to anyone he sees on road.

 

Namaster is Pretty similar to the touching of feet. Refer to above.

 

Namaster before GOD is showing our absolute obediances , respect and surrender to almighty.

 

Namaster to people is just a way of greeting and showing respect to that person. If someone greet you with namaster means he/she is showing you respect and automatically you would also want to convert the same message to him/she that you also respect him/she. So you mirror his/she namaster in return.

 

If both person show that they respect each other through the Namaster greeting then there is a peaceful environment which is immediately established between these two persons.

 

As you can see, Namaster can have different meanings, depends whether you are doing it in front of Almighty or people.

4)Hinduism says that for a married woman "Husbnad is god,more powerful than any god.A woman need not worship any god except her husband.She need not do any vradhas or prayer to god.Its enough if she worships her husband."

 

in thirukural there is a kural "Dheivam tholal,khzolunan thaan thouluval,peiyana paiyum maghzai" meaning

 

"She who doesnt worship god,but only worships her husband,if she says "pour" rain will pour immediatly.

 

Why is this unique in Hinduism only?

 

If a muslim woman says "My husband is god to me" she will be stoned to death by her husband himself.

 

If a christian calls himslef jesus,he will be laughed by the whole christian world(Except in some south american countries)

 

So now the question arises.

 

1)To a married woman who is parabhrammam?Husband or Lord Hari?

 

Well it is sad that I dont know much about the thirukural because my seed is from south india. However I do know a little bit about hare krishna. I can tell you that the women in Hare krishna do everything for the sake of GOD. They cook for GOD, and they offer prayer to GOD only. Usually a devotee in the Hre krishna do not ask GOD any material things such as give me this and that. Until now I dont know anyone in hare krishna who worship her husband and not GOD.

 

Coming back to the thirukural, I dont see any problem if GOD says to worship your husband. If GOD say so, then so be it. These are sacred scriptures and if GOD says worships your husband then what is the problem?

As long as we are conforming to the words of GOD (provided we are not harming our fellow brothers and sisters of other faith, by terrorist attacks for example) then worshiping the husband shouldnt be a problem since it is in the scriptures and coming from GOD.

The supersoul is Lord hari.

2)If a son carries name Hari and his father abuses him as "hey you fool hari.." isnt that an insult to lord Hari?

Refer to answer number 1 please.

 

GOD is intelligent enough to know that you are scolding your son not him, dont you think so?

 

Anyway I got another short story for you .

 

It is a crude one by it fits perfectly here.

There once was a man. He was passing stool in the forest. There was a boar nearby which got attracted to smell of the stool. Very soon the boar localised the man and start chassing him. So the guy was still passing stool while being chased by a boar. There was a deep pit nearby and while being chased by the boar, the man just fall into the pit. At that moment he cried Harram.

Now the word "Harram" is regarded as a vulgar word in sanscrit. I think " Harram" means something inauspicious something like that. Anyway its not something that you would normally say when you die.

 

Cutting the story short, he fell into the pit and died. Now there was a Sage meditating nearby and through his yogic vision he could see that immediatedly after the man die, he was taken to the spiritual planet. The sage became very confused and said whats going on here, there is this man who died while passing stool, he is very unclean, and on top he said harram when he died, and now he is being taken to spiritual planet. The sage then immediately stop the angels taking the man to the spiritual planel and asked for explanation.

 

The angels told him that the man just before he died said the word Harram and lord Ram has ordered them to rescue the man. The sage got even more confused and said what harram has got to do with ram. Harram is very inauspicious. Then the angels told him that Lord Ram only hears the word Ram not the HA in the word "harram" and that is why the man is being taken to spiritual planet.

 

See GOD is very compassionate. So even if you are telling your son "hey you fool hari come here", well GOD will only hear "hari", not the word fool or anything bad you might have said. GOD is very compassionate. This is why hindus named their loved ones after GOD names.

 

I hope that your questions have been answered my dear friend.

Peace and Love

 

Glory to GOD Almighty however you may called HIM.

 

What is the asnwer to all this?

 

ADVAITHA.

 

Hinduism wanted people to subtly remember that they are gods.So it became a norm to name people by god.So whenever anyone call you as shiva or hari you remember that you are hari.

 

Whenever you worship anyone by falling at his feet,he remembers that he is shivam.The worshipper also sends his worships to the nirguna bhramman.

 

You dont abuse hari by calling your son fool,since a fool is also hari.

 

Similiar is the case with married women.Husband too is a part of nirguna bhramman.Just like how the prayers told to the idol reach god,since the idol too is a part of god and is god by itself,husband himslef is part of god.

 

So it indicates that advaitha was the founding base of Hindu tradition.

[akshar 1]

My name is raghav (another name for ram bhagwan). When Narad Muni went to this kingdom he advised the king no to hunt. The king saw his future. On his death-bed he was being torn to shreds by the very things he hunted. Narad advised he should name his son narayan. Every time he called his son his karma got better. On his real death-bed he screamed to his son "save me narayan" so narayan himself came to save him. It is moralic to respect your elders, nothing wrong with it. Hari is parmatma to a woman but she should serve her husband as much as a husband should serve her wife.

 

Remain awake

As intelligent and alert women

Enjoying full life of a hundred years

Enter the house as its ideal mistress

May the creator bestow on thee

Long life

-Atharva Veda 14/2/75

 

here is another one

 

I am the banner

I am the head

I possess excellent eloquence;

My husband co-operates with me

And follows my wil

-Rig Veda 10/159/2

 

The enlightened souls enjoy life with ecstasy

Where women are honoured

-Manu

 

Because we are completely unique, harness that power.

[Guest guest]

He is paramatma, he is living in everything and in everyone. Even if it seems that i am only praying to a fellow human being. I am actually praying to the one who resides as the "inner reality"

 

 

After the Mahabharata, Arjuna when with lord Sri Krishna to his homeland. There our Krishna took care of Arjuna to such an extent that Arjuna started to feel hurt. However when he questioned Krishna, Our lord assured him that he was only serving the paramatma found within Arjuna and not to Arjuna himself.So there was no reason for him to get distressed

[shravankm 0]

I just want to comment on who is bigger Husband Or God?

Well, no doubt, God is bigger.

 

But if the question is who should 'wife' worship? Tradition says 'Husband' and I quite agree to this. [Assuming husband is religious, well behaved and respect his wife]

 

To understand this, lets take example of 2 year child. If you introduce GOD to child, he/she will be confused and will not understand properly. So instead. But it is very easy for the child to 'worship' (sort of, means full respect, obedience, etc) mother, on whom he/she has full faith and trust. So, unless child is fully grown up, its ok to 'worship' her mother as if she is GOD. Mother's role in turn is to act as messenger to GOD. To pass on the prayers of her child to GOD. I have seen this working and it works very well.

 

 

Now, Having said this, I am not trying to compare women with 2 year old. But remember that in earlier days, marriages used to happen at very very young age (specially for girls), and at that time, husband used to have more knowledge and experience of this world. Since 'wife' was so young, and need to live in totally foreign environment in husbands home and town, it's easy for her to relate to her husband, who is closest to her. So, its easy to follow rule of 'Worship your husband'. But this is more in early years, after some years when she is grown up, its her own will and she will do accordingly.

 

And, when we can see GOD in stone, whats wrong in seeing GOD in husband?

[Guest guest]

 

And, when we can see GOD in stone, whats wrong in seeing GOD in husband?

 

Well then what is wrong with seeing God in wife, kids and the family pet too?

[Yegan 0]

 

Well then what is wrong with seeing God in wife, kids and the family pet too?

 

Good Point. I personally dont see any problem in seeing GOD in anyone( or anything as a matter of fact) and as such respect should be given to everyone regardless of age, sex, animals or plants.

[Guest guest]

 

Good Point. I personally dont see any problem in seeing GOD in anyone( or anything as a matter of fact) and as such respect should be given to everyone regardless of age, sex, animals or plants.

 

Exactly. Hinduism honours all of creation, but some see it as male dominated, which shouldn't be the case. There is talk of a wife seeing her husband as a god but why not vice-versa? We should see all of creation as divine. becuase if God exists it can only be that all of nature is divine, since everthing emanates/is a manifestation of God.

[shravankm 0]

Exactly. Hinduism honours all of creation, but some see it as male dominated, which shouldn't be the case. There is talk of a wife seeing her husband as a god but why not vice-versa? We should see all of creation as divine. becuase if God exists it can only be that all of nature is divine, since everthing emanates/is a manifestation of God.

[i dont know how to quote...]

 

Well I completely agree. Hinduism honours all creations and we should always respect all human beings, animals and plants. No doubt about that.

 

Here question was about worshipping husband? Its bit different than giving respect to everyone. You respect all human beings, but you dont worship everyone right!

 

Now, I am not advocating male dominance by saying this. Actually any person will 'worship' other (Guru's etc) only when he/she feels that other person is intellectually at higher plane and will help him/her to reach God in easy way.

 

Generally (because of various factors) it is seen that Girls are involved only in household work and do not have much knowledge of what is there outside the home, so husband is almost always at higher level of conciousness than wife, hence this tradition. (I am talking of scenarios few years back)

 

But there are cases, when it is other way round. In this case, husband should simply reciprocate and follow his wife. Once such case of 'Maa Anandmayi'. Her husband worshipped her throughout his life.