I have some belives in following Hinduism, I need some one to validate them

[Guest guest]

Namaste:

 

I have been living in US for the past 6 years and learned more about Hinduism still great follower of the same. I am also learning other religions and respect them equally. How ever I have been haunted with one question, which was asked by some respectful person over here. "Why do we have so many Gods, when the foundation of Hinduism strongly believes that there is only one God?". I came up with answer that, In Hinduism we consider everything as GOD meaning, if we read, we consider that knowledge is a gift given by God, and we thank goddess Saraswathi / Lord Vinayaka to grant that forever. Similarly we pray Lord Anjaneya so that we will have great regard to our Guru (Swamy Bakthi), build self confidence etc. Similarly Lord Rama to be more truthful, and respect parents, Gruru and Marriage etc. Is this correct, am I interpretting right way?

 

Also by sincerely following Hinduism, I have realized that, already there is tons of knowledge been compiled & written by our ancients. We need to maintain those scriptures (original writings) as it is and pass it to next generations. Is this correct?

 

I would appreciate everyone' comments on this.

 

thanks

 

Hinduism Savior

 

[Guest guest]

The entire universe(s) together comprise God. So everything is God, and he cannot be limited to one form. So many forms are created/celebrated for worship. God comes in whatever form his devotee finds him appealing in, so there a billion possible forms of God. And thus, we have a billion gods, all representative of the One God.

 

 

[Guest guest]

"I am also learning other religions and respect them equally"

 

What made you so impressive in Hinduism, when you respect other religions equally? You have equally good things in Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and Jainism why should you not follow any one of them, and infact here these religions believe in one God.

[Ganeshprasad]

Jai Ganesh

 

Re

(The entire universe(s) together comprise God. So everything is God, and he cannot be limited to one form. So many forms are created/celebrated for worship. God comes in whatever form his devotee finds him appealing in, so there a billion possible forms of God. And thus, we have a billion gods, all representative of the One God.)

 

Nice sentiment but this leaves open for people to exploit, and people blindly get mislead.

Prahlad maharaj recognize god every where but when his father said he was god, he rejected that. We must learn to discriminate or else we bring disrepute to our Dharma.

 

Jai Shree Krishna

[Guest guest]

{Buddhism and Jainism why should you not follow any one of them, and infact here these religions believe in one God.}

 

Actually, Buddhism and Jainism do not believe in any God, let alone One God.

[maadhav]

<< "Why do we have so many Gods, >>

 

Because they (the devas, not the god) ARE there,

and we know it from parampara and scriptures.

Please read gita for more detail.

 

<< when the foundation of Hinduism strongly believes that there is only one God?". >>

 

God, being supreme is only one.

We know of many manifestations and incarnations of Him.

We know it since the time of Brahma or the creation.

 

[Guest guest]

"What made you so impressive in Hinduism, when you respect other religions equally"

 

I am born as Hindu and not got exposed to other religions the way I got exposed to the religious practices of Hinduism.

 

Secondly as I I said

"In Hinduism we consider everything as GOD meaning, if we read, we consider that knowledge is a gift given by God, and we thank goddess Saraswathi / Lord Vinayaka to grant that forever. Similarly we pray Lord Anjaneya so that we will have great regard to our Guru (Swamy Bakthi), build self confidence etc. Similarly Lord Rama to be more truthful, and respect parents, Gruru and Marriage etc."

 

What I mean here is GOD is one but present himslef in different forms depending on situation. And if you read stories of How Lord Rama was truthful, respect parents etc, you will understand better and practice well. Infact I have seen that many part of Hindus till today, globally.

To me GOD of any religion do not give preference basing on religion practices except the uncoditional love and prayer one offers to him.

 

I am not here judge which religion is great. As I said that I want to practice Hinduism in which I born and respect other religious practices (that is what Hinduism tells about). In that way there would be less mental block when you meet different people across the world. When you talk to them religion, caste should not prevent you.

 

I have so many close friends in other religions thru whom I came to know many of their religious practices. I have even attended some of their fuctions to understand better.

 

I strongly belive in "out of box" thinking meaning learn and practice as much as u can of one's own religion and also learn and respect other religions as well. This would make you more mature & less confrontation.

 

I am always away to the groups who says that one religion is great and other other religions are not. My thought here is it is just purely their personal opinion.

 

Hope this clarifies to your question.

 

Hindu Savior

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Every religion tells us that there is only One God, including Hinduism. There is a lot of misconception among people of other faiths that we have many Gods. We as Hindus believe in One Supreme Reality that is the source of all this creation. Everything in this creation you take it a <name,form>(nama, rupa) pair. If there is One God then it must be possible to see him or experience him.

[jayan008]

"What made you so impressive in Hinduism, when you respect other religions equally? You have equally good things in Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and Jainism why should you not follow any one of them, and infact here these religions believe in one God."

 

- Actually it is a misinformation spread by other relgious institutions like Christianity, Islam etc., that their religion preaches One God, while Hindus pray to different Gods and hence there is confusion and misharmony, and hence to lead a peaceful life and attain salvation they should pray to One God......However, like explained above by one of the members The entire universe(s) together comprise God. He cannot be limited to one form. So many forms are created/celebrated for worship. God comes in whatever form his devotee finds him appealing in, so there a billion possible forms of God.

 

Man is unique and his mindset and thinking too is unique. He is free to think and choose whichever form of diety to worship, just like the kind of profession he chooses. Nobody can force or change it with misinformation.

 

A good example is that the Christian Missionaries' conversion of many tribal people into christianity in remote villages & forests.....even though they were coaxed into conversion, they still pray to the rain gods for good monsoon, the forest gods for protection, the sun god for light......this is totally against the idea of christianity to pray only one form of God.

 

In their blind faith of converting every man to christianity the missionaries are overlooking these facts that God is present in every form - He is in the Sun to provide us light and energy, in the Air to help us breathe, in Water to quench our thirst....he is the formless one who takes different forms to direct different people to the path of salvation.

 

[Guest guest]

That's right, Its probably the ignorance of the Missionaries of Christianity etc and hence spreading it due to their ignorance or may be even Malice if they are aware of it.

 

Hinduism also advocates one God. I have attended lectures of great Sants like Dayanand Sarawati's disciples and also my own thinking and understanding says that, It is impossible for laymen like us having less knowledge of God to think of a "formless God". It is beyond Human mind to think of a "formless God". Hence the need to Go for some form of worship and think of an "image" of God as manifestation of God. It is possible that God manifested himself like Rama, Krishna and those 33 crores forms to help mankind. That is why we have so many Gods in Hinduism. I would suggest to Choose a God whose qualities you are most impressed. For Eg, some people think Ganesha as their favorite since he is considered as God who wards off obstacles.

 

Perhaps it is possible to worship formless God, but we should first start with the first of worshipping a God with a form. I have a feeling that Great Brahmarshis's like Vashista, after practice, probably have mastered the worship of formless God by meditation/tapas. I would like interpretations/opinions of this by the people in this Forum.

 

I think that crass materialism in the west is probably because of this belief of "formless God" due to which people are not able to comprehend a "formless God". This incomprehension manifests into materialism. Again, I would like interpretations/opinions of this by the people in this Forum.

 

There is an interesting belief that the 33 crores God are resident in a Cow and hence many people feed the cows and revere them.

[Guest guest]

the west does not understand it because their belief is inherently bent on worshipping God in a manly form, made in His image, and so on. they dont bother looking through the finer points of the bible to discover the gnosticism, let alone the many scriptures left out of the bible due to gnostic thought prevalant.

 

it is okay for a person to adopt an 'image' to worship, as long as they understand that image to be essentially omnipotent, omnipresent, eternal, never beginning, never ending. if a person is worshipping different gods for their seperate attributes, my personal belief is that they have not understood correctly, and it is unfortunate our culture does not fix incorrect practice of religous thought. if we are intent on believing in One God, we must put that belief into practice, and understand that while there were many forms, they represent the One Eternal.

 

as for cows, everyones going to have different opinions on the cow. dont adopt thought which is not wise. the cow is revered because of cultural importance. perhaps it is sacred, but a person should not be praying to the cow as a god. if they want to pray to the cow as a divine creature, then practice that same logic, and pray to every human being you walk by. you'll see how foolish it is.