WHAT IS HINDUISM? REACTION!
Added 2019-12-20 04:29:54 +0000 UTC
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Please react to Malayalam movie Lucifer - Jungle fight scene... Mohan Lal the lead actor is the biggest legend in Malayalam cinema... 5 times national award winner... highest by anyone ever...
Vivek Nair
2019-12-20 20:08:38 +0000 UTCGood points!
Sonali Kamboj
2019-12-20 09:04:53 +0000 UTCOk, sorry, but get ready for a BOOK! This is actually quite an impressive video. This guy has done his research, and some hard work to boot. But, as he admits himself, it misses on some significant subtleties - because a video that covers everything would take, probably, all of Time! Here are some... let's call them thoughts. 1. The most fundamental belief of Hinduism is actually against belief itself. The ancients teach us that belief itself is an illusion. When you believe something you are told, you are deluding yourself. Truth takes patience, and thought. Wisdom is in absorbing all the information you can, and then think about it and come to your own conclusions. The oldest text, Rig Veda, has an important hymn called the Nasadiya Sukta which ends with the question of whether the creator exists. It doesn't answer the question, instead implying that even the Creator may not know who Created the Universe. I think that's a fascinating thought. And sure enough, 3 out of the 5 ancient "schools" (branches/sects?) of Hinduism were, in closest contemporary approximation, Atheist. Of course, this is why fundamentalism is antithetical to Hinduism, which makes what's happening in India these days very strange indeed, but more on that later. As a consequence of #1, none of the 7 beliefs are Universal in Hinduism. There are variants to every belief and to every myth. 2. Small nitpicky thing - Sanskrit wasn't the ancient language of the Hindu PEOPLE. It was the Liturgical language - of the priestly class. The people, for the most part, spoke common tongues like Prakrit. Sanskrit literally means "Refined/Polished" while Prakrit literally means "Natural" 3. It isn't correct to say the Vedas were "divinely revealed", because that term means something specific to people brought up in an Abrahamic culture. It means the Burning Bush, and a loud, booming voice dictating a text. That's not what it is here. Of course, anthropologically we know they were composed and perfected over centuries, but the Dharmic belief isn't that "God" revealed them. They were just there, and at some point made themselves available to us. The Vedas aren't texts in that sense, they are considered divine entities themselves, came into being the same way the gods did. At least, that's one version of it! As with all things Hindu, there are many. Another common understanding is that the Four Vedas come from the four heads of Brahma. But then where did the four heads come from? 4. To the understanding of Dharma, add a dash of the idea of "duty". That's what he missed out. But also - what IS anyone's Dharma? How does he know what his Dharma is? It isn't as simple as "Kshatriya's Dharma is to fight evil". But to the Kshatriya Dharma, there is also his Dharma as a family-member, as a husband, as a father, as a citizen, as a member of that particular dynasty, as the holder of whatever office he holds... Everyone is torn by multiple dharmas, many of which may impact on any one decision he (or she) makes. And as we know from #1, you are encouraged not to believe anything just because someone tells you. Which means this decision of what Dharma dictates at any point of time is a matter of JUDGEMENT. Life is about gaining enough knowledge and morality to make better judgements, and the sum totals of those judgements decide the fate of your soul. That, actually, was the point of the Bhagawat Gita. (Which, incidentally, is just a part of the Mahabharata) The moment on the battlefield was Arjuna trying to make that judgement, and Krishna, revealing his true divine identity as Vishnu, guides Arjuna through this judgement. The irony is, from about the time the Gita came into vogue as a guiding document, that's what it changed. For years, the Mahabharata was just a story. Gita was just a philosophical treatise within it. That's how all the great texts were treated - except the Vedas. They're treatises, and you read them / listen to them, and figure out what it all means, with the help of Gurus. The Gita became all-important much later, as Hinduism's evolutionary reaction to competition pressures. And this was in a time of Kings with Imperial ambitions. So the form changed, things became less fluid, more rules and more divisions. Which brings us to Caste. 5. One thing this video gets significantly wrong is Caste. He starts off fine - it was a mutable system, you could move from caste to caste based on your abilities. But then you can't use the word Caste. See, the English used a single word, Caste, to describe two completely different systems. The 4-layer system this guy talks about is called "Varna". There were 4 Varnas, and while they had a clear Hierarchy, they were not Hereditary. There is another kind of Caste, called "Jati". That is basically an occupational clade. Like "Smith" in Medieval England usually meant you were a blacksmith, and the son of a blacksmith was usually a blacksmith. Jati was like that, and over centuries became a fairly rigid system, and was naturally Hereditary - it was built around families practicing trades. It was the British who actually messed it up. In the Census of 1901, they introduced "Caste" as a piece of information to be recorded for the first time. But what was Caste? Jati or Varna? Their helpful Indian collaborators offered to help. They were mostly Brahmin, for a reason. A Brahmin's Dharma is to learn. Study. Strictly speaking that meant the Vedas, but then the System was what the Brahmins said it was, so their Dharma became to Learn. Even today, Brahmin communities in the south are obsessed with academic success, and that's partly an ancient tradition. So when the British came along, the Brahmins ended up being among the first to learn English. And so, with decent English skills and excellent Math skills, and their position on top of the social hierarchy, they became the obvious Indian Administrators for the British Raj. (I say they, but I should say "we" - those early collaborators stood a good chance of being my direct ancestors!!) So when they were asked how to reconcile Jaati and Varna with "Caste", they came up with an elegant solution. Or it was the British solution, and they came up with an elegant way to implement it - History is not clear on this point. The Solution was to classify the Thousands of Jaatis under Four Varnas, based on the TYPE of trade they engaged in. And so Merchant Jaatis became Vaishya, warrior Jaatis became Kshatriya, and they remained Brahman, while Cobblers and Carpenters became Shudra. There were also the "casteless", but that is an entire chapter unto itself, and is a far older problem. THAT is, in fact, an inherent problem in Hinduism - the "untouchability" issue. Touch Taboos are inherent in Hinduism. Brahmins from ancient times have refused to touch food or water offered by ALL lower castes, not just the "untouchables". Within three generations back I can find in my own family people who held so much power that the village untouchables would have to announce their arrival when crossing the street, so that doors and windows of the house could be shut! that problem of a entire CLASS of Untouchable People goes back to the anger of the Brahmins with those who left the Hindu fold to accept Buddhism. Oh those ancient Hindus really hated the Buddhists!! Slaughtered thousands of them! But the census of 1901 is the origin of the Modern Caste System in India, the system which is still codified into Law in the guise of affirmative action. 6. The Manu Smriti was NOT an important document. This is a very Western-Prism understanding. The British found the Manu Smriti, saw it was a list of rules, assumed it was a book of Laws, because they were used to those in their own culture (Biblical) and in other ancient cultures they had encounters - Hammurabi's Code. But the Manu Smriti was not a book of laws. It was more like a self-help book. It's like your "The Good Wife's Guide". Somebody wrote a book with HIS idea of what it was to be a good Hindu. As far as I can tell, almost nobody took him seriously. Until the British found it and misunderstood it. After that - well, it doesn't take as long as you might think for societies to change so thoroughly that you think it's always been this way. People die, kids are born, the old world is forgotten. 7. I'll end on a fun little story. The four heads of Brahma. And as you read, note the parallels with Greek and Roman mythology. When Brahma created Shatarupa, he was immediately infatuated and pursued her wherever she went. Shatarupa moved in various directions to avoid his gaze but wherever she went, Brahmā developed another head until he had four, one for each direction of the compass. Desperate, Shatarupa leaped over him to stay out of his gaze even for a moment. A fifth head, however, appeared above the others. Thus, Brahma developed five heads. At this moment Shiva appeared, cut off the top head and determined that since Shatarupa was Brahma's daughter (being created by him), it was wrong and incestous of Brahma to become obsessed with her. He directed that there be no proper worship in India for the "unholy" Brahma. But a different version adds to this story. After Brahma had grown his fifth head Shatarupa had turned into a cow to avoid his lust. When Brahma found out he turned into a male cow in order to continue to follow Shatarupa. Eventually she found out and hid in the form of another animal. Brahma found out again and turned into the appropriate male animal. Again she found out and hid in the form of another animal. This continued until all of the animals of all kinds in today's world were born and Shiva finally ripped off one of Brahma's five heads to put an end to his lust. In the version I heard, growing up, Shatarupa was actually Saraswati, the goddess of Knowledge, who would eventually be his Wife/Consort. But she, being knowledge, was free, and Brahma got tired of her not being available when he needed her. One day, when she didn't turn up for an important ceremony, Brahma got angry and married the nearest available woman - Gayatri (who IS one of the most important Mantras in Hinduism - the Gayatri Mantra) When Saraswati returned, she was naturally furious at her unfaithful husband, and it was SHE who cursed him that there would be no proper worship in India for Brahma. In this version, it's a Feminist tale! And true enough, there is only ONE Brahma temple in all of India. At Pushkar, in Rajasthan. Hinduism is endless shades. And that's its power. All the times you thought things were Indian and they turned out to be Hindu - well, until the Islamic invasions started, there was hardly a difference. There was a LONG period when Hinduism declined and Buddhism and Jainism took hold, but Hinduism came back. In part, it drove out Buddhism, and in part absorbed it to the point that some sects consider the Buddha an Avatar of Vishnu. As for Jains, they are now so thoroughly integrated with Hindu society that most people don't even realize they are a different religion. They celebrate their own festivals too, but most also celebrate every Hindu festival. Hinduism cannot be jealous and hate other religions because, in fundamental principle, Hinduism absorbs. It says every belief has an equal claim on the truth. By true Hindu thinking, Islam and Christianity are as valid as Shaivism and Vaishnavism, because they are other paths to the same truth. There's a famous saying in India - all rivers lead to the same sea. (an idea also featured in the song I recommended you react to - Mile Sur Mera Tumhara) But, clearly, today something has changed. This philosophy of infinity has turned into an almost monotheistic cult of strict belief and purity tests. Why that happened has less to do with Hinduism itself, but with a Nazi-inspired, Racial-Purity Cult wearing Hindu colours - called Hindutva. But that's a story for a difference place and time.
Sagar
2019-12-20 07:54:02 +0000 UTC
