Understanding Sanatana Dharma

I honestly beleive that hindu religion was either created by aliens or by astronauts. I think thousands of years ago either there was an alien landing somewhere in present day karnatka or if it wasn`t an alien it must be an astronaut from our future who got caught in a wormhole and travelled back in time through a time warp and landed in karnatka. With his space suit and breathing tubes and all, the local savages took him for an elephant headed god. His rover must have appeared to them crawling like a mouse. And then one day, in order to communicate with the savages, the astronaut took his helmet off and collapsed due to the strong smell of a toxic agent called heeng in the atmosphere. A fellow older astronaut came and put his helmet back on his head. The oxygen must have revived him and savages thought that the older god had revived his son by replacing his ``head`` and making him elephant god again. And then klingons must have arrived following these astronauts from their intergalactic battles and must have kidnapped astronaut`s wife parvati. The older astronaut shiva must then fired shoulder fired missiles through his bazooka upon klingons which savages referred to as devs, and killed them. Savages then started calling shiva`s weapons as his Asthras.

Many thousand years later when those savages civilized themselves, they were able to decipher the accounts written by their ancestors about their experiences with benevolent alien gods who taught them how to make fire. The modern savages were also able to develop weapons based on the designs described in those vedic accounts. They call their weapons Agni (fire) and Asthra (shiva`s weapons) to honor their gods.

Nazar:

Good to see, some Pakistanis making efforts to learn about eastern philospophies. I would suggest you to pick up any textbook of Asian Philosophies preferably written by academician(s) and published by any of the University presses. Reading Hinduism in some details makes one wonder, what attracted some of these people to Islam. What part of it was most disappointing to them and Islam offered superior interpretation, if political environment and its trappings are to be ignored for discussion purposes only.My own feeling is that open endedness and constant evolving nature of Hinduism thoughts made it open to uninviting, undesired, imposed and parasitic ideas to freely enter into vast and diverse body of liturgy.

Tantra is somewhat the most reccent thoughts within Hinduism, starting with Veda (including commentaries called Upanishads), epic period, Vedanta, temple period and tantric period. Tantra is more like developing short-cuts to achieving dharma goals. Many Hindus dont accept it ebcause it opens to wild experimentation with quick, quicker and quickest means towards goals, such as drugs and enhanced orgasmic techniques.

Bhagti is not necessarily chanting hymns in the presence of a particular diety as a manifestation of ultimate truth. Actually within Bhagti movement, a school of thought believed strongly to avoid any representation of ultimate truth in the form of visible manifestation such as figures. Guru Nanak seemed to be impressed by this school more than any other philosophy and preached ultimate reality to be within each individual instead of outside or in the form of manifestations, thus it needs no outer representation to focus hymns onto. That is the basic philosophy of Sikhism. Although Muslims feel that Sikhism bridged Hinduism with Islam thorugh this path but he was going more to the basics of Hindusim of Atman and Brahman from Upanishads.

Anyway, enjoyed reading it!!!!

Nazar Sahib,

Thanks for an interesting article!! It is heartening to see some Pakistanis taking interest in their pre-Islamic heritage. It is often forgotten that Hinduism actually developed in the area of Pakistan and then spread to the rest of the subcontinent. This means that the ancestors of present day Pakistanis were actually the creators of Hinduism!! It is a strange result of history that most Pakistanis have come to view hinduism as something belonging to India. Maybe the antagonism against India is actually an extension of negating one`s own pre-Islamic heritage as a part of accepting Islam.
Be that as it may, Islam is permanently established in Pakistan for eternity. Now there is no reason to be insecure and harbor ill-will against one`s pre-Islamic past. It is time for ordinary Pakistanis to become neutral towards their past.

Thank you for the research and placing things in such a simple form.

I am sure there will be enough debate.

Just one correction - estimate on number of Hindus in Pakistan varies from 2.5 through 5.0 million, on date, as per Kishinchand Perwani in the latest issue of Outlook. Add to that the large number of converts who still keep some sort of connection to the faith of their fore-fathers, and you make a very good case for the Vedic Republic of Pakistan.

I am sure it can`t do worse. Can you imagine, a secular India surrounded by a Buddhist Sri Lanka, a Hindu Nepal, a Communist Tibet and a Vedic Pakistan?

Nazar,

Thanks for a nice summary on what is Hinduism, especially coimg from a pakistani.

I would not agree on your conclusion about hinduism being neither polytheistic nor monotheistic. Its monotheistic but tolerant of allowing anyone worship reality in any form.

In a way all organized religions originate to assert themselves socially and spiritually distinct from others. Otheriwse who would buy it. Hence their emphasis on their God alone. Political hinduism is trying to shape themselves in the image of other organized religions. Though, i doubt if there`s any scope to it. In a way, Sikhism, due to turbulent relations with others may become an organized religion asserting itself distinct from other sub-continenetal cultural traditions. This would be more in tune with the rise of abrahamic faiths` origin.

More later.

hey bhagwan!
...isn`t anything sacred anymore?a maleecha teaching us about the dharma...ram ram...

Excellent article on Hinduism. Sort of like.... ``In a nutshell``.

I always interpreted Hinduism as a religion that worships nature itself rather than worshipping some abstract imagined entity in abstract imagined worlds. For example, Hindus worship Earth as a ``Bhudevi``. It seems logical to worship something that responsible for giving, sustaining and destroying life itself. Also notice the worship of all kinds of animals in nature.

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#1

Now dont tell me you have never heard of Erich Von Daniken!

Nazar sahib, good summary article. I enjoyed it.
I think you missed some other significant countries in your foot note..e.g. Nepal, Mauritius, Fiji etc.

#1 oey Sanatan Dharm did not originate in KarnaTaka....teri KarnaTkiyaN naal kiyoN lagdi ay ainee?

nk:

the nazi symbol is the reverse of swastika...
thanks for a good read.

re:#1 by Urstruly
One reason why i shall keep my interactions limited in chowk. The stink from this guy (and others of his ilk) is unbearable.
Anyway, looks like the guy has had his brains blown out in Guantanama Bay and is now speaking thr` his rear end.
Sridhar

re: this article
An excellent article. I had said in another forum i won`t interact anymore but i think if i see an article that tickles my mind/soul, i will.
Nazar Sahib,
You have said everything that needs to be said about hindusim in nutshell.

I will however differ on the dates that u have quoted. Nobody knows when Vedas were written thought western authors quote dates which sound ridiculous.
You said that Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) suddenly vanished and gave rise to vedic civilization. Does that not sound as odd to u? Some scholars believe that Vedic Civilization was an extention of IVC or the 2 are one and the same, though there is a lot of controversy here.
Vedas predate the time frame of IVC u have given. Veda Vyasa only complied the vedas (that is, he brought the 3 vedas: Rig, Sama, Yajur into one place as they were scattered all across the landmass of India at the time and also successfully argued with other sages of the time to include Atharva veda as the 4th form of Veda). He wrote the vedas into a written form on the scrolls and palm leaves. Prior to that, it was being passed on orally as there were no technology for writing. Veda vyasa is also credited with writing the Mahabharata and the Puranas.

#12 by kaurasach
Mahabharata was compiled by the sage Vyasa in the foothills of himalayas. Legend has it that Ganeshji (the elephant headed God) wrote it to the dictation of Vyasa. When Vyasa requested the deity to write the epic as he dictated, Ganeshji agreed on the condition that it was dictated non-stop. Vyasa`s countercondition was that he would dictate it non-stop as long as Ganeshji understood what he was writing. At places, Vyasa would go on a tangent and dictate deep philosophical thoughts that would make Ganeshji ponder over their meanings, giving the sage enough time to think about the next plot! Thus it went on for a month, non-stop!
Much has been added later to the original text. It was just called Bharata initially and later came to be known as Mahabharata of 100000 verses.
A highly readable version in English was written by Rajaji and is on line:
http://www.hindubooks.org/books_by_rajaji/mahabharata/index.htm

Vedas were no doubt initially complied on the bank of river Indus (modern day Punjab) but various schools of thought came about later all over the landmass called Bharat.
Sridhar

Nazar Khan, it is good to see that you read about dharma.

Btw, there is no ``salvation`` - In Hindu (& Buddhist) thought there is moksha or nirvana
- i.e an end to cycles of birth and death - once knowledge is aquired.
There is a very close relationship between Upanishidic thought and Buddhist thought,
later on the Advaita of Shankara is very close to Buddhist thought. Some of the
Dvaitins refer to Advaitins as Prachanna-Baudha (or closet-Buddhists)

For Sameerjb - Tantra is very closely related to Buddhist thought - especially
Tibetan Buddhism. So it is not as if it is something new. Tantra has existed for
a loooong time.

Nazar, Sameer (and others) ....
One should not use categories of ``religions`` (such as Islam,Judaism, Christianity)
etc for the Dharmic panths (such as vaidika, bouddha,jaina etc)
All these dharmic panths use a common vocabulary related to achieving moksha/nirvana.
But that is not to say they are the same - there are differences.
The Buddha or Shankara would not care if you ``believed`` or not - you would be just
revelling in your ignorance (avidya) and be born & die again and again.

So one has to make an effort to study, then one chooses an appropriate guru and
then one practises dharma - in an effort to get knowledge and freedom from the
cycles of birth and death.

Another important thing is the meaning of the word ``God``. There is no concept
of ``God`` in the dharmic panths that is the semantic equivalent of ``God`` in religions.
While Bhagawan is used as a equivalent of God - it is not so.
Jaina and Buddhist thought do not need any concept of a ``God``....In Hinduism, the
``Brahman`` or Paramatma is used - but that is semantically very different from God.

Anyway, it is good to see Pakistanis learning about something else outside of the ``pure``.