Re: Basic questions about Hindu beliefs
Originally Posted by
MountainSpirit
Hi, I have recently started reading about Sanatana Dharma and am looking to learn more about the religion. I have some basic questions.
Namaste MS,
1) From what I have read, the earliest form of Hinduism, the Vedic religion, was mainly about revering the gods and did not seem to include the beliefs about the oneness of all reality, samsara and moksha, karma, reincarnation, meditation, etc. Where do Hindus believe that these concepts originated from?
Veda is considered the supreme authority within Hinduism, because it knows everything, includes everything.
2) Since god(the Divine Reality) is in all things, what is the significance of the personal gods which are worshiped in the Hindu tradition? Are these merely symbolic representations or are they believed to actually exist as entities?
Gods are fundamental to Hinduism. They together form the Reality, enter into existence of existence. However, on forums such as these, you are bound to usually meet Hindus who tell you "gods are many aspects of One"; whereas, on the ground, these people aren't even a significant minority among the vast Hindu populations.
3) Do the Vedas, Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita teach the same belief system or are there differences between them? Do Hindus accept the divinity of all of them or is there some disagreement about this?
In Gita, Krishna- who is fulfilling His mission on earth - has a set agenda, and therefore talks accordingly. His teachings are, therefore, bound within time and scope (set by none other than Himself). Veda, on the other hand, is eternal. This is the only difference (minor, mind you) between Gita and Veda. In fact, therefore, all the "secondary" texts and traditions speak the same language as that of the Veda, but limited in scope - time and space.
4) Is worship of god required in order to reach moksha or is meditation, self-purification, liberation from worldly desire, etc. sufficient?
All gyANa comes from Bhakti. Bhakti means "division", among gods obviously, not among God
As other member has said, you will get different views from different Hindus, this is in keep with what I said about different traditions- they have their own scope, time and space. Accordingly, you should also find yourself agreeing more to one of these views - in keep with your own scope, time and space. It is all evolutionary, pal, welcome to Hinduism.
Last edited by yajvan; 16 November 2014 at 12:06 PM.
Things to remember:
1. Life = yajña
2. Depth of Āstika knowledge is directly proportional
to the richness of Sanskrit it is written in
3. Āstika = Bhārata ("east") / Ārya ("west")
4. Varṇa = tripartite division of Vedic polity
5. r = c. x²
where,
r = realisation
constant c = intelligence
variable x = bhakti
Bookmarks