That's right, true Vedic teachings are about transcending, self-liberation, and right action. Hinduism has become nothing more than a bunch of superstitions, rituals, and mythologies bunched together and sustained by the same petty egoism the Vedas renounced. The more I read about Arya Samaj and the more I look around in current Hinduism I'm pretty much convinced it has become spiritually defunct. I challenge any fellow Hindu to try to refute my statement and also to ask him/herself if it is right to maintain status quo just for the sake of maintaining status quo.

Arya Samaj is only one branch/division under Hinduism. Its not the defining group of the religion, its just one single branch. I have numerous relatives who are Arya Samaji, but the only people who consider Arya Samaj to be the purest are Arya Samajis themselves......

I don't think its dead its just retreating into more of its cultural aspects. Thats it!

hey I'm not saying Arya Samaj is the end all be all of Hinduism but you'd have to agree that Hinduism to a large part has become more about ritualism rather than actual spirituality. People practice it out of habit instead of actually diggin within themselves. The heart of Vedic teachings is about becoming self actualized(something it took "modern philosophy" and psycology thousands of years to catch up with), not rituals and silly superstitions. So the question remains, why continue with the status quo when you know it's defunct?

You'd also have to agree that the egoism present in many Hindus due to the caste system flies in the face of Vedic teachings.

I actually agree to a point about what you are saying jiggy, in that I agree many people have lost touch with the reality, placing far more unnecessary emphasis on customs and traditions.

However, bear in mind it's not just Hinduism that's suffering from this, the majority of Christians, Muslims and practionioners of most religions in the world have lost the point or purpose of following the religion, and only do so for reasons similar to why we do chores.

This isn't anything new either, but rather has been happening over decades, even centuries and the modern world is far more materialistic and less spiritual.

It's up to every individual how they live, and that doesn't mean they are necessarily right or wrong. Hinduism won't die as long as there are people who truly believe in it.

Note that essentially as you have said, Hinduism is about self growth. You shouldn't worry about whether others follow Hinduism as you believe, but rather you should follow it as you believe.

A wise man once said something along the lines... the light shines and cannot be covered... not exactly but I'm to lazy to dig it up and it's late... you get the point. Also, Hinduism in it's defunct form is pretty hard to ignore since it's social ramifications are widespread.

regarding the Social ramifications of the defunct hinduism, I give it no link to hinduism. Much like the social caste system, which people identify as a part of hindu culture, but for me personally, it has nothing to do with it, and those who decided to call it a part of hinduism either misunderstood hinduism, or they use hinduism as an excuse. This is because my interpretation and belief is hinduism teaches equality and positive acknowledgement of others, and with regard to the caste, it never mentions any form of hierarchy or inequality. Yet others will interpret things differently.

I view hinduism as a philosophy, and from that I've decided interpretations can always be different. I personally decided that rather than strictly trying to define hinduism, I'm going to see it from my perspectives, and use that to my own benefit (in terms of what I believe it is and how I can grow from that). Others will perceive it differently, and as with all philosophical concepts, debate and differences of opinion are common place.

you dont know whats going on in India

more and more people are into the old vedic teachings and sanskrit



what are you talking about

useless post

it seems to me that whoever doesn't agree with you is saying something useless

I blame North Indians for this.

You blame North Indians for everything. I bet you think North India is just one big state on the map.

i don't like Hinduism (my family properly disown me for saying that)

we're talking bout the religion right

Well, no reason for me to go to temple anymore.

Why don't you like it?

hinduism is a great religion. i being a sikh feel more comfortable with hindus than muslims or christians.

What's wrong with Indian Christians? They're pretty easy going and don't claim any foreign ancestry. They will admit that their ancestors were Hindu.

there are lots of superstitions in other religions as well. i think caste system, brahmanism , vegetarianism, saduism should be abolished to make this religion as great as it was during vedic periods.


i dunno but i hate those religions which were not originated in india. christianity is a western religion. not indian

People are trying. It's going to take time, even though the caste system is illegal now.

I don't think there's anything wrong with being a vegetarian, as long as you know the difference between a HEALTHY vegetarian and a non-healthy vegetarian.

A lot of "vegetarians" pig out on greasy samosas, pakoras and potato chips 24/7.


A healthy vegetarian actually eats VEGETABLES (something that trendy vegetarians have forgotten) and foods that contain all of the nutrients that meat has, such as legumes, soy products/tofu/meat substitutes, dairy products, etc.

I'm vegetarian......I always eat nutrient rich foods. Lentils, Legumes, Soy, etc. are all rich in protein.

Everything that pro-meat Desi chauvinists have forgotten about. According to them. meat is the only thing that you can get protein from.

EDIT: You like my new sig?

Lol, yeah....all of those things provide a human with the necessary protein that they need to stay healthy and productive. Even amongst animals, there are many vegetarians, most of whom gather their protein from nutrient rich plants (such as the Rhino).

I like your new sig. Esmeralda from the Hunchback of Notre Dame.....I remember when that movie came out...

I liked your old sig too....haha

I'm using that for my facebook picture right now until I get the time to take a new one.

Hopefully, people will be naive enough to think that the Esmeralda pic is just a cartoon portrait of me?

god made humans so beautiful and humans made them into weirdos and you not allowed to eat beef why is that? there are other reason but wont get into em

like i know its cows are sacred but why

I'm not sure what you mean by the first comment (humans made them into weirdos stuff), but about the beef thing, it's not actually strictly against hinduism to abstain from beef, but it's actually more a culturally Indian thing. We avoid beef mostly out of respect for cows which are viewed in a sacred manner because of all they gave Indians throughout history. We as humans have relied heavily on the milk of cows and many felt we owed a great debt of gratitude for what we were given, and so, to treat the cow as we do humans (i.e. not eat them), was our way to show respect.

Please feel free to talk about what you don't like about hinduism. You aren't obligated to like or believe in it and no one has the right to say anything if you don't wish to follow it, but it would be interesting to hear another view of it.

what i ment in the first comment was about the gods they have such weird faces you know like the guy with the elephant head and black woman with the tongue, i always thought the cow thing was religious not cultural sorry i have limited know knowledge about the subject i basically grew up in Australia so i dont know anything about anything. also wen i said i don't like hinduism its basically cus i dont understand it, in other religions they wen some one dies they go to heaven or hell or i dont know what Hindus believe (i think i might be you have continuous lives and you born again but i remember some one tellling that there is a hell for bad ppl) like ive studied christianity (im not christian after i got to know it i started asking questions they couldnt answer and told me to fu-k off not in those words but they dont want anything to do with me now its a long story)and the teach that we came from Adam and eve, so what do hindus believe like i dont know what hinduism explain these questions

Right, I'll try my best to answer (though clumping the post together with so little punctuation makes it difficult ).

hmm, most people have made the no cow thing synonymous with Hinduism. I guess essentially I'd describe it best as a part of hindu culture, though it's not something that's a "strict rule" (then again, Hinduism is a philosophy as much a religion, so there aren't really any strict rules).

About God's with weird faces. Don't forget Hinduism is actually a monotheistic (one god) religion. Each God is a representation of a single part of God, given a visual form (symbolic of what they represent) which is better understood and more easily interpreted by humans. God in it/his/herself is structurally a concept in Hinduism, rather than a being.

Heaven and Hell don't really exist in hinduism. Rather there is a spiritual thought that you will be a part of a never ending flow of existence (best term I can think of). So the aim isn't to be good now to eventually reach a better place. The concept is to be good now to grow and develop, which will allow you to grow and take a more prominent role further down the line throughout existence. It's difficult to explain, but think of it this way, you live well now and your spirit (atma) will grow universally as a result. Later, your body will die, but the spirit will continue to exist in this more developed state, returning to existence. It will return to the world, and it continues to develop towards divinity. The concept is pretty much that of reincarnation. The idea stems from the thought that everything is linked.

About Christianity, I also studied it at school and find much of it difficult to believe (after all, much of it is based on things that have no proof or firm backing). However, it's the messages, or the teachings that should be looked at deeply, not the events that supposedly took place. Like all religions, it teaches to develop or further oneself first and foremost.

I don't think it is right to tell someone who wants to learn about a religion to fu-k off, as it should be to help show someone a possible path they can take in life. If a person can't answer the question, they should find out the answer themselves, if the question bothers so much.

the original thread title was better :p

In some ways modern Hinduism has become a lot like semetic religons, it makes slaves out of men.

I consider Sikhism to be a religion on it's own and NOT being a branch of Hinduism, but what's interesting is that Hindu/Sikh marriages have always worked out based on my observations, nor do these marriages cause any outcry in the general community (like how Hindu/Muslim, Sikh/Muslim, or Hindu/Christian marriages cause conflict).




You don't understand it, because you (and many other Indians abroad including myself at one point) are sub-consciously conditioned to use Western religions to compare to Hinduism. Even the most religious Hindu-Americans do this by saying"You're going to burn in hell because you broke a Hindu rule!" LOL......those "Hindus" are acting no different from Christian fundamentalists, because that's what they've been exposed too in America.

That's why it's so hard for non-Hindus to understand Hinduism, because they're so used to being taught the abrahamic way. The idea of heaven and hell not existing and the idea of monotheism is difficult to comprehend for some of the Christians and Muslims I've met.

sorry they didn't tell me to fu-k offthey just started ignoring me and stoped studing with me cus they said i was asking stupid questions

and thanks for the info it was helpful i look at hindusim differently now,but would know how they reckon life began

now wanna discuss christianity? its weird religion?

yeh what a bunch of fags

lol

(jks pls dont give me a warning)

I don't know, it depends what questions you were asking (example maybe?).

hmm, the question about how life began is complicated to answer. I'm not quite sure if I'll make sense trying to explain it, but everything essentially comes from God, or rather everything is God (often recognized as Brahman and Ishvara). I always imagine it as God is essentially existence, and everything is in some way a part of that existence or single entity.



not really, do you know much about it?

Religion, the last refuge of an @$$hole.

Care to explain?

Nope.

Thought you wouldn't be smart enough to be able to back up your argument.

Sorry, I don't reply to people from the gutter.

Peace.

better being from the gutter than a racist fool