We Are All Hindus Now - By Lisa Miller | NEWSWEEK - # 3

[Guest guest]

We Are All Hindus Now

By Lisa Miller | NEWSWEEK

Published Aug 15, 2009

 

" America is not a Christian nation. We are, it is true, a nation

founded by Christians, and according to a 2008 survey, 76 percent of

us continue to identify as Christian (still, that's the lowest

percentage in American history). Of course, we are not a Hindu—or

Muslim, or Jewish, or Wiccan—nation, either. A million-plus Hindus

live in the United States, a fraction of the billion who live on

Earth. But recent poll data show that conceptually, at least, we are

slowly becoming more like Hindus and less like traditional Christians

in the ways we think about God, our selves, each other, and eternity.

 

The Rig Veda, the most ancient Hindu scripture, says this: " Truth is

One, but the sages speak of it by many names. " A Hindu believes there

are many paths to God. Jesus is one way, the Qur'an is another, yoga

practice is a third. None is better than any other; all are equal.

The most traditional, conservative Christians have not been taught to

think like this. They learn in Sunday school that their religion is

true, and others are false. Jesus said, " I am the way, the truth, and

the life. No one comes to the father except through me. "

 

Americans are no longer buying it. According to a 2008 Pew Forum

survey, 65 percent of us believe that " many religions can lead to

eternal life " —including 37 percent of white evangelicals, the group

most likely to believe that salvation is theirs alone. Also, the

number of people who seek spiritual truth outside church is growing.

Thirty percent of Americans call themselves " spiritual, not

religious, " according to a 2009 NEWSWEEK Poll, up from 24 percent in

2005. Stephen Prothero, religion professor at Boston University, has

long framed the American propensity for " the divine-deli-cafeteria

religion " as " very much in the spirit of Hinduism. You're not picking

and choosing from different religions, because they're all the same, "

he says. " It isn't about orthodoxy. It's about whatever works. If

going to yoga works, great—and if going to Catholic mass works,

great. And if going to Catholic mass plus the yoga plus the Buddhist

retreat works, that's great, too. "

 

Then there's the question of what happens when you die. Christians

traditionally believe that bodies and souls are sacred, that together

they comprise the " self, " and that at the end of time they will be

reunited in the Resurrection. You need both, in other words, and you

need them forever. Hindus believe no such thing. At death, the body

burns on a pyre, while the spirit—where identity resides—escapes. In

reincarnation, central to Hinduism, selves come back to earth again

and again in different bodies. So here is another way in which

Americans are becoming more Hindu: 24 percent of Americans say they

believe in reincarnation, according to a 2008 Harris poll. So

agnostic are we about the ultimate fates of our bodies that we're

burning them—like Hindus—after death. More than a third of Americans

now choose cremation, according to the Cremation Association of North

America, up from 6 percent in 1975. " I do think the more spiritual

role of religion tends to deemphasize some of the more starkly

literal interpretations of the Resurrection, " agrees Diana Eck,

professor of comparative religion at Harvard. So let us all say " om. "

 

http://www.newsweek.com/id/212155

 

 

Posted By: Anand_Anand @ 08/17/2009 11:29:11 PM

The title of the article will probably turn off most non-Hindus. I am

a Hindu and if an article started with " We are all Christians " , my

ability to reason and rationalize would take a hit right there, no

matter the merit of the ensuing content. Especially on a topic as

sensitive as personal faith.

 

My belief is any religion that boxes you into a frame of mind that

allows no freedom of thought cannot lead you to enlightnment or

salvation. The greatest asset of Hinduism is despite all the rituals

and traditions, it allows me incredible freedom to think. It does not

make me any less a Hindu because I decide not to worship plants or

the sun. I am allowed to disagree and encouraged to think for myself.

Regardless of what religion you belong to, if you have the same

freedom to " thiink " rather than always being told to follow, you're

on the right path.

 

Look at this planet, it is an incredibly complex ecosystem

constructed out of nothing more than atoms that bind differently. And

this planet of ours probably does not even figure in the grand scheme

of things when you think about the universe and the mind-boggling

complexity that makes up void, matter and everything in between.

Think about the incredble beauty and complexity just within our solar

system and about the limitless array of elements that come together

in ways our brains cannot even begin to comprehend.

 

Do you really think this incredibly magnificent complexity of the

universe and everything within it can be boiled down to the human

concept of heaven and hell present in each religion? Hinduism allows

me to ask that question and seek the answer without labelling me a

traitor. I hope your religion does too and if it does, we belong to

the same religion whatever you name it and whatever God you worship.

 

 

 

 

Posted By: dsivrv @ 08/18/2009 4:47:09 PM

I agree completely. Hinduism has given me an inquiring mind. I dont

worry if other people have different beliefs, because I am not boxed

in myself. I have no need to convert other people, and I can

celebrate Christmas and Eid and go back to my temple and pray. It is

a wonderful way to live.

 

 

 

 

Posted By: pi31415 @ 08/18/2009 3:26:07 PM

I remember reading a news article in the mid 90s in India (apologies

but the exact details escape me - perhaps someone can help). To

summarise, the government of the southern state of Kerala had just

dismissed the trustees of a famous temple for financial impropriety

and taken over its administration for an interim period. Now Kerala

was being ruled by a Communist government at the time. So the

trustees lodged a case in the High Court to appeal against their

dismissal, on the grounds that a government that doesn't believe in

God couldn't justifiably take over the administration of a Hindu

temple. The High Court promptly threw the case out, stating that

nowhere in Hinduism is it stated that you have to believe in God to

be considered a Hindu.

 

What's interesting is not just the judgement, but what then happened,

or rather, what did not happen... life went on! Nowhere were there

any protests against this decision as the people understood the

inherent validity of this argument. It made me feel very proud of my

religion, my country and the innate wisdom of the common Indian.

 

 

 

 

How Should We View Death and Dying? ( The American hindu monk says)

 

Our soul never dies; only the physical body dies. We neither fear

death nor look forward to it, but revere it as a most exalted

experience. Life, death and the afterlife are all part of our path to

perfect oneness with God. Aum.

 

Bhashya

For Hindus, death is nobly referred to as mahaprasthana, " the great

journey. " When the lessons of this life have been learned and karmas

reach a point of intensity, the soul leaves the physical body, which

then returns its elements to the earth. The awareness, will, memory

and intelligence which we think of as ourselves continue to exist in

the soul body. Death is a most natural experience, not to be feared.

It is a quick transition from the physical world to the astral plane,

like walking through a door, leaving one room and entering another.

Knowing this, we approach death as a sadhana, as a spiritual

opportunity, bringing a level of detachment which is difficult to

achieve in the tumult of life and an urgency to strive more than ever

in our search for the Divine Self. To be near a realized soul at the

time he or she gives up the body yields blessings surpassing those of

a thousand and eight visits to holy persons at other times. The Vedas

explain, " As a caterpillar coming to the end of a blade of grass

draws itself together in taking the next step, so does the soul in

the process of transition strike down this body and dispel its

ignorance. " Aum Namah Sivaya.

 

http://www.himalayanacademy.com/study/mc/todays_lesson.shtml

 

 

 

 

How Do Hindus Understand Karma?

 

Karma literally means " deed or act " and more broadly names the

universal principle of cause and effect, action and reaction which

governs all life. Karma is a natural law of the mind, just as gravity

is a law of matter. Aum.

 

Bhashya

 

Karma is not fate, for man acts with free will, creating his own

destiny. The Vedas tell us, if we sow goodness, we will reap

goodness; if we sow evil, we will reap evil. Karma refers to the

totality of our actions and their concomitant reactions in this and

previous lives, all of which determines our future. It is the

interplay between our experience and how we respond to it that makes

karma devastating or helpfully invigorating. The conquest of karma

lies in intelligent action and dispassionate reaction. Not all karmas

rebound immediately. Some accumulate and return unexpectedly in this

or other births. The several kinds of karma are: personal, family,

community, national, global and universal. Ancient rishis perceived

personal karma's three-fold edict. The first is sanchita, the sum

total of past karmas yet to be resolved. The second is prarabdha,

that portion of sanchita to be experienced in this life. Kriyamana,

the third type, is karma we are currently creating. The Vedas

propound, " Here they say that a person consists of desires. And as is

his desire, so is his will. As is his will, so is his deed. Whatever

deed he does, that he will reap. " Aum Namah Sivaya. see the following

weblink of swamiji.