Hinduism & Christianity.

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends,

 

I would like to respond to the letter written by this young Christian of 17

years. He seems to be taking a defensive attitude from the start of his

letter. He seems to deliver a number of facts all at once and seems to jump

from one subject to another. If he is really as innocent as he claims to be

and eager to know more about facts and as he says he despises ignorance and

seeks to know more about facts, I respect his views.

 

First of all as any outsider, he has assumed the religion " Hinduism " is

like his own religion Christianity in its belief system. Christianity is a

system that follows the truth as revealed by Jesus Christ and his followers

and they uphold what is revealed by their sacred book as the 'Gospel

Truth'. The same type of approach is followed by Jews and the other

religion. They uphold what is revealed to their Messengers of God in their

respective Books as the real Truth. How can these three religions who have

the same origin differ in their belief so much and the cause of so many

wars in this world? Our young friend like others of his type assumes( they

may not be aware of it) that a 'religion' means a system that a particular

group of people follow a particular revelation of God made to their

particular messenger of God. Then according to them Hinduism should be

called " Ramaism " , " Krishnaism " , " Shivism " , " Narasihism " , " Vamanism " ,

although " Bhoudism " is well known it is called so by the westerns.

Strangely Hindus follow something beyond these manifestations of God. Swami

Vivekananda describes it very clearly. Vivekananda (1862-1902) put it,

" Hinduism is a Universal philosophy. High spiritual flights of Vedanta

philosophy, discoveries of science, low ideas of idolatry with its

mythology, the agnosticism of Buddhists and atheism of Jains have all got a

place in Hinduism " . Then, according to people of lands outside India,

Hinduism is not a religion at all!

We must realise that the name " Hinduism " is a western

nomenclature. Its meaning depicts the practice of a religion of being a

'Hindu'. This is because the people of the West have the habit of calling

a religion based upon the name of the person who started it. Although

Christianity is based on Jesus Christ, he did not call it by that name.

Other examples to this notion are, Jainism, Buddhism, Zorastrianism,

Judaism, Sikhism, etc. Therefore the name 'Hinduism' is inappropriate and

incorrect. It is a western word dubbed on to the philosophical culture

of India. It is categorised as at the same level as those of other

religions of the world. To call Hinduism by its appropriate name, we

should choose the correct Sanskrit word " Sanaathana Dharma " , that means

Eternal Law. Then a Hindu should be called as a " Sanaathani " . Because of

the old habit of the West that has taken a deep root in the minds of all

people, we should be satisfied with calling it as Hinduism.

 

Our young friend says that Hindus believe in many gods and Christianity

believes in One, he concludes that both can not be right. Wrong! The

Hinduism is really not a polytheistic system. As in Christianity, Hinduism

believes in One God who appears to manifest in different forms. The forms

we impose on the formless are according to the visions of the people. The

True God is not one among many, but the One behind many. According to

Hinduism, God has the limitless capacity to appear as different as

according to the people of different vision. He can be Single, multiple and

none. If according to our friend then, his God is the only the True One and

all other forms are false, then his 'God' has a 'limit' and can not

manifest according to the visions of the people. Then His manifestation of

Jesus as the Son of God is also false.

 

Then our friend goes on attacking the reader with his remarks as " ..do not

take this letter lightly.... a teacher of doctrine no less, cannot defend

his faithagainst a 17 year old high school student...etc. " Then he goes on

to say

" remember that this letter is meant to get my questions answered and not to

offend you in any way " . This reminds me of Marc Anthony's speech " .... I

have come to burry Caesar and not to praise him... yet Brutus is an

honourable man... "

Our young Christian friend seems to be confusing between theology and

Tradition of Hinduism. Regarding the historical evidence of Aryan invasion

and the development of caste system he is again confused. He must remember

that before the invasion of Aryans, there were established very well

developed and advanced Civilisations. The series of excavation conducted by

Sir Mortimer Wheeler at Harappa and Mahenjodaro in the western India (now

in Pakistan) show more advanced civilisations than those of invading

Aryans. More surprisingly, further secondary and tertiary excavations done

at these areas and to further east at the Saraswathi River Valley, show

evidences of further advanced ancient civilisations. These dated more than

10,000.BC in line with the Egyptian Pyramids and temples. Further

archaeology were not perused by the western archaeologists because it would

contradict the Christian belief that the whole Universe was created by God

about 6,000 years BC ago.

Regarding the caste system, Aryans were believed to have only

three divisions and they were called Varnas, and later they seems to have

adopted the class or caste according to the division of labour and Aryans

seems to have followed the traditions that was prevailing in the lands of

their origins. This division and discrimination was not just confined to

Aryans alone. The ancient Greeks looked upon foreigners as barbarians. The

Roman general, Quintilian Varus said of the inhabitants of Germania: " It

is true, they are men, but except the voice and limbs of the body they have

nothing of human beings in them. " The French philosopher, Montesquieu,

(1689-1755), said of black people: " One cannot well imagine that God who is

so wise should have put a soul, moreover an immortal soul, into an entirely

black body, It is impossible to think that these people are human beings " .

What about Apartheid in the South Africa, plight of African Americans even

today? Most of these people are Christians. Regarding the origins of

Brahmins etc, again our friend confusing history and legends. There are

much more absurd legends in the Christian systems. Regarding the Christians

being smarter (Albert Einstein was a jew) than Hindus, please see the list

posted by a 13 year young girl Samhita Muralidhar which is reproduced

below.

 

Our young friend seems to have been perplexed about his own beliefs, he

seems to have ventured to investigate the other beliefs systems like

Marmons. Now he seems to be interested in Hinduism. Then he goes on about

the correctness of dating of the Vedic times. According to Vedic History

the time of Vedas were supposed to be 5000BC, but according to historians

they say it is about 1500BC. Historians are the western historians and they

can not take anything which contradict the Bible's time of creation ie.

6000BC. There is one small proof which gives the information about the

time of Vedas. Professor K. Srinivas Ragavan of Madras University has

estimated, on the basis of positions of stars and planets as given in the

Scriptures, the date and time of birth of Krishna as 11.40 pm. on Friday

the 27 July 3112 BC! Krishna comes at a later part in the Vedas. This

itself is enough to prove that the Vedas were much older than what

historians estimate. Now he criticises the fact that Vedas are accurate

because it says so. Bible whether new Testament or the old Testament, is

full of such remarks. It says whatever is given there is True because it is

revealed by God. Who says that, it is the Bible. It is the same with other

Holy Books as well.

 

Again our friend makes the same mistake. He compares Rama to Jesus. It is

true Jesus was a historical figure and his time can be dated much more

accurately than that of Rama. Hindus do not follow the " teachings " of Rama

and Rama never preached anyone about his beliefs. Rama's story is mostly

legendary and its moral values are of universal significance. It is a

simple down to earth honest man's story about his victory over the evil.

Rama's story is written by many different authors of time immemorial, each

rendition differs from the other. But the beauty of Ramayana is that its

moral values or " Dharma " can not be bettered by any other human story.

Archaeologist might have not found any hard evidence of any finds that

support the existence of Rama, but they have found the anthropological

evidence of fossils of humanoids belonging to that period and they call it

'Rama Pithaca'. Modern methods of dating them have proved it to be so.

There is no point in discussing the scientific validity of legendary

contents of Hindu mythology or in fact any mythology.

 

Regarding our friends supporting points about Jesus. I am not at all

arguing that Jesus was a bad guy etc, but the whole of Christianity seems

to have built a legend around Jesus. What does the Dead Sea Scrolls reveal.

It contradicts all the facts about what is popularly known about

Christianity and Jesus. The Dead Sea Scrolls were kept hidden for hundreds

of years by the concerned people who wanted to propagate Christianity as

popularly known rather than debasing it.

Again there is no point in arguing about the legends of Jesus Story and all

those researchers about archaeological evidence of Jesus, his raising from

the dead (may God bless his soul). This portion of his letter looks like he

is defending himself about some kind of persecution by others.

 

Finally do Hindus accept Jesus as God? Yes, they accept him as a God just

as they accept me as a God, you as a God or it as a God.

 

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Raja R Cavale.

 

 

Samhita Muralidhar's Posting:-

 

Some very impressive facts about Indians in the USA

>

>There are 3.22 Million Indians in America

>

>38% of Doctors in America are Indians.

>12% of Scientists in America are Indians.

>36% of NASA employees are Indians.

>34% of MICROSOFT employees are Indians

>28% of IBM employees are Indians

>17% of INTEL employees are Indians

>13% of XEROX employees are Indians

>23% of Indian Community in America are Green-Card Holders.

>

>Some of these facts may be known to you. These facts were recently

>published in a German Magazine which deals with WORLD HISTORY.

>

>

>QUOTES ABOUT INDIA

>a.. Albert Einstein said: We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught

>us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery

>could have been made.

>

>b.. Mark Twain said: India is, the cradle of the human race, the

>birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of

 

>legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable

>and most constructive materials in the history of man are treasured

up

in

>India only.

>

>c.. French scholar Romain Rolland said: If there is one place on the

>face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home

>from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence,

>it is India.

>

>d.. Hu Shih, former Ambassador of China to USA said: India

>conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without

>ever having to send a single soldier across her border.

 

>FACTS ABOUT INDIA

>a.. India never invaded any country in her last 10000 years of

>history.

>

>b.. India invented the Number System. Zero was invented by

>Aryabhatta.

>

>c.. The World's first university was established in Takshila,

>India in 700BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the

>world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of

>Nalanda built in the 4th century BC and was one of the greatest

>achievements of ancient India in the field of education.

>

>d... Sanskrit is the mother of all the European languages.

>Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software -

>a report in Forbes magazine, July 1987.

>

>e.. Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to

>humans. Charaka, the father of medicine consolidated Ayurveda

>2500 years ago. Today Ayurveda is fast regaining its rightful

>place in our civilization.

>

>f.. Although modern images of India often show poverty and lack

>of development, India was the richest country on earth until the

>time of British invasion in the early 17th Century.

>

>g.. The art of Navigation was born in the river Sindh 6000

>years ago. The very word Navigation is derived from the Sanskrit

>word NAVGATIH. The word navy is also derived from Sanskrit

>'Nou'.

>

>h.. Bhaskaracharya calculated the time taken by the earth to

>orbit the sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart.

>Time taken by earth to orbit the sun: (5th century)365.258756484

>days.

>

>i.. The value of " pi " was first calculated by Budhayana, and he

>explained the concept of what is known as the Pythagorean

>Theorem. He discovered this in the 6th century long before

>the European mathematicians.

>

>j.. Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India.

>Quadratic equations were by Sridharacharya in the 11th

>century. The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used

>were 106 whereas Hindus used numbers as big as 1053

>(10 to the power of(53) with specific names as early as 5000

>BCE during the Vedic period. Even today, the largest used

>number is Tera 1012 (10 to the power of 12).

>

>k.. According to the Gemological Institute of America, up until

>1896, India was the only source for diamonds to the world.

>

>l.. USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century old

>suspicion in the world scientific community that the pioneer of

>wireless communication was Prof. Jagdeesh Bose and not

>Marconi.

>

>m.. The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in

>Saurashtra.

>

>n.. According to Saka King Rudradaman I of 150 CE a beautiful

>lake called 'Sudarshana' was constructed on the hills of

>Raivataka during Chandragupta Maurya's time.

>

>o.. Chess (Shataranja or AshtaPada) was invented in India.

>

>p.. Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and

>health scientists of his time conducted complicated surgeries

>like cesareans, cataract, artificial limbs, fractures, urinary

>stones and even plastic surgery and brain surgery. Usage of

>anesthesia was well known in ancient India. Over 125

>surgical equipment were used. Deep knowledge of anatomy,

>physiology, etiology, embryology, digestion, metabolism, genetics

>and immunity is also found in many texts.

>

>q.. When many cultures were only nomadic forest dwellers over

>5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in

>Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilization).

>

>r.. The place value system, the decimal system was developed in

>India in 100 BC. All the above is just the TIP of the iceberg, the

>list could be endless. BUT, if we don't see even a glimpse of that

>great India in the India that we see today, it clearly means that we

>are not working up to our potential and that if we do, we could

>once again be an evershining and inspiring country setting

>a bright path for rest of the world to follow.

 

 

 

 

______

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