BBC and Hinduism

[Guest guest]

The BBC and Hinduism

 

We are happy with the way the BBC is beginning to portray Hinduism. For example in its introduction to Hinduism on its Religion-Online website until last week it introduced Hinduism in this negative manner:

 

"It is not a single unified religion and has no founder, single teacher, nor prophets. Hindus believe in a universal soul or God called Brahman"

 

We requested the BBC to alter this introduction and they heeded our advice. The introduction is now a statement of affirmation as under:-

 

Hinduism originated over 3000 years ago. Hinduism claims to have many founders, teachers and prophets who claim first hand experience of God. When Hindus promote the idea of spirituality as a principle rather than a personality they call it Brahman.

 

This evening the first of a series of three documentaries based on Prof Winston's book 'Story of God' was shown on BBC 1 TV. We had been asked to contribute some thoughts on Hinduism. As the documentary was following Prof Winston's own understanding of Hinduism only those parts that fitted with the format of the film were used but that was not too bad. Prof Winston began by talking of the Aryan invasion (even the BBC website now agrees that this theory is seriously flawed) but despite this we managed to present three key aspects of Hinduism that are normally not visible in such documentaries:

 

Hinduism is a gloriously pluralistic religion that accommodates every individual to progress spiritually in a manner that suits his or her needs. This is called Spiritual democracy. (Religious Pluralism)

Icons and images used by Hinduism in temples are doorways to the infinite. Images are tools used by Hindus to plug themselves into spirituality. (Hindus do not worship idols, they use images to worship the infinite God).

The comprehensive definition of God in Hinduism is Brahman. It is Brahman that manifests itself as this universe and becomes more clearly visible in all living things and becomes most transparently visible as mankind. Like the same sun shining on the crest of every wave, the same God shines in all of us. We are essentially God. (Emphasising Spiritual humanism in contrast to materialistic humanism).

In this programme we were forced to plug in snippets of Hinduism to fit in with the format of a documentary presenting the views of a Jewish Scholar. That is really not fair. We have been asking the BBC to allow us to produce and edit a documentary that allows us Hindus to present many of the dynamic aspects of Hinduism in a format that will do justice to Hinduism and let us refresh the message of spirituality for the modern world. We are hopeful that this will come to fruition in the near future.

 

 

jay

[Guest guest]

Splendid Sir! godspeed you!Vivekananda Centre

[Guest guest]

Congratulations.

 

Partha

 

Ramakrishna , " Vivekananda Centre "

<vivekananda@b...> wrote:

>

> The BBC and Hinduism

>

> We are happy with the way the BBC is beginning to portray

Hinduism. .....

 

> jay

>

[Guest guest]

Dear God,

 

with all humility and immense appreciation to the efforts you are

putting in to straighten few misconceptions OR if you like

misrepresentation of vedic ideals by BBC.

 

let me start by saying that " I'm not sure if most of us believe the

statement that hinduism came into being some 3000 years ago is true " .

 

<snip>

Reply

 

Namaste Naren

The BBC has used this time period but we have left it alone because the BBC site

actually says Hinduism originated 'over' 3000 years ago and that does not bother

us. The fact that we call our religion ageless is simply to emphasis that we are

a 'Principle based religion and not a personality based religion and principles

are always there and not based on the finding of any individual.

 

regards

jay