The power of mind

[dubeyrakesh]

Hi Friends,

I am a new entrant to these Spiritual Discussions and dont know how to start. I am a 22 year old Software Professional from India currently posted in States. I am basically a guy with a deep superiority complex; so deep that I absolutely do not interact with anyone other than my mother. I have not been part of any religious curriculum during my childhood but from my own experiences in life, I have started believing in God. I have absoutely total faith in Hinduism; most of which is called MYTHology which I personally take as an insult. The thing that most hurts me is Hindus themselves do not respect Hinduism. I have seen numerous incidents where they fail even to react when they should get up and act. You all may be wondering as to what has my writing got to do with my topic of discussion. I will come to it. I recently attended something called Landmark Forum where people from all walks of life attend a short "course" of 3 days for a relatively big amount. There my belief that whatever the human mind is capable of "thinking" , its capable of actually "doing" became stronger. People narrated their experiences in life and almost came to my belief. This belief is discovered by Hinduism. Anything and everything you believe in is true for you. So if u believe in a so called superstition, its not a superstition as far as u r concerned. It will be actually TRUE for u. I am still not totally clear about all this myself but have seen things happening with me. The famous astrologer BJ of India, says "faith can move mountains". I believe in much more than this also. I would like to give full time devotion to this, but money binds me. Also I would like any and all guidance in this direction from any and all of you.

Thanks,

Om namah shivaya,

Rakesh Dubey.

[dubeyrakesh]

Hello friends,

This is me again. I am here just to put another of my beliefs: Hinduism, the only true religion on this earth, will perish sooner or later and the so called other "dharmas" or religions will finally lead to what is called "pralaya".

Thanks again,

Rakesh.

[Gauracandra]

Welcome Dubeyrakesh.

 

Just to give you some hope that Hinduism won't perish I wanted to share a few thoughts. I have often considered how it is that India has survived so long after being invaded first by muslims and then by the British. The conclusion I came up with is that India's religious structure is kind of like water - you can cut it but it immediately re-forms and remains whole. The very diffuse nature of the guru system, while leading to less focus, also makes it impossible to dissipate. There have been so many cultures (say in the "new" world, for instance) that have disappeared. Why? Because they were heirachical. Cut off the head and the body perishes. India has never had this heirarchical structure. I work for a very large U.S. company (30,000 employees) and recently our CEO made an interesting point about the future. He said "In the past, it used to be the big would crush the small, and so we could do anything we want. In the future, it will be the fast who will eat the slow". With the advent of the internet people like you, and me, and the rest of the good folks in these forums can get together and discuss various topics. So I think the old heirarchical systems will break down, whether it be heirarchical communication systems, business systems, or religious systems - and Hinduism with its very fluid nature will once again fit nicely in. Atleast these are my hopes. Take care.

 

Gauracandra

 

 

[dubeyrakesh]

Hi Gaurachandra,

Thanks for your view/thought. I agree with what u say - only with what I am able to

 

comprehend. Firstly, culture is not religion. I think what u have referred to as culture

 

above is civilisations. I am not talking about that. What I mean to say is that Hindus r not

 

taught to be responsible for Hinduism. For example, I was never asked/ordered by my elders

 

to do Puja regularly. Today I do Puja only because I have learnt from my own experiences

 

from life than certain unknown forces do control our lives to whatever extent. Some people

 

call it luck, others may call it something else. But the bottomline is we ("hindus") r left to believe/not believe in whatever we wish to. I dont say this is wrong, but because of this Hinduism becomes something like public property - anyone can use it in his/her own way, anyone can say ANYTHING about it and it goes off under "freedom of expression" and so on. This is wrong. We (u and me) should, for example, act (or at least react) if someone makes fun of Bhagwat Geeta or Ramayan or Vedas(which is very common in TV serials and hindi movies). You could see 'Kahin Pyaar na ho Jaye' starring Rani Mukherjee and Salman Khan to see how a Pandit/Shastri is made a comedy character in the movie. It sucks. At least to me it did but not to my 'hindu' friends who were watching with me. They laughed with all the so called comdey scenes. This is just one of the many examples. Hinduism talks about what is good/bad for humanity but not for Hinduism itself. I have also seen hindus not reacting to conversions carried out by Missionaries in India. They will react only to things which matter to them as a person. And religion does not matter to them as a person. Hindus have become too individualistic for Hinduism to survive. I say again, sooner or later, it has to perish. In todays circumstances, where groupism is the in thing,a hindu individual may survive, but his religion cannot. Sorry if I seem aggresive but its my degree of belief which makes me that way. I am neither a pessimist - I will do my KARMA - but the belief is what I am pointing to. Thanks still again and do post your view,

Om namah shivaya,

Rakesh.

[ggohil]

Hare Krsna:

 

Sri Rakesh:

 

I think we should educate ourselves with the knowledge of Vedas. I think we should talk openly

and discuss this knowledge.

 

I have noticed that Indians are sometimes against people who preach religion, and at the same

time they aggressively oppose conversion of Hindus to another faith. In my view, people will convert if there is no one providing needed religious guidance.

 

However, I am not directly worried about our religion becoming extinct. I think almighty

shoulders that responsibility. I believe our job is to follow his instructions sincerely and develop true devotion.

[viji_53]

As Garuchandra said Hindu religion will not perish under any circumstances. The main reason for this is the freedom we get in our religion. You will rebel only when we are forced to a thing whether we like it or not. We should be proud to be Hindus,as you have to be born Hindu if you want to be a hindu. As youngsters like you are concerned about the religion that itself is sufficient for its survival. Do not worry, nothing bad can happen to our religion. We should create interest in Ramayana & Gita in our youngsters. That will take care of our religion. As Vedas are difficult to learn, we can go for Ramayana & Gita which are simple to understand. Thanks to ISKCON for providing Gita like bible for all star hotels in India . We should provide Ramayana also like that.

Hari Bhol!

[animesh]

Yes, Viji ji, you are right. Through Ramayana, people can learn many things of great value, e.g., how to be a good son, a good brother, how to give importance to one's parents' words etc. etc.

[dubeyrakesh]

Hi viji,animesh,ggohil,gaurachandra,

All that u all say is/maybe true but sadly not practical/realistic. U c the basic drawback of our religion is that it gives TOTAL freedom to us. I will tell why I call this a drawback. Please do not mind but I am being truly realistic. A R Rehman, the famous Musician, who was a Hindu, has embraced Islam. I had a Hindu friend who informed me about this joviously. The fact that it absolutely did not matter to him whether A R Rehman was a Hindu or not made him narrate that joviously. This is precisely the reason why Hindus convert.You imagine your presence in your home,office or religion being immaterial to people in your home,office or religion respectively. That gives u that feeling of unwantedness. Above and all if a human has no one to turn to when he is lost in this jungle of life thinking about what is life, what is the purpose of my being alive, he will obviously turn to someone who calls him. Its like a mother calling her crying child. The child so much wants his/her mother when he is hungry or feels insecure. Hinduism does not act like this mother towards crying children. It will ofcourse give them freedom to change their faith, if they so wish. In fact they dont wish, they decide because they have to.

Please be realistic in your replies. I am not a religious scholar or one who has read Bhagwat Geeta. I am an admirer of Hinduism pointing out where it should've been different. Sorry again if I seem aggressive.

Om namah shivaya.

Rakesh Dubey.

[dubeyrakesh]

Hi JayaSriRadhey,

First of all if Hinduism is a civilisation and not a religion than may be it will be known in future as a great civilisation and disapper as many similar civilisations have. U c I am talking about Hinduism as a religion and not a civilisation. For me it matters that Hinduism survives. If u prefer that the Hindu way of life (the Civilisation) survives even if Hinduism (the relisgon) doesnt, then may I say that we r thinking from 2 different perspectives and cannot discuss further . For example I dont want the people of the world to follow the path of Bhagwat Geeta, live a resulting happy life and at the same time call Hindu scriptures a MYTH and so on. I want people to admire/embrace Hinduism before they can reap its benefits. This is practical and appropriate for Kaliyuga where nothing comes for free. As I said before, I am against Hinduism being used as a public property where anybody can use it for his/her own benefit and still say ANYTHING about it under the garb of freedom-of-expression. This is precisely what is happening, especially in India. I have given examples of how Hindu Pandits, scriptures r made fun of in Hindi movies/serials in my previous posts. Is sucks. No other religion would tolerate such a nonsense. One may raise swords while other may come out with peaceful protests. But Hinduism says, jo hua achcha hua, jo ho raha hai, achcha ho raha hai, jo hoga achcha hoga. And Hindus take it exactly that way. Hinduism is a no mans religion. I could go on.

Sometimes I think that its immaterial which religion u follow. Everything is in your state of mind. U belive in something and its true for u, u dont and its not. And if this is true, shouting out about religions is meaningless in itself, the various scriptures that all religions provide become meaningless automatically. Please forgive me if I seem aggressive,

Thanks,

Rakesh Dubey.