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How I Understand My Religion

I write this being an Undergrad in Engineering. Its Kind of funny right an

Engineer writing about RELIGION!!! So let me start by posing a question at

you.

What exactly is a Religion? Is it the basis for Rocket science so hard to

Understand? Is it Magic (Tantra and Mantra)? Is it Hidden or something which

shouldnt be understood?Or It Just shows the path on the way we live. Wait a

minute the last one sounds a bit more LOGICAL. I remember my mom asking

me to brush before having anything in the morning, asking me to wash my legsbefore entering into a temple, asking me to bath before leaving my home, the

way we dress up for different occasions. We all know the messages our festivals

convey. So my article no makes a gripping sense as I am portraying my viewson the way I am taught to live.

Beginning with the way the religion HINDUISM started, one most

recognized and approved theory is that in connection with the R.Indus which wecall in Sanskrit as Sindu River, when the Persian crossed Hindu Kush mountain

ranges and entered the region on the banks of river Indus which called to be

River Sindu, They say that they couldnt Spell Sindu and Miss Spelt it as

HINDOO and people living there as HINDUS and the religion they follow as

Hinduism. So its obvious that we are ruled by them in the modern era and the

Name Hindustan where Stan mean place in Arabic. Shows the evidencesof effect of central Asians Rule.

There is a Interesting information given by the religious heads of

Hinduism that the word Hinduism isnt given by anyone else but in Sanskrit

again Hin mean wrong or false and Du mean Who will not do . So

according to SanskritHindu is someone who wont do wrong deeds.In Either way this ancient religion is called Hinduism and I am a Hindu. I

call the Religion Ancient because it has been followed and practiced in this land

for more than 4500-5000 years now. Is it the same all through? When I ask a 9

year old what do you understand by religion he might answer An old ma n withan yellow cloth on his body chants something which no one can understandThis could be the most obvious answer we might expect. Here the man who

caught the attention of the boy as we all know was the Priest. So now I have a

question, Is Hinduism all about Priests or Brahmins? Few Might say yes but a

historian or a keen observer of ancient religion will not agree on any day.The religion flourished on the banks ofIndusand Saraswathi River4500

years ago was much simpler than we have now. They gave importance to

cleanliness and hygiene and gave it a shape of religion. The Great

BathinMohenjo-Daro and the excellent drainage systems available. Even the

buryings in the areas likePiklihal (southern India) we find large ash dwells

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they used to burn the dead bodies so that to keep the living areas clean. This

gives some note on the way we started our Religion. There is every need to give

note for PASUPATHI MAHA DEVA the PROTO SIVA who was the god and

the god of cattle. Cattle is considered to be a wealth those days, in order to

protect it they themselves might have created a superior power which protectsthe cattle and any false deed to cattle will be liable to punishment by theSuperior god. Thus the creation of God took place. This was the scenario up to

or even in Rig Vedic periodEvery Natural force like Wind, Rain, and River was personified to a god

even in rig Vedic period there were only 33 gods in Number and classified into

1) Pruthvisthana 2) Madhyamasthana /Antharikshsthana 3) Dyusthana. Andthey followed HENOTHISM plural divinity without Hierarchy

What would be the change that might have occurred in Rig Vedic Period?

By name we can get that Rig Vedic period is the period when Rig Veda has

been created with 1017 hymn mostly in praise of gods Indra(War) Agni(Fire)

varuna(Rain) Soma(sacrifice). This was also the time for the Janapadhas to start

flourish. By 900 B.C It was the end of this period slowly Varna system came

into existence that too the work they perform only. They are like KSHATRIYA

(Protector) BHAHMANA (Priest) Vysya (Merchant) Sudra (common

man) Thus Started the Internal Quarrel for supremacy in the religion between

the warrior class and the priestly class causing lots of changes in the Religion

itself from the simple rules for a healthy life to a very complicated twisted and

turned effects of Rituals and Tantras.

From the Simple Prayers in Vedic period to the Rituals and ceremonies tomake themselves stronger in Later Vedic period few are of Rajasuya, Vajapiya

and Ashwamedha. In quarrel for the supremacy the Gothra and Jathi (Caste)

systems crept in. Does these changes stop or it continued throughout?? A very

common question right to study that we need to have a look at ReligiousLiterature (Only through which Knowledge of ancient Religion has been

studied).

This classification gives us an Insight into the world of religious

literature. It has been broadly classified into mainly 1) shruthi 2) smrithi. It hasbeen considered that shruthi is sacred and being gift of god no one can change

it. The secondary literature group Shruthi can be modified and it has been

modified from time to time by authors on the name of god or even on the name

of Rishi or Maharishi. For example valmiki maharishi was the author ofRamayana a story about an Ideal King Rama. Who according to historians was a

chieftain of a minor Kingdom. Veda Vyas was the author of Mahabharata as

Vasudeva Krishna existed in this country and Kurukshetra was a real event i.e.

to portray the present day conditions of their times authors exaggerated the real

time events and personified the Heros as Kings. I would remember a sentence

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here Anyone who is in service of this mankind is a God and all these

personalities are Gods in that issue.As seen here Brahman Influence has been on the increasing side all

through this period it has been assumed that Brahmans come from the face of

lord brahma. This is the time Untouchability of Sudra who are believed to befrom the foot of brahma. The superiority of Brahmans is a hard nut for theKshatriyas to crack. Obviously they started to protest and these protests are of 2

types 1) Formal 2) Informal.We have saw Aryankas one kind of literature, these are books about

mystic people who are against this Brahmanism went to the forest and became

Astics indulged in Tapasya and got into Gynanamarga. They Keptthemselves to be secret thus these books are called to be Mystic, They are

Informal in nature.Upanishads are a type of Formal Protests; Most of them are being

authored by Warrior class. They believe in TatTwamAsi which mean

every soul is a part of Paramatman and we are just separated from him

temporarily. This is also preached by Adi Shankaracharya in later period. They

are all against Brahmans and Brahmanism and tried to oppose their superiority

by say that, they are no special beings and they are as equal as Sudra. They say

that Formulae arent important but the devotion is what matters and tried to

revive the older religion of ours.

These Aryankas are basis for the formation of 64 heterodox sects who are

against this Brahmanism and their Rituals, Buddhism and Jainism are among

them. Seeing these situations Brahmans introduces a new rule into the religionthat is of ASHRAMA. They are Brahmachari Gruhasthi Vanaprasti

SanyasinEvery Individual has to go through all these stages to attainMoksha.Its always a quarrel between the Kshatriyas and the Brahmans for the

superiority. Though both exchange the highest positions at different time andits different from place to place.

This wouldnt bring stability into the religion and the attempts for

revival of the ancient religion are always taken up may be for the cause of the

religion at times only to bring the citizens united too. The revival of Tat

TwamAsi by Adi Shankaracharya was one attempt of this kind. It has to besaid after the flourishing of large kingdoms and in the age of kings Brahmanism

cannot be seem so evidently. But the Rituals and sacrifices are always in the

system and even followed by many kings, Though people like ASHOKA was

against these as he said to this subjects If you want to donate, donate as much

as you can but not under Irrelevant rituals He also banned animal sacrifices.

The Bhakti Movement at the timeof Shivajiwas also of the same kind but this

time to get the people united maybe.Religion always helped us Indians to get united. It helped national

Integration. It was the binding factor in 1857 revolt. It also has the adverseeffects of Untouchability, caste system, religious terrorism which arent at all a

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part of the purest form of our Hinduism. So being a good Hindu, follow

Hinduism in its purest form. Donate but not in the form of animal sacrifice, be a

devotee to the religion its ideas but not to the Idol worship. Think Logical.

Think Clean. Think Ideal. Thats it you are the Prefect Hindu.

Come out into the universe of Light. Everything in the universe is

yours, stretch out your arms and embrace it with love. I f you every felt you

wanted to do that, you have felt God