Birth Date of Christ Tuesday, Dec 25 2007

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Birth Date of Christ

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The Ethics of Religious Conversions Friday, Dec 14 2007

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The Ethics of Religious Conversions

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History Demystified – An Introduction Sunday, Nov 25 2007

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History Demystified – An Introduction

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Why wont God heal Amputees? Sunday, Jul 15 2007

Here is an interesting video about God, prayers, science, reasoning, faith and beliefs..

 

 

The video asks simple questions like:

 

While many religious people believe that God performs miracles and treats all kind of diseases… Why doesnt God heal amputees ?? Why doesnt God answer the prayers of amputees? Because it is medically impossible to grow back a human hand or leg!

 

Why is God so violent as shown below?

 

Why does God give such messages of hatred and violence? What is the root of all evil ?

OK, How to identify a fundamentalist? Well here is the list
Fundamentalism in any religion is wrong and leads to the clash of civilizations.. or as somebody said it is actually a clash within the same civilization between the scientific and the religious communities..

Hopefully as humans become more and more scientifically aware, they will reject all the divisive, unscientific, negative and destructive preachings, no matter which religion they belong to…

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The Hindu Concept of God Monday, Jun 25 2007

First and foremost, let me clarify that unlike most people think, Hinduism is not a religion in strict sense. It is more of a culture than a religion.

So what is the difference between a culture and a religion?

Religion centers around the God. Where as a culture centers around the way of living. Which is why you find in India for instance Chrisitian or Muslims following the Hindu culture! Even in Bangladesh you can find hindu cultures in muslim life! Chrisitians of Velankani in Tamilnadu follow the hindu culture. Velankanni is a Christian pilgrimage center, here Mother Mary is worshipped by Puja like how hindus do, Chariots are pulled like in hindu temples, there is the concept of prasadam (divine food) in the church like how Hindus give prasadam in the hindu temples.. etc

All other major religions of the world have a propounder, a person who founded the religion. Hinduism has none! Which is why it is called Sanaathana Dharma meaning eternal religion! No debate is blasphemous in Hinduism! Customs can be questioned any time! It does not dictate terms to people saying what woman or men should wear as dress etc. It is always open to debates. There has never been a ‘holy war’ in Hinduism in the name of God! The very existence of God can be debated in Hinduism. Many ancient Indian Hindu texts contain such debates!

Coming back to the concept of God in Hinduism, unlike other religions like Christianity or Islam, it does not talk about a God who stays outside the universe and creates/destroys this universe. Instead here Universe itself is the God! Universe is a self aware Paramaatma (the universal soul) and everything else in the universe is a part of this God! We are all Aatma (souls) whose goal is to realize and unite with this Paramaatma (Universal Soul). Even quantum mechanical physicists like Bohr,Heisenberg, Shcrodinger etc got interested in Vedic texts and Hinduism when they saw that quantum level consciousness of particles was already explained in Hinduism!! For more details read the books like The Dancing Wu Li Masters, The Tao of Physics etc

The Vedas compare creation to a spider’s web, that the spider creates and then lies within. God is both the container of the universe and what is contained in it.

Which is why the sacred vedic texts of Hinduism say ‘Aham Brahmasmi’ which means I am God. This is because I, you and all are a part of this Universal God! Which is also the reason why you find 33 crore Gods in hinduism!! Since Universe itself is the God, everything else and everybody else in the Universe is also a form of God! Which is why Hindus worship water, rain, thunder, earth, moon, sun, stars, sky, humans, trees, plants, animals, air, father, mother, elders, light, wealth, knowledge, anything and everything that you find in this universe as God!

Which is also the reason why a Hindu if by accident happens to touch an animal or a person or a book etc by feet accidentally, then immediately he/she will do a symbolic gesture by hand asking to be forgiven for having shown disrespect to the God in that animal/person/book or whatever by accident…

The hindu prayer that has to be recited every day early morning as soon as one gets up ends saying “…paadasparsham kshamasva me” which means “Oh Mother Earth, Please forgive me for I will be touching you with my feet for the rest of the day!”. Such a nice concept. Can a culture get any more beautiful than this?

Now comes an even more beautiful part of the Hindu Concept of God. The sacred Vedic texts say “Ekam Satya Vipro Bahuda Vadanthi” which means “God is one. Learned scholars call him/her with different names”. This simple yet so wonderful concept makes it unique among all religions! You cannot be a Christian and say I will worship Vishnu or Allah! Christianity doesn’t allow that. You cannot be a Muslim and say I will worship Shiva or Jesus!! Islam doesn’t allow that.

But you can be a Hindu and still say that I will worship Jesus or Allah! Hinduism has no objection. In fact it says you can worship God in any name! Which is why you can find Hindus in India going to Churches, Jain temples, Buddhist temples, Sikh Gurudwaras etc. If all religions were as open minded as Hinduism there would have been no religious fanaticism or religious hatred on this planet and Earth would have been a better place to live in! There would have been no terrorism either!

Which is also the reason why unlike other religions you will find no missionaries or evangelists in Hinduism who promote Hinduism and want to convert entire world into Hinduism! Hinduism does not believe in religious conversions either by force or by bribing or by appeasement. You can be a Hindu and still be a Christian or Mulsim at the same time! You can even be a Christian or Muslim and say that you dont believe in Hinduism, and still Hinduism looks at you as a great soul! It does not say that you will be punished or sent to hell or will become a sinner for not believing in Hindu God! You can even be an atheist! You can say that you don’t want to call the Universal soul as a God! In fact Atheism is like a subclass of Hinduism! Charvaka who lived in 600 BCE was an atheist and pioneered a materialistic movement within Hinduism and even Madhavacharya (he was a 14th century philosopher who wrote a wonderful book Sarva darshana sangraha with a lot of material on atheism, dont confuse him with Madhvacharya of udupi) etc were Atheists and still followed the Hindu Culture!

Infact, the sacred Hindu texts, the Vedas talk more about humans and life than about God! They say, ‘Vasudaiva Kutumbakam’ which means ‘The entire world is a single huge family’! Look at the beauty, they don’t differentiate between people of this religion or that religion, entire Earth is a single family! The vedas also say ‘Sarve Jana Sukhino Bhavantu’ which means ‘May all the people live happily’. Again here all humans are considered equal, there is no differentiation between Hindus and others!!

God if exists, is after all one and the same. You call a Rose by any name, and still it continues to be a Rose. Why should we fight for the name? It doesn’t make any real sense, does it?

By the way, if you are interested, you can also read about the role and status of women in the ancient Indian vedic culture here.

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Christianity originated from Buddhism Tuesday, Jun 19 2007

I have always been wondering about Christianity. A wondeful religion indeed when we look at the teachings of Jesus Christ. But many christian texts like book of numbers, genesis, etc that predate Christ preach hatred and violence (see Root of all evil , Pope has not read bible) , Jesus suddenly looks like a U turn who preaches non-violence and peace, which is indeed a great step forward towards making Planet Earth a better place to live in !!!

In fact, his teachings look more like that of Buddhism! Even the religion itself, similar to Buddhism is spread via missionaries. Buddhism was the first religion which was spread by its missionaries, even Christianity does the same!

Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism lived in India about half a millenium before Christ. Buddhism has the culture of Lama who is their spiritual leader. When the current Lama passes away, Buddhist monks go in all directions in search of a new Lama child to succeed him. And it looks like Jesus was a Buddhist Lama chosen in this way. Which is why we have the story of three messengers who arrived when Jesus was born!

There has been no information about the life of Jesus in Christianity from his age of 14 to 29. The Buddhist teaching centers in Kashmir and Ladakh in Northern India have records about Jesus having studied the teachings of Buddha there (recorded as a student who came from Israel by name Yuz Asaf) during that exact same period!!

In The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ by Levi H. Dowling, it is said that Jesus used the ancient Indian Yogic techniques taught to him in India to appear as if he was dead after Crucification. Jesus did not die in Crucification nor there was any resurrection. Instead Jesus returned to Kashmir after his crucification and lived there till his death at the age of about 88! There is also a tomb of Jesus in Srinagar where he is said to have been buried in the jewish tradition in the east west direction! There is also an ancient carving of his foot which unlike other carvings clearly shows the marks of Crucification on the feet!

By the way the research documentary on this subject by Discovery Channel was not broadcast in India due to pressure on the government by a certain section of Christian religious leaders. I think it was silly and unnecessary on the part of both the religious leaders and the government to do so.

Some useful links for this research are images showing Jesus, his study and life in India . The original research was done by Holger Kersten in his book ‘Jesus Lived in India‘ – here is a Summary of that book

Read the Aquarian Gospel which talks about the life of Christ.

Watch the wonderful research documentary videos below:

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Pope has not read bible! Tuesday, Jun 19 2007

A very interesting and thought provoking video!

Just to add on, hinduism never prevents a person from worshipping God in any name! You can be a hindu and still call your god Vishnu or Jesus or Allah! Which is why in India you can find Hindus going to churches, Jain temples, etc

Hindu holy books Vedas say ‘Ekam Satya, Vipro Bahuda Vadanthi’. It means: The Truth or God is the same. Learned people call him/her in different names!!

Vedas also say ‘Vasudaiva Kutumbakam’ – Whole earth is a single family!

Wish even other religions were really as mature as Hinduism. That would have created a tolerant society worldwide free of hatred, terrorism and violence, full of peace and love

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