Hindu Dharma now Religion

 There are also some of the superstitions which are borrowed from the ancient Hindu civilization and one of them is self torture (Hat Yoga). People nowadays think that by self torturing, god or gods will be happy.

There are examples when devotees walk barefoot to the temple in high temperature or rolling on the road or reaching temple or temples by all way walking. They feel that by self torturing god will be happy to see his devotee suffering and it is like penance to pure the self.

Majumdar state about post Vedic age and states, “Another superstition was encouraging by the Brahmana priests among the people and that related to the practice of Tapas or self torture by which it was believed that both gods and men acquired spiritual insight and command over the forces of nature. Sitting between five fires or upon an ant head in the forest and standing upon one leg and holding an arm above head until its muscles were atrophied were considered to be the means of establishing mastery over the physical senses and ultimately over the universe.”

And history shows that when such superstitions went in high swing, people of Hindu race throw them out because they had a general tendency that only knowledge and reasoning is the final resort for liberation. The post

Vedic time was the time when philosophical introspection went difficult because Vedas and Upnisads and philosophies were too difficult for common mass to understand and scholars agrees that whenever the philosophy went away from the mass such superstitions step ahead and made their presence deep rooted in the society.

Such situation again rose in the medieval India when superstitions, untouchability, discrimination, caste-ism, killing of girl child, child marriages, explosion of Brahmanism and other dogmas flourished in swing because that was the time when no philosophical acumen was working in society. The age when mass was confused with the theories of Hindus, Islam and other religions.

People were confused and at that time sacrifice turned to offerings and offerings and rituals were the only way left for salvation, to get the blessing of god or gods.

The reason was that there were invasions of different culture and religions and societies, “A critical outlook on the past and new aspiration for the future marked the new awakening, Reason and judgment took the place of faith and belied; superstition yielded to science,” in Ancient History of India in the chapter the Dawn of New India page 806.

Now how reasoning and logic worked in the religion, the clear cut example was the spread of Buddhism on the Hindu land. The land which was filled with rituals, Mantras, sacrifices and other dogmas which state too participated harvested the anti-Vedic, unorthodox and different stream of practicing the religion. The reason was that it was carrying the simplicity and simple code of conduct. The non-violence was the basic motto of this religion and overall there was no priesthood in this religion to attain the satisfaction of practicing religion. Secondly, the language used by this religion was the language of that era which changed to Pali rather than Sanskrit.

This early Buddhist religion was as simple as thinking of common man with common sense and practical. Similar with Jainism, who brought the concept of non-violence and right conduct to the mass and succeeded in capturing the attention of people of that time. But later these new thoughts were also turned to dogmas and superstitions and feeding statues of Buddha and Mahaveer.

There were reformers in India like Kabir, Dayanand Saraswati, Vivekananda, Raja Mohan Roy, Rabinder Nath Tagore but this is now very past. Swami Dayanand Sarswati stepped ahead stating to go back to Vedas to understand the real soul of Hindu religion. He worked hard to ban idol worship and reformed the Hindu religion but now the condition is that his own idol is worshipped. Kabir was the eminent reformer who stressed more on moral and ethical life rather than teaching the cognitive theories.

"The Raja Rammohan Roy began his reforming activity by preaching the unity of god and assailing the prevalent Hindu belief in may gods and the worship of their images with elaborate rituals. He tried to demonstrate that his views were in accordance with the old and true scriptures of the Hindus, and that the modern deviations from them are due to the superstations of a later age without any moral and religious sanction behind them. Rammohan’s views stirred Hindu society to its depths, and butter controversies followed,” Stated Advance History of India.

The neo-ism in Hindu religion is now settled that god is the father and he is the care taker and destroyer. Worshiping god means making Him happy and making Him happy means getting blessing of the almighty. This thought and practice spread so fast that even technology is used for such dogmas.

Now Messages on Whats’-up and face-book about god or gods and or on social sites, about the greatness of almighty and directing the users to share such concepts with other groups to make the theme popular about the greatness of such power of religion.

The songs and prayers are used to get peace in mobile ring tones and people are having firm belief that life can be made better by offerings to god who made barter with showering happiness. The main reason which seems suitable for such situation is that the literature of the Hindus was so complex that it is not possible for common mass to understand the crux of Vedas and or of philosophy. The Brahmans who were criticized for sacrifices and rituals are still placed high because it is a common belief that only Brahmans can understand such crude reality.

Common mass get glimpse that how the Hindu religion moved and what it hold and without any guidance they perform such rituals in a way of superstition to get blessings of the almighty. The history of Hindu race shows that whenever religious beliefs and superstitions exist the philosophy went down and away from the mass and so the logic, reasoning and ethics.

Mind it, philosophy was never against of natural power or god or still it is not against of religion. Philosophy never denounced the conceptual god and even in Samkhya philosophy- the oldest school of India, made the presence of the almighty as the first mover to disturb the equal-barium of gunas (elements). He is the first mover and certainly there was no need of god in the process of evolution as the evolution is by the process of gunas.

But almost every philosophical school of India put stress and clears the ethical part that life is rule by the principal of karma (action) and nothing can be changed, “One has to reap what he sow” is the basic principle of Hindu thought. Shrimad bhagavad Gita stated in chapter 3 verse 9, “The world is bound to actions there than those performed for the sake of sacrifice. Therefore, O son of Kunti, perform action for the sake of becoming free from all attachment.”

And this great philosophy who stepped down to set the religion in sense of ethics and common life, further states, “But for that man who rejoices only in the self, who Is satisfied with the self and who is content in the self alone, verily there exists no work that need to be done.” And this great book of Hindus cleared the reason of sorrow and pain in this world, which is not similar to the less of affection of the god, “As fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror by dust, and as an embryo by the placenta, so is this knowledge covered by that desire” Verse38.

The basic philosophy of Vedanta, on which the present Hindu religion is prevailing, made clear that only the true knowledge is the best way of life and the only path of salvation. The god is illusion like a rope illumes as snake in darkness and with the light everything becomes one and no manyness left behind is the Advait (oneness) of this universe.

Presently, India is developing and so the lives of people are improving, there was a time when people had to invest hours to arrange drinking water from different sources even in semi-urban regions. But now development is seen that number of girls’ students is increasing in schools. Use of mobile and internet went to the ground of remote villages and so the religion and faith increasing so densely that even today people believe in the avtars (incarnation of gods in human beings) in every saint having long beard and hairs and having oration on religion.

Even youth studying science and technology have deep roots in religion and know that it is the will of god that made him upgrade in higher class rather that the simple logic formula of hard work. The business of luck and astrology is the most important trade which influenced from politics to a household. More and more superstitions are coming up and with more followers to practice such superstitions.

These superstitions are so opposed to the basic ethics and moral life that sometimes it showed that this country, India is not developing but reversing the development and going back to the time when Buddha had to come. One of the finest examples is feeding cows with grass and even in big cities people for the sake of charity and earning some points in eyes of gods, they throw these grasses on roads to feed roaming cows on roads. Feeding cow is not bad but throwing grass on road just to feel pleasing god is surely bad.

This is certainly superstition and against of civil code of society and even moral do not allow that to throw grasses on roads to earn point of religion. As fast as humankind is growing with technology and science the similar pace is of religion, superstitions and dogmas and these superstitions are converting to common language and made technology as a method to spread fast.

On other hand there are explicit examples of using logic, rather say illogic for proving superstitions and rituals that are not corroborated with the real nature or with any philosophy. People quote scriptures without going through the text and put references on any particular issue. The concept of religious logic is the major tool for knowledge and this religious logic proves everything from the existence of god to the planetary disturbance to the reason of uneasiness. The religious logic is so dangerous that the minor premise always lead the major premise to draw the conclusion.

A youth talking about the result of an exam satisfied when one of them said that the date of examination was on Tuesday and his planet Mars is strong in his horoscope. For that it is required to worship on Tuesday and have to make some sacrifice in term of donation. The religion and superstition is the main source of encouraging the begging sector throughout the globe and Indian is not behind this business. The problem which made scholars discussed about the concept of religion in India is that there is no authority to check such believes. There were centers established by Vedanta in the country to give ruling on the issues of religion but nowadays these centers are merely functional like of churches to control issues in Christianity.

India has a profound view on religious state; the states should be guided by religion. The history proves that religion was the base of rule in some kingdoms of this subcontinent. And therefore it is taken for granted that the rule should be base on religion in which the state participates and flourish the religion. The king and or authority follow the religion to decide certain matters, especially the dispute arose socially.

The state gave notion or ruling in accordance to the religion that certain thing should prevail on the land, as now the Supreme Court of India also decides certain social issues as per the Constitution of India. There are recent examples when court interfered in the sensitive issues like women are allowed to enter in certain temples where women were banned to offer prayers.

But the concept of religion in past was not based on the religion practices. It was purely a Dharma, a Dharma- a right path which describes the duties and rights of state and also duties of individual. This directs a man to be husband and support his family and youths to gather education. The class system was the deforming status of misunderstand of the real concept of Dharma. The deformation of religion introduced just because of personal greed of officials surrounded to the rule. The dharma which is known as the ‘duty’ and therefore the state should act on the duty of not only the ruler but act and decide on the duty of every citizen. “There was a lot of emphasis on humanitarianism. Killing of all sorts of things was avoided.” Parivrajakas and Sramanas brought new values in the field of religion.

“The ideas of Sansara and Karma became popular. Efforts were also made in the Brahmanical religion to bring about a synthesis of the different sects. It was asserted that the deities of Bhagavatas and Saupatas or Siva-Bhagavatas were the manifestation of the Supreme God of the Brahmanical region” Ancient India by V D Mahajan pg 206.

 

The dharma is now turning to religion. Ultimately, even with the facilities of technology and boost economy, the man is searching the peace which he do not found in philosophy and therefore religion is the only way left for society to look for the peace of soul.

And the effect of such present religion is so immense that no political party wanted to disturb it or wanted to rectify it because voting still here in India based on emotions, feelings, religion but not on issues and merits. Religion and caste is the base of voting since independence in India. And in this process, philosophies shrink to books and taught in colleges and universities just as a subject in which student cramp the ideology of certain schools to answer in the exam.

The concept of Indian metaphysics, cognitive theories, logic and ethics are now no more in practice and there are no more efforts to make these philosophies practical and applied. There are hundreds and hundreds treaties, codes and explanations on the issues faced by society today which can be solved by such treaties like of medicines, health, environment and families and the new religion of India do not have answers of these problems because the new religion of this land is a mixture and a fusion of different religions based on faith and superstitions.

At present the thinking treaties of Indian land is a waste and therefore maintaining Socrates, we do not wanted to throw them in dustbin because it has already ruined and outdated by the new form of religion in India. The karma concept of Gita turned to the theory of Bhakti and the maya doctrine of Advait Vedanta changed into pampering gods. The Aruveda treatise of medicines- is now turned to face creams and cool drinks.

Families here in this land is breaking more and speedily than European countries and India is borrowing the code of values from western countries to make the society running.

One of the reasons of Hindu religion prevailing in some old forms and not able to dilute totally because of Sadhus and some Sanyasi cults who remain activate to perform rituals which are based on pre-Vedic or Vedic times. There is a concept called as Shahi Snana, means royal bath. This ritual helping in regenerating the old Hindu tradition as these Sadhus and Sanyasi- who denounced the world and only remain busy in getting self liberation, practice the old traditions. The Royal baths is organized on the places of Hindu abodes where yearly or with certain period of time such occasions are organized. It may by Pushkar fair in Rajasthan or Kumbh at Kashi or at Ujjain. The royal bath means that these Sanyasis or Sadhus took a collective dip in the water of the lake or in river with a vow that they will safeguard the Hindu religion and vow to spread it in the society.

The ritual started long ago but no specific trace of it has been found but historians’ states that when the Bodh and Jain religion was flourishing in Indian sub-continent, these Sadhus and Sanyanisis took the vow to meet at every religious program and to take the vow that now Sanyasis and Sadhus will work to safe and secure the Hindu religion. Different cults of Sadhus and Sanyasis gathered on such occasions. At Kumbh, thousands and thousands of such Sadhus gather on the religious spot after travelling long distances. They are Nagas, Aghoris, Giri and other sects and perform the religious ritual and on the last day of the celebration, they took Shahi Sanana- a royal bath, to intimate the society that they are there to preserve the Hindu religion.