Hindus' liberation and Salvation

 

The Hindu religion talked much and much about liberation which was the ultimate freedom from the suffering, ultimate freedom from the bonded chain of rebirth, Even Samkhya said the ultimate liberation is death and even unorthodox streams talked at large about liberation, “Surely do I know much more that what I have told you and wherefore my disciples, Have I not told you that. Because it does not lead to the turning from the earthly, to the subjection of all desire, to the cessation of the transitory, to peace, to knowledge, to illumination to Nirvana. Two things only my disciples do I teach- Misery and the sensation of misery. Human existence is full of misery and pain, our immediate duty, therefore is to get rid of this misery and pain” Gautama Buddha, as stated in Mulmadhyamika Karika.

The liberation in Hindu philosophy was concluded that man had to come out from this painful world and there is no god but man himself has to make efforts to attain that stage, as Max Muller concluded that,

“Indian philosophers are by no means dwelling for ever on the miseries of life. They are not always whining and protesting that life is not worth living. That is not their pessimism. They simply state that they received the first impulse to philosophical reflection from the fact that there is suffering in the world” Six System of Indian Philosophy pg 106.

The liberation is freedom from bondage, freedom from wrong knowledge, freedom from the fancies of life, to realize the importance of knowledge and coming out from the bondage of false notions. That is the reason this ideology worked for thousands of years because they were not adamant of any particular thought but applied reasoning and logic and welcome new seeds of thinking.

On other hand the salvation is not freedom but devotion to rediscover the self. It is an escape from pain and misery with the aid of divine help. Only the god is rescuer in this painful world and he who devote himself in the almighty get the opportunity to live the live in deliverance.

The concept of liberation of early Hindu philosophies was later changed to salvation; the liberation theory required no rescuer from the pain and sorrow of this world, it is individual who work hard to get liberation and the only path was knowledge and only true knowledge or realizing the knowledge and to attain this knowledge one has to perform actions as prescribed by the Vedas or Angas (Annexure of Vedas).

But salvation lost the importance of self confidence and therefore the rescuer is required in this concept to recover from the sorrow or painful life. In Liberation, liberated man is equal to the absolute liberty. It becomes one with the absolute the universal soul but in salvation the devotee gets the blessing of universal soul and blessings of absolute reality, the god.

Now there are also proves about the influence of other religions on Hindu thoughts as a natural process of development and it was adopted smoothly because man collectively is a faith follower living being.

The gods of natural power of Greece was similar characteristically to the gods of Indian Vedas who provide rain and shower the wealth.

The ‘Bhakti’ (devotion) of Sufism and Christianity made people more believers to the gods and portrayed him as a created of this world and who is the father of every human being. The fusion in different religions of different lands provided fuel to the fire of religious emotions of people and even in developed countries, people are adopting the ritualistic methodology of Hindu religion.

Like there was no concept of burning rose wood in Hindu religion but it was influenced by the Sufism which was practiced in the dargahs. Practicing religion for Hindus was not a mass phenomenon.

In India the philosophical thoughts of Vedanta in Madhava concept or of Nimbarka or Vallabha and of Mahaprabhu tilted the epistemological stream to the bhakti or devotion path, “God controls the soul from within, yet it is a real agent and a real enjoyer and is responsible for its acts. Bhakti is the only means of liberation. It is defined as an eternal love for god with a full sense of his creation” Tattvoddyota 107.

These thinkers shifted the onus and goal post of liberation by knowledge and Karma to Bhakti and made that devotion towards the god who created the world is the only mean to libration, “Bhakti which is defined as a firm and all surpassing affection for god with a full sense of his greatness is the only means of salvation,” Tattvadipa pg 65

The shifting of the method of salvation or liberation also gives rise to the sects like Shaivik, Vasheno and Shakti and their common goal is to attend salvation through devotion but the difference was that the sect talked about the salvation while the philosophies talked about the liberation. Liberation is complete freedom whereas salvation is rescue from the life in the showers of blessings of almighty.

The biggest contradiction in the practice of religion in India at present is that people are worshiping different gods and deities just to get the shower of happiness and blessing. Countless temples and countless methods of worship came out in last one century. There are hundreds of prayers and songs to make the god or deity happy and to shower prosperity in a family.

There are interpretation of Indian texts and epics to prove how the great god made efforts to make their follower happy and prosperous. The path of liberation by attaining right knowledge advanced by the Hindu philosophies is now reverted and people here are fantasizing that god will come one day in their lives and liberate them or god is looking to them and will shower blessing on them. Now liberation means wrong knowledge that they are part of this world and only god will help them and they got salvation when they proposed or offer gifts to god or gods. And this present philosophy leads to superstitions and dogmas and social evils.

“What is wrong in wearing five rings in a hand on the name of god and what is wrong in offering sweet to the statue of god, it is our faith and respect to towards the almighty god” states people but they cannot answer how these statues will eat the sweets which offered by them. Or why the god who is creator and supporter of this world need some sweets by devotees when he himself designed this world.

And at last devotees surrendered the faith should not be questioned in anyway because it is a matter of belief. And what belief, the belief which emerged as a lotus in sky or like a unicorn, then why only feed sweets to idols of god on the name of faith, why not sacrifice own son for the belief that god will be happy. And Hindus says, we are believer of non-violence and vegetarians and therefore only offer sweets.

There is no literature supporting the ritual of offering sweets in temples and there is no valid reason came out from the Hindu religion and even priests of certain big temples do not answer this question. Eating anything by idol is irrational and if they answer that sacrifices made in past then those sacrifices were not made to statues. Certainly there were sacrifices in the past Hindu religion and even there are examples of blood sacrifices but such sacrifices do not went ahead because Brahmins do not eat meat and therefore different sacrifices were started and these sacrifices were not to feed god or gods but to Brahmins. In later Vedic age, Majumdar writes,

“The performance of sacrificial rites was transformed into a fine art and only Brahman experts could perform them properly, It was pointed out that efficacy of the sacrifice depended upon the Daksihna or the money paid to the officiating priest or priests and their servants. Every attempt was made by Brahmans to multiply the number of sacrifices which were required to be performed y every householder. Some sacrifices were small and other was great but the Brahman priests enriched themselves on both the occasions. A lot of money of the state was spent on the occasion of the coronation of the king and the performance of horse sacrifices, Thousands of Brahmans were feasted. They all had to be given Dakshina on liberal scale.”

Now why these sacrifices were made, to get wealth, to get son, to get good wife and therefore such superstitions went that sacrifice will made them better with blessing of god or gods. But Majumdar again added, “The people must get fed up with the sad state of affairs in which the Brahmanas figured as exploiters and they themselves as their victims.”