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- Aug 26, 2004
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WELL I WONNER WHAT IT'S LIIIIIKE TO BE A GOOD POSTER
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Ah cool, I was going to start a "Tell Me About Hinduism" thread a while back.Hope you don't mind if I pepper you with a lot of questions at once.
I've read a few books about Hinduism over the past couple of years as part of my project to inform myself about world religions, but it does seem to be the most difficult of the major world religions to understand. I get a lot of the "theory", or the more philosophical side of the religion, but I still feel a bit in the dark as to how it all works in practice. I know that there are lots of differing opinions and viewpoints within Hinduism, but that makes it all the more difficult to understand just how certain ideas are treated by ordinary Hindus in their religious practice. Understanding sophisticated conceptions of transubstantiation, or divine grace, or original sin won't help you to understand the everyday religious life of most Catholics, for example, and when I read a book that starts talking about Brahman or samsara in Hinduim, I wonder just what it means to the average Hindu.
So, for example:
- How is Brahman viewed by most Hindus? I understand that it (He?) is the ground of all reality, and that all other gods can be considered mere avatars of this greater reality, but what place does it have in the minds of Hindus? Is it something loved, or admired, or feared, or ignored? Can it be considered worthy of bhakti worship, or as something important to the lives of everyday people? Or is it more of an abstract, philosophical concept?
- With bhakti worship, is there a lot of conflict and debates between the different "sects" (for want of a better word)? Do people who worship Shiva look down on those who worship Vishnu or vice versa? Are there any other major bhakti sects? Does most Hinduism take the bhakti form? Which is the most prevalent form of bhakti worship?
- I read recently that there is some debate about whether idols / statues worshipped in temples are really instantiations of the deity in a physical form, or whether they are merely representations that can aid worship - is this something most Hindus care about? Do you have an opinion about this? Similarly, I understand that a lot of deities are associated with particular places within India. Are they presumed to be confined to that location or is there a belief that they can be universally present?
- Do modern Hindus care about caste, or is it seen as anachronistic? How do you feel about the dalits who have converted to Buddhism in recent times in protest at what they see as being excluded from mainstream Hindu praxis?
- I think I remember reading that Brahmanic, priestly ritual now only accounts for a small percentage of Hindu practice - is that right?
- What is the relationship, generally, between the various Hindu texts and the different expressions of Hinduism? I know that different traditions prefer different texts, but that the Vedic literature is normative for all forms of Hinduism - is that right? If you could give a quick intro to Hindu literature and what it means for different Hindus (or point me in the direction of a book or website) that would be amazing.
Okay, probably enough for now. But plenty more where that came from if you're willing.
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Jan 27, 2016 13:45
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