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RamaRaksha
22 June 2009, 10:03 PM
Would anyone doubt that if the Buddha had been born in Europe or Muslim lands in the middle ages, he would have been branded a heretic and burned at the stake, dying a horrible death? His teachings consigned to the fire, to be lost forever! There would be no Buddhism today! And what do we Hindus do to the man who rejected Hinduism? Why, make him a God, of course! Imagine the greatness of a faith that saw divinity in a man who rejects it's teachings! Go back a few hundred years and you see christian Europe and the muslim lands barren except for one religion each, while Hindu India is and has always been a polyglot of hundreds of religions. This is not an accident.

For over 200 years of American Independence, the President and his entire cabinet has been 99% christian with a Jewish person or an atheist thrown in from time to time. In the 60 years that India has been Independent, the opposite has been true - Almost every religion has been represented in India's cabinet. India is the only country in this entire world that is being headed by a man belonging to a minority faith. Again not an accident, these things could have occured only in a Hindu Country.

Nondogmatic Nondualist
22 June 2009, 10:23 PM
Would anyone doubt that if the Buddha had been born in Europe or Muslim lands in the middle ages, he would have been branded a heretic and burned at the stake, dying a horrible death? His teachings consigned to the fire, to be lost forever! There would be no Buddhism today! And what do we Hindus do to the man who rejected Hinduism? Why, make him a God, of course! Imagine the greatness of a faith that saw divinity in a man who rejects it's teachings! Go back a few hundred years and you see christian Europe and the muslim lands barren except for one religion each, while Hindu India is and has always been a polyglot of hundreds of religions. This is not an accident.

For over 200 years of American Independence, the President and his entire cabinet has been 99% christian with a Jewish person or an atheist thrown in from time to time. In the 60 years that India has been Independent, the opposite has been true - Almost every religion has been represented in India's cabinet. India is the only country in this entire world that is being headed by a man belonging to a minority faith. Again not an accident, these things could have occured only in a Hindu Country.

It is true that in the realm of religious thought India has historically been much more tolerant than many other countries, including most of the Western world until very recently. This is because Hinduism (for the most part) does not force any beliefs on anyone (though in terms of maintaining social order, it has been less tolerant).

However, don't you feel that it was perhaps a clever tactic on the part of Hindu leaders to co-opt the Buddha? They called him an incarnation of Vishnu, something that the Buddha himself would never have accepted. He always insisted that he was "awake" and not a god. The Buddha denied scriptural authority, said nothing about the gods and emphasized that one must realize the truth in one's own experience without adhering to any dogma. Thus, it is a distortion to call him a god, and it may lead to obscuring his true teachings. He was pointing seekers towards self-realization, and the Source of his inspiration was identical with that of the proponents of Advaita Vedanta.

RamaRaksha
26 June 2009, 09:51 PM
I don't think it's a tactic but it shows the greatness of Hinduism. To me, Idolatry does not mean simply a stone image of God. Basically they ask us not put anything between us and the realization of God, could be a stone image, or a picture, or a book.

Once followers like christians start insisting that everything in their chosen book must be right, they become idolators. They look so foolish today trying to deny science - at one time these same people insisted that the earth must be the center of the solar system, now they are doing it again by denouncing Evolution.

How does this relate to your post? Basically Hinduism is teaching us that to look beyond an image to see God. God is not Rama, krishna or even the Buddha, but he is all of them put together. If someone saves your life you call it God-sent, that person could be a muslim, an atheist.