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Thread: Some Personal Thoughts

  1. #21
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    Re: Some Personal Thoughts

    Namaste,

    We all tend to read some scriptures, subscribe to and read general religion oriented periodicals/publications, go to a temple when possible, do some puja and meditation at home, and listen to devotional music. The purpose of all these activities is to try to be better human beings, to elevate ourselves spiritually. Our aim should be to rise to a spiritual level, where people who have not seen God would be able to see Him through us. But we seem to fall short on that by a mile. What happens in reality is that after reading all the good things, we forget to apply them in real life. We forget that the purpose of all the acquired knowledge is to use it so that we can see a better "I" in the mirror. We start preaching instead to reveal the "truth" to others, or get into debates to "set the record straight".

    There are endless debates about whether Krishna worshiped Shiva, or Shiva worshiped Krishna; and about the relative merits of Advaita and Dvaita (and Tri-vaita and Quad-vaita) philosophies. In the grand scheme of things, does it matter as to which Hindu path is better, when we are not really going to walk the path? If the entire purpose of reading the scriptures (most times through their adultrated translations) is to terrorize people through endless debates, is it not a waste of a lifetime? Are we really better off having memorized some stuff and then merely regurgitating it, than not having read anything at all?

    Sometimes our heads get to be too big and we start thinking of ourselves as God’s gift to humanity. Our entire focus turns towards doing intellectual gymnastics so as to win debates. When I feel that I am contracting this disease, I go back to the following link to recalibrate myself.

    http://hindudharmaforums.com/showpos...84&postcount=1

    Pranam.
    Last edited by Believer; 24 June 2013 at 12:41 PM.

  2. #22

    Re: Some Personal Thoughts

    Namaste Believer,

    While the amount of debate present on HDF will always rise and fall,
    there have been more often then not times in recent months where
    I visit, peruse the latest posts, and simply find myself thinking "Ah,
    the furrowed-brow club is meeting again- I have nothing to offer or gain
    by participating in those conversations."

    There have been times in life (admittedly, few) where I alone among my peers
    understood something correctly; yet there has not been a single time
    where repeated and ever-more vociferous attempts to prevail has ever
    garnered me anything but increased frustration, and an increased
    resistance on the part of my peers to listen to anything I said.

    Knowing this, I accept my utter powerlessness to change the minds or
    views of others, if they are convinced otherwise; and can only offer
    what my understanding of something is at the time, and pray that I
    remain teachable, even if all around me have their minds set in stone..

    If I do not, will not, or cannot admit the essential frailty and ignorance
    that underlies all that manifests in the course of a human lifetime,
    then how can spiritual progress be possible? What example is being set
    for others, if all of my time is spent in finding newer and better ways
    of establishing an appearance of unassailability, or simply repeating myself
    until others grow too weary to bother talking at all?

    Such is all dainty food for the ego, prasad for Mahishasur.
    This much I do know.
    Therefore, if I wish to avoid this in myself, I avoid environments which encourage it;
    there is an American saying, "If you hang around the
    barbershop long enough, you'll end up with a haircut."

    I will happily forego the trip to Disneyland

    JAI MATA DI
    || जय माता की ||

  3. #23
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    Re: Some Personal Thoughts

    Quote Originally Posted by Believer View Post
    Namaste,

    We all tend to read of some scriptures, subscribe to and read general religion oriented periodicals/publications, go to a temple when possible and listen to devotional music. The purpose of all these activities is to try to be better human beings, to elevate ourselves spiritually. Our aim should be to rise to a spiritual level, where people who have not seen God would be able to see Him through us. But we seem to fall short on that by a mile. What happens in reality is that after reading all the good things, we forget to apply them in real life. We forget that the purpose of all the acquired knowledge is to use it so that we can see a better person in the mirror.

    There are endless debates about whether Krishna worshiped Shiva, or Shiva worshiped Krishna; and about the relative merits of Advaita and Dvaita (and Tri-vaita and Quad-vaita) philosophies. In the grand scheme of things, does it matter as to which Hindu path is better, when we are not really going to walk the path? If the entire purpose of reading the scriptures (most times through their adultrated translations) is to terrorize people through endless debates, is it not a waste of a lifetime? Are we really better off having memorized some stuff and then merely regurgitating it, than not having read anything at all?

    Sometimes our heads get to be too big and we start thinking of ourselves as God’s gift to humanity. Our entire focus turns towards doing intellectual gymnastics so as to win debates. When I feel that I am contracting this disease, I go back to the following link to recalibrate myself.

    http://hindudharmaforums.com/showpos...84&postcount=1

    Pranam.
    These debates literally sound like those political campaigns in India where cheap roadside eateries relay endlessly their party music in a loudspeaker... it will be compulsory jolt in the middle of your busy routine, even during exam times they will not spare anyone!

    I try to read these debates from time to time, trying to get a glimpse of the great 'Shrutis' and 'Smritis' but what seems happening there are direct insults in the name of 'correcting the misrepresentation of the shastras' where members speak to each other devoid of any of the traits that befits a bhakta. We should all learn from Kalyana gunams of Bhagwan Sriman Narayana and set a limit to stop instead of trying to constantly correct others with an underlying purpose of proving our own 'superior knowledge'. Here is a list of Kalyana Gunams of Bhagwan, this day let us all invite Bhagwan into our hearts and try to be better beings!
    jai hanuman gyan gun sagar jai kapis tihu lok ujagar

  4. #24
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    Re: Some Personal Thoughts

    Quote Originally Posted by Believer View Post
    Namaste,

    When someone in the forum has a question, we attempt to answer it to the best of our abilities. Since we all come from different backgrounds, the responses are also varied and sometimes conflicting. It appears that we have different specialities - some are very literate in scriptures, others have a lifetime of experience to draw upon, and some possess a mix of the two. Some questions are area specific - the answers may be applicable either to residents of India or of those residing in the Western world. Would it not be advisable to choose questions pertaining to our area of expertise, or at least areas we have some knowledge of before jumping in to make a post. For example, I am a HDF shudra who tends to stay near the feet of the forum section listings, leaving the hallowed upper reaches to those who have deep scriptural knowledge. I tend to mix the general Hindu philosophy with a lifetime of personal experiences and intuition to make posts. People with brahminical qualities/bend could opt out of tackling mundane posts on everyday news events/politics. People with actual yoga/ayurveda/jyotish etc. experience could choose to answer questions from their fields. Of course, many a times, questions involve overlapping backgrounds, in which case there will be advice from different perspectives. This is just an observation/suggestion and HDF being an open forum, I am not suggesting that anyone should refrain from making any posts; but being disciplined would produce better results.

    Pranam.
    Namaste...

    This is excellent advice, Believer, and such advice is certainly advisable.

    I used to teach university students how to think and argue, having years of education on those matters. So I had much advice. Unfortunately, it was a case of "the blind leading the blind." It's not that I was unqualified; I simply had not learned much of importance from experience. For example, I had not learned to take simple advice from those who were wiser than me. Did Duryodan not receive fine advice from Krishna to give the Pandavs their rightful land? Did he not have to learn through the pain of trials that he was in error?

    So too is the case here and in all walks of humanity. We will do things that should be avoided and have the wrong attitude sometimes. I do not condone such actions. But we also have to be willing to accept the faults and shortcomings of others. We must be ever-ready to show love to them, ourselves, and God. We can do our best to encourage their best efforts, but everyone can learn for themselves, through experience.

    Please forgive me if I presume.

    Pranam.
    "Be the change you wish to see in other people." ~Gandhi

  5. #25
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    Re: Some Personal Thoughts

    Hari Om

    Namaste to all,

    Think your offering is beautiful BelieverJi. Period!

    Thank you.

    Om Namah Shivaya

    FFTW

  6. #26
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    Re: Some Personal Thoughts

    Quote Originally Posted by JaiMaaDurga View Post

    There have been times in life (admittedly, few) where I alone among my peers
    understood something correctly; yet there has not been a single time
    where repeated and ever-more vociferous attempts to prevail has ever
    garnered me anything but increased frustration, and an increased
    resistance on the part of my peers to listen to anything I said.

    I will happily forego the trip to Disneyland

    JAI MATA DI
    Thank you, JaiMaaDurga, for sharing your sound experience with us. It's true: Is there much to be gained from such debate and intellectual war games? Unfortunately, I spent much of my youth and early adulthood engaged in this fruitless power struggle. The result was severe spiritual retardation and alienation. In fact, the drive to think is still strong in me. But bhakti is what I really desire. Invincible Durga will help destroy whatever Mahishasura lives in me. In the meantime, I must do my best not to feed him.

    Jai Radha Krishna
    "Be the change you wish to see in other people." ~Gandhi

  7. #27
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    Re: Some Personal Thoughts

    Namaste,

    Common Sense Vs. Knowledge

    Per an old fable, three men, a doctor, a spiritual being and a country bumpkin (not too smart villager) were traveling together. They passed through a densely wooded forest and came across the carcass of a lion, freshly killed by a hunter. Being so close and able to touch a lion gave them a grand perspective about its beauty and majesty. But they were troubled by his demise. As they were sitting there, they started to think about bringing it back to life. The doctor said that he could clean the wounds and sew him back up and the spiritualist said that he could put life back into the repaired body. The third one pondered over the situation for a bit and said that he was going to climb a tall tree before they proceeded with their wishes. So, he climbed a tall tree, the doctor repaired the body and the spiritualist put life back into the beast. As soon as the lion came back to life, he was frightened by the sight of the doctor and the spiritualist. He attacked and killed them both before wandering off into the thick of the forest. The villager came down from the tree and walked back to his home. Common sense trumps all acquired knowledge.

    As the old saying goes, 'One needs a pound of common sense to use an ounce of knowledge.' If I don't use my head and let myself be driven totally by my acquired knowledge; sooner or later I am sure to go over the cliff.

    We have many people in the forum who have spent lot of time studying scriptures, either in their original form or as translations. And they can debate incessantly. But what is needed is some common sense. What we do here is mere exchange of information. We are not breaking any new ground. And there are very few who come here with the intent of learning something. Most of the time it is people with 'made up minds' going back and forth. To be able to influence others, we have to be the living examples of the goodness in the scriptures. The superior quality of our philosophy has to be validated not by our words, but by our deeds. We have to evolve into such high caliber human beings that others who cannot fathom God would be able to get a glimpse of Him by looking at us. Until that happens, there are not going to be too many takers of our words, and climbing atop is soap box for our daily sermon would be fruitless.

    Pranam.
    Last edited by Believer; 13 August 2013 at 07:54 PM. Reason: Added couple of lines to the last para.

  8. #28
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    Re: Some Personal Thoughts

    Quote Originally Posted by Believer View Post
    Namaste,

    Common Sense Vs. Knowledge

    Per an old fable, three men, a doctor, a spiritual being and a country bumpkin (not too smart villager) were traveling together. ........................


    Pranam.

    Dear Believer,

    It seemed timely to review the way in which it is done.

    In villager, we see two different notions such as belief and commonsense work together to save his life.

    1) A strong Belief/faith in the learned: the people who accompany him can repair the beast back to life,


    2) Commonsense(purified practical judgement): he is going to die once the beast is back.



    Yet another concern in regard to the fable, in addition to your beautiful analysis,
    is that the life turns out to be an evil when spiritualism directly interferes in the ordinary course of events.

    The ignorant doctor could have repaired the carcass of the lion alone not its life.

    Keep thinking. Love
    ॐ इदम् न मम
    be just l we happy

  9. #29
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    Re: Some Personal Thoughts

    Believer, what you have written not only applies to this small forum, but also our entire lives. It speaks of a truly larger Truth...of Integrity.

    I often tell my husband this as parenting...is probably one of the most crucial areas that this Truth comes forward.

    For who will believe that smoking is dangerous when the ciggarette hangs from your lips? Who will listen to your advice to go to bed at a decent time...if you are almost always up till 3 am? Who will listen to your advice on eating healthy...when you are eating french fries everyday?

    Who then can speak of the importance of righteousness without being themself a righteous individual?


    Only when words and actions combine, do we become believable to others...because ultimately seeing is believing...and nothing i can say will influence you otherwise.

    I tell my hubby that we must be very good in our own practices to even attempt to instruct these others. I feel this is the cause for many humans growing up to be poor humans...as how many 17, 18, 19 or 20 years olds do we know who are such beings?

    All over the world children learn what they live...and mostly i feel it's not good lessons. But, i am comforted by the other Truth, which is that this world is meant to be this flawed tangle of trials and tribulations so that each of us can learn, so thoroughly, what it is we were sent to learn. So then, let the world turn on and on in this insufferable way...just as it should.

    When my children were little...they would want so badly to play a game called Zelda, it's a beautiful game...and it was on the 64 game console...a very difficult game full of puzzles to solve. Being only 3 and 4 years old....this was not an appropriate game for them so i would take old game controllers and cut the ends off...and then lay them under the machine so they could feel as if they were playing though it was really an older child, or even an adult playing the game. This would work for many years, until they got old enough to understand and connect that their hands were not aligning with the movements of the characters. At this point they were cognitively ready to get the actual controller and play the game.

    Sometimes taking your hand off the Wheel is the only way...in the end...you realize your controller was never connected to the game anyway...

    and when you get to the point of realizing that....Beloved Mahadeva, such a wonderfully Perfect Father, knows you're ready for more.

  10. #30
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    Re: Some Personal Thoughts

    Namaste,

    Some old threads about personal thoughts on events/personalities/history:

    Hinduism in Bali,
    http://hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=10521


    Kolkata – the forgotten city
    http://hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=11863


    EV Ramasamy – periyar or a thug?
    http://hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=6450


    An opening for Mr. Modi since the following post,
    http://hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=10006





    Placeholder for Online Sanskrit learning link,
    http://learnsanskrit.org/grammar

    Pranam.
    Last edited by Believer; 20 July 2014 at 12:59 PM.

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