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Thread: Hello all

  1. #1

    Hello all

    Namaste,

    I’m new here and I just wanted to greet everyone. I have been looking for a place like this for quite some time. I’m glad to have finally found a place to call home.

    Ive been following SD for about 2 1/2 years now. I’m the only person I know who does, I’ve pretty much been on a solo journey for a while now so it’s been a little difficult but I’ve gotten along alright I feel. My home environment is not welcoming because my fiancé hates religion as a whole so I have to stifle myself a bit but I feel as if my relationship with God is just fine. I’ve come here pretty much as a new path on my quest of discovery. I’m very much looking forward to learning from people here and sharing insights. So that’s pretty much me. Anyway thanks for having me here.

  2. #2
    Join Date
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    Re: Hello all

    Namaste,

    Welcome to the forum.
    Hope you can continue to balance your home situation and your relationship with the Divine.

    Pranam.

    PS
    Have your state undercover agents go after the real criminals instead of you know who!

  3. #3

    Re: Hello all

    Namaste Kelevra Ji,

    It often surprises people when I say to people around me where I live that I dont believe in God and dont care much for religion and also some people that follow some of the same ways as me in certain practices.

    Sanatana Dharma is not really a religion in what people normally understand religion to be, and I seldom use the word God, unless I am speaking against the use of the word to certain people, but at the same time I am comfortable with how some use it because they are only words to help describe something, so no real point making a big issue out it too, as many great literature's that are translated are using the word religion and God. In the west now a lot of other people have also stopped using those terms and replaced with the word spirituality, which is better but again if its over used and applied to everything then it also starts to lose its meaning.

    Sanatana Dharma and some of the cultures associated with it dont always have a fixed term or a single reference for the Absolute, we could use Brahman, Or Shiva, Krsna or Vishnu, all of these apply perfectly, but even then if the same word is applied within every context even though they all represent and are non different to the Absolute they again run the risk of losing all meaning. I think this is one of the main issues of Neo Advaita and over literal minds and bigoted and brainwashed religious people, if I say I am God that brings all sorts of complications, if we say we are all Brahman and Brahman is non different from any of us then we start to open new paradigms of awareness and thoughts, but again if we say that everything is Brahman it can also loose meaning and bring dualistic thoughts and create some confusion.

    One can also avoid all the confusions of dualistic debates and separations by finding some middle ground and not even get involved in Atheism or Theism, Religion and secularism, they are places to stand firmly in the middle and still maintain the purity of Sanatana Dharma, so if Theist would say I believe in God I could easily reply yes me too, but then if an Atheists says I cant accept God he doesn't exists and I hate religion I can quite easily say your also right I fully agree with you, without any duplicity and neither losing the essence and meaning of Sanatana Dharma or denying A Supreme Being.

    This is quite a big and often complex topic for some and usually requires a lot of explaining as mostly within communications we rely on translations and also awareness of conditional understanding and cultural difference, so when we say God is One so therefore we are all God or even Self ( again no real issues with how they are said) it missing out on so much or some people will misunderstand whats being said.

    We can only know the micro details of our own situations, and unless we can stand in another shoes and really experience the others reality according to the cultural make up and conditional responses to life its hard to give any real fixed definition of how we can handle our own realities and others without creating conflict, online is harder because people tend to read just black and white and are educated like that, they even have certificates, but life itself is never black and white, its both plus shades of grey and something more invisible. So I am not giving any direct advice, only how I would respond, if my partner says I dont believe in God, I can agree and if she says she does I can also agree and I wont be denying the essence of Sanatana Dharma, because the usual known terms for God and Religion as seen in others religions west of Asia and India dont need these terms to exists or explain themselves, same as Theism and Atheism. Its not important.

    Then there is nothing to defend, and it isn't even word jugglery. So if your partner and or any friends say they dont like religion or believe in religion or God its perfectly fine to agree with them.


    the key word to understand is Dharma which often gets translated as religion, but dharma means so much more than that, in your own time you can research and look into it through as many sources as you can find and root out the way dharma is applied and reflect, doesn't need to be conceptualized, that limits ourself and the meaning and has little true meaning within the reality of things. i will see if I can find something that help set the tone and post it elsewhere for your consideration.

    And for expansion on the meaning of God without using a simple 3 letter word that we can only give meaning to but has no meaning inherent in the word, where the word isnt even used its helpful to listen and look into the meanings of Shiva Sahasranam and Vishnu Sahasranam.

    This is just my personal preference for reflection.

    To make a success of it needs to be supported by some practice, some change in our awareness, some good association of more wiser people than us and a lot of letting go of thoughts, conceptualizations and habitual and cultural conditioning.

    Harih Om
    Last edited by markandeya 108 dasa; 20 July 2018 at 10:01 AM.

  4. #4
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    Re: Hello all

    Namaste

    In my country most people are proud not to believe in God. They only believe in themselves. The society I live in has freed itself from everything, children from parents, pupils from teachers, women from men, the human from the divine.

    Do I mention God in my country people turn away embarrassed, do I mention God in India the people’s eyes begin to glow.

    I grew up with the Christian God … an old man with beard, sitting on a cloud in heaven. I liked this picture, it made me feel secure, there was someone protecting me.

    Also a mother, who told me, that this God is watching us like a police man, thus if I do not obey, He will punish me, could not destroy my belief that this old man on the cloud would not do any harm to me.

    We all know, God ist not an old man, has no elephant head, does not play the flute.

    Christianity has only one concept of God – a Vaishnava once laughed on the poor Christian God who has not even a name. Hinduism has countless concepts. One, the most exalted, is ‚there is Brahman only, and I am Brahman‘, but even this ‚concept‘ gives two choises – Brahman nirguna and saguna. My bhakti needs Brahman saguna, my intellect is satisfied with Brahman nirguna.

    Tukaram brings it to the point
    Can water drink itself? Can a tree taste its own fruit?
    The worshiper of God must remain distinct from Him.
    Only thus will he come to know God's joyful love.
    But if he were to say that God and he are one, that joy and love would vanish instantly.

    Narada Purana talks about devotion to Vishnu
    The best form of devotion that one can think of is known as uttamottama devotion and occurs when the devotee feels no difference between himself and Vishnu. There is complete union and identification.

    Pranam
    Dance with Shiva - live with Shiva - merge with Shiva

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