Page 1 of 4 1234 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 38

Thread: "Hindu mythology"

  1. #1

    "Hindu mythology"

    .....
    Last edited by Kumar_Das; 12 September 2010 at 03:45 AM.

  2. Cool Re: "Hindu mythology"



    Kumar Das

    Hindu texts were classified as Itihasa meaning "It thus happened"
    The word mythology or myth has its etymological roots from the Sanskrit word 'mithya' that means 'untrue'.

    In 1813, two christians Mr.James Mill & Mr. Charles Grant from Helebary College, wrote History of India.
    They stated that Father James Usher fixed the date of creation of the earth as 9 AM, 23rd Oct, 4004 BC. The events in Hindu texts seemed to go before the date, hence could not be real and must be mythical or imaginary, and they classified Itihas as Mythology
    [CENTER][B][FONT=Arial Black][SIZE=7][COLOR=Yellow] ॐ[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/B]
    [/CENTER]

  3. #3
    Join Date
    July 2010
    Location
    The Holy Land - Bharat
    Posts
    2,842
    Rep Power
    5499

    Re: "Hindu mythology"

    Thank you Kumar for bringing up this topic, and thank you Param for giving us the background as to how the Hindu history came to be known as mythology.

    This has been a major sore point with me too for a long time and I cringe every time I read/hear a Hindu use this word with our scriptures. Why are Hindu holy books waived off as "mythology" but more than that why do Hindus also use this terminology?


    Over the years, I have emailed to a number of Hindu website owners about this degradation of our holy scriptures and many of them have realized their mistake and fixed it. But there were quite a few who had this pride of authorship and told me off. It is a pity that Hindus themselves have been conditioned to refer to their scriptures as mythology. I wish there was some way, maybe a campaign by members of this forum to email to these website owners to please not defame our own scriptures by calling them mythology.


    Personally, I believe that this reflects a lack of proper comprehension of the English language by many Indian writers. Another example is the ISKCON founder Bhaktivedanta Swami having told his followers that they have to bring more people into Krishna consciousness fold "by hook or by crook". To me this is a very offensive phrase when used in conjunction with Krishna Consciousness. I don't believe that the great Master meant it the way it came out. It was, most likely, his lack of knowledge of an alternate suitable phrase which made him choose these words. But the sad thing is that his devotees quote him often on this point and continue to use the phrase in their discourses.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    March 2010
    Location
    A bone-littered nest in the bottom of a pit deep in the jungles of Amesbury, Massachusetts.
    Posts
    216
    Rep Power
    45

    Re: "Hindu mythology"

    I always found the term "hindu mythology" condescending myself. The word mythology implies a dead religion, which its definitely not (one book I own even refers to various gods in the past tense, as in "Vishnu was the god of preservation") and also strongly implies falsehood and a sense of "there's no question of this not being true".

  5. Cool Re: "Hindu mythology"




    Quote Originally Posted by Believer View Post

    Over the years, I have emailed to a number of Hindu website owners about this degradation of our holy scriptures and many of them have realized their mistake and fixed it. But there were quite a few who had this pride of authorship and told me off. It is a pity that Hindus themselves have been conditioned to refer to their scriptures as mythology. I wish there was some way, maybe a campaign by members of this forum to email to these website owners to please not defame our own scriptures by calling them mythology.
    You are saying something right, those site owners who have accepted the term 'mythology' hardly knows much about hinduism, if they join with others then all hindus will understand each other.

    Personally, I believe that this reflects a lack of proper comprehension of the English language by many Indian writers. Another example is the ISKCON founder Bhaktivedanta Swami having told his followers that they have to bring more people into Krishna consciousness fold "by hook or by crook". To me this is a very offensive phrase when used in conjunction with Krishna Consciousness. I don't believe that the great Master meant it the way it came out. It was, most likely, his lack of knowledge of an alternate suitable phrase which made him choose these words. But the sad thing is that his devotees quote him often on this point and continue to use the phrase in their discourses.
    ISKCON is not that bad, Xtian Missionries and Jihadis are also forcing others to convert in all means. Adi Shankracharya did all hooks and cooks to it is known as 'Sam' 'Dam' 'Dand' 'Bhed'. To protect and rise Hinduism. Hindus also have to accept what is needed.

    Quote Originally Posted by Ashvati View Post
    I always found the term "hindu mythology" condescending myself. The word mythology implies a dead religion, which its definitely not (one book I own even refers to various gods in the past tense, as in "Vishnu was the god of preservation") and also strongly implies falsehood and a sense of "there's no question of this not being true".
    Call Hinduism as Dharm and not religion
    [CENTER][B][FONT=Arial Black][SIZE=7][COLOR=Yellow] ॐ[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/B]
    [/CENTER]

  6. #6
    Join Date
    July 2009
    Location
    Dublin, Ireland
    Age
    36
    Posts
    860
    Rep Power
    1516

    Re: "Hindu mythology"

    Call Hinduism as Dharm and not religion


    Agreed. I almost always refer to Hinduism as Sanatana Dharma, and I love the complexity behind the word "dharma". It is not merely a religion, which these days, rather unfortunately carries with it a rather negative connotation. But isn't that the way language evolves when it becomes associated with other dogmatic faiths? It's sad to hear members on this board tell of Hindus they know, demeaning the scriptures and writing off the beautiful religious narratives of sacred texts as "mythology".
    "Watch your thoughts, they become words.
    Watch your words, they become actions.
    Watch your actions, they become habits.
    Watch your habits, they become your character.
    Watch your character, it becomes your destiny."

    ॐ गं गणपतये नमः
    Om Gam Ganapataye namah

    लोकाः समस्ताः सुखिनो भवन्तु ।
    Lokaah SamastaaH Sukhino Bhavantu

  7. Cool Re: "Hindu mythology"



    Quote Originally Posted by sunyata07 View Post


    Agreed. I almost always refer to Hinduism as Sanatana Dharma, and I love the complexity behind the word "dharma". It is not merely a religion, which these days, rather unfortunately carries with it a rather negative connotation. But isn't that the way language evolves when it becomes associated with other dogmatic faiths? It's sad to hear members on this board tell of Hindus they know, demeaning the scriptures and writing off the beautiful religious narratives of sacred texts as "mythology".
    As beliver had stated many Hindu website owners also use the word mythology, change for them is needed
    'Dharm' is everything, lets check Muslims and Xitians use islam dharm and isai dharm for hindi translation, because Hindus never protected it well. In fact Dharm is total opposite of what commonly used.
    [CENTER][B][FONT=Arial Black][SIZE=7][COLOR=Yellow] ॐ[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/B]
    [/CENTER]

  8. #8
    Join Date
    January 2010
    Location
    tadvishno paramam padam
    Age
    38
    Posts
    2,168
    Rep Power
    2547

    Re: "Hindu mythology"

    Westerners are dumb, if they call our scriptures myth, it just shows that they are ignorant. But the most annoying thing is if Hindus themselves start refering to the stories in the vedas, itihasas and puranas as mythology.

    There is a Hindu radio station, they had a price for anyone who would call in and give the translation of the word "Purana." I knew which word they were looking for, but I didn't call, because I thought that it was insulting. Someone called and won the price with the word "mythology." Me and someone else have send complaints to the station, but they ignored it.

  9. #9

    Re: "Hindu mythology"

    Thanks Kumar for bringing this up.

    The reason why our scriptures have been classified as "mythologies" is clear. Britishers used to adopt a policy of weakening a society from the very core. If you grow up thinking that your ancestors were barbarians, while Aryans moved in from Europe at the 1st century, then you will accept them more easily as your master than otherwise.

    There are so many like Monier Williams etc. that have confessed openly that establishing Vedas as recent and flawed was a clear agenda in the list of Westeners.

    But by God's grace Hinduism has stood firm. Mahabharata and puranas are replete with astronomical evidences for every incident. Veda Vyas has recorded every incident mapping with position of stars, planets and eclipses. Now, astronomical calculations is leading us back to the exact dates ..around 5000 years back. Similarly evidences from inscriptions, detailed dynasties of kings mentioned, archaelogy like Dwaraka, etc are also supporting us. If I were to write a fiction I wouldn't dare to do either mention detailed astronomical positions or dynasties of kings, 5-6 characters would suffice.

    You are talking about others classifying our puranas as mythology? How many of us Hindus take it as it is? For example M Gandhi never believed that the war even happened and that it is symbolic. While S.Vivekananda believes that Krishna was probably a king and all stories got added around Him, probably by Himself. But evidences are pointing otherwise. Bhagavan Vyas, for example, records his stunned observation of the odd alignment of planets and also many eclipses as never seen before during the war.

    I am not an ISKCONite, but I think they deserve more credit than what we are giving. They have employed scientists, archaelogists, historians all around the world to talk 100% in favor of Vedas and puranas. They proudly announce the reality and profundity of Vedic culture as is and fully accept the incarnations of Rama, Krishna, existence of different worlds etc. as per Vedas.

    We need to gather as many proofs as we can about Mahabharata, Puranas etc and into one site

  10. #10
    Join Date
    November 2009
    Age
    39
    Posts
    839
    Rep Power
    1029

    Re: "Hindu mythology"

    I call Hindu holy books mythology, but people here present good arguments as to why I perhaps should not do this. My reasoning, however, is that the truth of these books doesn't significantly affect their spiritual significance to me. As long as others here have brought up the Christians, I personally find their quest to validate the historicity of their texts to be rather ridiculous. Such fruitless endeavors have led to foolish movements like so-called Creation Science, which seeks to prove that the universe is 6,000 years old and that their is no biological evolution of species. I wouldn't want to engage in this foolishness myself, which is why I don't bother to prove that our holy books are historically true.

    This is not to say that I don't believe them to be true. It just means that even if a Christian were to demonstrate that they are not historical, he's still not going to get me to convert.

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •