Idol worshipping

[sarabhanga]

“ LOVE ”

What is Love, if not Kind?
What is Love, if not True?
What is Love, if not Given?
What is Love, if not Holy?
What is Love, if not Free?

What is Love, without Purity?
What is Love, without Peace?
What is Love, without Fire?
What is Love, without Increase?
What is Love, without God?

[suresh]

To insist that your Christian "God is Love" view is equally consistent with the Dharmic view only points to typical Western ignorance and arrogance to learn.

But isn't bhakti yoga compatible with Hindu Dharma? I thought love was the single most important path in Hinduism, the Lord having stressed it time and again in his Gita.

[atanu]

But isn't bhakti yoga compatible with Hindu Dharma? I thought love was the single most important path in Hinduism, the Lord having stressed it time and again in his Gita.

Dear Suresh,

Sarabhanga Ji, as usual, has summed it up nicely without getting into any argument.

Love thy neighbour of Christianity is not unique, it is reflection of Sanatana Dharma teaching that "All is Brahman". Without Bhakti, Jnana will not dawn and without loving self less work love will not dawn.


What I feel objectionable in the thread is the very subject itself "Idol Worshipping". A person, who professes that God is Love and Love is God, finds fault with the love of devotees who first put their own heart in an idol and then worship the idol as an icon of the all embracing HEART (Hridaya) that is Love since it is Sad Chid Ananda -- there is no place for hate here. Why should God be not there in an idol, when He is everywhere?

So love is Bhakti to 'God and all' and it is strong in Sanatana Dharma.

On the other hand, the reformist attitude of VC is not love. These egos, such as VC come from a position of closed mind, assuming a-priori of their righteousness and inferiority of others. This stems from the greatest idolation -- the love of body as the Self.

Om Namah Shivaya

[sarabhanga]

What is Love, if not Kind? (Ahimsa)
What is Love, if not True? (Satya)
What is Love, if not Given? (Asteya)
What is Love, if not Holy? (Brahmacarya)
What is Love, if not Free? (Aparigraha)

What is Love, without Purity? (Sauca)
What is Love, without Peace? (Santosh)
What is Love, without Fire? (Tapa)
What is Love, without Increase? (Svadhyaya)
What is Love, without God? (Isvarapranidhana)

The 10 rules of Yama and Niyama are all aspects of universal Love.

[saidevo]

Namaste everyone.

To insist that your Christian "God is Love" view is equally consistent with the Dharmic view only points to typical Western ignorance and arrogance to learn.

It is this typical Western (specially American) arrogance and ignorance (in that order) displayed right from the scholarship level that seeks to 'pshychoanalyze' the Hindu Gods, customs and scriptures and arrive at such 'scholarly findings' as quoted below and incorporate them in the school and college textbooks in a bid to destroy Hinduism:

RISA Lila - 1: Wendy's Child Syndrome (Rajiv Malhotra)
http://rajivmalhotra.sulekha.com/blo...d-syndrome.htm

1. Sri Ramakrishna, the 19th century Hindu saint, has been declared by these scholars as being a sexually-abused homosexual, and it has become "academically established" by Wendy Doniger's students that Ramakrishna was a child molester, and had also forced homosexual activities upon Vivekananda. Furthermore, it has become part of this new "discovery" that Ramakrishna's mystical experiences, and indeed those of Hindu mystics in general, are pathological sexual conditions that need to be psychoanalyzed as such.

2. The Hindu Goddess is described by these scholars as a sex maniac, with a variety of pathological conditions. Western scholars are busy debating which kinds of pathologies best apply in specific instances, and are hard at work to capture supporting data in the backwaters of Indian society.

3. Other conclusions by these well-placed scholars include: Ganesha's trunk symbolizes a "limp phallus"; his broken tusk is a symbol for the castration-complex of the Hindu male; his large belly is a proof of the Hindu male's enormous appetite for oral sex. Shiva, is interpreted as a womanizer, who encourages ritual rape, prostitution and murder, and his worship is linked to violence and destruction.

4. Hindus are being profiled by these scholars, potentially setting them up for denial of the same human rights as the "civilized West." For instance, anthropologists have concluded that nursing Hindu mothers do not bond with their babies the way white women do, that Hindus lack a sense of individuality because of their inability to perceive separation in space or time, and that the Mahabharata is best seen as Krishna's Genocide.

They won't 'psychoanalyze' their own Christian God(s), customs and scriptures or themselves to start with. To them, the Eucharist custom of sharing and devouring Christ's blood and body is a symbol of their love for their God and their God's love for them. To them wearing an icon of the cross on the neck is a sign of love for God but to worship God as an image in stone is erotic and superstitious. But then in India (a country they love to hate), they would not be ashamed to employ the Hindu customs, images and languages to Christianity to sell their religious fraud on the gullible Hindu masses to convert the natives.

In the Annual Convention that proudly showcased "Professor Wendy Doniger is known for being rude, crude and very lewd in the hallowed portals of Sanskrit Academics. All her special works have revolved around the subject of sex in Sanskrit texts", as a BBC-linked site introduced her. Rajiv, who was present on the occasion asked Wendy openly, "Since you have psychoanalyzed Hinduism and created a whole new genre of scholarship, do you think it would be a good idea for someone to psychoanalyze you, because an insight into your subconscious would make your work more interesting and understandable?" All that she could reply to that question was, "You got me on this one."

Such acamedic scholarship in the name of liberty and freedom of opinion arises from projecting personal prejudices and perversities onto the subject of study. Such perversities are the result of a permissive society and culture which is largely a cesspool of all that is rotten. For what would you call the scholarship that seeks to mistranslate the term "lap" in a Bengali (or Sanskrit) language as "genitals" or "defiled sexual place" (what about the obiquitous laptop then?); mistranslate "head" as "phallus"; "touching softly" as "sodomy"; Krishna's "tribhanga" (literally three bends) as "cocked hips"--the list is endless.

The American Adharmic Army is multiplying in numbers, spamming and trolling Hindu tradition and human values. It is high time that Hindus residing in that country identify and engage these forces in meaningful acamedic debates and call their bluff on the lines shown by our great Adi Shankaracharya.

[Kaos]

Namaste everyone.

It is this typical Western (specially American) arrogance and ignorance (in that order) displayed right from the scholarship level that seeks to 'pshychoanalyze' the Hindu Gods, customs and scriptures and arrive at such 'scholarly findings' as quoted below and incorporate them in the school and college textbooks in a bid to destroy Hinduism:

That is true, saidevo.

Westerners (particularly American) claim to know God, as if saying "God is Love" over and over again, is sufficient.

How can they know God, when they don't even know their own minds?

[Kaos]

Indeed, the Christian "God" is full of "Love".

Sign me up.

[Kaos]

The Christian view that "God is Love" alone is limited and therefore flawed.

Didn't the Christian God create everything?

If the Christian God created everything, then he must have created love, including "no-love".

If the Christian God didn't create everything, and isn't responsible for everything, then he is not "God."

For the Christians to state that "God is Love" alone is like saying, that the door alone is the house.

They are separating the door from the windows, the walls, the rooms, the furniture, the chimney, even the space within that makes a house, a house.

For the same reason that a window alone does not make a house, a door alone does not make a house.

[vcindiana]

The Christian view that "God is Love" alone is limited and therefore flawed.

Are you done?
Thank you for your loaded instinctive survival response. I hope now you feel happy that you bashed a religion which is no different from any other religions.

I was born to an orthodox Hindu family but over the years I have become non religious. But I do believe and trust in God, not that I fear God not to “sin” or to keep me in "Good" Karma, or to worship him so I can be granted with all the good things in my life. Hey, these days Science can provide almost every thing, why do I care about God? Some times I think cave man created God!
But as I become free from all the religious stuffs and dogma, become more conscious and be aware of myself then I see God (if it ever existed) as to be Love only. No icons, no idols, no justice, no rules, no doctrines, no sin, no karma, no Dharma, duty, heaven, hell, magic tricks, mantras etc... Irrational or non sensical Love is only by God. Any Pope, a Guru, a priest, a maharishi, or a prophet, a politician or a government can become powerful and authoritive and can do justice or grant mercy on demand.
For me God is an experience, I can get strength, encouragement and wisdom in the times of adversaries.
I also need God because I do not want to be an arrogant. I cannot take life as granted. I need to thank some one who has provided the things I enjoy in my life. Gratitude is not natural, I need to constantly remind myself to thank God and then I would feel humble.

These are my personal thoughts and you do not have to agree with me.

God Bless you

[satay]

namaskar,
Just a quick note for now...
One need not be born in an orthodox hindu family (isn't orthodox hindu an oxymoron?) and then turn away from hinduism to bash hinduism. Hinduism has a big target on its back since it instructs men to uphold dharma that which is truth. Obviously in this age of kali, asuras seem to be succeeding in upholding adharma.

vcindiana, you should read osho if you don't already...