Purpose of Puranas and need for repackaging

[Sahasranama]

Take this with a grain of salt, but I think this goes back to a recent discussion about educating Hindus on their own faith, via talks, or sermons, if you will, in temple (providing you get people to temple).

Who better than to take lessons and stories out of any scripture and bring them to life, explaining its meanings, metaphors, and mythologies than someone learned in scripture, i.e. a temple pujari, guru, teacher, guest speaker versed in the particular subject?

Yes, it takes planning to interpret and present a scriptural subject in a way a young person can grasp, and wants to grasp. I'm loathe to bring this up, but I do so only because of experience in the subject... in early grades of Sunday School and religion classes, bible stories were presented in a way that made sense (relatively speaking wrt to the bible) to young minds.

From what I've been gathering from discussions on the site, Hindus don't really do very much to further knowledge of the faith, except "well, that's what my family has always done". The irony (as I see it) is I like reading the stories and relating them to people in an animated and lively way, and everyday speech.

One day my nephew-in-law (a big burly good ol' boy long-haul trucker) sat in rapt attention as I told him the story of Lord Narasimha and Hiranyakashipu. Why was he so captivated? Because at the risk of a rotator cuff injury from patting myself on the back, I made it interesting.

Hindus have nothing to learn from Christian sunday school teachers. Hindus are master story tellers and there is no Hindu child who doesn't like to hear about the stories from the itihasas or puranas. Traditionally stories were told at important events, played out on the stage or sung in beautiful music. There is also no shortage of use of modern media in Hindu story telling, those who have grown up in Hindu families most likely have seen movies like the Ramayana, Mahabharata and other devotional movies like Bhakta Prahlada and many others. There are beautiful comic books written on Hindu stories and recently animated movies for children are brought out. There is no reason for Hindus to take example from Sunday school teachers who do nothing more than traumatise their pupils for life.

[Jainarayan]

Hindus have nothing to learn from Christian sunday school teachers.

There is no reason for Hindus to take example from Sunday school teachers who do nothing more than traumatise their pupils for life.

I don't know why I bother.

[Jainarayan]

I don't know why I bother.

Actually I'm not going to, anymore. Happy lives to all, and may God(dess) watch over and shower blessings on all.

[Sahasranama]

Hindus do not need to look at Christians for a method to teach their ancient stories, we only need to take a thorough look at our own history and culture and there will be enough examples on how to communicate the ancient heritage of Hinduism. If you have any nostalgic feelings from your times as a catamite going to Sunday school, Hindus do not want to hear about it.

[Believer]

Namaste,

When you say something against Xitianity or Islam in this forum, here is a sample of what some of the self-righteous 'sane' people PM you,

I am not going to pursue this publically, .........but your diatribe was completely out of line. ..........Run "your" forum as you wish, and discuss on "your" forum what you wish. I'm done with the toxicity and hypocrisy. ......

So, we become the bad people. All of a sudden, the Universalistic/New Age Hindus turn on us?

Pranam.

[MahaHrada]

Namaste,

When you say something against Xitianity or Islam in this forum, here is a sample of what some of the self-righteous 'sane' people PM you,

So, we become the bad people. All of a sudden, the Universalistic/New Age Hindus turn on us?

Pranam.

hahaha you are not alone i have also already been "touched by the dark Lord" hate spam serial mail attack

I am not going to pursue this publically, as too much damage has been already done. In fact, this is all I'm going to say on it, but your harangue against me was completely out of line. I've endured insults and questions about my sincerity almost from day one; I've apologized and defended myself, and I have had enough. I'm done with the toxicity and hypocrisy.

He always promises that he had enough but then he comes back with more truth about the avatar jeebus. Poor guy has indured so many insults sob...Maybe he likes some cheese with the whine.

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam: Anybody is free to start their own forum. Apparently its just not that hard. (Although I couldn't do it, I still use a mouse.) Then you can be the boss, and ban or allow whomever you want.

If I did do it, and banned everyone who didn't agree with me all the time, it would be one very lonely forum. Title it 'Forum for a Hindu Loner'

The bottom line is there just aren't that many Hindu forums out there. Not that I've found.

Aum Namasivaya

[Sahasranama]

Namaste,

When you say something against Xitianity or Islam in this forum, here is a sample of what some of the self-righteous 'sane' people PM you,

So, we become the bad people. All of a sudden, the Universalistic/New Age Hindus turn on us?

Pranam.

I also recieved a PM from him saying that my posts were reported as offensive, even though all I posted was that I agreed with another poster that Hinduism is better off without people who are still faithful to their Biblical God while calling themself Hindu. Hinduism is not a proselytising religion, religion is not a number's game for us. If people are still attached to their birth religion, why do they keep pretending that they are Hindu? They are better of going to church where they can read from the bible freely and hand their children over to serve as catamites for Sunday school teachers.

[charitra]

I don’t know why the thread veered off track. I will chime in anyways.

I was the one who raised the issue of hindu mandirs tossing away a great opportunity to preach religion to our kids (and adults!), on another thread recently. This lackof initiative deprives our children any chance of acquiring religious info. for a long time or forever. A mandir is the commonest place of faith every hindu child attends, not the talks of gurus, not the religious opera, not even the religion based movies. The kids are put in school before they even start walking and they start getting homework right from age 4 or 5. How wonderful and innovative would it be if only a pujari after completing the recitation of Sanskrit mantras to give a short speech of 2-3minutes, about our doctrines and philosophy. And to mention names of vedas and Upanishads.

TBTL is right in bringing this comparison here, he was highlighting one aspect of the western model, he wasn’t praising the glory of an abrahamic faith. He was painstakingly explaining a hindu purana to a Christian kid, tantamounts to a blasphemous act in his family! I didn’t see TBTL saying anything derogatory about hindus either. Whatever has happened to hindus who have accumulated a fund of knowledge about Hinduism but sadly fail to liveup to the high standards of tolerance the faith is known for.

Please do a survey-catch hold of some 10 hindus starting from Monday and ask them about the core doctrines of Hinduism, come back and present the outcome of the study here. Make sure all the subjects are new acquaintances and must all be born hindus at that. Where is the preaching going on in hindu societies? Those of you living in Europe/west, please call your families and enquire about the religious indoctrination imparted on the kids. Whereas west and middle east have put in an effective mechanism in place that assures religious education of their kids, hindu kids have to count on only their families and nothing more. Compare Sunday sermons and Friday prayers to our own Saturday mandir visits, the stark difference will hit you straight away. We aren’t talking about proselytization here, it is simply much needed education that is absent. Most of you are deluded that it is only the nonhindus who are ignorant of Hinduism, the ignorance from within is what that undermines this faith, eventually may even turn into its nemesis. Namaste.

[Sahasranama]

I was the one who raised the issue of hindu mandirs tossing away a great opportunity to preach religion to our kids (and adults!), on another thread recently. This lackof initiative deprives our children any chance of acquiring religious info. for a long time or forever. A mandir is the commonest place of faith every hindu child attends, not the talks of gurus, not the religious opera, not even the religion based movies.

The difference between a Christian church and a mandir is that a Church is used mostly as a meeting place for a community. A mandir is a place where the vigraha of the deity is worshipped and devotees come for darshana. A Hindu mandir does not have the same function as a Christian church. Hindu culture and religion is expressed through many other places than the mandir. I have been to enough mandirs where people have requested the pujari to give a sermon like a Christian priest. The result is that the rituals are being done very hastily and that we hear a priest talking about things he doesn't know about. The function of the purohita is already shifting from ritualist to pseudo-therapist/preacher. This is a perversion of the profession.

There are classes offered at ashrams, mandirs and other Hindu organisations which require some dedication from the student to learn subjects like Sanskrit, Hindi, Bhagavad Gita, Vedanta and other subjects. This is different from Bible class, because it caters only to dedicated students who are willing to put an effort into learning something. These type of classes which are based on the traditional Hindu model of education should be encouraged. Hindus do not need a Sunday Bible class where some preacher damages young minds.

TBTL is right in bringing this comparison here, he was highlighting one aspect of the western model, he wasn’t praising the glory of an abrahamic faith. He was painstakingly explaining a hindu purana to a Christian kid, tantamounts to a blasphemous act in his family!

Nobody made a problem of TBTL telling the story of Hiranyakashyipa. The problem is his arrogance to think that we have to learn story telling from Sunday school teachers, while Hinduism itself has a very sopisticated tradition of story telling which is also represented in poetry, theatre, music, dance, sculptures, paintings. Hindus have been praised from all over the world for their ability to tell stories. Therefore, there is no need to learn methods from Christian Sunday school teachers. Enough damage has been done to Hinduism already by Indians trying to mimick Christians. It is time Hindus looked at their own rich tradition, instead of trying to model after Christianitiy.

Compare Sunday sermons and Friday prayers to our own Saturday mandir visits, the stark difference will hit you straight away. We aren’t talking about proselytization here, it is simply much needed education that is absent.

You have misunderstood what I was talking about when I mentioned that Hinduism isn't a proselytising religion. I wasn't using it in the context of Sunday schools, but in the context of pseudo-Hindus who are still Christians in their heart. Since Hinduism isn't a number's game, we shouldn't be so eager to adopt these wolves in sheep clothing among our midst as Hindus.

Please do a survey-catch hold of some 10 hindus starting from Monday and ask them about the core doctrines of Hinduism, come back and present the outcome of the study here. Make sure all the subjects are new acquaintances and must all be born hindus at that. Where is the preaching going on in hindu societies? Those of you living in Europe/west, please call your families and enquire about the religious indoctrination imparted on the kids. Whereas west and middle east have put in an effective mechanism in place that assures religious education of their kids, hindu kids have to count on only their families and nothing more. Compare Sunday sermons and Friday prayers to our own Saturday mandir visits, the stark difference will hit you straight away. We aren’t talking about proselytization here, it is simply much needed education that is absent. Most of you are deluded that it is only the nonhindus who are ignorant of Hinduism, the ignorance from within is what that undermines this faith, eventually may even turn into its nemesis.

It is common among modern Hindus to start blaming two groups of people:

1) The pundits
2) The next generation

People complain about the pundit not handing over all Hindu knowledge on a silver platter to the general public. This is not the pundit's job. If one wants to learn something, one need the motivation and get one's own hands dirty. The next generation is then blamed for a lack of interest. This lack of interest only comes if the parent's themselves are indifferent about Hinduism. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. If Hindu parents are so concerned about how they will transmit Hindu wisdom to the next generation, they should first immerse themselves into it. If Hindu parents themselves spend all their time watching bollywood movies and watching cricket, then they should stop complaining about their children having no interest in learning about the puranas. Hinduism should be integrated in your life, because that is how your children will pick it up. Integrating Hinduism in your lifes goes far beyond visiting the temple once a week.