Pride of Hinduism - Views of foreigners

[talwan]

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alwar, can i request your opinion on the following... please

New Upanishads

There is no fixed list of the Upanishads as newer ones have continued to be composed.[31] On many occasions, when older Upanishads have not suited the founders of new sects, they have composed new ones of their own.[32] 1908 marked the discovery of four new Upanishads, named Bashkala, Chhagaleya, Arsheya and Saunaka, by Dr. Friedrich Schrader,[33] who attributed them to the first prose period of the Upanishads.[34] The text of three, the Chhagaleya, Arsheya and Saunaka, was reportedly corrupt and neglected but possibly re-constructable with the help of their Perso-Latin translations. Texts called "Upanishads" continued to appear up to the end of British rule in 1947. The Akbar Upanishad and Allah Upanishad are examples,[8] having been written in the 17th century in praise of Islamic ideas at the insistence of Dara Shikoh.[35]

The main Shakta Upanishads mostly discuss doctrinal and interpretative differences between the two principal sects of a major Tantric form of Shaktism called Shri Vidya upasana. The many extant lists of authentic Shakta Upaniṣads vary, reflecting the sect of their compilers, so that they yield no evidence of their "location" in Tantric tradition, impeding correct interpretation. The Tantra content of these texts also weaken its identity as an Upaniṣad for non-Tantrikas and therefore, its status as shruti and thus its authority.[36]

The text composed by Vaishnava saint Namalvar (Satkopa) is also known as the Dravidopanisatsangati.

Upanishads - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kunjuppu Sir,
My reply for your querry is as under,
We All know Ramayana was Origionally written by Rishi Valmiki,Subsequently
Different people wrote Ramayana in various Languages.All were based on the Valmiki Verse but with different twists.Each Ramayana is praised for various reasons.Incidently Our EVR(thanthai periar)Wrote 'Keemayanam' totally Ulta Ramayanam.According to that Ravana was Hero.The Keemayana was also had some followers.My contention is people at Different times write differently on a subject.We cannot question why it is written.Our Judgement (with Interaction with experts in the field)should decide which one we choose for our purpose.
withregards,
T.Alwan

 

[talwan]

John Elignton author of A Memoir of A E Russell, wrote: "The Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads contain such godlike fullness of wisdom on all things that I feel the authors 'Goethe, Wordsworth, Emerson and Thoreau among moderns have something of this vitality and wisdom, but we can find all they have said and much more in the grand sacred books of the East. The Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads contain such godlike fullness of wisdom on all things that I feel the authors must have looked with calm remembrance back through a thousand passionate lives, full of feverish strife for and with shadows, ere they could have written with such certainly of things which the soul feels to he sure.'

 

[talwan]

Ashby Philips of Princeton University echoes: "The Hindu argument that all religions are equally valid may well sweep the world in the next 25 years. It may well be that within the foreseeable future, it will be Hinduism which will be challenging Christianity not only in India but in the west as well. Hinduism indeed has a new vitality not only suitable for defense but also adaptable for offense against Western religions."

 

[talwan]

Huston Smith (1919 - ) born in China to Methodist missionaries, a philosopher, most eloquent writer, world-famous religion scholar who practices Hatha Yoga. Has taught at MIT and is currently visiting professor at Univ. of California at Berkley. Smith has also produced PBS series. He has written various books, The World's Religions, "Science and Human Responsibility", and "The Religions of Man". He found in Vedantic Hinduism what he described as: "a profundity of worldview that made my Christianity look like third grade."

(source: Philadelphia Inquirer Section: Faith - By David O'Reilly Sunday June 18, 2000).

He was "perfectly content" with Christianity until the Vedanta came into his life some five decades ago. "When I read the Upanishads, I found a profundity of world view that made my Christianity seem like third grade."

 

[nannilam_balasubramanian]

There are many valuable Hindu Mythological Books and if perused with dedication
if will be an eye opener to its followers. I used to attend Discourses in Satsangs,
whenever there is time, conducted here in the City. As quoted in our literature,
the poems that are available in the Upanishads give striking messages. The poetry
reflect diverse spiritual traditions that have prospered India over the years. Ancient
poetry stretches from the earliest Vedic times to the present day Indian poets.

Balasubramanian
Ambattur

 

[talwan]

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) imperial poet of British India, as well as a writer, who spent his earliest years blissfully happy in an India full of exotic sights and sounds. Kipling was a Nobel Laureate in Literature, and was famous for his poem, The White Man's Burden. He said this to Fundamental Christian Missionaries :

​

"Now it is not good for the Christian's health to hustle the Hindu brown for the Christian riles and the Hindu smiles and weareth the Christian down ; and the end of the fight is a tombstone while with the name of the late deceased and the epitaph drear , " A fool lies here who tried to hustle the east".

57. William Macintosh wrote:"All history points to India as the mother of science and art,"

"This country was anciently so renowned for knowledge and wisdom that the philosophers of Greece did not disdain to travel thither for their improvement." ​

(source: The Invasion That Never Was - By Michel Danino and Sujata Nahar p. 18).

 

[talwan]

Albert Einstein, (1879-1955) physicist. In 1905 He published his theory of Relativity. Einstein said: " When I read the Bhagavad-Gita and reflect about how God created this universe everything else seems so superfluous."
"We owe a lot to Indians who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made."

 

[sarang]

• Erwin Schrodinger: Father of quantum mechanics
  
  This life of yours which you are living is not merely a piece of this entire existence, but in a certain sense the "whole"; only this whole is not so constituted that it can be surveyed in one single glance. This, as we know, is what the Brahmins express in that sacred, mystic formula which is yet really so simple and so clear: tat tvam asi, this is you. Or, again, in such words as "I am in the east and the west, I am above and below, I am this entire world."

 

[sarang]

Erwin Schrodinger: Father a quantum mechanics

• The unity and continuity of Vedanta are reflected in the unity and continuity of wave mechanics. In 1925, the world view of physics was a model of a great machine composed of separable interacting material particles. During the next few years, Schrodinger and Heisenberg and their followers created a universe based on superimposed inseparable waves of probability amplitudes. This new view would be entirely consistent with the Vedantic concept of All in One.

 

[talwan]

Pierre Sonnerat (1748 - 1814) a French naturalist, and author of Voyage aux Indes Orientales et a la Chine, concurred about ancient India, when he wrote: "We find among the Indians the vestiges of the most remote antiquity....We know that all peoples came there to draw the elements of their knowledge ... India, in her splendor, gave religions and laws to all the other peoples; Egypt and Greece owed to her both their fables and their wisdom."

 

[talwan]

Sir William Jones (1746-1794),came to India as a judge of the Supreme Court at Calcutta. He pioneered Sanskrit studies. His admiration for Indian thought and culture was almost limitless. Even at a time when Hinduism was at a low ebb and it was quite fashionable to run it down, he held it in great esteem. While he believed in Christianity, he was attracted to the Hindu concepts of the non-duality of God, as interpreted by Sankara, and the transmigration of the human soul. The later theory he found more rational than the Christian doctrine of punishment and eternity of pain. Writing to his close friend, Earl Spencer, in 1787, he said: " I am no Hindu, but I hold the doctrine of the Hindus concerning a future state to be incomparably more rational, more pious, and more likely to deter men from vice, than the horrid opinions, inculcated on punishments without end" [SUP]
[/SUP]

 

[talwan]

Serge Elisseev - Asian scholar, author of several books, Etudes D'Orientalisme, Publiees Par Le Musee Guimet a La Memoire De Raymonde Linossier: Notes Sur Le Portrait En Extreme-Orient and Peinture Contemporaine au Japon says: " The East is impenetrable to the West only for the man who deliberately refuses to get rid of certain ideas which, like armor, prevent him from bending . . . The teaching of the great Indian thinkers could spiritually enrich the European soul. In the course of its history, the European civilization has lost most of its spiritual values. It can no longer recover them though it still realizes their necessity. For the best of men cannot exist simply on the ideal of "efficiency of work" in the American way. In the condition in which the West finds itself, it is easier for us to go and search for truths in the India, than to come back to the few values we have left in the course of the development of our civilization."

 

[talwan]

Dr. Albert Schweizer (1875-1965) humanitarian, theologian, missionary, organist, and medical doctor.
"The Bhagavad-Gita has a profound influence on the spirit of mankind by its devotion to God which is manifested by actions."

 

[talwan]

Richard Waterstone ( ? ) studied Sanskrit at the University of Edinburgh, journalist, creator of BBC documentary, author, comments in his book on India: Living Wisdom

"Shiva's dance is a symbol of the unity and rhythm of existence. The unending dynamic process of creation and destruction is expressed in the energetic posture of the god. Shiva dances in a ring of fire that refers to the life-death process of the universe."

"There is a striking resemblance between the equivalence of mass and energy symbolized by Shiva's cosmic dance and the Western theory, first expounded by Einstein, which calculates the amount of energy contained in a subatomic particle by multiplying its mass by the square of the speed of light : E=mc2. "
"Well before 700 BC. Hindu sages were chanting neti neti (not that, not that), denying the ultimate reality of an external world in which they saw little more than illusion, and searching instead for the eternal spark of Brahman in the soul within all beings.
(source: India: Living Wisdom- By Richard Waterstone p. 134-135 and 22).

 

[nannilam_balasubramanian]

Whatever may be the explanation given by various people on the Hindu religion, it is
opined to be from the discourses that are delivered. We should be proud to be a Hindu
because it is an eternal religion. Its history undoubtedly takes us to have an idea,
way back in time and periods before the mankind were ever born on this planet. Our
Hindu Shastras no doubt have all the answers to the general questions about our
social and spiritual life. Besides, our traditions, rites, rituals, and above all, our culture and
beliefs, etc certainly stand on a higher platform. Another unbeatable reason is
amazing and wonderful festivals which we celebrate according to our culture and dharma,
reiterates the entire incomparable concept of Hindu Dharma as a whole.

Balasubramaian
Ambattur

 

[talwan]

Roger Housden ( ? ) author of Travels Through Sacred India and a student of the spiritual traditions of India for over 20 years, concurs in his book: "Time, for example, is intimately connected with the goddess Kali, which partly accounts for her destructive nature. Energy - in Einstein's equation, E=MC2 - is personified in India as Shakti in her various guises."
"...The magnificent portrayal of Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, when he appears to Arjuna and gives him the most profound of spiritual teaching."
"India is a vast network of sacred places. The entire country is a sacred land. The sacrality of the land of India, is what, still today, gives a sense of unity to this country of so many religions, cultures, races and factions."

"The Ganga is a living presence, a protector, a healer of ills. The Ganga is as alive as it ever was with the hopes and dreams of an entire culture. Countless flowers are strewn across her body daily; millions of lights set sail every evening upon her waters. While stories of gods and goddesses come and go with the ages, while one myth replaces or rivals another, the organic presence of Ganga continues as ever, absorbing her devotees' offerings and ashes in the same way she has done since time immemorial."

 

[nannilam_balasubramanian]

We have an unmeasurable and un-erasable history of Hindu Religion established by
Shri Adhi Sankara, who preached us devotion as the best means to attain self-knowledge.
History speaks about him that he himself was a great devotee and many slokas/stotras
bear the testimony to that effect. HIS philosophies are praised by the Philosophers
of the world, who respect him for his ardent devotion and the Sanathana Dharma.
At his instance, many Maths were established to make people aware of Great Upanishads
of Hindu Religion.

Samarpanam

Balasubramanian
Ambattur

 

[ganeshanu]

Dear All
I am also very proud to be a HINDU, but i do not know why our country is still lagging in many aspects.
though we are well deciplined, many of the people are affected by health & wealth.

i feel that , as an indian we should donate some of our earnings to the poor child. i request "tamilbrahmins" organisation to start an orphanage and facilitate us to join.

Brahmins are born to serve our contry . we should lead others to show them the way to an eternal life. only for this reason we should earn money. we take pride on this because of not to be teased by other castes.

Regards,
N.Ganesh

 

[nannilam_balasubramanian]

Pride of Hinduism - View of foreigners

As we all know Sanatana Dharma is a universal process and that can be
made applicable to everyone. Hence naturally anybody can practice the
principles or guidelines. Besides, Sanatana Dharma, within itself, have
a treasure of wealth of philosophies. In addition, the Vedic Teachings
envelop spiritual knowledge as the finest one to meet the requirements of
all the people at all levels in the universe. The goal/target of the Vedic
System is to cater for the mean that anyone can use to raise their level
of consciousness and seek to know the Supreme Power, i.e. God. Great
Mahans of our Country like Sri Swami Vivekananda, Bagawan Ramana Maharishi
and many others advocated this aspect very clearly.

As regards your point of setting up of a Treasure House to help the needy,
it is a policy decision to be taken by those at the helm.

Balasubramanian
Ambattur

 

[talwan]

Jacob Wilhelm Hauer (1881-1961) was born in Ditzingen, Wuerttemberg. His parents were pietists. Hauer was trained as a missionary. He taught at a mission school in India from 1907 onwards. He studied and taught Sanskrit. He wrote several books on Hinduism and Yoga. Confronted with Hinduism, he became interested in the religion and no longer regarded Christianity as the sole means of salvation. He gave to the Bhagavad Gita, a central place in the German faith. Hauer also wrote on Yoga. His major work was Der Yoga als Heilweg ("Yoga as a means of salvation") in 1932. Hauer dedicated to C. G. Jung.

 

[talwan]

W. Norman Brown professor of Sanskrit at University of Pennsylvania, author of several books, including Mahimnastava or Praise of Shiva's Greatness, Mythology of India has stated:

" As a religion, Hinduism has set side by side in peaceful coexistence every shade of belief ranging from the most primitive sort of animism to a highly sophisticated philosophical monism, and with this has gone a corresponding range of worship of practice extending from the simplest disease spirits to the most concentrated meditation designed to produce knowledge of abstract impersonal reality."

 

[nannilam_balasubramanian]

W. Norman Brown professor of Sanskrit at University of Pennsylvania, author of several books, including Mahimnastava or Praise of Shiva's Greatness, Mythology of India has stated:

" As a religion, Hinduism has set side by side in peaceful coexistence every shade of belief ranging from the most primitive sort of animism to a highly sophisticated philosophical monism, and with this has gone a corresponding range of worship of practice extending from the simplest disease spirits to the most concentrated meditation designed to produce knowledge of abstract impersonal reality."

A quite interesting information to read and it is an addition to the high values of Hinduism.

Balasubramanian
Ambattur

 

[talwan]

Leopold von Schroeder (1851-1920) German Indologist. In 1884, Schroeder published Pythagoras und die Inder, Eine Untersuchung ueber Herkunft und Anstammung Pythagoreischer Ideen - Pythagoras and the Indians. An examination of the origin and derivation of the ideas of Pythagoras. He says:
"The Indians are the nation of romanticists of antiquity. The Germans are the romantics of modern times. Sentimentality and feelings for Nature are common to both German and Indian poetry. He concludes that all the romantic minds of the West turn towards India because of the deep-rooted similarity between romanticism in Europe."
"Nearly all the philosophical and mathematical doctrines attributed to Pythagoras are derived from India."

 

[talwan]

Kenneth Walker ( ? ) a famous British surgeon, has devoted a good deal of time and writing to the study of Indian thought and literature in search of an answer: The eminent English thinker, presiding over the Sri Ramakrishna birthday anniversary meeting in London in March, 1949, said:
"If the two great nations, India and England, cannot be united by political chords, the ties of spiritual and intellectual co-operation will certainly prove a stronger bond of union. India, the greatest spiritual force of the world, even maintains today those fountain sources of eternal life, which are the only hope of the spiritual resurrection of humanity."

 

[talwan]

Rudolph Steiner (1861-1925), Austrian architect, highly interested in the alignment between science and nature, matter and spirit, he developed an anthropomorphic architecture for his own Anthroposophical Society. A scholar who had edited the works of German dramatist/poet Johann Wolfgang Goethe.
" In order to approach a creation as sublime as the Bhagavad-Gita with full understanding it is necessary to attune our soul to it." "What we read in the Vedas, those archives of Hindu wisdom, gives us only a faint idea of the sublime doctrines of the ancient teachers, and even so these are not in their original form. Only the gaze of the clairvoyant, directed upon the mysteries of the past, many reveal the unuttered wisdom which lies hidden behind these writings."