Sangomji's posts give a lot of historical insights and they do illustrate the futility of promoting one god. Hence polytheism actually makes sense.
I only question the last sentence. Man may have created religion (note the importance of prophets etc.), but not sure if Man created God. Of course he may created the names such as Indra, Vishnu, Shiva, Allah, Yhwh etc.
The more one thinks about this, the less exclusive any particular cultism seems whether it be Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Sunnism, Judaism etc.
This is my reply to Sri Sangom who has very eloquently told us what is advaitam, visishtadvaitam, dwaitam etc., and how the vedas speak about some king in indralokha and his assistants and how these assistants became godheads later in the world. He has even measured the circumference of the bellies of the archakas who were participating in the celebration of Venkatesa Thirukkalyanam to give us some vital statistics about them. LOL.
Disclaimer: My intention here is to meet hard-hitting presentation with a hard-hitting reply. To counter mockery and sarcasm with mockery and sarcasm in equal measure, to meet attempts to rubbish a belief system with a strong rejoinder etc., I hold Sri Sangom in great respect and there is nothing personal and absolutely no malaise. Now please read further:
1. It is just that. A lot of history. And this history is mostly what is written and left behind by western scholars who are known for their obsession with reductionist thinking. Our scholars have parrot-like repeated this intellectual garbage for long. Thus, I as a westerner has come across a certain cult in which the members believe that the sexual act is the ultimate means to realize and reach brahman, I extrapolate and take it right into the garbagriha of your temple and tell you that the image I see there is just the human phallus. And in course of time it becomes a truth and people even try to find a yoni to match that phallus and start calling it the holy Avudaiyar and worship it. Reductionist thinking has lost its relevance long back. Even in a "total" science like genetics, scientists have come to understand that there is more than what is understood by reductionist approach. "I know your grandson and so I will extrapolate him to your son, you, your father, your grandfather and back to eternity and the future in eternity and can understand everything about your lineage" is a flawed "historical" reductionist approach. In the absence of recorded evidences or carbon dating data all other historical approximations are just a lot of bull. There is no use attaching any importance to this kind of historical reductionism.
2. To understand the Hindu philosophy what is required is not reductionism but a holistic approach. We are looking at an ancient civilization of human beings and particularly their cultural practices. As they lived a fairly comfortable life because of the enabling environment of the land in which they lived, they could vigorously think about the universe and the scheme of things that was at work around them. They have left behind some of the most brilliant impressions and insights for our benefit. We do understand that these might have been modified over time despite unique and vigorous conserving efforts. To mock at them, discount them add colors to them etc., because these are products of a different time in the ancient past is ignorance and arrogance. Even the vedic language is not the equivalent of present day panini's sanskrit. That being so we should be very careful while fixing the dates, who preceded whom, who was a god entity and who was not, what was meant by the Godhead, what was the thought process of those distant ancestors etc., They can at best be just speculations and hypotheses. Your guess is as good or as bad as mine. This is precisely the reason why we have so many interpretations to the scriptures all of them valid in their own way.
3. In the history of ancient Tamil society, researchers are still wondering about the item called thinai. There is a kurinji, mullai,marutham, neithal and palai which are used to denote different nilams in those days and every aspect of tamil culture was dovetailed to this basic division . What was the significance of denoting the landmass into these divisions is still vigorously discussed and no one has exactly arrived at a conclusion as to what these signified. We know the line “maayon meya kaadurai……” from ancient tamil literature. We know just that much only. Extrapolating this to mean maayon was Krishna and not muruga and then linking it with rik veda etc., are the games that a reductionist mind plays. This is the same reductionist mind which extrapolates the obsession of an Agori with his penis to the Shivling in the garbagriha of a siva temple. Westerners are adept at playing such games and we have many intellectuals of a local variety who lap up everything said by them.
4. To conclude, it would be wise to unlearn all the history that the western world has given us because they are not recorded chronicles or truth. Let us take only the recorded history wherever it is presented and not the speculations and inferences because they are colored.
5.If one is so anglicized and has become so secular and cynical that he is unable to accept idol worship and all that goes with it, it is not a problem for others who prefer to worship the idols. You can go your way worshiping the emptiness in you or you can even go into the trance of Samadhi and persuade yourself that you have completely effaced the substrate which enjoys that state that is you. But for heaven’s sake don’t think ever that you are the sole repository of wisdom in the world and so the people who worship the numerous idols are all fools or second rated dull-heads. They worship the idols with a reason and that reason can never be captured by some because they are so full of themselves. The best course will be to leave the things as they are and go their way and be happy while letting others go their own way.
6. The other day on the Chithra Pournami day there was this Meenakshi Thirukkalyanam celebrated in Madurai temple grandly (it was telecast too). And the sivacharyas who were performing the thirukkalyanam were not athletics with 6 pack abs. Same way on coming 20[SUP]th[/SUP] October 2014 (3[SUP]rd[/SUP] Aippasi) in Tirunelveli, Kanthimathi Amman Thirukkalyanam, an annual event, is going to be celebrated and those interested can visit Tirunelveli and witness it. This kalyanam is celebrated in the Mantapam which is there at one end of the Amman Sannithi Street. People can wait with bated breath to see the six pack abs of the sivacharyas who are going to tie the thali of the Amman on behalf of Nellaiyappar!! It would be advisable to keep mocking and wry humour within limits and it becomes an unpleasant task to counter it with similar wry humour to drive home the point strongly.
