Whydo we have more gods

[prasad1]

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I am still not convinced that this post was in earnest. I would like Mr. Subramanian to explain his POV. From his post he appears he is not a Hindu or Indian.
There is no hierarchy in caste. There is hierarchy in understanding and achievements. To achieve our ultimate goal is to be one with the supreme Brahman (God). Different names and forms of personal god is a superimposition on Brahman.

 

[srinirajaram]

Dear sir,
I wish to state that one can question any belief or order, only based on the
knowledge he gained either through books, society or the circumstances under which
he experienced life. So I feel Mr.Krs. is trying to get elaborated based on his own views.
I am unable to understand his claim of 'upgrading' all Indians to 'Brahmins'. Mr. Krs to
please come forward with his detailed reply.
-Srinirajaram.

 

[prasad1]

Dear sir,
I wish to state that one can question any belief or order, only based on the
knowledge he gained either through books, society or the circumstances under which
he experienced life. So I feel Mr.Krs. is trying to get elaborated based on his own views.
I am unable to understand his claim of 'upgrading' all Indians to 'Brahmins'. Mr. Krs to
please come forward with his detailed reply.
-Srinirajaram.

Mr. Srinirajaram,
I understand your POV, but this is not his first post. He insults the members in this forum, secondly people know that in India there are various religion, and various caste divisions. So his question does not appear to be sincere. You do need to do some research before posting in any forum.

 

[kr subramanian]

dear renukaji,
since you are a doctor by profession (as I suppose from your example) about 10 years back we were having only MBBS doctors., People used to go to them for medical checkup and they used to diagonise problem and give treatment. But science has grown so much that every part of our body has a specialised doctor who more depends on lab results. In the same way inBharath we have guides specialised in many ways to take us to mukthi marga whereas in other parts of world.they are just as with mbbs doctor. Here unityof humanity is not in question. Scope for upliftment was the point raised by e and I stick to the same.

 

[renuka]

dear renukaji,
since you are a doctor by profession (as I suppose from your example) about 10 years back we were having only MBBS doctors., People used to go to them for medical checkup and they used to diagonise problem and give treatment. But science has grown so much that every part of our body has a specialised doctor who more depends on lab results. In the same way inBharath we have guides specialised in many ways to take us to mukthi marga whereas in other parts of world.they are just as with mbbs doctor. Here unityof humanity is not in question. Scope for upliftment was the point raised by e and I stick to the same.

Dear sir,

I get what you mean. You want to view India as ONE INDIA where everyone is the same.
In fact I feel may be you are being misunderstood in this thread.
I get what you are trying to say.
You feel there is more scope for a spiritual upliftment for a person born in India cos there are many aspects of the ONE God to cater to the specialized spiritual needs.

Ok lets put it this way..lets take God as the Divine Physician. For example take Lord Shiva, He is often described as Bheshajam Bhava Roginam ..the Divine Physician for the Diseases of Existence.
So lets make Him the Health Minister..working under Him there are many directors,officers,medical personnel for the well being of the patient.

The aim of the whole Divine Ministry of Health is to make us Mrityunjaya(to conquer death) and to guide us right from our existence so that we are never born again and no need to die again and again.

So sir..this is in a nutshell what you were trying to say.
But tell me the truth sir..how many people in this world or even in India actually think on these lines when the common man is more worried when his next meal is coming.

We really cant think of God and spiritual upliftment on an empty stomach.

Thats why I feel Caturvarna is actually describing the spiritual stages of our lives.

Working hard and dependent on others for sustenance (Shudra)
Able to provide for oneself(Vaisya)
Starting to fight the battle of one's own senses(Kshatriya)
Contemplating on God and realizing Brahman(Brahmana)

This is how I would like to view the Caturvarna system

Just to add..no one can uplift anyone else except himself..after all didnt Lord Krishna say:

​

Uddharet Atmana Atmanam Natmanam Avasadayet
Atmaiva Hyatmano Bandhuratmaiva Ripuratmanah.

"Let a man raise himself by himself, let him not lower himself; for he alone is the friend of himself, he alone is the enemy of himself."

 

[Naina_Marbus]

Am i missing something? That web link works well for me. Where does it say 'unauthorized'? I am sure, I am missing something.
Cheers!

Here is a screen shot:

 

[N. Sridhar]

No many god. Each person have some thought in their mind so they can sketch the picture as per their mind. Whatever picture but one follow one god, so that they can easily do meditate. If so many god mind is not in one stand.

 

[C RAVI]

I don't understand what and why some members are talking about only one God? Why are they saying that Hindus are basically worshiping one God and there is nothing but a mere sketch of different images/forms of God as per some one's mind storm imaginations? I fail to understand why some members say that we can worship and meditate on one God only? Why they say there exists only one God for your day to day spirituality?

I do understand and accept that there is only one Supreme Brahman - Nirguna Brahman - The absolute purest conscious.

But we do believe in Saguna Brahman, representing multiple spiritual energies that helps in strengthening our sense and shaping our individuality.

When I was in Chennai, I used to visit temples at least 3 days a week before leaving for office. On every Sankatahara Chaturthi I participate in homam and abhishekam and meditate on Lord Ganesha without any distraction. On Kirthikai and Shashti I offer my prayers to Lord Murugan and meditate on him to my heart content. I visit Shiva temple, Durga temple, Kali temple, Pratiyangara Devi, I worship Dhakshinamoorthy, Lord Hanuman, Kala Bhairavar, Sarpeswarar, Shiridi Saibaba, Lord Rama, Krishna, Navagrahas and so many.

Each of my worship gives different stimulation to my senses and I feel strengthened and satisfied. Each deity and his/her worship provides me with strengthening my respective senses that all are needed for better thoughts, knowledge, skills, determinations and actions.

On every Friday, in the morning, I used to lit a ghee lamp in our pooja room, sit before the lamp and meditate Devi Durga for half an hour.

I meditate on multiple Gods and I derive immense pleasure. My spirituality towards multiple Gods strengthens my inner self, intuition and the drive to perform my multiple duties as a human, with my sense of morality, discipline and humanity.

We have multiple Saguna Brahman, symbolized in particular forms, representing multiple cosmic/spiritual energies. We worship them and attempt to keep our self in tact as humans, fulfilling our spiritual needs and living a life of descent accomplishments.

With all our spirituality in dedication to multiple cosmic / spiritual energies, we Hindus attempt to live an ideal life, shaping our personality for better and striving to achieve "UPLIFTMENT" of our self to the level of Brahman in our desire to be relieved from the cycle of birth-death-rebirth and get dissolved with the supreme being.

This philosophy and spiritual system of Hinduism has its origin from Bhaarath, that helps each Hindu to strive towards self upliftment and get liberated.


MERA BHAARATH MAHAAN.

 

[kr subramanian]

dear renukaji,
first of all thank you for understanding my point of view to a certain extent.
madam, from your explanation of chathurvarna do you mean that only person well off (monetarily/physically) can only be treated as brahmana and he onlyhave time/ability to devote for salvation. I am intererested in your views. can you explainmore.

 

[suraju06]

oru naamam oruruvam onrum illarkku oiram thirunaamam padi naam thellenam kottome.

 

[renuka]

dear renukaji,
first of all thank you for understanding my point of view to a certain extent.
madam, from your explanation of chathurvarna do you mean that only person well off (monetarily/physically) can only be treated as brahmana and he onlyhave time/ability to devote for salvation. I am intererested in your views. can you explainmore.

Dear sir,

I never mentioned richness anywhere in my description of the spiritual aspect of the Caturvarna.
I used the word sustenance.
Man needs some basic amount of Roti,Kapda Aur Makaan for a decent life.

Ok lets take Kuchela episode..he was facing financial insecurity and even his wife and kids had hardly food and he was too worried about sustenance of life.
Thats why he sought to see Lord Krishna hoping He would solve his problems.
Kuchela had faith in God but in time of adversity he wanted some material to feed his wife and children.
Thats the normal reaction of any human being...anyone of us will be agitated if we have to worry if our spouse and kids might get their next meal or not.

Only when all basic needs in life are met the mind can focus on the final aspect of religion.

For that matter even if you notice the evolution of the Vedas you will realize that man is expected to meet all his basic needs before he can even have an idea of any Mahavakya of the Vedas.

At the beginning man worshiped nature..hence we see praises to the Devas which govern nature like the Sun,Wind,Rain/Water,Fire etc.

Then when man learnt to harness the power of nature..agriculture came into the picture and we see more rituals on increasing grain and rain for a better harvest.

Then when men became a bit more financially stable there are rituals on acquiring cattle,wealth.

Next stage is when men desire heavenly status and yagnas for enjoying higher heavenly status which are usually carried out by Kings.

In the above stages the idea of a personal god(Saguna Brahman) has a firm footing cos man needs a focus for his mind.
And the various aspects of Saguna Brahman helps shape a mans intellect too.

Final stage is when men realizes the impermanence of family, wealth and even heaven, he desires liberation and the idea of a personal god ceases to be and finally realizes Brahman hence a Brahmana.

 

[Naina_Marbus]

@CRAVI

I like your pov.

Philosophy cannot bake bread. But to bake bread, one needs a philosophy. Why do I want to bake bread? Why should I eat? Why should I live?

Or, at a different level, how did I come into this world? Why was I not consulted? And if I have to partake of this world, who is directing this world? Can I get to meet the director and talk to him? Some of these questions were posed by Soren Kierkegaard, a Danish philosopher.

Does it all look like some kind of a game? Mythologies and scriptures serve the role of inspiring, involving and initiating laymen to play this game. Getting worked up about the multitude of gods - as if that is a bad thing - resembles the mental perspective of a four-year old.

The Hindu belief-system ( philosophy? faith ? religion? or sanatana dharma ?) employs symbolisms, metaphors and other ( literary? ) devices to express the "reality" of the observable world. It works at several levels of human consciousness/awareness - and, depending on one's psychological make-up, these symbolisms can mean one thing to one person and a different thing to another person. The "reality" can therefore appear to be subtle, too simple or too complex.

Often, more than one meaning can be implied by any single statement or imagery. If one is looking for a hidden meaning, the interpretation is dependent on one's own psycho-socio-cultural disposition.

Anyway, what or who are these gods?

Modern science reveals that, in the ultimate analysis, the 'reality' of this ‘observable’ universe, originates from one thing (one reality?) which can be comprehended through its dual manifestation: energy/matter. This contemporary perspective in science is not unlike the Hindu perspective that there is only one reality called Brahman with a dual manifestation – purusha and prakriti, or nirguna brahman and sagunabrahman. Just as Energy/matter can take various forms, similarly, brahman can manifest in various forms - including the multitude of gods that have different qualities, characters and attributes.

Carl Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist, the founder of analytical psychology. Jung is considered the first modern psychiatrist to view the human psyche as "by nature religious" and make it the focus of exploration. According to Jung, all these gods correspond to "universal archetypes", deep psychological realities. Archetypes? They are components of the sub-conscious, which are expressed through the characters and themes upon which the puranas are based. In this view, the gods mirror our conscious and unconscious drives, fears, ambitions, and so on. If a student worships Ganesha, he is expressing his psychological desire to be successful in his examinations. The bania worshipping Lakshmi is expressing his desire for wealth. The images of gods are symbolic.

A devotee chooses to worship one god or another ( ishta devata), or many gods depending on which attributes resonate with his own psychological makeup. Just because an ishta devata is worshipped, the concept of brahman is not compromised. Does a teenager idolising a sports person and/or a movie actor compromise his relationship with his parents?

Say you are using the IE browser on your PC or laptop. For printing a file, you have several options:

1) you can click on the printer icon, or
2) the text labeled 'PRINT' or
3) hit the 'ctrl' plus letter 'P' on the keyboard.

These three options are in a virtual sense three icons or images so-to-speak; are there three real printers or which one of these represents the real printer? Similarly, there is a different set of symbols/labels/icons for saving a file. And so on and so forth.