There are certain thoughts and practices that we call religious. Sometimes proudly, sometimes with disdain. Finding coherent answers to the questions in the nature of " why we think in a certain way and we only we as a community think of something in a certain way" is a mind boggling job. I have been looking for a straight line which could take me to where it all began. To the moment where we first decided that what is right in our territory and what is not. But of course, there are no straight lines. There are no coherent answers.
In respect to communism, Rousseau said that the first criminal in the history of mankind was the person who decided to put a boundary around a piece of land and called it his own. In respect to Hinduism,I would say that the first pundits, who proclaimed to be the only one to have a right to talk to God, committed an equally serious crime. They claimed an ability to interpret God and impose it on everyone else.
The general idea is that it all began with the advent of Vedic age and the division of people into Varnas. Almost all religious practices that we follow till date and the conditioning that a hindu mind beholds at present, took birth in the minds of the vedic gurus and pundits who thought that the first thing God wanted them to tell people was that they were not born equal and only a certain section among them was worthy of communicating with Him.
Thus began the existence of manuals. The self proclaimed God agents started telling people what to do and what not to do. Rules came into being. The Wrong and the Right had been created.
While Manu's invention of the concept of Family is well appreciated here on my blog, the concept of arranged marriages that came with it, is not. From where did this concept of marriage without love evolve. From the teachings of the Hindu Gods? Hardly.
Sati and Shiva married out of love defying Daksha. Ram and Sita felt the pangs of love before marriage. Parvati pursued Mahadev for years before he married her. Krishna's tales of love are well known. Hindu Gods seemed to champion love alliances. So who first thought of turning the union of two people a loveless process to be followed within social hierarchies? When did we start judging people who dared to fall in love with wrath and disdain?
And then there is the three letter word.Who made sex a taboo? Hinduism has attributed one complete God on the subject. So I don't think God has any problem with it. The most famous Hindu symbol of worship (Shivalinga) celebrates the union of the male and female energies of the universe. There are famous temples who worship the Mother Goddess in the most basic form of a reproductive organ.Tantric texts cite Shiva talking about achieving Him through sex.
No, Hindu Gods had nothing against sex either.
All the Rigveda verses can be interpreted in more than one way, as I have heard. There is a reason why all ancient texts appear mysterious and puzzling even when you translate them into facilitating language. They were written that way. They were meant to be interpreted in more than one way. If not for the Brahmins and the pundits, Hinduism would still have been today what it was meant to be. A liberal way of life which gave each existing human being the right to decide his own set of wrongs and rights. An independent interpretation and version of God's message because everyone has the right to talk to God without any mediators. That's the way God wanted religion to be. A personal medium to connect to Him. Nothing more. Nothing less.
In respect to communism, Rousseau said that the first criminal in the history of mankind was the person who decided to put a boundary around a piece of land and called it his own. In respect to Hinduism,I would say that the first pundits, who proclaimed to be the only one to have a right to talk to God, committed an equally serious crime. They claimed an ability to interpret God and impose it on everyone else.
The general idea is that it all began with the advent of Vedic age and the division of people into Varnas. Almost all religious practices that we follow till date and the conditioning that a hindu mind beholds at present, took birth in the minds of the vedic gurus and pundits who thought that the first thing God wanted them to tell people was that they were not born equal and only a certain section among them was worthy of communicating with Him.
Thus began the existence of manuals. The self proclaimed God agents started telling people what to do and what not to do. Rules came into being. The Wrong and the Right had been created.
While Manu's invention of the concept of Family is well appreciated here on my blog, the concept of arranged marriages that came with it, is not. From where did this concept of marriage without love evolve. From the teachings of the Hindu Gods? Hardly.
Sati and Shiva married out of love defying Daksha. Ram and Sita felt the pangs of love before marriage. Parvati pursued Mahadev for years before he married her. Krishna's tales of love are well known. Hindu Gods seemed to champion love alliances. So who first thought of turning the union of two people a loveless process to be followed within social hierarchies? When did we start judging people who dared to fall in love with wrath and disdain?
And then there is the three letter word.Who made sex a taboo? Hinduism has attributed one complete God on the subject. So I don't think God has any problem with it. The most famous Hindu symbol of worship (Shivalinga) celebrates the union of the male and female energies of the universe. There are famous temples who worship the Mother Goddess in the most basic form of a reproductive organ.Tantric texts cite Shiva talking about achieving Him through sex.
No, Hindu Gods had nothing against sex either.
All the Rigveda verses can be interpreted in more than one way, as I have heard. There is a reason why all ancient texts appear mysterious and puzzling even when you translate them into facilitating language. They were written that way. They were meant to be interpreted in more than one way. If not for the Brahmins and the pundits, Hinduism would still have been today what it was meant to be. A liberal way of life which gave each existing human being the right to decide his own set of wrongs and rights. An independent interpretation and version of God's message because everyone has the right to talk to God without any mediators. That's the way God wanted religion to be. A personal medium to connect to Him. Nothing more. Nothing less.
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