HINDUISM - SAGES - AVTARS - REFORMERS - PROPHETS

HINDUISM

SAGES,AVTARS, REFORMERS

AND

PROPHETS

A civil society and a civil Government are more than enough, if there is no God, Satan, Heaven and Hell.

Think of it. If we are sure that there is no God, we won’t need religion. However, we will definitely need a Civil Government for orderly and peaceful living.

It is difficult to say if religion came first or civil Government.

We will talk of religion here and not of civil government. This is because, Human mind has always been speculating on (i) what happened to us before our birth and (ii) what would happen to us after our death.

This speculation is natural for human mind and does not need a government. It is individualistic basically but when people come together, it becomes a religion.

 

This speculation on life before birth and life after death gave rise to different religions at different times and different places, as people speculated, postulated and  invented (or discovered) God, Satan, Heaven,  Hell and such other metaphysical phenomena, with widely differing characteristics in each religion.

Several thousands of years before other religions came into existence, Hinduism had come into existence. Hindu religious stalwarts had debated on these phenomena in great detail and had come to certain conclusions.

Nothing was ever accepted in Hinduism without detailed, logical questioning and reasoning. As a consequence, Hinduism developed many schools of thought on these phenomena like Advaita, Dvaita, Visishtadvaita and so on, unlike other religions. All these schools of thought have become part of Hinduism. All of them co-exist until today.

Aham Brahmasmi or I am myself the Brahman or the supreme is as much an accepted concept in Hinduism as Dvaita or Dualism and Visishtadvaitha or specialized non dualism. All these co-exist today.

Hinduism was always an evolving, reforming and modernizing religion. You can accept any school of thought and yet be a Hindu. You can reject all schools of thought and yet be a Hindu. You can accept or reject God. You can be an idol worshipper or an image less worshipper. You can focus on self exploration like in Meditation.

I am not going to deal much with the most ancient texts of Vedas today, as these are largely unknown to current day Hindus. Yes. These are studied by a miniscule section even today. But their impact on Hinduism  in current days is very less.

Upanishads are the last parts of Vedas but are studied as independent texts also. They reveal great debates on several metaphysical phenomena that happened countless years ago. They are studied a little more than Vedas, being simpler and more practical. But, even they have very little impact and relevance on current day Hinduism and Hindus.

Sanskrit, in which these scriptures are written has gone largely out of popular usage.

Mahabharat and Ramayan are very popular and are well known to most Hindus as these are made into popular books, movies and TV serials. They spread the core values of Hinduism among all people.

Bhagavad Geetha, propounded by Lord Krishna, is the most popular scripture and is accepted as the easiest and the best religious scripture by most schools of thought. 

GEETHA gives four paths for God realization : Bhakthi Yoga, Karma Yoga, Dhyana Yoga and Jnana Yoga. The depiction of these is beautiful and extraordinary. Lord Krishna has stated that what he has pronounced in Geetha is nothing but age old, and most ancient wisdom and nothing new. Thus, it represents the essence of all past teaching. Geetha is thus the quintessence of all Vedas and Upanishads. Unlike the other ancient texts, Geetha comes directly from Lord Krishna who is undoubtedly the manifestation of the supreme, almighty.

Geetha represents a great forward step for Hinduism.

Lord Krishna has explicitly told that he ( the God) himself takes birth on earth whenever there is too much Unrighteousness and when righteous people are subjected by the unrighteous people to too much distress. These incarnations are usually called Avtars .

Lord Krishna was the last such Avtar, who came in Dwapar Yug, 5500 years back and went away after cleansing the earth of unrighteousness. Crores of warriors got killed in the Great Mahabharat war. Did unrighteousness end with these killings? To some extent, yes. Dwapar yug ended soon after  Lord Krishna ended his incarnation.

Kaliyug started soon after and it is said to be more predominantly unrighteous, compared to Dwapar Yug. We are now said to be in the first quarter of Kaliyug. All of our future discussions will be on how Hinduism stands at present and what reforms and improvements are needed in it now.

Experientially, we all know that human minds contain righteousness and unrighteousness both. Their character is so. Their proportion varies from individual to individual and society to society. 

Lord Krishna says that - (i) Mind is difficult to control but (ii) it can be controlled through practice and non-attachment, and (iii) righteousness can be cultivated and practiced. In essence, it means that proper education and practice creates righteousness in us. Do we have such education right now? The answer is a big No.

Lord Kalki is named as the last Avtar and  he will come much later in Kaliyug. That is what the future predictions say. Are we going to live with growing unrighteousness till his supposed arrival or are we going to reform the society right now is the choice before us. We must reform the society now.

Extraordinary people devoted to spreading of righteousness are born periodically in India and are available even now amidst us. India is producing such great Human beings from time to time.

The important fact is – today, Hinduism is largely India-centric. We do not know much about the distant past. Images of Hindu Gods are being unearthed in all parts of the world periodically. So, we really do not know about the distant past.

But, Indian Rishis were always aware of the immensity of earth and the oceans. There were no multiple religions in their times though multiple schools of thought existed. Therefore, Individual seeking and mutual discussions and debating were common but not the present kind of unseemly conversions without conviction.

Lord Krishna was the last and latest Avtar, and only Lord Kalki is supposed to come as the next Avtar. But, great sages are appearing from time to time, in between. Buddha came about 2500 years ago as an enlightened soul and a great reformer.

Hinduism has immense space for such reformers always. This was a land of Individual seekers and Jnanis always. Buddha was essentially a reformer of Hinduism but his followers made his teachings into a different and distinct religion.Hinduism also adopted many of the Buddhist principles but not all.

Had Buddha studied the Hindu scriptures and woven his teachings around them and with reference to them, Hinduism would have reformed rather than providing justification for creating a new religion. Ditto with Mahavir of Jainism and Guru Nanak of Sikhism.

Lord Krishna’s teachings remained India-centric and Buddha’s teachings spread from Nepal to china, Japan and Sri Lanka etc but not to Middle East or the west. Hinduism and Buddhism were simply unknown in the rest of the world. So, Jesus and Mohammad came up in the Middle East.

It is generally believed by the followers of Jesus that Jesus will come again. They however don’t know when, where and how he will come again and how they will identify him in his new incarnation.

We will raise the same question with reference to Mohammad. Why did Mohammad come as a prophet, after the death of Christ and before the rebirth of Christ, within just 500 years, at a very nearby place to the place of birth of Jesus? Simple logic. By that time, the teachings of Jesus had not spread to Mecca, Madina and other places. No other reason.

Mohammad taught many things which vary drastically from what Jesus taught and Jesus taught many things which vary drastically from what Lord Buddha taught which vary drastically from what Lord Krishna taught. The followers of each Prophet are rigid and blind in their faith. They don’t want to even look at other  prophets, their teachings and their relevance. This is most unlike the earlier ,spiritual and religious explorations by Indian seekers and rishis. Their minds were much more open to reasoning and questioning.

Geetha was the ultimate testament of truth given 5500 years before, by Lord Krishna, in his own voice and words. It is extraordinarily scientific.It was recorded by Veda Vyasa, the greatest sage of all times. The teachings in the Geetha are fantastic and extremely scientific.

Why don’t the people of the whole world read the Geetha first , then the Tripitikas, then the Bible and then the Koran? The answer is simple. Geetha is getting translated into English only now whereas Bible got translated into English long ago. Second reason is, Bible is read widely and taught in the church. Koran is taught in Masjid or Mosque. Geetha is not taught in the temples or any where to all Hindus. So, even Hindus do not know its rich  contents sufficiently! Nobody, till today, extracted the Gist of Geetha and made it as an authoritative summary, to be taught in temples, schools and universities.This is the greatest need for Hinduism today.

If the essentials of Geetha are widely prevalent and known, other religion scriptures would not be this popular in India at least? Hinduism must move with times and reform itself.

That said, I have some reformist thoughts about all religious Books and Teachings. Everything in the whole Universe is subject to constant and continuous change. We all know that. But all religious scriptures stand “sealed”, thousands of years ago, to be precise, at the respective times of their birth, be it the Bhagavad Geeta, the Bible, the Koran or any other religious scripture.

Religious puritans say – their scriptures are unchangeable. They are held as unchangeable even when latest, scientifically verifiable facts contradict the scriptures, or, even when some of their declarations and exhortations are the biggest cause of all avoidable suffering, including huge wars, on earth.

Geeta was sealed in its present shape 5500 years ago. Bible was sealed 2000 years ago. Koran was sealed 1500 years ago. We don’t at all know about the Vedas and Upanishads. Much bloodshed and wars in the world seem to be due to this UNCHANGEABLE NATURE of all religious scriptures.

Buddha taught non violence, love and deep meditational practices for enlightenment. There is nothing in his teachings to quarrel with, especially for Hindus in India. It is the Yogic path taught by Lord Krishna, with minor differences and detailed prescriptions. Mahaveer taught much the same things but perhaps with more emphasis on non violence.

Both were very much needed – to reform Hinduism itself. Unfortunately, they became two independent religions, instead of reforming the parent religion. In my view, the theme of “sambhavami yuge yuge” of Lord Krishna applies to both Buddha and Mahaveer.  I believe that they were needed and they were sent specifically to weed out “Adharma” from human society.

When Adi Sankaracharya came on the scene a little later, he started reforming Hinduism itself and infused the much needed love and non-violence into it to some extent. Hindus started accepting Buddha as an AVTAR. Gradually, Hinduism started following many Buddhist practices also within the fold of Hinduism.

Adi Sankara also sought to end the unseemly rivalry between Vasihnavites and Saivites with his unequivocal assertion that Siva and Vishnu were one and the same. Yeko devah kesavova, Sivova, Sivaya Vishnu roopaaya, vishnuroopaya namah Sivaha…and so on.. In his days, the unseemly rivalry between followers of Siva and Vishnu was prominent, ignoring the ancient teaching that the one and only supreme Brahman is in all.

If Adi Sankara was born much later, after the western and west Asian invaders came to India, he would have included the names of Allah and Ehovah also in the above slokas, along with Siva and Vishnu.

He was very broad minded and egalitarian in his approach. Under his influence, we, the Hindus, worshipped a single image and form with 1000 names! Each family can of course have a different Image. 2 more names like allah and ehovah would have been easily accepted by us under the influence of some great sage born after the influx of westerners.

Adi Sankaracharya condemned practices like UNTOUCHABILITY in unequivocal terms. He had condemned it in several of his teachings. But, he lived for TOO SHORT  a period and hence, could not reform Hinduism in this respect much.

Adi Sankaracharya had set up 4 Sankara Mutts with very competent Swamijis as their heads. But, Adi Sankara’s zeal and energy for social reform is missing.

Later came Ramanujacharya. In respect of Social and religious reform, Ramanuja also strove in the same Genre as Adi Sankaracharya and condemned the practices of Untouchability. He actively tried to reform the caste system. But, he did not set up any effective institutions to carry forward his mission of social reform.

Likewise, Madhvacharya preached many good things. His influence also stays in some pockets only.

We must remember that, in those days, current day type of speedy communication devices and methods, media to propagate the leader’s views and exhortations etc were not available. It was word of mouth of just one person who was fighting against the deep seated ugly practices of a huge society.

So, however much Adi Sankara, Ramanuja, and Madhvacharya tried, they could not make much dent in the social evils of caste and untouchability.

Many other ‘social’ reformers also came and went. They tried to introduce many different and much needed reforms within Hinduism, succeeded to some extent and failed to some extent.

Guru Nanak rose as a social reformer and preached a new set of energetic reforms. His messages and those of the subsequent Gurus strengthened their followers into a distinct, high energy religion called Sikhism. I would have loved it much more, if Sikhs, en masse, are recognized as the much needed Kshatriya class of Hinduism then or at least now.

Swami Vivekananda was a great and eloquent reformer  and he went all around India spreading the message of Love, non-violence, Unity, respect for all, respect for women and so on. Swami Vivekananda once said that, he needed at least 100 highly energetic and devoted Indian youth to spread his message and transform India.

It seems he could not get those 100 highly energetic and devoted Indian youths to achieve his lofty goals in his days. His demise occurred before that. With great foresight, he and his friends and disciples set up Ramakrishna Missions at several places which carried forward his Mission significantly. The Ramakrishna Missions are doing a great job in many respects till this day. Ramakrishna Missions need to do a whole lot more work to unite and harmonize Hinduism. That said, their work is great and impressive and highly laudable but not focused enough to achieve any single  religious reform completely.

Mahatma Gandhi was a pioneer in setting personal example to abolish untouchability. He brought together freedom fighters from all sections and set personal example in every aspect of human behavior. People of all castes came together under his leadership, like never before. He always said – be the example that you wish to see in the world. Be the change that you want to see in the world – this was his firm conviction. And, he was a role model for the whole world.

Dr.Ambedkar’s role in making the Indian constitution bind the Government to abolish UNTOUCHABILITY is a great and invaluable contribution. He influenced all opinion leaders in the constituent assembly on these aspects.

Raja Rammohan Roy abolished the practice of “Sati” through law.Likewise, Child marriage stands abolished by Law. These are great Hindu reforms.

 

After Independence only, India has emerged as a single entity. Urbanization, big cities, industrialization etc brought people from the Hindu mode of living into the western mode of living. This changed occupations, dress, culture and professions from the traditional ones drastically to highly altered new ones. The whole methods of living changed. But, some nauseating old practices like untouchability and caste divide remained. They need drastic change now in tune with the changing realities and social structures. This urgent need for unity and social transformation is growing every moment in India.

Today, there are of course, many great leaders with a great reformist mindset in India. They are striving today to abolish untouchability completely, unite the Hindu society and bring in the much needed social harmony and individual dignity.

Many reforms have in fact happened in the last 70 years. It is now time to make the final, successful assault on some of the vexatious issues plaguing the Hindu society. But, some recent complications are hindering the reform process.

My idea and goal is to suggest practical measures to make Hinduism the most open and the best religion of the world,

(i)                 which is open to all,

(ii)               in which every Individual has a dignified place,

(iii)             in which everybody gets equally respected,

(iv)         which marches shoulder to shoulder and step to step with the best of science, and

(v)          in which science, scientific exploration and the best of human compassion prevail

(vi)             which strives for human welfare always.

There are social and religious leaders even today, who are striving exactly for such a change. I can count all Ramakrishna Mission Heads, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Sri Sri Ravishankar,Baba Ramdev among the leaders  who are non-sectarian, liberal, and would be interested in making Hinduism a universally acceptable religion.

I will close this chapter with a famous poem of Ravindra Nath Tagore :

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high

Where knowledge is free

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments

By narrow domestic walls

Where words come out from the depth of truth

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit

Where the mind is led forward by thee

Into ever-widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake”

Essentially, this was always the Hindu religious thought as we shall see in subsequent chapters also. Our Goal is to achieve this dream of Tagore, in our Hindu religion today.

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