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To: Cronos
Not quite. Modern day Hinduism bears little to no resemblance to Vedic Hinduism with it's worshipping of Aryanic gods like Mithra, Varuna and especially Indra... incorporating ahimsa and vegetarianism... absorbed many of the Greek religious thoughts... influenced by Christianity...Christianity, in it's turn came back to India to give the Hindu culture the concept of a trinity (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva).

What you describe is a worship-centric, accretionary historical process which is actually peripheral to the Sanatan Dharma philosophy that makes up the core of what is called "Hinduism" today.

The Sanatan Dharma is the philosophy not only that everything is God, but also that God has become everything and everyone, and so the process of "salvation" consists in "realizing" that one's own, personal, essential Self is none other than God. This essential Self is not the egoic, limited self that identifies with a particular body, mind and personal history. The sun and it's rays, the ocean and it's waves, and similiar examples are given to illustrate how a center disburses itself into the illusion of separateness.

Thus what is called "worship," from pre-vedic, through vedic and up to modern times, is seen as nothing other than an aide to focus the mind on deeper and more profound aspects of God with which one is already a part, yet disconnected from in experience. On the other hand, Hinduism teaches that when the mind takes an incarnation of God as a focal point, that incarnation has the power to bring a person to the full realization of God. Which is why, when a Christian tells a Hindu that they focus on Jesus Christ alone, the Hindu sees no problem with that - in fact, from a Hindu point of view, it is very efficient.

So when you describe a historical accretion of apparent influences on Hinduism, you are not describing any change whatever in the core Sanatan Dharma. You are merely describing historical influences on the interpretation of various manifestations of God, and descriptions of divine behaviors that Hinduism already accepted as the "normal" behavior of an infinitely creative Divine. That's why Hinduism could accept Jesus Christ so completely - He was seen as another world-manifestation Divine expression of the Lord, within a framework where such world-manifestations of the Lord are necessary to change world history. In Hinduism, examples of such other manifestations are Krishna and Rama, and there are many others as well.

In addition, something so fundamental as the Trinity is hardly new to Hinduism. Even before Brahma, Vishnu & Shiva, the concepts of God's powers of creation, protection and destruction/rebirth were fundamental, because of their requirement for rational thought about the universe across time.

96 posted on 07/30/2009 4:29:45 PM PDT by Talisker (When you find a turtle on top of a fence post, you can be damn sure it didn't get there on it's own.)
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To: Talisker
What you describe is a worship-centric, accretionary historical process which is actually peripheral to the Sanatan Dharma philosophy that makes up the core of what is called "Hinduism" today.

perhaps -- however, like all religions, Hinduism has absorbed from others and influenced others.

I would disagree with you and say that Sanatan Dharma philosophy is not self-evident in Vedic Hinduism -- "The Sanatan Dharma is the philosophy not only that everything is God, but also that God has become everything and everyone, and so the process of "salvation" consists in "realizing" that one's own, personal, essential Self is none other than God." --> I don't see that reflected in the Vedas, but perhaps i haven't read it well enough. Also, Hinduism is so old, and also, the early Hebrew religion does not resemble modern day Rabbinical Judaism.

That's why Hinduism could accept Jesus Christ so completely - He was seen as another world-manifestation Divine expression of the Lord, within a framework where such world-manifestations of the Lord are necessary to change world history. In Hinduism, examples of such other manifestations are Krishna and Rama, and there are many others as well.

True -- hindus can accept Christ but they aren't able to absorb Mohammed -- I wonder why?

In addition, something so fundamental as the Trinity is hardly new to Hinduism. Even before Brahma, Vishnu & Shiva, the concepts of God's powers of creation, protection and destruction/rebirth were fundamental, because of their requirement for rational thought about the universe across time.

The concept of a Trinity of Gods representing different aspects of the Godhead is plainly part of post-Christian influence hindu thought. Of course the christian idea of the trinity differs from the Hindu concept, but the idea of 3 is plainly an outside influence (like I said that the idea of angels is an influence of Zoroastrianism on Judaism)
106 posted on 07/31/2009 3:22:59 AM PDT by Cronos (Ceterum censeo, Mecca et Medina delendae sunt + Jindal 2K12)
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