How I Understand My Religion

I write this being an Undergrad in Engineering. Its Kind of funny right an Engineer writing about RELIGION!!! So let me start by posing a question at you. What exactly is a Religion? Is it the basis for Rocket science so hard to Understand? Is it Magic (Tantra and Mantra)? Is it Hidden or something which shouldnt be understood? Or It Just shows the path on the way we live. Wait a minute the last one sounds a bit more LOGICAL. I remember my mom asking me to brush before having anything in the morning, asking me to wash my legs before entering into a temple, asking me to bath before leaving my home, the way we dress up for different occasions. We all know the messages our festivals convey. So my article no makes a gripping sense as I am portraying my views on the way I am taught to live. Beginning with the way the religion HINDUISM started, one most recognized and approved theory is that in connection with the R.Indus which we call in Sanskrit as Sindu River, when the Persian crossed Hindu Kush mountain ranges and entered the region on the banks of river Indus which called to be River Sindu, They say that they couldnt Spell Sindu and Miss Spelt it as HINDOO and people living there as HINDUS and the religion they follow as Hinduism. So its obvious that we are ruled by them in the modern era and the Name Hindustan where Stan mean place in Arabic. Shows the evidences of effect of central Asians Rule. There is a Interesting information given by the religious heads of Hinduism that the word Hinduism isnt given by anyone else but in Sanskrit again Hin mean wrong or false and Du mean Who will not do . So according to Sanskrit Hindu is someone who wont do wrong deeds. In Either way this ancient religion is called Hinduism and I am a Hindu. I call the Religion Ancient because it has been followed and practiced in this land for more than 4500-5000 years now. Is it the same all through? When I ask a 9 year old what do you understand by religion he might answer An old ma n with an yellow cloth on his body chants something which no one can understand This could be the most obvious answer we might expect. Here the man who caught the attention of the boy as we all know was the Priest. So now I have a question, Is Hinduism all about Priests or Brahmins? Few Might say yes but a historian or a keen observer of ancient religion will not agree on any day. The religion flourished on the banks of Indus and Saraswathi River 4500 years ago was much simpler than we have now. They gave importance to cleanliness and hygiene and gave it a shape of religion. The Great Bath in Mohenjo-Daro and the excellent drainage systems available. Even the buryings in the areas like Piklihal (southern India) we find large ash dwells

they used to burn the dead bodies so that to keep the living areas clean. This gives some note on the way we started our Religion. There is every need to give note for PASUPATHI MAHA DEVA the PROTO SIVA who was the god and the god of cattle. Cattle is considered to be a wealth those days, in order to protect it they themselves might have created a superior power which protects the cattle and any false deed to cattle will be liable to punishment by the Superior god. Thus the creation of God took place. This was the scenario up to or even in Rig Vedic period Every Natural force like Wind, Rain, and River was personified to a god even in rig Vedic period there were only 33 gods in Number and classified into 1) Pruthvisthana 2) Madhyamasthana /Antharikshsthana 3) Dyusthana. And they followed HENOTHISM plural divinity without Hierarchy What would be the change that might have occurred in Rig Vedic Period? By name we can get that Rig Vedic period is the period when Rig Veda has been created with 1017 hymn mostly in praise of gods Indra(War) Agni(Fire) varuna(Rain) Soma(sacrifice). This was also the time for the Janapadhas to start flourish. By 900 B.C It was the end of this period slowly Varna system came into existence that too the work they perform only. They are like KSHATRIYA (Protector) BHAHMANA (Priest) Vysya (Merchant) Sudra (common man) Thus Started the Internal Quarrel for supremacy in the religion between the warrior class and the priestly class causing lots of changes in the Religion itself from the simple rules for a healthy life to a very complicated twisted and turned effects of Rituals and Tantras. From the Simple Prayers in Vedic period to the Rituals and ceremonies to make themselves stronger in Later Vedic period few are of Rajasuya, Vajapiya and Ashwamedha. In quarrel for the supremacy the Gothra and Jathi (Caste) systems crept in. Does these changes stop or it continued throughout?? A very common question right to study that we need to have a look at Religious Literature (Only through which Knowledge of ancient Religion has been studied). This classification gives us an Insight into the world of religious literature. It has been broadly classified into mainly 1) shruthi 2) smrithi. It has been considered that shruthi is sacred and being gift of god no one can change it. The secondary literature group Shruthi can be modified and it has been modified from time to time by authors on the name of god or even on the name of Rishi or Maharishi. For example valmiki maharishi was the author of Ramayana a story about an Ideal King Rama. Who according to historians was a chieftain of a minor Kingdom. Veda Vyas was the author of Mahabharata as Vasudeva Krishna existed in this country and Kurukshetra was a real event i.e. to portray the present day conditions of their times authors exaggerated the real time events and personified the Heros as Kings. I would remember a sentence

here Anyone who is in service of this mankind is a God and all these personalities are Gods in that issue. As seen here Brahman Influence has been on the increasing side all through this period it has been assumed that Brahmans come from the face of lord brahma. This is the time Untouchability of Sudra who are believed to be from the foot of brahma. The superiority of Brahmans is a hard nut for the Kshatriyas to crack. Obviously they started to protest and these protests are of 2 types 1) Formal 2) Informal. We have saw Aryankas one kind of literature, these are books about mystic people who are against this Brahmanism went to the forest and became Astics indulged in Tapasya and got into Gynanamarga. They Kept themselves to be secret thus these books are called to be Mystic, They are Informal in nature. Upanishads are a type of Formal Protests; Most of them are being authored by Warrior class. They believe in Tat Twam Asi which mean every soul is a part of Paramatman and we are just separated from him temporarily. This is also preached by Adi Shankaracharya in later period. They are all against Brahmans and Brahmanism and tried to oppose their superiority by say that, they are no special beings and they are as equal as Sudra. They say that Formulae arent important but the devotion is what matters and tried to revive the older religion of ours. These Aryankas are basis for the formation of 64 heterodox sects who are against this Brahmanism and their Rituals, Buddhism and Jainism are among them. Seeing these situations Brahmans introduces a new rule into the religion that is of ASHRAMA. They are Brahmachari Gruhasthi Vanaprasti Sanyasin Every Individual has to go through all these stages to attain Moksha. Its always a quarrel between the Kshatriyas and the Brahmans for the superiority. Though both exchange the highest positions at different time and its different from place to place. This wouldnt bring stability into the religion and the attempts for revival of the ancient religion are always taken up may be for the cause of the religion at times only to bring the citizens united too. The revi val of Tat Twam Asi by Adi Shankaracharya was one attempt of this kind. It has to be said after the flourishing of large kingdoms and in the age of kings Brahmanism cannot be seem so evidently. But the Rituals and sacrifices are always in the system and even followed by many kings, Though people like ASHOKA was against these as he said to this subjects If you want to donate, donate as much as you can but not under Irrelevant rituals He also banned animal sacrifices. The Bhakti Movement at the time of Shivaji was also of the same kind but this time to get the people united maybe. Religion always helped us Indians to get united. It helped national Integration. It was the binding factor in 1857 revolt. It also has the adverse effects of Untouchability, caste system, religious terrorism which arent at all a

part of the purest form of our Hinduism. So being a good Hindu, follow Hinduism in its purest form. Donate but not in the form of animal sacrifice, be a devotee to the religion its ideas but not to the Idol worship. Think Logical. Think Clean. Think Ideal. Thats it you are the Prefect Hindu. Come out into the universe of Light. Everything in the universe is yours, stretch out your arms and embrace it with love. If you every felt you wanted to do that, you have felt God