PREFACE

 

OHM!

Time is changing. New facts and improvements are pouring in due to scientific researches. Most of us are having access to know the new findings. So, blind follow up became the past method of belief. Now, people started questioning each and every religious rite or concept. Under such present circumstances, it becomes a necessity to analyze the religious concepts using the modern science. It is the human nature to get knowledge through practical experience, learning at educational institutions, hearing from scholars and books.

When I gained some minimum knowledge about my religion The Hinduism, more doubts covered my mind like clouds instead of clarity. I happened to hear the same doubts from most of my Hindu friends and other believers too. When my age crossed fifty, my doubts on my religion mounted to breaking level. My friends could lead their life without any impact in the busy world thinking that divine words are unquestionable; whereas the doubts created an urge within me to get reasonable answers acceptable to my mind. 

When I could spare my time to learn about Hinduism, It was a surprise to note that I got answers to most of my doubts over a period of time from different resources. I hope you will enjoy adopting the concepts from this book into your own way of life and get enlightened. Most of the concepts were universal.    

Now, let us see some major and common beliefs of Hinduism. To live comfortably in this world everyone must posses three major qualities namely Health,Wealth and Wisdom.

According Hindu belief, wisdom could be achieved with the blessings of the Goddess Vani or Saraswathy; wealth from Goddess Lakshmi and health or body strength or braveness from Goddess Durga. When I was a student, my elders taught me slokas or mantras (poems) on Goddess Saraswathy to chant. During my middle age,i was told to chant Lakshmi slokas to earn more money. Durga slokas were taught by my friends to succeed in my professional carrier.  

At one stage, I had a doubt that whether it is possible to get health, wealth and wisdom from other Goddesses which were not attached to them. If it is not possible, how they can be called as Goddess? God should be omnipotent.   

The same logic applies with Brahma creator, Narayana protector and Shiva destroyer. When there is only one omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient God according to Hinduism, why He requires different departments and a head to control activities?

My elders worshiped shiva whereas my neighbors were worshipping Narayana. While we were asked to go and join prayers praising Narayana, my neighbors will never join us in Shiva prayers. Why?

Hindu religious rites were found to be varying from one region to the other. Also, it varies among different castes within the same region too. Why?

At present, Vedas were kept within the reach of one community alone. Others were not allowed to study or know about them. Why? It created a big gap among Hindus themselves.  

India is a vast country with people speaking different languages. It is a truth to accept that most of them could not understand the Vedas written in Sanskrit. Hindus are following the old Sanskrit poems in their prayers as such. Also, Hindus were taught that Sanskrit is the only sacred language that could be used for prayers. Is it true?

While studying ‘Puranas (Stories on each God)’, they refer all the Gods and Goddesses as related with each other. Muruga or Karthikeya and Ganesha are sons of Lord Shiva. Parvathy or Durga (Wife of Lord Shiva)  is the sister of Lord Narayana. 

When the Gods or Devas are formless (Without body), how they can have relationships like mother, father, son etc..?

Most of the educated people know that Jupiter, moon, mars etc.. are in the form of rocks surrounded by gases. PURANA has a story about these planets which made us to think. Jupiter (Guru) was a old man and his  wife was a beautiful star namely Rohini. Jupiter left his wife with moon when he left to a far of place. Story goes as Moon abducted Rohini and so on ….. 

Could we believe such stories. What we are going to learn from them?

I really wondered how these stories became the part of Hindu religion!

As mentioned in the beginning, all the above and other doubts made me to learn about Hinduism through many religious books and the life history / speeches of many Holy Saints to come to conclusion about REAL Hinduism.   

I happened to learn the history, life style, geographical conditions, time frame, archeological evidences, scientific proofs on ancient people’s origin apart from my basic education at school and college to analyze and    ascertain the Hindu concepts. Other religious books were also used to compare the Hindu religious rites to understand that the concepts of Hinduism as Universal.   

Most of the authors who wrote religious books were confined in explaining the original texts like Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas and their own experiences only. Saivites and Vaishnavites will write books on their own way to spread their beliefs. They forgot to write the common concept behind all their beliefs which are core to HInduism or ancient Indian’s way of living.

A religion is identified with a specific name only after a competitive religion came in to existence. Indian way of life existed for long without a name. Then, it was called as `Sanathana Dharma’ in middle ages. Dharma means moral code. Indian way of life was given a name as Hinduism much later by foreigners. Now, we are using the word religion or Hinduism only to identify the Indian way of life. 

IT IS MY OPINION THAT CONCEPTS OF HINDUISM WERE VERY SIMPLE IN THE BEGINNING AND SPREAD ACROSS IN THE MIDDLE AND MORE OR LESS DILUTED AT PRESENT. ORIGINAL CONCEPTS STILL INTACT EVENTHOUGH DILUTED BECAUSE OF OTHER ADDED FLAVOURS.  

It was a big task to analyze books and distinguish the exact basic concepts and rites in comparison with the present practices. 

I prayed my God for provided me enough patience to read many books connected to my expedition.

Books connected to various fields helped me to distinguish the time and practice of ancient people on religious rites. It starts from archeological findings connected to various periods like Vedic and modern times. So I thank all the authors for providing me the knowledge through their books. I am afraid to state that authors’ name were not mentioned in most of the points referred in this book.

Sincere attempt is made in this book to explain the core concepts of Hinduism which I could not find or learn from a single book. Good wishes from my near and dear which has made me to make an attempt to this spiritual expedition. Apologies if some information is against to any individual’s belief.

CHENNAI, INDIA.                                                             T.G.BALASUBRAMANIAN.

03 – 01 – 2012                                                                                (THONI)