ON HINDUISM
Hinduism is more of a culture than a religion. It does not really have any
doctrine except that Indian culture and its caste system and India are somehow
sacred.
Some Hindus believe that all things are one being, one spirit, one entity
without parts, meaning that diversity and separation are illusions.
Others are Atheists.
Those Hindus who hold that God is impersonal condemn those who believe that he
is personal.
There is even disagreement on whether sacrifice is right or wrong. Some Hindus
won’t even eat meat believing that killing animals is wicked.
The only doctrine they seem to have in common is that the doctrine of karma is
true.
Many Hindus hold that the three gods, Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the protector
and Shiva the destroyer are the most important Gods and that other gods are
manifestations of them like the trinity is a manifestation of one ultimate
being.
Salvation is realising that you are God or that existence and desire are
suffering and getting freed from them. It is attained by working out your bad
karma. But this is madness for if you deluded a person in religious matters in a
past life you could get a false enlightenment and not be really saved at all.
The mystical experiences of Hinduism may be tricks played on the mind. They
prove nothing.
Hinduism is often irrational. Monistic Hindus teach that the lion-tamer is the
lion that kills him! All persons cannot be the same entity when each person
experiences himself or herself as an individual. If all were one this would not
be for you would be aware of all things at the one time.
Hinduism often claims that God under the influence of maya, a power that deludes
him, imagines that he is us. Stones exist because God thinks he is those stones.
But if God is one then how come he is able to think he is a stone and a person
at the same time? That is impossible!
The Hindu God is infinite. He has all the power there is in that case. So maya
must be God’s own power that he tricks himself with. And the guru has the job of
convincing God that he is God thus ending the delusions he has! How silly it all
is.
HINDUISM AND ECUMENISM
Incredibly, the Roman Catholic Church now sees Hinduism as an expression of
humankinds desire to know and be with God. This is incredibly patronising and
arrogant - "My God is better than anybody else's and even those who don't know
it want my version of God to be the real one". God is identified in Christianity
with good. Islam does that too and so does Judaism. But for true Bible
believers, God's goodness can and has asked for the putting of adulterers and
homosexuals to death! For New Age religion, God's goodness is about making you a
good egoist, a self-indulgent but charming individual. Humankind desires good
not God. To desire good is not the same as desiring God just the same as
desiring the body of a stripper is not the same as desiring her as a person. So
the question becomes, what God do we want? The Bible says we definitely do not
want God. We want a God on our own terms to satisfy our egos and who is like us
but not God. Romans 3 says we don't really want God. It says the Jews who knew
God didn't want him either.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
An Introduction to Asian Religions. EG Parrinder. SPCK. London. 1957
Bhagavad-Gita As It Is. Prabhupada. Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. London. 1981.
Concise Guide to Today’s Religions. Josh Mc Dowell and Don Stewart. Scripture
Press. Bucks. 1988.
Cows, Pigs, Wars & Witches. Marvin Harris. Fontana. Glasgow. 1978
Death of a Guru. Rabindranath R Maharaj Hodder. Christian Paperbacks. London.
1978
Life Comes From Life. Prahabupada. Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. Los Angeles. 1981.
Return to the Centre. Bede Griffiths. Fount. Glasgow. 1984.
Sri Isopanisad. Prabhupada. Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. New York. 1975.
“That Thou Art” from The Thousand Teachings of Sri Samkara AJ Alston Editor
Shanti Sadan, London, 1982
The Mystical Maze. Pat Means. Campus Crusade for Christ. Los Angeles. 1976.
The Nectar of Instruction. Prabhupada. Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. New York. 1975.
The New Cults. Walter Martin. Vision House. California. 1980.
The Perfection of Yoga. Prabhupada. Bhaktivedanta. London. 1972.
The Sacred Cow. A.L. Basham. Rider. London. 1989.
The Truth About the Gita: A Closer Look at Hindu Scripture. V R Narla.
Prometheus Books. New York. 2010.
The World of Gurus. Vishal Mangalwadi. Good Books. New Delhi. 1987.
The World’s Religions, Lion, Herts, 1982
Transcendental Meditation. Lit-sen Chang Presbyterian Reformed Publishing New
Jersey 1978.