IsmailaGodHasHeard
Well-Known Member
What is Dharma?
Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!
You know, Wikipedia is a nice site. You should check it out sometime.
I'll even do your legwork for you: Dharma
Hinduism too has a Dharma and Karma like Buddhism but apart from that they also follow Caste System and I think they have certain Rituals and rites that a Hindu is supposed to follow.
Caste isn't Hinduism so much as a persistent cultural thing, and not all Hindus perform rituals.
Wow, Caste System is the very basis of Hinduism.
Are you sure you are a hindu
Wow, Caste System is the very basis of Hinduism.
There are groups in India that are actively engaged in getting women and those from socially disadvantaged jātis to become priests of Vedic ritual.
............ The new movements look up to Swami Vivekananda; Rabindranath Tagore; Ramana Maharshi; Shri Aurobindo (for his Integral Yoga); A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (founder of the modern Hare Krishna movement); Swami Sivananda, Swami Rama Tirtha; Narayana Guru, Jagadguru Swami Sathyananda Saraswathi, Paramhansa Yogananda; Shrii Shrii Anandamurti. More recently, the work of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Sathya Sai Baba, Shirdi Sai Baba, Swami Muktananda, Swami Chinmayananda, Maharishi Dayananda Saraswati, Shriram Sharma Acharya, Pramukh Swami Maharaj, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, and Mata Amritanandamayi has inspired millions to create new centers of spiritual development. In the intellectual field, the writings of Ananda Coomaraswamy, Ram Swarup, Sita Ram Goel, Subhash Kak, Frank Morales and David Frawley have been influential.
In social work, Mahatma Gandhi, Vinoba Bhave, Baba Amte and Shrii Shrii Anandamurti have been most important. Sunderlal Bahuguna created the chipko movement for the preservation of forestlands according to the Hindu ecological ideas.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS was founded by Keshav Baliram Hegdewar in 1925. The goal was to unite Hindus, make them rise over their caste differences and work to achieve a Hindu Rashtra; the ideology of the Sangh, closely associated with political Hinduism, came to be known as Hindutva.
I know this is addressed to someone else, but I'll jump in. Just where have you been getting your information? Please supply a reference to any Hindu scripture that says caste is the basis of Hinduism.
FTR, Yes I too am a Hindu, and I don't believe in caste.[/quote )
excuse me but I fancy butting in in defence of indian buddhist ,
where did he get his information ?
try reading the bhagavad gita ch ..18 v .. 41 .......
"bramanas , ksatriyas , vaisyas and sudras are distinguished by the qualitys born of their own natures in accordance with the material modes ,......"
please read the 18 th chapter , do you not think this explains both caste and dharma ?
I'll come back to this topic later
Wow, Caste System is the very basis of Hinduism. Varnashrama dharma is enshrined in the Vedas and if you are a Hindu you have to believe in every word of the Vedas.
Are you sure you are a hindu
excuse me but I fancy butting in in defence of indian buddhist ,
where did he get his information ?
try reading the bhagavad gita ch ..18 v .. 41 .......
"bramanas , ksatriyas , vaisyas and sudras are distinguished by the qualitys born of their own natures in accordance with the material modes ,......"
please read the 18 th chapter , do you not think this explains both caste and dharma ?
I'll come back to this topic later
Personally, I would find it difficult to describe the basis of Hinduism. I know there are a few basics, none of which on their own could form a basis.
- belief in God or Gods
- reincarnation
- karma
- moksha as the destiny for all souls
- dharma
In other faiths, especially those that have a founder, it might be argued that the founder is the basis of that faith. Christ is the basis of Christianity, Buddha for Buddhism, etc.
But since many Hindu are no longer casted, or practice caste discrimination, and every Guru I know of spoke against it, I'm fairly convinced any argument for a basis, at least from we Hindus ourselves, and not someone looking in, would not be caste. Not even varna.
please dont get me wrong, I was a former Hindu but converted to Buddhism and Caste System was one of the reasons thought not the major reason I converted. Caste System IS FOLLOWED by many Hindus and especially in the rural areas where there are seperate areas for Dalit, having to walk bare footed in upper caste areas, drinking water in seperate vessels etc........as far as marriage is concerned even today majority of Hindus marry within their caste and Inter-caste marriage is still not a general occurence.
Please talk to any Hindu pandit in any temple of your choice and see what he says about the caste System. Caste System BY BIRTH has been there in Hinduism since 3000 years and even during the times of Buddha.
Yes and Bhagavad Gita also approves the Caste system BY BIRTH. Read the Gita, Krishna is saying that each Caste have got their BIRTH according to their karma and so they have to do the work without any ill-will their entire lives.
Also read the Manu-smriti whose many laws are followed by majority of Hindus today.
Uh, a priest at my local temple said he'd be perfectly willing to pray at a mosque, since he believed that all religions taught essentially the same thing: love.
Show me the verse in the Bhagavad-Gita that says Varna is passed from parent to child.
I don't care what Manu-smriti says. I haven't read it, and I have no immediate plans to. Please show me where you got the information that it's followed by the majority of Hindus.
Also, show me the 3000 year old text that talks about it at length; as far as I can tell, the Manu-smriti is only about 2000 years old, the Bhagavad-Gita was composed around the time of the Buddha, and the oldest Dharmasutra I believe was also composed around that time.
The fact that there are a large number of Hindus who don't follow it proves to me that it's not a requirement. Remember that Gandhi rejected the caste system, and he said that he lived by the Bhagavad-Gita.