Sometimes I respond to queries or comments of responders to my blog posts without realizing that some of my response may be worthy of being spun off as blog post itself. While I would like to be excused for the immodesty of judging the worthiness of some of my impromptu comments, the benefit of moving them over from a comment to a post, is that it gets a better structure and hopefully more notice than it would have were it buried in the comments section.
The statement below was a comment from me on an earlier post, but on later reflection struck me as a fairly significant and accurate representation of the state of Hindu society and faith.
"Dissent and rebellion against the bigotry of Hinduism is still very nascent and poorly developed and it is in dire need of support from the community of skeptics and critics."
This observation of mine above was reacted to in the form of this anonymous comment-response below
"Don't you think that Hinduism in terms of the ritual rigor etc. is hardly followed anywhere today. The average middle class Hindu's only connection with his religion is to visit a temple once in a blue moon. Your study and criticism of the Vedas etc..don't even make any sense to the average Hindu since most of them don't follow/know/recite any of them - leave alone investigating the contents."
"So, if there is less dissent and rebellion, its because there aren't people who are really giving much weightage or value to it."
What follows below is my detailed response to the comment above:
Ritual rigor has been replaced by the power of symbolism. Pujas have replaced Homas and Yagnas. Pujas and Mantras are in one sense a powerful proxy for the mumbo jumbo of ancient Vedas and Upanishads.
The power of false ideas that:
- Puranas are a continuation of the Vedas and that they distill the 'truths' of the Vedas and Upanishads
- There is no difference between the essential ideas or truths of the Vedas and Upanishads
- Vedas are eternal, infallible and contain ultimate and sublime truths
There is no need for the average Hindu to do regular temple visits to renew and re-affirm his religious attitude, idealism and superstition.
Religion is woven into the very fabric of the typical Hindu daily life from
- idols to
- ubiquity of temples to
- frames and portraits of gods everywhere to
- prayers to
- festivals to
- pujas to
- auspicious days and times to
- half-fasts and observances to
- bathing as spiritual purification
- religious significance of vegetarianism( all that saatvic and tamasic nonsense) to
- mindless obedience to elders
Still the root of all this DNA like structure of religious superstitious and irrational socio-cultural landscape of Hinduism is the power of symbolism of the false and feudalistic ideas of the post-Vedic age, when a very complex apologetic facade was built to exploit the arcane and mystical impression of life and phenomenon that some parts of the Vedas and Upanishads appeared to convey, in order to serve the interests of the Brahmin and the intellectual elite of those times.
My posts mostly do not quote the contents of the Vedas and Upanishads, but examine and attack the central ideas that Hindu intelligentsia of today think was faithfully represented and passed on by their Gurus and saints.
You don't even have to read the Vedas to establish the absurdity of these central themes of Hinduism:
- Karma
- Reincarnation
- Cyclical Divine intervention on earth or Avatars.
- Maya
- Illusory nature of our world
- Existence of a permanent and unchanging ultimate reality
Some reference to Vedas and Upanishads is still made to drive home the point of the need to examine ideas and claims on their own merit and strength and not rely on and accept the opinions of authorities blindly just because of their reputation or because they are ancient.
Accepting some central ideas of scriptures as true and eternal and valid without even knowing the contents of those texts is not an intelligent attitude and response.
One could attack the Puranas as well, which I have done in some posts. Most Hindus are still in a slumber and stupor of religious opium what contains the deadly cocktail mix of Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas and the Gita.
So it not easy to awaken this heavily intoxicated patient!!!
the vedas and the puranas are not a mere boooks which contain verses these are the essence of our internal life which is difficult to understand in this modern world as we are more inclined towards material gain. the vedas and puranas are the books which contain informations which helps us to understand from within all the yagnas and sacrifice mentioned in these are not for performing outside by pouring ghee and other materials in fire but on the other hand it is instructing us pour all our selfishness jealousness hatered desire etc and burn it in the fire of internal hapiness which is hidden within us which we are unable to understand. I agree with u partly as some of the people in this society has misinterpret the above said book and spread the wrong notion for the benefit of thier material gain. Because the vedas cannot be understood just by literal meaning it has to be understood by applying the concepts in our life with respect ourself. If i had to explain the vedas i would just say understand yourself completely (keeping aside all your your desire of worldly affairs) you will understand the vedas which is not easy to do in this competiative world.
ReplyDeleteThe fundamental principles remains the same but the understanding is individual.
the layman cannot understand the intricasies of the software in the same way we are not grown up to understand the intricasise of the vedas
This is exactly what I meant by the bigotry of most Hindu intelligentsia. By bigotry I meant this kind of false pride and exaggerated sense of the Vedas, Puranas and Upanishads that you are parroting and playing like broken record player.
DeleteYou are not the first to voice this worn-out sales pitch about the high essence of the Vedas and other samhitas, nor will you be the last.
Unless you define and frame them properly, terms like essence, internal life and internal happiness are meaningless. Also there is nothing absolute about them. Happiness whether internal or external is dependent on many things that are external to ourselves.
This bogus theory that all happiness and satisfaction is within us, just waiting to be discovered and realized has been around for eons. But still it is a bogus theory no matter how many Vedas and Upanishads may imply that and how many ever swamis and sankaracharyas may rubber-stamp this with their boring lectures and commentaries.
There is simply no evidence to show that happiness and truths/maxims of life are eternal or internal or permanent. And the votaries of these fancy theories have only the word pile of Vedas/Puranas and Upanishads and the self-serving slogans of the swamis and sankaracharyas to show for and little else.
To make a bonfire of your vanities why do you Hindu Yuppies need to waste ghee and firewood and fuel. Why are these symbolisms needed in this day and age. Why are you hanging on these useless symbolisms?
Why should concepts of life be applied to Vedic content in order to understand it? Are not Vedas supposed to explain the concepts of life. So which comes first? the chicken of the 'Concepts of Life' or the egg of the Vedas?
I have read translations of many verses of the Rig Veda and Yajur Veda. To understand them, I have not felt the need to set aside my desires for worldly things and matters. To understand the Vedas or any work, you have to at least attempt to see and read what is in there. There is no need to be a Saint or Mahatma (or sacrifice the world or your desires) to analyze the contents of Vedas and Samhitas
I am sure you have neither attempted to read the Vedas nor made any effort to go thru some of its renditions by indologists and historians. Still you have cheek to assume and trumpet that it is beyond understanding, that its literal meaning cannot be taken and that a busy or 'competitive' lifestyle comes in the way of appreciating the greatness of the Vedas/Samhitas.
Most conservative Hindus like you have no idea, knowledge or understanding of the history and evolution of the Vedic scriptures and how subsequent commentary and analysis of Vedas/Upanishads was disconnected from its actual content and how allegory (non-literal interpretation) and symbolism was used/invented/improvised to elevate the status of these scriptures.
Also please do not insult the intelligence of people who have taken pains to go thru these texts/scriptures and provide them a reasonable social and historical context to determine their real significance or validity by using the term layman or masses.
The problem is neither with 'laymen' and masses (they do not trot out gibberish of a Vedic Sales pitch that you do) nor with skeptic intellectuals, but with ignorant and arrogant bigots like you who have no interest or will in coming out of the cocoon of 'religious fantasy' in which you are trapped.
Ranganath, I am the one whose comment you have put out there in the blog.
ReplyDeleteLet me tell you that you would be surprised to know that the average hindu does not know anything about the theory of karma, or reincarnation etc. Nor does he adhere to any of the things mentioned by you which I will still term rituals (pujas, fasts etc). So, your arguments on the blog with people having no knowledge is rather pointless as it is between unequals. You should rather seek an argument with someone who has studied the Vedas and lives life according to Vedic injunctions - I am sure it will be very difficult to find someone like that. Also, just as you have pointed out to the other person that he should not insult the intelligence of people who have taken pains to go through the scriptures and provide a reasonable social/historical context etc, I suppose you should not insult the intelligence of people who have taken pains to put together these scriptures or who follow them religiously. Maybe you should go talk to someone like that to find out their validity. Scriptures are akin to guideposts I think. You need to argue with someone who has walked the path following the guideposts. The rest of us are like people who have never even seen the guidepost, forget about walking the path.
Very valuable knowledge. upnishads for busy people
ReplyDelete