A Little Update On Hinduism And Its Certain Aspects

Disclaimer: I am not a religious fanatic. I am not here to prove Hinduism is superior. My post is purely informative.Most, if not all, are collected from well researched material of others and all credit to them.Some obviously are my researches.

Here are some information from a Hindu about Hinduism, take them as an update for knowledge:

1) Hinduism remained the leading religion in the subcontinent inspite of 800 years islamic minority rule and 200 years christian minority rule (british)

2) considering the fact that Christianity (period of British rule) and Islam was non-native religion to the subcontinent.Anywhere in the world where Christianity or islam went in, local religion vanished.However, there was no crusade. Crusade and Jihad are Christian and Islamic terminologies, there are no sanskrit 1 word equivalent for it.

3) Hinduism is not a “paigambar” based religion i.e, it is not professed by anyone like Jesus christ is preacher of christianity and prophet mohammad for islam.

4) Hinduism is not a regimented religion (going to church on sunday's, praying 5 times a day,etc.) so no compulsory rules similar to Islam or Christianity. This is the reason why christmas trees are put up on all leading malls,shopping complexes, christmas lighting on Indian streets and Hindus participating in large numbers in Christmas celebrations although 2% of Indian population is christian. Is this behaviour thinkable in Australia or New Zealand where Hindu population is 2% of total population. It is very easy to construct a church and Mosque in India, is it the same in your country??? United States of America has the 7th largest Hindu Population in the World!!! United Kingdom has 9th Largest Hindu Population and Indonesia has 5th largest Hindu Population in the world!!! (source - https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-with-the-largest-hindu-populations.html)

5) Hinduism is called sanatan dharma, the word “sanatan” is derived from english equivalent of timeless. Therefore, unlike in christianity where there is a Genesis and Judgement day/”Qyamat ke din/roz”, there is no such concept in hinduism as it believes in rebirth.So, there is the concept of “anadi” (infinite time prior to measurable past) and “ananta”(infinite future)

6) The core value of Hinduism is to achieve “Moksha” ultimate knowledge to break free from the bonds of cyclic rebirth.So, Hinduism is the religion of seekers not believers.

7) There are several references of non-milk producing cow sacrifice and consumption, apart from bull, ox and other meat product consumption in Hinduism. However, meat eating slowly decreased over time as religion evolved and those who cite not to eat beef cite “Bhagavat Puran”.

8) Charak’s famous ayurvedic doctor of ancient times strongly advised for meat as part of diet

9) There is no heaven and hell concept in Hinduism.Although we talk about it but it is purely christian concept. There is “Yamlok” realm of lord of death, indralok realm of gods and indra is the king of god, “Vaikunth” realm of Lord Vishnu who is considered the conserver/preserver of life, “Kailash” realm of Lord Shiva, the god of destruction (there is actual kailash mountain range for those who dont know) and Brahma lok or the real of brahma, the creator.So, which one is heaven and which one is hell?? Not easy to decide right!!There is none, so dont decide.

10) 1 human year or earth year = 1 day in the life of a Hindu deity.So, it is a position or a rank not ultimate something.So, there are multiple Indras ( King of indralok or god realm) and other deities.

11) Non-Hindus often pick on our deities but idol worship came only after Greek invasion of India and the first Hindu idol came from Gandhar pradesh(present Afghanistan).Another school of thought pins it to Magadh/Gupta empire time. It was belived that our religion being abstract and not so regimented became difficult to understand and comprehend for poor/lower class Hindus.So, in order to give them direction idols were formed out of stories from Puranas.

12) christians and Islamic followers often pick on Hindu’s association for Cow and cow urine. Cow urine is never drank directly and is used as medicine preparation as per Ayurveda and only urine of pregnant cow is used. Cow urine is also used as medicine in Myanmar (Budhdhist nation) and Nigeria (47% Christian,52% Islam followers). Christians drink medicine made of horse urine, the medicine is used for menopausal women and is an estrogen-replacement drug - Premarin. Islamic followers drink najeeb (piss of bedouin camels).WHO has strongly recommended against it and is the cause of MERS - Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. US Patents Number 6410059 ,6896907 and 7235262 (WO2004087176) are patents on medicinal use of cow urine extract - so a christian country giving patent on cow urine medicine!! Aqua omnium florum/aqua stercoris vaccini stillatitia (water distilled from cow dung)/urina vaccina are examples of christian use of cow urine drinking for medicinal and cosmetic enhancement. I would like to cite the works of 17th century court physician George Bate (a christian!!) on cow urine drinking for medicinal purposes.

13) Hindu CEOs and Presidents of global corporations - Satya Nadela(Microsoft),Sundar Pichai (Google),Rajeev Suri (Nokia),Shantanu Narayen (Adobe),Ashok Vemuri (Conduent Inc a sister concern of Xerox) ,Dinesh paliwal (Hermann International - Brands like JBL,Becker,dbx,etc.),Amar Gopal Bose (Bengalee Founder -Bose Corporation)

14) Misconception of caste system - Even before starting I would like to say that caste based atrocities are a reality and it still exists in backward minded people. Caste system is often mixed with jati system and viewed in amalgamation.

What is Jati system?
Jati system is kinship between families of same job profile holders in the society. Simply, speaking all the lawyers of the city who are members of the city bar council decide that since our life styles are same it will be such a nice thing to stay together in one neighbourhood, get off our childrens married to each other and this forming a pressure group in the society due to our numerical strength and since we are close by we can easily come to each others aid in danger or medical condition. Now put the aforesaid situation 5000 years back when there are no medical infrastructure per se, wild animals were prevelant, communication is problem so finding right bride/groom is not possible through internet. An individual/entire jati can excel based on his/her/their performance.

What is caste system?
Caste system are job role specializations-
1)Brahman/Brahmin- the word comes from 2 sanskrit words -"brah" and "man"."brah" means to expand."man" means mind.So, Brahmin/Brahman is a person whose mind is ever expanding.

Brahmins are philosophers, doctors, teachers,temple priests. The thinking tanks of Hindu society. 

2)Kshatriya- They are administrators, kings, soldiers,ministers/courtesans assisting  Kings in administration.

3) VAishayas- The service providers - agriculutarists, traders, manufacturers,exporters, importers, middlemen.

4) Shudra - Sweepers, landless/migrant agricultural labourers, craftsmen,mason,etc.

Examples-
1) Satvahana and Mauryana dynasties are example of Shudra caste empires.Mauryan dynasty had borders from easter seaboard uptill present day iran.

2) Chatrapati Shivaji maharaj ji and many marathas are shudra by caste (Dhangar=cowherd;kunbi=farmer).However, he was eleviated to the position of khatriya during his coronation as head of all marathas. Greek princess helen was married off to Mauryan empire after which greeks never invaded.

3) Karna (Epic-Mahabharat) was perceived as charioteers son.Hence, a shudra. However, when he proves his talent is no less than that of arjun (the famous archer of the epic). He is instantly eleviated to the position of king of anga kingdom by duryodhan.

4) In epic mahabharat itself, there are mentions of  Vidur inspite of being charioteers son (hence, a shudra by caste) is the prime minister of Hastinapur. Vidur is married of to a princess from a shudra king and the matchmaking is done by bhishma. Several shudra kingdoms fought for the kauravas in the kurukshetra war.

5) Mallab had their kingdoms in north western india. Their kingdom was destroyed by the invading greek army and survivors(all the 4 castes) now survive as mali (florist,gardeners) caste and hence shudra caste. This is an example where jati moved down the caste hierarchy after loosing a battle.

I just wanted to enlighten and clarify and not to hurt anyone else.Peace!