1-30HinduismSpecialFeatures

By Periyava

Translation from Tamil By V. Krishnaraj

http://www.kamakoti.org/tamil/part1kural30.htm

நம் மதத்தின் தனி அம்சங்கள் : தெய்வத்தின் குரல் (முதல் பகுதி)

Our Religion’s Special Features: Deivathin Kural

Our religion has many special features, not found in other religions. One of them is Karma Theory. Buddhism and Jainism the offshoots from our religion accept this Karma Theory, the other religions do not propose or accept Karma Theory. (But, people in other religions talk about Karma in their daily intercourse. Karma as a theory has caught on, as witnessed in the media.  Lately, businesses named themselves as Credit Karma…-Krishnaraj)

What is ‘Karma Theory?’ Physics teaches us Cause and Effect’ and ‘Action and Reaction.’  Our wise men draw a parallel between Karma Theory and physics. The inert elements (Jada = Acit = the Insentient) and the consciousness (Cit = the Sentient) are part of the Triad (Isvara, Cit and Acit). Life on earth is possible only when these two come together (under the aegis of Isvara). The order and Dharma are the same for both. That each Karma of man yields its own fruit is the Karma Theory. Man must undergo punishment for his Pāpa-Karma (Sin-Karma) deed. Our religion states that Puṇṇiya Karmam (Virtuous deed or Karma) generates (brings) good fruits which invariably reaches the doer.

Our religion tells man takes multiple births for the mandatory experiencing of the fruits of sinful and meritorious deeds. All religions say to do good and desist from sinful acts. They do not emphasize the message with the nexus: Cause and Effect. Reincarnation Theory was never mentioned in foreign-born religions. Not merely that. They mention a multiplicity of ideas, diametrically opposed to the Reincarnation Theory. They robustly oppose our theory of Reincarnation and multiple rebirths until the good and the bad Karma of man come to a zero-sum status. General attitude and position of the foreign religions is ‘With one embodied life, man’s birth comes to an end.’ (One person-one birth-one death.) Once this life ends in death, his soul goes to a station one day to listen to God’s judgement (The Day of Judgement). On that day, God weighs man’s sins and merits and sends him to eternal heaven or eternal damnation.

A white man visited with me. Nowadays, it seems a bunch of them visit me. There was one among them; he became famous by writing and publishing Pusthakam Kisthakam (Pusthakam = book; Kisthakam = a meaningless rhymer for Pusthakam). (Kisthakam implies the writer is a highbrow.) He appeared to make a jestful remark. He said, “Bible says everywhere that God is Love.” ‘To say this kind of God does not extend a mote of mercy to the sinner and sends him to the eternal damnation with no possibility of his redemption: This is totally inappropriate. I pleaded with my Padre for an explanation.’ The Padre (பாதிரியார் = priest) replied, “It is true there is an eternal hell. But it is eternally vacant.’

It is hard to accept this view, upon reflection. Let us assume that Swamy (God) because of his compassion did not send the sinner to hell. That being so according to his doctrine, where could the soul of the sinner be sent? Their view is there is no rebirth and therefore, the sinner could not be sent back to earth.  The only choice left is even the incorrigible sinner must be sent to heaven. Therefore, in this world we can perform any sin or merit with no compunction. At the end, it amounts that Swamy will invariable send us to heaven. Every one of us can cast morals to the wind and be confident that no matter what (sin or merit), we will all go to heaven.

According to our religion, the omnipotent Isvara is the Supreme merciful God. But, he does not knowingly let the world sink in Adharma. What does he do? He embodies our souls, makes us take rebirth and sends us to this world. Heavenly joys and hellish hardships are here on earth. If we were the mixed bags of merits and sins in the past life, we experience happiness and sorrow in this life. The worse sinners suffer more and persons of great merit enjoy the most.  Generally, we are mostly great sufferers or medium sufferers. Those who think they live in great joy and happiness are rare. From this, we understand we did more sins in the past life.

Bhagavan because of his mercy, gives us rebirth and an opportunity allowing us to wash off our sins. He gives us Guru, Sastras, Kṣētras … and comes forward to wipe off the malams or impurities. The counter argument does not hold water as described below. This man is incapable and though an undeserving sinner, God sends him to heaven. A better proposition is that God trusts the sinner, gives him another birth, and offers a helping hand in his sincere efforts: This is more appropriate and an example of his supreme mercy. When the Jīvā surrenders to Bhagavan saying, ‘Where am I without you? All are your acts.” With that attitude coming from the surrenderer, God lifts him up from his helpless state. This is the truth. Offering help to a person who tries and surrenders to God differs from help offered by God to a person incapable of trying and helping himself. Great mercy is having trust in a man who God thinks is capable of self-effort. That is the true help.

That God sends no one to hell is the opinion of an individual Padre. We cannot label the Abrahamic religions such as Christianity as believers in ‘Single Birth Theory.’  These religions hold the general view that God sends a person permanently to heaven or hell depending solely on his merits or sins. Since we do mostly sins, the hell-bound denizens will be in the majority. Tomorrow is the judgement day. It is the Doomsday. This casts aspersions on God and his apparently depleted store of mercy.

We can show a strong support for the Theory of Transmigration of the soul (rebirth) in Hinduism. A white woman came to see me. She asked me to show proof for transmigration. I did not engage her in an argument. There was a polyglot pundit in the Mutt Campus, fluent in English. I told him to take her to a Maternity Hospital and bring back detailed notes about all the newborns.

She went with him to the hospital and narrated the notes upon return. One baby was chubby. Another one was small. One baby was beautiful and another one ugly. One baby was born in a special unit meant for the privileged. Another one was born of a poor woman in untold misery.  Let us leave aside the proposition of Bhagavan sending someone to hell at end of life.

That is a matter imperceptible with our eyes. You saw the beginning of life with your own eyes in the Maternity Hospital. Why is there so much of disparity. Why is there such a divide between privilege and poverty? Why is one baby healthy, another week, another beautiful, another ugly…? If we accept your theory of Single Jaṉmā for a Jīvaṉ, we see so much of bias against some babies at birth. Does it not mean that God with no mercy or intelligence does cockamamie things with mind gone awry?  How could you trust and show devotion to such a God? The future birth depends and bears heavily on merits and sins of the past birth.  Barring this theory, could you explain the cause for the divide between the babies? Krishnaraj: Babies inherit the genes from the parents; likewise, they inherit Vāsanās from previous births.)

She accepted my postulation with joy in her heart and left.

But, for the modern man, these explanations are insufficient. They demand scientific proof. Parapsychologists conducted research in this matter and presented proof of existence of Janmāntarams (Births other than the present).  They have interviewed many all over the world, who remembered their past births, lives and incidents.

Not connected in any way with the present place, many people described what they saw in distant lands in a memory recall from the past birth. They had relationships with people not connected with this birth. They narrate these details with no lapse in memory of their past lives. To test the veracity of their narratives, the parapsychologists went to the distant places (familiar with the Retrocognizers from past birth).  Retrocognizer = Retro + Cognizer = Backward + knower = Knower of events from past birth.  This is a combined word to identify such a person.  –Krishnaraj). The investigators identified surprisingly the landmarks and the people known to the Retrocognizers from their past births.

There are a multitude of such cases. Previous birth matters are lost to our memory. Very few of us have Retrocognition of our previous birth. The researchers say that the Retrocognizers died unnatural death from murder or accidents in the previous lives.

Hindu religion’s unique features are reincarnation of the soul with a body, and God’s incarnations. Sadvastu (Real Entity = God) is one; That became many (Many life forms): That is Hinduism’s supreme principle. That Supreme Being (Param Poruḷ = பரம் பொருள்) is the aggregate of all life forms undergoing repeated births and deaths.  It is Isvara, the protector (savior) of the world of Jīva-Jada (Beings and Inert objects). This Isvara has no Karma Bandam (Karmic bond) as in man. Man takes a multitude of births to experience Karma (and hopefully become divested of impurities before merger with the Supreme Being. Man is the highest being among fauna and flora, privileged to merge with the Supreme Being after removing all impurities from his soul.)

Sadvastu = Real Entity = Reality = Brahman = Omnipotent, Omnipresent and omniscient God.

Isvara need not incarnate. But he does.  God sees man’s failure in his new births to wash off his old Karma. Man keeps slapping on himself more and more of karmic slush. To show him the path, lend him a helping hand and lift him from the Karmic mire, Isvara with supreme mercy incarnates on this earth often.  Whenever Adharma ascends and Dharma weakens, Bhagavan takes many incarnations to eradicate Adharma, reestablish Dharma, offer protection to Sadhus, and punish the evil mongers.  This is what Krishna Paramātmā says in Bhagavadgita (Chapter 10).

One state is that all are Swamy; that proposition is beyond our grasp. Swamy abides in the highest and the loftiest of all. This state is explicated In Gita Chapter 10, Vibhuti Yogam (The Yoga of Divine Splendor).  To establish this loftiness in human life, he sends emissaries: Acharyas, Mahāns, Jñāṉis, Yogis, Devotees… This is another state.  Another state is to send himself and descend to earth as one’s own Avatara. This state is descent. Isvara, who is beyond the beyond, descends, takes birth in our midst and establishes Dharma: this is Avatāram.

Siddhanta Śaivars do not accept the premise of Siva Avatars.  They do not accept Sankara as the Avatar of Siva, Jñāṉa Sambandar as the Avatar of Murugan… they consider dwelling in the womb, living in flesh in the world of men…are disgrace to Swamy. The Advaitins (Monists) regard all who are womb-born and live in flesh are Braḥman. Therefore, they do not consider Īśvarāvatārams (Isvara Incarnations) objectionable. In Siddhanta order, there is much commonality between Śaivas and Vaiṣṇavas; but the latter do not accept monistic view of Brahman is Jīva. Vaishnavas accept the Incarnation Theory. Incarnations by and large are considered in the context of Dasāvatarams (Vishnu’s 10 Avatāras). The reasons Vaishnavas accept the Vishnu Avatars are Vishnu is a supreme benevolent and compassionate Bhagavan and the devotees believe that Vishnu descends and condescends to any level just to serve as the savior of humanity.

Knowing inside he is Swamy and playing the role of a human on the outside do not diminish him to the slightest extent.

Hinduism accepts the Theory of Avatāra. The Śaivas accept Vishnu took the ten Avatāras, though they say that their Primal God Siva Peruman never takes an Avatāram.

Hindu religion’s unique feature is the single formless Supreme Soul appears in many forms and as many deities, for whom there are established sacerdotal services. Because of it, the foreigners labeled us practitioners of polytheism. That characterization is flawed. Worshipping one deity in many forms is not polytheistic worship. Idol worship described as idolatry is also a mistake. No informed Hindu thinks that God is the idol. The all-pervasive God is thought of as present in the idol which serves as the convenient tool for the concentration of the mind and worship. Whatever may be the religion, worship with symbols, and meditation are commonplace. It is unjustified to call the Hindus’ idol worship as idolatry and levelling derision on them because of it.

The Hindu pride is that it does not claim and celebrate exclusive right as the only one to offer solace for the soul. The Catholic outlook in our Sastras declares and accepts whoever takes whatever religious path, all are bound to reach one Paramātmā (Supreme Soul).  For that reason alone, our Sacred Texts do not allow conversion to Hinduism.

The other religions have different slants: Those who do not follow the teachings of Jesus Christ go to hell. Those who do not observe the teachings of prophet Mohammad do not go to heaven. We should not be angry with them. They may in their hearts believe in them.  Since they are born into the religion, see the fulfilment they received from it and think in their charitable outlook that others cannot have such fulfillment, let us assume they desire to convert others into their chosen religion. Let us assume by employing very many inimical tactics and methods, they entice others to their religion. Let us hold the premise they by invasion, war, sword…engaged in conversion. Islam spread by the strength of the sword. Christianity spread by the strength of money. Christians engaged in invasions and wars. But missionaries’ philanthropy and services joined the effort (at conversion). The Arabic Muslim desert countries lacked the monetary power that the white missionaries had. Establishing schools, hospitals…the missionaries called the poor and the indigent and roped them to join their religion.

We can defy and reject the allure and the force. We need not doubt their genuine belief that spreading their religion would bring weal and welfare to the public.

Is their belief well-founded?  Is hell our future but for the belief in Christ or prophet?  A brief reflection reveals that their exclusive right to heaven does not wash. Christ came 2000 years ago. The prophet came 1400 years ago. What happened to those who were born a 1000, 10,000, 100,000… years ago and died since then? According to their doctrine, since they did not have Christ or the prophet as their savior from the time of creation to then advent of Jesus Christ and or prophet Mohammad, they must have gone to hell. The ancestors of Jesus Christ and Prophet Mohammad and their followers could not have gone to heaven.

They do not accept the Hindu premise that being have many births. We can draw solace if the ancestors of Christ and the prophet Mohammad and their followers were born and reborn to resolve their Karma and had a pathway to attain liberation. But (to our consternation), in their religions, there is only single births and no reincarnations.  It appears these one-time births over millions of years went to hell after their deaths. Why should we worship a God who created these people over millions of years, failed to send Acharyas for their guidance but pushed them one-way into hell? Why should we reach or merge with him? We can say we don’t need religion precisely created for attainment of God, (because it did not fulfil its promise and obligations).

In this world, there are several countries with their own weather conditions, appropriate floras, and a culture. All countries of the world had Vedic religion accommodating all conditions.  Desires and aspirations of peoples in these countries changed several times and different religions based on the environment and appropriate observances appeared on the horizon. What is still present are the left-over symbols and features of the old Vedic Religion. In India, the ancient religion remained stable.  Vedic religion treated with dignity the other latter-day religions.

Based on the maturity of the foreigners, the foreign religions took roots where Vedic religion once thrived. There was a prevailing view that the new religion will give them greatness. Hinduism’s goal has always been ‘to live and let live.’  Besides it, Hinduism gave birth to Buddhism and Jainism that yield spiritual greatness and sent them abroad to other nations.

I mentioned special features of Hinduism in its philosophical and theological fields.

There is a big and unique feature in Hinduism’s sociological profile.

Every religion has its philosophy, theology, individual moral code, social and societal behaviors.  Treat your neighbor as your brother, think of your enemy as your friend, treat others as you would like to be treated, be kind to all living things, speak the truth, observe non-violence: these are some ethics of each religion. Dharma or morality is to a certain extent its part. Sociological behavior is a part.  Other religions do not have extensive narrative on sociological subject.

In Hindu religion, there is a strong sociological foundation and its special feature is Varṇāsrama Dharmam.

Varṇa Dharmam and Āśrama Dharmam are two separate things.  Āśrama Dharmam is personal and dictates the conduct and obligations of a person during four stages of his life. In the first stage spanning about 1½ to two decades until marriage he is engaged in vittiyāppiyācam (Vidyā + abhyāsa = Acquisition of knowledge) in Gurukulam. In the second stage, he gets married, performs his householder’s duties, and bears children. Third, attaining mature age, he leaves home and family, he lives in the forest.  He should absolve himself from the worldly life and do Vaidika activities. In the fourth Āśrama, he should give up the Vaidika activities and cut off any connection with the worldly involvement, become a Sanyasi and concentrate his mind on Paramātmā. This Āśrama Dharmam. These four Āśramas are Brahmacarya, Gṛhastha, Vānaprastha, and Sannyāsa. This is the Dharma for the individual.

Varṇa Dharma pervades the whole society and is subject to criticism. People say Varna Dharma is separation by castes. In truth, Varna differs from Jāti.  Varnas are four and Jātis are numerous. Brahmaṇa Varna has many Jātis: Aiyar, Aiyangar, Rao… In the fourth Varna, there are many Jātis: Mudaliar, Piḷḷai, Reddiar, Nāyakkar… Vedas and Dharma Sastras speak of many Jātis. Those Jātis do not exist now.  Observers say this fourfold Varna Dharma has engendered division of people as high and low.  Looking at it impartially, it is an incomparable instrument established for order, ranking and decorum (ஒழுங்கு) in the societal life.