Thursday, October 27, 2005
Gandhi and God
This is regarding my previous post on temple for gandhi
In a tribal religion like Hinduism, the concept of god comes with rituals, mythologies and belief's. The true intention of any religious idea gets lost in the sweet coated over the medicine and the message never reaches the common man. Every godly person or object comes with its own pack of mythology which runs contrary to the scientific facts. Atleast i for one don’t believe lord krishna lifted the govardhana mountains with his fingers or showed the world in his mouth.So the world of gods is something fictitious, doubtful, but if one wants to embrace it on the whole without asking questions that is his choice.
But gandhi on the other hand is not mythology, he is not fiction, he is real, he lived in the real world(1869-1948).By idolizing and making him god.You are mixing two worlds, you are taking him out of the real world and putting him in a mythological world.If you seperate things clearly as Fiction and non fiction, there wont be any confusion.
Idol as a reminder is also unacceptable. There are lot of statues for him, pictures are there.One can always use them as remainders. why build a temple and do pooja for him?.I wish the guy who built the temple opened a library full of books on gandhi or wrote a simpler, children's version of 'my experiment with truth' or freely screened gandhi movie to everyone. But he didn't.
I want the children’s to study him in history books and not in mythological ones.I wish the children’s sitting there in that temple will understand gandhi as a human being and question him as a whole.It would be great if those kids ask the question, whether someone can follow his teachings now?. How, true can one be in this fast world etc..
But you know what that kid at the temple is going to do.He is not going to do any questioning.All that he is going to do is close his eyes and pray
"Oh God Gandhi, make sure i pass the maths Paper in the Final Exam".
In a tribal religion like Hinduism, the concept of god comes with rituals, mythologies and belief's. The true intention of any religious idea gets lost in the sweet coated over the medicine and the message never reaches the common man. Every godly person or object comes with its own pack of mythology which runs contrary to the scientific facts. Atleast i for one don’t believe lord krishna lifted the govardhana mountains with his fingers or showed the world in his mouth.So the world of gods is something fictitious, doubtful, but if one wants to embrace it on the whole without asking questions that is his choice.
But gandhi on the other hand is not mythology, he is not fiction, he is real, he lived in the real world(1869-1948).By idolizing and making him god.You are mixing two worlds, you are taking him out of the real world and putting him in a mythological world.If you seperate things clearly as Fiction and non fiction, there wont be any confusion.
Idol as a reminder is also unacceptable. There are lot of statues for him, pictures are there.One can always use them as remainders. why build a temple and do pooja for him?.I wish the guy who built the temple opened a library full of books on gandhi or wrote a simpler, children's version of 'my experiment with truth' or freely screened gandhi movie to everyone. But he didn't.
I want the children’s to study him in history books and not in mythological ones.I wish the children’s sitting there in that temple will understand gandhi as a human being and question him as a whole.It would be great if those kids ask the question, whether someone can follow his teachings now?. How, true can one be in this fast world etc..
But you know what that kid at the temple is going to do.He is not going to do any questioning.All that he is going to do is close his eyes and pray
"Oh God Gandhi, make sure i pass the maths Paper in the Final Exam".
Comments:
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In a tribal religion like Hinduism, the concept of god comes with rituals, mythologies and belief's!!!
Our swami Vivekananda also did not belive all teh rituals .Infact in his own
Our swami Vivekananda also did not belive all teh rituals .Infact in his own
LOL :)
Senthil Las Vega poyitu vandhuittu
ippadi oru posta loluldhan.
BTW who said hinduism is a tribal religion.
Seri,seri visit pathi ezuthupa
Senthil Las Vega poyitu vandhuittu
ippadi oru posta loluldhan.
BTW who said hinduism is a tribal religion.
Seri,seri visit pathi ezuthupa
Ramki...
is a comment on the way??.what is happening?. :)
ganesh
religions are divided under various categories and hinduism is supposedly tribal.check this link.
http://atheism.about.com/library/FAQs/religion/blrel_type_tribal.htm
is a comment on the way??.what is happening?. :)
ganesh
religions are divided under various categories and hinduism is supposedly tribal.check this link.
http://atheism.about.com/library/FAQs/religion/blrel_type_tribal.htm
Even Ramakrishna ,Vivekananda lived almost ( ~50 years) near to gandhi .They are also worshipped .But their message is still powerful and it grows.
The true nature of religion has not been lost due to idol worship.There were times where it was worser ,but in Hinduism many saints have come and shown the true meaning of Idol worship from time to time .( ramakrishna ,vivekananda ,aurobindo ,ramana maharishi etc )
I think we are limiting hinduism in our own ways .We need to search some body like Ramakrishna Paramhamsa who followed all the paths and religions.There are so many ways described in hinduism,among which the popular one is Idol worship-even buddha denounced idol worship .....But his followers worshipped idol worship ,its impossible to neglect that .We cannot and should not limit by what we know in hinduism !!!
athesim.about.com la poi hinduism paththi search paNrengalae!!! It would have been better if you had quoted some other website .That website had few nice points ,but extremly limits hinduism.
Coming to the worship of ghandhi - if they follow what Ramakrishna Mutt is doing ,it may be better .Ramakrishna Mutt has idol worship of Ramakrishna ,Vvekananda ,sarada devi but they are very strong in spreading their message too.
Just idol worship of ghandhi is not going to help!
The true nature of religion has not been lost due to idol worship.There were times where it was worser ,but in Hinduism many saints have come and shown the true meaning of Idol worship from time to time .( ramakrishna ,vivekananda ,aurobindo ,ramana maharishi etc )
I think we are limiting hinduism in our own ways .We need to search some body like Ramakrishna Paramhamsa who followed all the paths and religions.There are so many ways described in hinduism,among which the popular one is Idol worship-even buddha denounced idol worship .....But his followers worshipped idol worship ,its impossible to neglect that .We cannot and should not limit by what we know in hinduism !!!
athesim.about.com la poi hinduism paththi search paNrengalae!!! It would have been better if you had quoted some other website .That website had few nice points ,but extremly limits hinduism.
Coming to the worship of ghandhi - if they follow what Ramakrishna Mutt is doing ,it may be better .Ramakrishna Mutt has idol worship of Ramakrishna ,Vvekananda ,sarada devi but they are very strong in spreading their message too.
Just idol worship of ghandhi is not going to help!
Sen,
every man considered righteous, great or something to that effect will eventually get mythologised.
I would not go to the extent to say Gandhi WILL be mythologised and will be treated as God in the future (coz I am not sure). But all I am saying is you can't deny the possibility.
We generally assume superior intelligence over our forefathers (which IMO is incorrect and lack of foresight and more importantly "presight" :); this is one of my fave topics, btw) .. but there has always been someone like you who has been asking people to not mythologise et al. Still there are lot of ppl who got mythologised. Gandhi eventually might get mythologised as well.
and abt Krishna (the "Lord", I mean), I would not say he didn't exist at all (the classic case of assumption of superiority over previous ages). My suggestion is that may be he got mythologised as well.
every man considered righteous, great or something to that effect will eventually get mythologised.
I would not go to the extent to say Gandhi WILL be mythologised and will be treated as God in the future (coz I am not sure). But all I am saying is you can't deny the possibility.
We generally assume superior intelligence over our forefathers (which IMO is incorrect and lack of foresight and more importantly "presight" :); this is one of my fave topics, btw) .. but there has always been someone like you who has been asking people to not mythologise et al. Still there are lot of ppl who got mythologised. Gandhi eventually might get mythologised as well.
and abt Krishna (the "Lord", I mean), I would not say he didn't exist at all (the classic case of assumption of superiority over previous ages). My suggestion is that may be he got mythologised as well.
# posted by 
: 10:58 PM
: 10:58 PM
sen
While I completely agree with you on not to divinise Gandhi, while completely forgetting his teachings. The history has a lesson there, many times its the disciples who mess up the teachings of guru.
To me Gandhi is just another human being trying to lead dharmic life with his own success and failures.
BTW summa dathi website quote pannathe ;)(most of these are biased anyway)
if you want read book about hinduism read books by Sri Sarvapalli RadhaKrishnan (hope you know who he is)
Swami Vivekananda
and even Nehrus Discovery of India will do.
the must read one is Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda,
http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/complete_works.htm
While I completely agree with you on not to divinise Gandhi, while completely forgetting his teachings. The history has a lesson there, many times its the disciples who mess up the teachings of guru.
To me Gandhi is just another human being trying to lead dharmic life with his own success and failures.
BTW summa dathi website quote pannathe ;)(most of these are biased anyway)
if you want read book about hinduism read books by Sri Sarvapalli RadhaKrishnan (hope you know who he is)
Swami Vivekananda
and even Nehrus Discovery of India will do.
the must read one is Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda,
http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/complete_works.htm
Ramki, ganesh
Hinduism is classifed as a tribal religion.I have read that in many books.This link was just to let u guys know.If u dont beleive me try 'Religion for Dummies'.
ramki,
when iam talking idol workship is wrong.you are saying that it is wrong if done alone but it is ok if you do it with the other job of spreading the message also...
Ramakrishna or vivekananda u r not going to gain anything by idol workship.The only way u can pay respect to them is by following there teachings that suits your needs.
narayanan
it is a love-hate relationship :).
zero,
It is not superior intelligence, it is just questioning things and finding your own way in the world.you might decide to walk on the path laid by someone else and experience the same thing that the guy before u experienced or venture out and find your own way and have ur own experience of the world.It is just Life as defined by me.
krishna,My points exactly he could have lived as an ordinary guy, who got mythologized to so many things, and i dont want that to hapen to gandhi that's all.
hiren shah,
exactly.
Hinduism is classifed as a tribal religion.I have read that in many books.This link was just to let u guys know.If u dont beleive me try 'Religion for Dummies'.
ramki,
when iam talking idol workship is wrong.you are saying that it is wrong if done alone but it is ok if you do it with the other job of spreading the message also...
Ramakrishna or vivekananda u r not going to gain anything by idol workship.The only way u can pay respect to them is by following there teachings that suits your needs.
narayanan
it is a love-hate relationship :).
zero,
It is not superior intelligence, it is just questioning things and finding your own way in the world.you might decide to walk on the path laid by someone else and experience the same thing that the guy before u experienced or venture out and find your own way and have ur own experience of the world.It is just Life as defined by me.
krishna,My points exactly he could have lived as an ordinary guy, who got mythologized to so many things, and i dont want that to hapen to gandhi that's all.
hiren shah,
exactly.
Sen,
thats all I wanted to say (reg this being only your stance on this). I wanted to say something like this:
its not that we have become "modern" (an elusive term) or something and we are doing something (deifying Gandhi like the Gods of the old ages) that is anachronistic or outdated. We (humans) are characteristic of that.
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thats all I wanted to say (reg this being only your stance on this). I wanted to say something like this:
its not that we have become "modern" (an elusive term) or something and we are doing something (deifying Gandhi like the Gods of the old ages) that is anachronistic or outdated. We (humans) are characteristic of that.
# posted by : 10:06 PM
: 10:06 PM << Home
