As hinduism is based on myths, why do people still follow it so "seriously"?

Question

Please no answers like "Beliefs and faiths"... I want realistic answers...

Answer 1

"The Vedic literature opens to us a chapter in what has been called the education of the human race, to which we can find no parallel anywhere else."

(source: India: What can it teach us - By F. Max Muller p. 89

"the Veda was the most precious gift for which the West had ever been indebted to the East."

-Voltaire (1694-1774) France

"They are the oldest classics and the most precious treasures of India. The soul of Bharatiya sanskriti dwells in the Vedas. The entire world admits the importance of the Vedas."

-A P J (Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul) Kalam

"They haunt me. In them I have found eternal compensation, unfathomable power, unbroken peace."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) an author, essayist, lecturer, philosopher, Unitarian minister who lectured on theology at Harvard University. He wrote: "I owed a magnificent day to the Bhagavad-Gita. It was as if an empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence which in another age and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the same questions which exercise us."

Julius Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967) A theoretical physicist and the Supervising Scientist for the Manhattan Project, the developer of the atomic bomb. Oppenheimer acquired a deeper knowledge of the Bhagavad Gita in 1933 when, as a young professor of physics, he studied Sanskrit with Professor Arthur W Ryder (1877-1938) at Berkeley.

The Gita, he wrote was “very easy and quite marvelous”. He called the Gita “the most beautiful philosophical song existing in any known tongue.”


"When I read the Upanishads, I found a profundity of world view that made my Christianity seem like third grade."

-Huston Smith born in China to Methodist missionaries.

Get some education now before making absurd comments.

Answer 2

The myths are merely tools for teaching greater lessons about the nature of our consciousness and how we can strive towards moksha. There is a lot of symbolism that is used.

Hinduism is still followed seriously by so many because they experience the truth of its teachings. The myths are generally understood by the follower and realized as symbols and the symbolism is recognized. However, Hinduism's teachings are not forced upon anyone, not even to those born into a Hindu family.

I am a Hindu not because I have to be. I was not born a Hindu, I converted from Christianity to Hinduism. I became a Hindu because after I left Christianity I explored other religions and discovered Hinduism. Hinduism offered some teachings for me to try. I tried them and experienced some of what had been said. That experience prompted me to continue to try. The Dharmic religions (Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism) are like that. They aren't like "believe this or else" they are like "try this if you want to see if you get some results. if you get results and want to continue then go ahead, if you get results and don't want to continue then that is okay too and if you don't get any results and don't want to continue then definately move on to another path." Those who follow it so seriously do so because they have gotten results and wanted to keep going and continue to make progress spiritually.

Hope that answers your question.

Answer 3

Hinduism isn't really based on myths. We have a lot of epics that we treat as our bible (for lack of an alternative 'rule' book) - these are probably what you're referring to as myths, though many hindus will contest you on that.

We just have our beliefs - very strong ones too, cuz hindusim is over 4000 years old.

So, actually, we don't follow any myths at all - and most hindus don't follow the religion seriously at all, so you've got your facts wrong.

Answer 4

How can modern christians associate miracles with dead nuns and priests. Give them sainthood. They're exagerrated beliefs of cultures which have spead through time. People may chose to believe or not believe in them and still be hindus. The core beliefs are very different to the myths though. All religions have myths. How was the earth repopulated by noah and his family after the great flood. There would be no modern humans through incest. We'd be like the ostrich ppl of africa with pronged feet.

Answer 5

Because myths are great. They teach some of the greatest truths that mere prose cannot so easily convey. People take the morals of Aesop's fables seriously. The myths of Hinduism are tools to open the mind and spirit to a greater awareness of morality, truth, and wisdom.

Answer 6

hinduism is not based on myths. the myths like ramayana and mahabharata are only guides for people to lead the correct way of life. rather than saying them as myths, it would be better to put them as beliefs, just like christianity and islam...., myths exist in all religions. and no religion is based on myths. the myths only help propogate or preach in a better way, the principles put forward by the religion.

Answer 7

Every faith is based on beliefs and myths might not have actual scientific basis behind them, yet are believed my millions. That is what ultimately faith is about, believing in something in the absence of absolute truth.

In fact, many faiths today may seem far different from faiths tomorrow.

Answer 8

could you prove that all that is said in Hinduism are just myths. Hinduism is a religion preaching love and kindness. why should not people seriously follow such a religion.

Answer 9

If Christianity is based on myths why do people follow it so seriously?

Answer 10

the same could be said for almost all religions. in fact, most religions borrow from each other. Most of the stories in the bible are rehashed myths from older religions. the next generation of religions will probably modify the same myths to appeal to an updated populace--probaly involve space travel--kind of like scientology.