Curiosity is killing me: Your opinion of Hinduism??

Question

And why?
A lot of people (at least many Americans I know) like hinduism but don't really understand it. I want to see your opinions, and please SAY WHY because I want to see if your opinions are rooted in truth or misconception. Thanks.

hmm...interesting...we have:
1) The normal Christian who doesn't know anything and spouts off a pre-programmed response.
2)The people who don't think much about it either way, because it is not a threat.
3) The educated people who understand certain...complexities that arise when dealing with eastern religion.
4)The correct group who understand both the good and the bad, and yet only know of the effects of hinduism, not the root causes.

dnk...go ahead, tell me, I'm interested now.

Answer 1

Hinduism offers the flexibility to believe in many ways that Christianity, and Islam does not.

It essentially establishes a system whereby if you do enough good, or if you do more good than evil during life, that you are guaranteed to advance in your next incarnation. If you do more evil than good, you are punished by being reduced to a lower animal in your next incarnation.

With all this in your mind and hands, your life is in hands alone. It becomes very easy to understand that your spiritual faith, and ultimately your physical fate rests within your own hands, and your own independent decision making ability. Not in some celestial rule courts like the Christians believe, where by regardless of how much you might have tried to be a good person, that you might in fact have been judged to be a sinner by God , and doomed to a eternity of hellfire.

Contrast this to the multiple deities that are available within the Hindu belief, and you find a system whereby each person can choose to worship, a select group of God's or God, while respecting the others not being perfectly aligned with the rest.

In Christianity, people are forced to worship the ancient Jewish God, Jehovah and in the Islamic belief, Allah is the only choice for you.

With the multitude of human personalities and interests, it only makes sense that a multitude of gods would appeal to a much wider range of understanding sense of spirituality and belief.

I appreciate your question is rooted in your need to judge whether my beliefs and opinions are rooted in truth or misconception. However, in the Hindu sense, you are not a spiritual place to make that judgment, as my beliefs are only a reflection of where I am spiritually, and how I choose to believe.

Truth in religious terms is not absolute, and that is true for every religion. Truth therefore becomes relative, meaning that, what is true to me based on my belief structure, and my experience, and my reality, may not be true for everyone else.

In a spiritual sense, that does not mean my beliefs are in any way made less true, because I'm on a personal growth path to enlightenment.

Answer 2

I am an American and I am a Hindu tho I haven't formally converted. I agree that many people don't understand it, especially judging from some of the answers given. I mean, I could easily say "A man who died that came back to life for 3 days then floated on up to heaven...whatever..". People don't understand the time frame with Hinduism either - we're not talking about just a mere 2000 years ago or thereabouts like the other religions.. and I love all the symbology of the various Deities....I still have so much to learn and I love studying about my chosen faith!

Answer 3

I'm in that category. I know a little, not much, but what I have learned doesn't scare me. A lot of Hinduism seems very tolerant and pantheistic, and while the caste system is bad, my understanding is that it doesn't necessarily go along with Hinduism.

Still, I'll pass on it. I would probably have a negative opinion of Hinduism if it were a threat to my secular democracy like Christianity and Islam are.

Answer 4

To be honest I don't know much about Hinduism. They believe in reincarnation. I have no problems with non-dogmatic religions. The thing I am not so fond of are the castes and the believe that people were born into one and have to stay there until they lead a better life and can go up the ladder after death. I don't like the thought of being trapped somewhere out of birthright. But I could be mistaken, that's all I know.

Answer 5

Strictly speaking Hinduism is not a religion....its a life style and is a way of life. No body is spreading over the message of this religion ..the fact is that it spreads by it self...No strict regimens.... you are free to choose the form of deity according to your own choice..you can go formless ( without an image) also like worshiping of shivlinga...Its the reason that this religion stood time tested despite the reason it was subject to the vandalism and invasion by a number of arrogant forces on its temples and devotees both physically and sentimentally..Even now some cynics are making sarcastic remarks on their own religion (Hinduism) in their movies and dramas to make easy money as they are damn sure that the tolerance level of this religion is so high.. its nonetheless equal to sullying the honour of their mother land.Let us forgive those unscrupulous elements....

Answer 6

so far i have read i came to the conclusion that hinduism is not a religion but mere mythology. it is based on true stories i supposed. you know their cultures and belief are vast it is not easy to explain. because i i am not a hindu and i haven't study in deep. but i do read a lot. it consists of interesting stories. but one thing i appreciate a lot is its cultures. moral values, behaviours, so humble so good. i think if somebody follow hinduism well so he can't be a bad human. h will be definitely the best human being. because hinduism as any other religion teachers that we should lie, we should not steal, honesty , truthfullness, humbility, respect of parents. al all these moral values made hinduism gain respect.

Answer 7

Hinduism is what there was before Buddism. Budda was a hindu. That is why they called Buddas method for awakening Buddism. Hinduism deals with being conscious of every thought, intention and action, bringing one into higher awareness until he reaches Infinate unkown consciousness(A Master. Christhood, Buddahood) This is the goal of all humans. Most of us get caught up in all the emotional addiction of the human body and forget that they are more than their body. That is a simple and easy summary that I perceive when looking at Hinduism.

Answer 8

my interest is in the advaita vedanta(non duality teachings) schools of Hinduism that teach about how the world appears and how it really is/ when i see a Christian successful counter non dualism with logic(not Jesus Camp emotional belief). Then i will become a Christian . never happen tho. because the Hindus who came up with non dualism have experiential knowledge of it./btw Meister Eckhart.had experiential knowledge and sounds exactly like Hinduism.

Answer 9

I really enjoy learning about it, because it isn't like other religions. Other religions, you are able to point out exactly where it came from, but with Hinduism, you can't. We know that it came with the Aryans when they moved into India, but that is about it. I also like that they only really have one god, Brahma; that takes MANY different forms. I myself think it is very interesting. It is where Karma and Dharma comes from, and it is a very positive religion. It tells people to just accept the fate they were born into, making the people more positive and accepting.

Answer 10

Hinduism drew my interest early in college. Books like Bagavadgita, Mahabharata, Upanishads fascinated me to know end. Stories about Krishna and Arjuna I found to be completely enthralling; the extent to which I often neglected my mandatory studies to finish a tale about Krishna. There is one part of the story in Bagavadgita, that prompted me to quickly finsh the book. Krishna's mother found him sitting in the yard eating dirt one day. It's a part in the text where it has yet to be established just "How" extraordinary Krishna is. The mother goes to Krishna the child and reprimands him for eating dirt and begins to take it out of his mouth--opening the child's mouth and looking down into it much to her astonishment she sees: the universe, all the stars and planets in our solar system. Shocked out of her senses, she jumps back and views her child in the awe and reverence of new eyes. It triggered and interest in other cultures and religions with me and is "why" after finishing the Bagavadgita and the other books on Hinduism I went on to read: books on Buddism, the I Ching, the Tao Tse Ching, Confucism, etc.