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Re: Questions
Sankaran Jayanarayanan (Kartik@eng.auburn.edu) wrote:
: I have 4 questions.
: -Question 1- TO ALL HINDUS-
: One of the basic tenets of hinduism is the Karma theory.
: I seem to have come across something to "disprove'
: the Karma theory. Actually, I am just trying to understand
: the Karma theory fully. I sincerely request someone to
: throw light upon the following "PROOF"-
: According to a shloka by Veda Vyasa,
: " ASHTADASA PURANESHU VYASASYA VACHANA DVAYAM|
: PAROPAKARAH PUNYAYA PAAPAAYA PARA PEEDANAM || "
: I have no 'authority' for the above sloka. All I know is
: that it was taught in our sanskrit class.
: Anyway, It means, " the author of 18 puranas, Veda Vyasa,
: has said 2 things - to help others is punya and to harm
: others is paapa. "
: Ofcourse, by the definition of the Karma theory, Punya
: brings happiness and Paapa brings unhappiness.
: I'll assume another thing- there was a creation, before
: which I assume that there was no such thing as Karma.
: Consider 2 persons A and B. A harms B. A has commited
: Paapa(sin). B has suffered because he had commited sin
: sometime before(otherwise why should he suffer?).
: B,therefore, harmed a guy - say, C. C suffered at B's hands
: because C had commited sins sometime before, to someone,
: say, D. ...AND SO ON...
: As you might have noticed, we have been going backwards in
: time while analysing A,B,C,etc.. WE WOULD HAVE TO GO
: INFINITELY BACKWARDS IN TIME IF WE ASSUME THE KARMA LAW-
: i.e., the world has always existed- THERE IS NO CREATION!!
The "karma theory" as far as I understand DOES NOT imply that
each and every thing, was pre-ordained. What it does say is that
if you do something, then howsoever hard you try, you will face
the consequences of it. Either in this life, or in later life.
So, once you have creation, and man is born, he does something.
And he gets faces the consequences of it later (either in this
life or in succeeding ones). These consequences may be good or
bad ones.
: -Question 2- TO THE ADVAITINS-
: If the world is illusory, why practise anything at all?
: Why renounce the world since that is illusory?
: Why not just have a good time in this world instead of
: practising religion, since they are all Maya anyway?
Precisely, because the world is illusory. So, while you
are killing your time in gambling, the ensuing happiness
is also illusory. And since you cannot have a "good time"
for all the times in this world, it better that you start
aspiring for something more wise. Or else, sooner or later,
the 'good times' may be very well replaced by "bad times.'
: -Question 3 - TO THE VAISHNAVAS
: Assuming Buddha to be God( I think it is mentioned in the
: Srimad Bhagavatam),why do you still believe in Idol-worship?
: (Since Buddha was against idol-worship).
: Saying that " God especially manifests himself in the idol",
: or " God and his form are One" etc. are unsatisfactory
: arguments. If you can believe TO THE WORD what Krishna tells
: you in the Gita, why do you treat Buddha's words in an
: entirely different vein(not trusting to the word)?
Could you explain the question to me?
: -Question 4 -TO THE HARE-KRISHNAS-
: I recently visited the Hare-Krishna home-page and found
: a piece on Hinduism. To be precise what I'm talking about,
: the URL number for that is-
: http://aristotle.algonet.se/~krishna/_q_20.htm
: There, I came across a passage saying-
: "Shiva is the lord of cosmic devastation. Sakti is the
: goddess of the total material nature, or prakriti. Because
: Shiva is very easily pleased, those who desire rapid
: material advancement for little effort are especially
: interested in worshiping him and Sakti."
: I have forgotten where exactly the following is mentioned
: (as I have left most of my Veda books back home in India),
: but the following is mentioned in the Vedas-
: " Tat Purushaya Vidmahen Mahadevaya Dhimahi.
: Tanno Rudrah Prachodayaat. "
: Meaning( I think) , " To reach That Purusa, I pray that
: mahadeva be well-disposed towards me. May Rudra
: impel me towards It. "
: But on reading your piece about Shiva, It seems as if the
: ONLY aim of the worship of shiva is to have material
: advancement(though you have not explicitly mentioned ONLY).
: You have not touched upon the aspect of worship of Shiva
: for reaching That Purusha.
You yourself answered your question. It is in: "ONLY".
--
Nachiketa Tiwari
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References:
- Questions
- From: Sankaran Jayanarayanan <Kartik@eng.auburn.edu>
