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Re: Hinduism: does it explain sufferings?
ntiwari@rs3.esm.vt.edu (N. Tiwari) writes:
>Santhosh Kumar (santhosh@iss.nus.sg) wrote:
>: Hi,
>: I would like to share your thoughts on whether Hinduism explains
>: the reason for sufferings. On one hand, the law of karma explains
>: why events happen based on action and reaction law. But, on the other
>: hand it went on to say that the life itself is cyclic, meaning that
>: the entire process repeats by itself. If the latter is true, it would
>: imply that even though we can explain the sufferings based on LAW OF
>: KARMA, in the global perspective the answer fails because if the
>: entire life is cyclic it would mean that everything happens because
>: it is bound to happen that way. In other words, we are just an
>: instrument in the entire process who cannot decide/choose our
>: destiny, but is pre-programmed.
>: I would like to share your thoughts on this, and would greatly
>: appreciate if you could mail a copy of your reply at:
>1. The "Karma" siddhanta is not an attempt to explain suffering. In
> fact, all religions fail to explain that question. The question,
> that if God is so all powerful, and "all-compassionate", why did
> (S)He create a universe so full of misery and pain, though a very
> valid one, has not been answered by any religion. The Christians
> and the Muslims try to explain it by saying that we have a free will,
> and so, even though God is good, we create or destroy our happiness,
> since we have a free will. The answer how-ever then again raises
> the same question: Why did God give man a free will, esp. after He
> (in semitic sense) knew that usage of this will had a very good
> chance of creating a lot of misery.
>2. The idea that since things are cyclic, and hence are pre-ordained
> is not right. What happens NOW is an outcome of the following:
> a) Past
> b) Your actions and thoughts
>
> While you cannot control the impact of past, you do have the option
> make the right action. So, things are not as pre-ordained as we think
> them to be. However, if you think that all you are is a product of
> past actions, then the future for you is pretty much written. But,
> if you chose to think, and act conciosuly, then you DO have a good
> chance of changing your future. Had the "pre-ordained" theory been
> true, then the entire Gita darshan would have been a useless one.
> But, Krshna DID urge Arjun to fight. Because he had the option to
> chose between non-fight and fight.
>--
Perhaps another way to look at it is the Buddhist way, namely, that all life IS
suffering. Note the ALL. Wherever and whenever life exists, there WILL be
suffering, and any attempts to create a life without suffering is doomed to
failure. Buddhism also attempts to give a solution as to how one may
look at this suffering from a different perspective -- it does not state that
the suffering would go away. As such, it is a PSYCHOLOGICAL approach.
Cheers,
--
Neep Hazarika Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD, Australia, 4072
Phone: +61-7-3365-3771 (work) +61-7-3371-8892 (home) Fax +61-7-3365-4999
INTERNET: neep@elec.uq.edu.au URL: http://www.elec.uq.edu.au/~neep
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