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Questions
A response from Curtis Johnson to questions posed by Sankaran Jayanarayanan:
SH> From: Sankaran Jayanarayanan <Kartik@eng.auburn.edu>
SH> Subject: Questions
SH> Date: 17 Dec 1995 21:14:35 GMT
SH> I have 4 questions.
SH> -Question 1- TO ALL HINDUS-
SH> I seem to have come across something to "disprove'
SH> the Karma theory. Actually, I am just trying to understand
SH> the Karma theory fully. I sincerely request someone to
SH> throw light upon the following "PROOF"-
SH> According to a shloka by Veda Vyasa,
SH> Anyway, It means, " the author of 18 puranas, Veda Vyasa,
SH> has said 2 things - to help others is punya and to harm
SH> others is paapa. "
SH> I'll assume another thing- there was a creation, before
SH> which I assume that there was no such thing as Karma.
SH> Consider 2 persons A and B. A harms B. A has commited
SH> Paapa(sin). B has suffered because he had commited sin
SH> sometime before(otherwise why should he suffer?).
SH> B,therefore, harmed a guy - say, C. C suffered at B's hands
SH> because C had commited sins sometime before, to someone,
SH> say, D. ...AND SO ON...
SH> As you might have noticed, we have been going backwards in
SH> time while analysing A,B,C,etc.. WE WOULD HAVE TO GO
SH> INFINITELY BACKWARDS IN TIME IF WE ASSUME THE KARMA LAW-
SH> i.e., the world has always existed- THERE IS NO CREATION!!
I'm not a Hindu. This question of the origin of evil has
long been debated in Christian theology and philosophy, under the
term "theodicy." But I suspect that there is not enough
parallelism to help you.
In Far Eastern thought, there is the concept of unified
opposites: yin and yang, two commas together in one circle. In
other words, good cannot exist without evil. I suspect, though,
that this concept does not exist in Hinduism (though I'm not at
all sure).
One possible answer might be that the very first injured party
would have been innocent, and that the chain of karma followed from this
first link.
Another possible answer might be that there would be some
carry-over between universes in the cycle of created and destroyed
universes. Perhaps Hinduism would have less problem with such an
infinite regression than would Western thought.
A third possible answer might be that the division between
good and evil might itself be a form of maya.
And a fourth might be that even the creation and
destruction of universes is a form of maya, that there is only
Brahama.
I know little about Hinduism; these are only off-the-cuff
speculations about attempts to resolve this problem.
SH> -Question 2- TO THE ADVAITINS-
SH> If the world is illusory, why practise anything at all?
SH> Why renounce the world since that is illusory?
SH> Why not just have a good time in this world instead of
SH> practising religion, since they are all Maya anyway?
But isn't realizing that it's Maya a religious realization?
And doesn't this realization--or the quest for this
realization--come from realizing that "a good time" is illusory?
SH> -Question 3 - TO THE VAISHNAVAS
SH> Assuming Buddha to be God( I think it is mentioned in the
SH> Srimad Bhagavatam),why do you still believe in Idol-worship?
SH> (Since Buddha was against idol-worship).
SH> Saying that " God especially manifests himself in the idol",
SH> or " God and his form are One" etc. are unsatisfactory
SH> arguments. If you can believe TO THE WORD what Krishna tells
SH> you in the Gita, why do you treat Buddha's words in an
SH> entirely different vein(not trusting to the word)?
I do know that Buddhists definitely do not believe Buddha
to be God.
I don't know who Vaishnavas are.
SH> -Question 4 -TO THE HARE-KRISHNAS-
SH> I recently visited the Hare-Krishna home-page and found
SH> http://aristotle.algonet.se/~krishna/_q_20.htm
SH> There, I came across a passage saying-
SH> "Shiva is the lord of cosmic devastation. Sakti is the
SH> goddess of the total material nature, or prakriti. Because
SH> Shiva is very easily pleased, those who desire rapid
SH> material advancement for little effort are especially
SH> interested in worshiping him and Sakti."
SH> But on reading your piece about Shiva, It seems as if the
SH> ONLY aim of the worship of shiva is to have material
SH> advancement(though you have not explicitly mentioned ONLY).
SH> You have not touched upon the aspect of worship of Shiva
SH> for reaching That Purusha.
This strikes me as a valid critique.
SH> Moderator: Ajay Shah Submissions: srh@rbhatnagar.csm.uc.edu
SH> Administrivia: srh-request@rbhatnagar.csm.uc.edu
SH> Archives: http://rbhatnagar.csm.uc.edu:8080/soc_hindu_home.html
Steve--I don't presently have I-net access.
... Want immortality? Fine, first turn in your ID card. . . .
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