jatt punjabi,
Everything you quote I agree is a part of Indic scriptures but the Indic scriptures are not the ultimate in wisdom. There are scriptures and there are scriptures and they at many a place contradict each other(but Hindu scriptures are not alone). ome proclaim caste as hereditary whereas Krishna states clearly in the Bhagavad Gita that caste is a classification of people's potential. A single family might have children with qualities that are suitable for Brahmins, Kshatri-yas, Vaishyas, or Shudra.
Who doesn't know it exist's in India and not just among the Hindooos alone...Not following the caste system doesn't render you a non-Hindu. One may be an athiest and still be a Hindu.
"There is no heaven, no final liberation, nor any soul in another world,
Nor do the actions of the four castes, etc., produce any real effect.
The Agnihotra, the three Vedas, the ascetic's three staves, and smearing one's self with ashes,
Were made by Nature as the livelihood or those destitute of knowledge and manliness."
- - Savradarshana Samgraha
Scepticism is an integral part of Hindu civilization and its nice to know people like you keeping the tradition alive. The disbelief, doubts, and atheism of ancient India is summed up in the lines above.
Then there is Charvaka philosophy(existed during the Vedic period), founded by Charvaka,rejected the existence of God and considered religion as an aberration. The most important book was Brihaspati Sutra. I am stating things in past tense since I am not aware if copies of this book are available in India. According to Charvaka, "Material world alone exists and our knowledge comes from sense perception". This philosophy openly propagated that there is no God, the Law of Karma has no basis and that the Vedas were written by clowns. It adds " Enjoy life while you can, for once cremated, you will never return to earth." There are still a lot more scriptures in Hinduism. I should say that there are more than 1000 scriptures in Hinduism......
None of the above scripture is to be considered as final. People who believe in what they believe in must also know that the Veda's etc. had emphasized that the ideas and philosophy was merely a discovery about a reality that had always been there. The authors who-ever they were were not bringing any new covenants from any God. The history of our religion or culture or the way it is looked at is not necessary for the principles we believe in to work. In fact, even Krishna or even the Buddha and Nanak stated that they was neither the first nor the last to have achieved the state of enlightenment. they also asserted that they were not God nor sent by any God as a prophet, and whatever they discovered was available to every human to discover for himself. Like the Law of Gravity.
The Gita never commands anyone what to do; Instead it discusses pros and cons of every action and thought. Throughout Gita you will not come across any line starting or ending with Thou Shalt Not Do This.
And tell you what...Hinduism is the only system that never ever boasts monopoly on salvation. In fact, as per Hinduism, any one, even an atheist can attain salvation. A Jew, Christian and Moslem can attain salvation, irrespective of whether they read any Hindu scriptural book.
"Ekam Sat, Viprah Bahudha Vadanti". (There is only one truth, only men describe it in different ways). - - -The Rig Veda
All religions are the result of the works of thousands of thinkers. Hinduism and Judaism are cultures and they are the mothers of all religions. New religions like Christianity and Islam took the best aspects of Judaism and made part of them. So too Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism took the best aspects of Hinduism and made part of them. In Christianity, there were several housecleaning in its 2000 years of history. Hinduism on its part, never had any house cleaning in its history. Since Hinduism never tossed anything away, in it you will see in it primitive religion as well as very advanced thoughts.
Now returning back to what I wrote in my previous posts...
What I ask is this :
Do we Sikh teach our children that more than 1/3 of the Guru Granth consist of Hymns that were composed long before even Nanak was born(Kabir was before Nanak. And Namdev was a Maratha whose hymns in the Guru Granth are a Punjabi translation of his original Marathi hymns) ??
I don't know why such a fuss is being made. All I said is that whatever is said in the Guru Granth was said before. Though I admit contrary things were also said. And say what will one do about Kabir and Namdev ?? Sikhism did exist long before Nanak. That's what I said.
Thanks
