The Hindu view of ‘Scriptures’
A man of true knowledge who has attained enlightenment, has the same use for all the scriptures as one has for a small reservoir of water in a place flooded on all sides (Bhagavad Gita 2:46)
What does the Gita mean by this verse? This verse actually demonstrates some very important points about Hinduism with regards to ’scriptures’. Scriptures in the Hindu sense (unlike the Abrahamic religions) are a graded means that can take an individual to obtain experience of the Divine Truth (enlightenment).
However the supreme scripture, the real Word of God or the Supreme Reality can never really be put into human language, which is inherently limited by time, space and culture. The Divine Word is a state of consciousness, open to all, not a mere book that can be pulled off a shelf and quoted. When an individual has connected to this truth as their own first hand experience, and lives this truth in all its vivid reality, they have little use of scriptures. This is the central point of this verse of the Gita. The Hindu view of scripture is therefore……..
August 20th, 2007 at 5:18 am
The position as explained in this article is absolutely correct. However one needs to tread a path to reach the final goal and that accounts for temples and temple sculptures and rituals and festivals. These are what the scriptures called tantra and mantra; tantra standing for symbolic portrayals that stand for expanding knowledge (tanoti vipulaan arthaan )and Mantra satnding for mental imagery and consciouness (manana). The article rightly focuseson “dont mistake the path as the goal Nagaswamy”
August 20th, 2007 at 10:07 am
I agree with the writer of the article.
Tools where given for advancement.
Karma yoga
Bhakti Yoka
Rhaja Yoga
But above all Jnana Yoga.
Meditate (which means think . . not sit corssed legged in one of the asanas). . that is the mistake many people make.. . they think that meditaiton is sitting cross legged with your chakras aligned while meditation is to think about concepts and things and allow the answers to flow in.
The gitas . . offer instruction . .. but most importnat of all they are keys to meditate on (to think, to reason, ot be inspired on). . .in order to arrive to a greater understnading. . . they are keys. . but up to us to find the doors. . to open them . . and to cross the threshold.
One thing i would like to comment on about the article. . . it cirticises islam MISTAKE! Read the Koran. . . the most important lesson is TO USE REASON. Only imbeciles take scripture literally and only literally for the meanings are many . . Jnana Yoga is there for a purpose. . and its purpose I to be used by all (including Muslims Chrstians and Buddhists!).
The mind of god is complex as the aritcle points out. . our mind is simple thus the message of good can have ten meanings codified in one phrase while we tend to give to our phrases only one meaning. To the simple mind only one meaning will be revealed when reading scripture. . to the more complex mind. . . many meanings will come.
August 20th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
Truth,
I asked a English friend from my office, who was trying to convince me of Bible strories, if he had read Geeta. He did buy a copy from Hare Krishna Temple in Soho and to my surprise read the book complete in one week. When I asked him for his opinion he said, in his words, ‘no wonder you didn’t want to know the Bible’.
I only hope every Hindu makes an attempt to read our scriptures. As India belongs to Hindus and Geeta belongs to India, one cannot call oneself a Indian without reading Hindu scriptures especially Geeta.
August 20th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
Thank you A lovely article.
The ultimate question raised by the curiosity of human mind has been his own identity, origin and purpose in the exisying percetion of life. The process resulted in the earliest formulation in the history of man kind in the form of Vedas. Undestandably the infinite has to have infinite forms and the roads leading to the infinite have to be infinite. The process resulted in very sophisticated streams giving rise to Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Sufism and predominantly Bhakti yoga which is the softest and the endearing form that most like to identify as Hinduism of today. One must remember that the history is written by the victors and Hinduism got defined relatively recently being seperated from its wider canvas.
Scriptures are the roadmaps of the ultimate journey which seeks an understanding with the source of all sources. There is road map to suit every temprament. The basic ingredient and urge is there in all.Each of us is a part of infinite making each of us infinite.
Let us make this journey with the inspiration given by the rishis be it in Vedas, Upanishads, Gita, Puranas, Mahabharata, Ramayana and myriad other inspirations from personal deties. The foundation is based on compassion and tolerance. One cannot but feel humbled by the generosity of our ancestors who took so much effort to pass the candle.
August 29th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
I came across this very verse only today in my daily reading of the Gita. In my experience, every time I read the Gita, I have learned and interpreted the same verses in a different way. a more advanced way.
The Gita is a wonderful guide to way of life and its true values emerge only when one reads and practices its teachings. It simply changes the person’s character and values completely. It enables the ego to be under control.
So it is not just the first reading of the words that matter but constant practicing which in turn makes the same words give a newer, fresher meaning. It is therefore an evolution of mind and ultimately, one may reach ( I have not) a level where one has realised oneself ie evolved the mind completely. Until then regular reading and practcing the teachings seem to be the way.
Subhash
September 8th, 2007 at 6:50 am
Hinduism would have been historically proved (I think it is anyway) to be the best religion for humans in every country of the world. It only began to go wrong over two thousand years ago when Hindus instead of studying scriptures attached themselves more to rituals from Yajurved. It was too easily done and lost their track.
Hindu scriptures, I find are of such nature that they do not make the reader fundamentalist. Fundamentalism leads to absolution that leaves one no choice but be fanatical about the fundamentals, that means war with others for survival.
September 11th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
I like your approach.
Mine has been that a hindu fundamentalist is the rishi sitting on a mountain, or a regular person acting in karma, or someone seeking knowledge of truth, a soldier protecting his/her country, a parent loving her/his children…. - humanity.
At both points the word fundamentalist really falls apart like so many of our human categories.
hariaum
September 19th, 2007 at 6:31 am
All religions have fandametal principles as base. Those who follow the fundamentals regidly for keeping their faith are fundamentalists. Those who, at certain stage in their life by not using the God inteligence give themselves no choice for change, become fanatics. It brings danger and misery to the followers if the fundamentals are ‘man made’, by some Prophet. Hinduism is the only religion that reminds the humans of this ‘inteligence’. The Prophets did nothing but took advantabe this gullible human mind and became powerful and built their empires. Such religions are religions of ‘absolution’.
October 4th, 2007 at 9:02 am
In my previous general comment on Religions, I described Abrahamic religions as ‘religions of absolution’. My couple of friends have asked me for explanation.
Religions based on doctrines, dogmas and regulatory laws (Sharias) need an authority to supervise the defaulters who either have to punish them or insist on penitence in the name of God. By that a Priest, Cleric, Mullah or Rabi, who have declared penitent’s disobedience or non conformation as sins, empowers himself as authority to forgive the defaulters. So the poor penitents in such Religions are very much dependant on the forgiveness by such authorities, hence the Religions they follow become religions of ‘absolution’. During the middle-ages, in Europe and Middle East blackmails, extortions by the religious leaders were always condoned and considered inevitable.
In Hinduism because the onus of enlightening one’s own Soul within for better reincarnation is in the hands of the individuals, the punishments or penances cannot be dictated by any priest and so the priests cannot act as go-between God and penitents.
November 4th, 2007 at 1:54 am
This is a nice approach to scripture. On the one hand it allows for freedom of thought and on the other it identifies our being beyond mind. It seems to me that Hindu Philosophy could make a great contribution to solving intractable problems in Western Philosophy which gets itself into mental agony when faced with dilemas, pardoxes and such like. In such cases one needs to go beyond the mind, which some Christians and Islamic Philosopers try to do but then they get restricted by the dogmas in their religions - they seem unable to transcend the laws and commandments stated in their scriptures. It is important the we Hindus keep our religion growing in knowledge. A scripture that relies on a-once-and-for-all revelation prevents the growth of knowledge and fails to accomodate the advancement in science. The diversity in Hindu thought processes is often criticized by Chirstianity and Islam when it comes to defining Hinduism but they fail to see the unity in this diversity, which is that Hindus can agree to disagree without waring amoung themselves because what they have in common is freedom to think without fear damnation. Arjuna was dear to krishna because he was not affraid to question God himself. And from his questions came the profound teaching of the Gita.
November 7th, 2007 at 9:46 am
Excellent!
What I find and feel is that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam lately are taking a full circle as they realize their religious dogmas are not working. Humans cannot live in harmony and survive without ‘freedom’. In the West and Middle East, wars, minor and serious crimes, suicides, suicide bombings, prostitution, homosexuality, pornography, gambling, etc. are on the increase. As you say these people cannot and do not have mechanism to transcend their mindsets created by religious dogmas.
For Christians only way to survive is by knocking other religions especially Hinduism by systematic propaganda and converting the poor on the strength of money power, without telling them their condition was created, in the first place, by the Western Christian religions.
For Islamists only way to survive is by insisting on the rule of ‘Sharia’ and Jihad, which ultimately entails killing others and suicide bombings. Such adamancy will only lead to segregation and isolation, not a healthy sign for the youngsters of the community.
For Hindu intellectuals this era is a challenge for the survival of their Religion and philosophy of life. We must emphasize and remind our young and old that acquiring knowledge from all corners of the world is one of the yoga processes for transcending our minds towards uniting with our creator. Once they start knowing other religions more pragmatically they will realize how good Hinduism is. But we are affected every day by the conduct of these Abrahamic religions, whose God is in the sky and scriptures are nothing but politics. As I have said before, Prophetic religions cannot have or develop spirituality so badly needed by human race on Earth. Even some British who traveled extensively in India during 18th and 19th century found no thieves, beggars or poverty in Hindu societies, it was because of that constant desire to transcend and unite with the Creator.