finding religion

this started as a comment on ano's blog but then i felt i was crossing the lakshman rekha of comment lines. so with a huge IMHO here goes...........


I guess we all go thru this eh?

I have always felt that religion is a very relative thing. One could find it anywhere or in anything for that matter.

The Hindu philosophy I feel should be understood in its entirety to appreciate its depth and forethought.
There are too many half baked funda's floating around making it look like a load of bs.

Until the British invasion India had the very interesting situation of new religious philosophy being advocated every coupla centuries. After the 18th century there hasn't been much religious growth in the Indian subcontinent. It is like a huge drop in thinking capacity, suddenly everyone just wants to confirm to one thing and hold on to it blindly.

This blind following is what has resulted in a whole generations not really understanding why they are holding their noses and doing parshanchane!! And of course that has led the latest gen. to just trashing it and going for the best marketed ones.

As far as I know hindu philosophy has always advocated questioning. You have to question and find your own meaning of god/religion.
For e.g., there used to be a basic code of behaviour provided in the gurukul/ashram and after the minimum training students were encouraged to sit alone and meditate on thoughts/problems the guru would set out for them. Only when one is not smart enough or I should say interested enough in finding his/her own path would they be shown the way to what the most popular guru’s had to say in the matter or popular opinion was.
And once one arrived at an acceptable answer of course with guidance of the guru they would go back from school with their own understanding of religion and philosophy.

Of course how things get twisted or set in patterns of convenience over a period of time [a few dozen centuries in this case] is a well known phenomenon. It is very interesting to observe that once one understands sanskrit how the interpretation of scripture can change. I have always felt that as children ppl should go thru scripture lessons.

So the simple problem is with thinking, either less or sometimes too much. And like they say especially in religious quests a good guru plays a very important part. Without that we can only hope we are as skilled as ekalavya was.

Disclaimer: this is just based on stuff I have read and understood. dont mean to pass judgements or bugger off anyone. Everyone is welcome to tear it apart.