{"id":23580,"date":"2016-10-28T20:24:48","date_gmt":"2016-10-28T14:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globalpress.hinduismnow.org?p=23577&preview_id=23577"},"modified":"2016-10-28T20:24:48","modified_gmt":"2016-10-28T14:54:48","slug":"what-do-western-atheists-feel-about-hinduism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/?p=23580","title":{"rendered":"What do Western atheists feel about Hinduism?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma is least dogmatic (Buddhism is more dogmatic as it follows what Buddha said and Buddha was only one of numerous Hindu sages). And of course it is completely different from Christianity and Islam. If those two big religions are the norm, then Hinduism should not even be called a religion.However, it is not easy for a foreigner to get to the core of Hinduism. One reason is that we hear mainly bad things about Hinduism in the west and another is that Hindus don\u2019t go out of their way to explain. In fact, many of them, especially the English educated, know themselves pretty little about their tradition as it was demeaned under British rule and even after Independence.<\/p>\n

Only recently more Hindus realize its worth and this may fluster the Christian west. I guess it\u2019s because at least some westerners know that Hinduism can pose a real challenge to their \u201cblind- belief- in- divisive- dogma religions\u201d. And again there is this increased effort in recent times to demean India in general and Hindus in particular \u2013 whether it is by shouting \u201crape\u201d or \u201cattack on minorities\u201d. Both charges are very unfair if seen in relation.<\/p>\n

I was on my way to become an atheist, as I couldn\u2019t believe anymore what the Church told us to believe, and the Christian God simply couldn\u2019t be true, sending non-Christians summarily into hell. And what about all those who lived before Christ was born? Anyway, it\u2019s easy to see why one can lose faith in dogmatic religions and the Christian God.<\/p>\n

On my first trip to India I didn\u2019t understand a thing about Hinduism. Only on my second trip (which was intended as a stopover) I came by chance into contact with two great sages and then slowly went deeper, started reading, reflecting, meditating\u2026<\/p>\n

It all made immensely sense: naturally there must be some great power\/intelligence behind and beyond this universe \u2013 the inner ruler of the big and the small. It makes sense that the meaning of life is to discover That in oneself. If it is there (and it makes sense that it is there), then of course it makes sense to put my focus in life foremost on That.<\/p>\n

From then on, it is not only intellectual enquiry but also experience. If I say that Bhakti, devotion to that great power, is a natural outcome of putting one\u2019s focus on it, many may not agree because intellect alone can\u2019t get there. One needs to genuinely want to know the truth about ourselves for the truth sake.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, for many in the west \u201cGod\u201d has such negative connotation thanks to the Church that they don\u2019t have an open mind even towards \u201cBrahman\u201d (big, expanding), as they may feel that \u201cGod\u2019 comes in again through the back door. Yet the Hindu concept of the Highest is scientific. \u201cVeda\u201d \u2013 the most ancient Hindu scriptures \u2013 means knowledge. The analysis of us and the universe by the rishis is mind-boggling and the ways to connect with that power in present day Hinduism are amazingly colourful and joyful.<\/p>\n

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Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma is least dogmatic (Buddhism is more dogmatic as it follows what Buddha said and Buddha was only one of numerous Hindu sages). And of course it is completely different from Christianity and Islam. If those two big religions are the norm, then Hinduism should not even be called a religion.However, it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[1952],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23580"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23580\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}