[Assam] Beef eating; Much ado over nothing

[Chan Mahanta]

Hi Mohan:

Good to hear from you. Would you mind introducing yourself to Assam Netters?

Just one question:

*** I have heard this "Hinduism is not a religion, it is a 
way-of-life" explanation a lot in recent years. Never could 
understand what it means. Oh I do understand the part that it has no 
rigorous rules or tenets, and thus is different from other major 
'religions'. But that explanation seems to create another problem: 
Does it therefore mean that one can make one's own RULES or ethos, on 
the fly, to suit one's need on a given day?


And how does that support or justify the observation you made that

>"But from a certain point in time we don't eat Beef."

Who are included in that "we" ? And is it a 'religious' rule or tenet 
or dogma or merely a 'moral' or 'ethical' one, derived out of one's 
freedom of choices, of free-will? And if so how does it fit in with 
the argument that Hinduism is a lifestyle, as opposed to a 'religion' 
with rules and dogmas?

I have asked this of others in the past. But somehow no one wanted to 
touch it. Would appreciate if you would care to elucidate.

Best,

cm












At 8:36 AM -0400 6/20/06, Mohan R. Palleti wrote:
>Perhaps we should be more receptive to the idea that religion is more like
>somebody elses philosophy. And maybe ancient religious books were a
>compilations of observations expressed with whatever little scientific
>knowledge and vocabulary we had and yearned into a story.
>
>Hinduism is first of all not a religion. It is a way of life. It did not
>start at "a point" in time. It evolved over ages and passed down to us.
>What we ate in ages back, we don't do that now. The practices of the
>aghoras are more less palatable than what you would like. It was
>Sankracharya that brought us together as a religion.Those practices are
>not practised any more. Hinduism has always accepted changes. And our
>practices have evolved over the ages.
>
>Whether the religious books are epic tales or did it exists or not. I do
>not wish to contest. Because I don't know...! But whatever celestial
>observations that were recorded in the ancient texts did occur at other
>places and were recorded in other religious books.
>
>A for whether our forefathers at beef or not. I don't care. I am sure they
>all ate dinosaurs too. And they did not distinguish between whatever meet
>animal meet that were available. But from a certain point in time we don't
>eat Beef. I would personally think that the cow and the Indus river must
>have been the main pillar on which our civilization grew.
>
>I am including some reading materials that might be of interest to the
>reader.
>
>Immanuel Velikovsky
>
>
>http://www.unmuseum.org/velikov.htm
>
>In 1950 a Russian-born psychiatrist named Immanuel Velikovsky authored a
>controversial book. Velikovsky was extremely knowledgeable in the texts of
>ancient peoples. Based on his interpretation of these texts, Velikovsky
>reached the conclusion that our solar system, with its nine planets, was
>not always the same as we see it today.
>
>The book, Worlds in Collision, asserted that around 3,500 years ago the
>planet Venus was somehow ejected from the planet Jupiter as a comet. Comet
>Venus then started wandering through the solar system. Its gravitational
>field pushed other planets out of their orbits or changed their rotation.
>
>Velikovsky attributed many of the disasters recorded in ancient times to
>this strange interaction the Earth had with Venus. Material that fell from
>Venus's comet tail into Earth's atmosphere caused the plagues visited upon
>Egypt as recorded in the Bible. "Plague is throughout the%2
>
>
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