[Assam] Beef eating; Much ado over nothing

[Ram Sarangapani]

I think Mohan's response seems to be the one that makes a lot of sense.
(BTW: Welcome Mohan to the net)

C'da, I think the 'Hinduism is a way of life' idea was popularized by Dr. S.
Radhakrishnan in his book '  A Hindu View of Life'

>"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?"

Sure, C'da. You and Barua could make all the rules, but then it has to
ultimately be followed by the masses, don't you think? :-)

--Ram





On 6/20/06, Chan Mahanta <cmahanta at charter.net> wrote:
>
> 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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> >assam at assamnet.org
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>
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