Posted: Feb 20, 2013 3:49 am
The main difference that I find between Hinduism and monotheistic religions is that it is much less organized. Sure the Hindus consider the Vedas and Bhagwad Gita to be a great source of knowledge and morality but hardly anyone bothers to read them. That is what annoys me the most. They keep professing that they are great books, but when I try to dig further and ask them what exactly is it that it that they find so appealing, I find that they haven't even read them. There is a certain sense of irrational cultural pride associated with it. The actual information that these books contain takes a back seat.
There are thousands of stories about different gods and no body really knows how they fit into the grand scheme of things, and nobody cares either. God may take different forms, and all these stories are but moral teachings. It's not uncommon for a hindu to pray to a allah or Jesus. This attitude also makes it very easy for them to buy into the spiritual mumbo jumbo. You'd find a lot of "gurus" exploit this behavior for some easy money.
Another aspect of Hinduism is the adherence to tradition. This is one of the reasons why plenty of social evils like the caste system, dowry etc persist in spite of several attempts at their abolition.
There are thousands of stories about different gods and no body really knows how they fit into the grand scheme of things, and nobody cares either. God may take different forms, and all these stories are but moral teachings. It's not uncommon for a hindu to pray to a allah or Jesus. This attitude also makes it very easy for them to buy into the spiritual mumbo jumbo. You'd find a lot of "gurus" exploit this behavior for some easy money.
Another aspect of Hinduism is the adherence to tradition. This is one of the reasons why plenty of social evils like the caste system, dowry etc persist in spite of several attempts at their abolition.