The Concept Of God In Early Hinduism
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This video explains the reasons why the early Vedic Indians did not invoke Brahman directly in the rituals although they were aware of His existence. It may not be correct to assume that the early Vedic Indians had no knowledge of a universal supreme God. The early Vedic religion has elements of monotheism. There are verses in the Rigveda extolling and identifying the unity of the entire universe and the unity underlying all the divinities know to the Vedic people. Although they were aware of the prinicple of monotheism they didn't worship a single unitary God at that point of time in history because the highest supreme Brahman was an impersonal God. He is an impersonal God who cannot be communicated, who is beyond the mind and the senses, who can reached only through the inner Self. So for the Vedic priests, who were interested in the mundane aspects of human life, and who tried to invoke the various divinities through invocations and prayers, invoking Brahman was not an ideal call because Brahman wouldn't respond to the invocations. He is incommunicable, except through the meditative and contemplative means. That is why we do not find any invocations to Brahman in the Vedas. But when we go to the Upanishads, the end part of the Vedas, we find very frequent references to Brahman. because in the contemplative mode, Brahman is the ultimate goal. Logically speaking you cannot communicate with Brahman because Brahman is universal, infinite, absolute. He is beyond the languages, beyond the words and forms, beyond the material manifestations, which we experience through our senses. Brahman does not communicate with anyone because there is nothing to communicate; everything exists within Himself. Brahman does not communicate because there is no duality in His absolute state; there is no distinction between the knower and the knowing, or the knower and the known. Brahman is not subject to predicate relationships. So logically speaking it is not possible to communicate with Brahman or for Brahman to communicate with people or anyone else. In the Upanishads and in the Vedas we find that even the divinities were not familiar with Brahman. In the Kena Upanishad when Brahman confronts the divinities Indra, Agni and Vayu, they could not fathom who He was. It was only when they hear about from Uma Haimavathi they come to know about Him. And since Indra was the first God who went closest to Him, he became the leader of the Devas or the leader of the heavens. From this it is clear that the Vedic scholars of the Rigvedic times were aware of the difficulties in understanding Brahman, in approaching Him and invoking Him. So they did not bother to refer Him in the prayers or seek His help. Rather they spent time invoking lesser divinities who they thought were helpful and easier to approach. It was only in the later times the impersonal Brahman became personal, probably because of the influence of bhakti movement or the devotional movement and the growing popularity of Vaishnavism and Saivism. And when the impersonal Brahman became the personal God in the form of either Vishnu, Siva or Brahma, then we find that the unmanifest, unknowable, Brahman assumed some qualities and distinct personalities whereby people could relate to Him, invoke Him and seek His assistance in human endeavors. I believe it is wrong to presume that the Rigvedic people had no knowledge of supreme, universal God. They had knowledge of Him. Just, they didn't communicate with Him and they did not invoke Him directly in the prayers.
Comments
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Preach the original texts my brother! don't let the haters get to you!
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The reason why hindos kill Christians is because the hindos know that Hindo is evil and christianity is the only way to go! Same thing for Muslims the Chinese etc. why do all of these religions want to kill christianity?
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can anyone tell me how the Veda were formed and also ,how the Mahabharata and the manusmriti were written,under what kind of situation
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this guy is making people confuse braaham and brahman are 2 different goal a brahman is a saint a braaham is the ultimate goal in upanishad
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Vedic Explanation regarding impersonal and personal good is excellent . There is no any single scripture which explain such this way. Owwf its amazing.
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Samkhya Karika is a part of Vedas and contains the most advanced knowledge in Vedic theories. Both Samkhya and its originator Kapil dev are mentioned in Gita. In Gita Krishna compares himself with Kapil dev. It is a small book and has about 70 two-line verses.
Samkhya says that every object in the universe is created by its own individual soul. So, you are created by your soul and I am created by my soul. Thus there is no God that created the entire universe. Therefore there is no God in Vedas. Since Vedas describe the laws of nature, Vedas cannot contradict itself. It must be realized that destiny law contradicts the concept of God. Nobody can change the global destiny of the universe, including our individual destinies. Gita also says the same destiny concept. Gita says a soul cannot be broken into pieces. Therefore we cannot be a part of a higher level soul like God.
Foundation of Vedas is yoga. Through yogic meditation you can acquire divine vision and then you will be able to see the entire universe using your mind’s eye (third eye). Such yogis are called seers or Drashta in Sanskrit. Thus even today, you will be able to see Vedas. In Gita we see that Krishna gave such divine vision to Arjun, so that Arjun could see the universe, and understand his responsibilities. In Mahabharat we see Vyasdev giving same divine vision to Sanjoy, who could then see the battle field and describe the events to his blind king Dhritarashtra. The parts of Vedas which are not written by seers should not therefore be trusted. It appears most of the Puranas and Upanishads are not written by seers.
The free book on soul theory at https://theoryofsouls.wordpress.com/ has chapters on Samkhya, Destiny, as well as yogic powers of modern yogis. -
Brahman (Supreme Consciousness) is all there is. Supreme Consciousness is impersonal, doesn't express itself through prophets, didn't chose any nation over the other, doesn't care if it's worshipped or not. The Abrahamic God is a socio-political phenomenon.
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very nice Om shiva
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so you did the same mistake as Christians did. you loved your holly people (probably prophets, saints or messangers of god Brahman ), and instead of worshiping the god himself, you postponed him and started asking help through the holly people. after a while you built idols and statues representing them like Christians did. I'm sure Brahman in your language is the one god, absolute, the one to worship,almighthy. wake up and brake the idols you made with your own hands. there is only one God and he is beyond our imagination. I am very interested in hinduism. I want learn the core of it. how it started. who it started with. simply who was the first messangers sent to your nation. and at what point the message was twisted. I will research
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Love God like you are drowning and want air...then you feel our Lord
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Brahma is, was, and will allways be impersonnal. Shiva and Vishnu are the primordials principles of the univers of duality. They represent respectively electricity (mouvement, change) and magnetism (formes, holding). However, peoples such as Krishna, Jesus, Buddha, Zorohastr, and others, had been able to experiment the primordial state of Brahma and than be messengers, as peoples who understood the universe and than teached it to others.
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Why Indra and Greek god zues have similarities?
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Perfect. At last I heard it said. Everything that is said in this video I agree with. I had reached the same conclusions. Its a relief knowing that others have/had come to see this.
I was raised as a Roman Catholic. I do yoga. Thank you, thank you for saying it for me to hear. -
Luke 17:26
"Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. -
This concept of the creative power that makes the universe what it is makes much more sense than the Abrahamic religions concept.
Prana is inside everything and recent photographs using Kirlian method shows an aura around all living things (as mentioned in Hinduism) -
Is Brahman male? You use he. If Brahman has no form how he confronts divinities?
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Can anyone tell me the meaning of gayatri mantra...and who is the god mentioned in that mantra...??
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Excellent explanation.
Rig Vedic mantras are like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. The most dedicated Hindu will find Brahman among all the Rig Vedic mantras.
According to Manu Smriti 1.11 Purusha and Brahman are the same.
Purusha Sukta (Rig Veda 10.90 is the best description of Brahman.
The 320 pairs of muscles in our body can isometrically unify into a single muscle. Purusha / Brahman is the unified muscle. Purusha Sukta is about the properties of the unified muscle.
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