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Orginally posted by morning_rain

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Orginally posted by shankaracharya



Hinduism is not a religion, BUT a way of life....

Please note Hinduism is the oldest religion in the world. I

t has had enough of its blood shed in its earlier stages. It had to fight against off shoots like Buddhism, Jainism and many others. But is has mellowed down and now a way of life and not a religion.

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I try to tread carefully on matters of religion because its very personal however I have questions:
1) what do you feel constitutes a religion as opposed to 'way of life'?

2) Why did Hinduism have to 'fight' offshoots (ie/ to hold its own identity as a religion?)

Is it also arguable that religions can be a "way of life" for the people that practice them..therefore what separates hinduism from other faiths?

For example - a person who is sikh may recite prayers daily....wear the 5 ks etc. This is their 'way of life', and also their religion.

Thanks.

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A religion makes you all follow one path, with closed mindedness it doesn't have different ways. While "a way of life" means ur own way of life. U can chose to be religious or not, u can pray to this or that and it's all fine. It's more of a culture which the person takes up and it can grow or weaken as the society moves along. There is no hard core way that u have to pray 5 times or carry the 5K's or do this or that. It's just ur own way.

Yes it's their way of life, but the problem arises is they start believing that's the only way of life. That's the only way it should be done and you can reach God. For e.g a person who doesn't keep his hair will called to be a bad sikh or something like that. But in hinduism you can have hair, u can cut it short, u can be bald but's it's all fine, because it's ur own way, not what one or 30 gurus or saints told you to do so. Who gave these saints the right to dictate ur life. I am quite sure not God. Why would god advise these things, separately for muslims, sikhs, christians.

Why would God want ppl to separated by these religions. Why create these useless identities to fight that my faith is better mine is better. Why not teach a kid that ur human, i am human and other ppl are humans too. If God wanted you to have 5K and that's what made you a person close to God, God would send you down on earth with those 5K's and not totally naked.

Hinduism had to fight these off shoots because it was taking away from the main objective, live and let live. choose ur own way. these things were creating rift between people who were previously living together. As they say it's easy to start a new thing, because you'll always find blind followers, it's harder to press and keep on existing things, because as society grows more questions come out and who's got the time to read all that and answer. So start a new religion, and make up ur answers and these blind ppl will agree.

Gurus' saints are meant to impart knowledge, understanding and harmony and not tell ppl what to wear. I have read a lot of ur posts Morning rain and u are very wise, but does ur identity and respect on CD comes from ur religion or does it come from what ur and the knowledge u impart.

I go to temples in lower mainland, and I hear some moderate sikhs chanting wahe guru in the temple, but I have never seen anyone have a problem. But can I keep on chanting Krishna Krishna in a gurudwara?? I remember meeting one person few years back and he had married a sikh girl. They made him and his family stand on the road in front of gurudwara when his family wanted to say their prayers and for the Ardas made them come on the gurudwara grounds. Now see the close mindedness though sikhs preach equality. Can I go without covering my head in a gurudwara? That's what sikhs believe in, but I don't so why do I have to wear one. thus that means u cannot accept other way of life.

Sorry I am not picking on sikhs as such. It's just that u started with that eg.

It's hard and complicated as such but it's not a topic which can be easily explained by writing. It's more by talks.

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Orginally posted by babail

It's hard and complicated as such but it's not a topic which can be easily explained by writing. It's more by talks.

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You nailed it!

I think a bunch of you should get together and discuss this. Please don't use Canadiandesi as a medium for criticising other religions. Like explained in the other thread, this is not the purpose of the forum.

Let's just get on with helping people trying to immigrate to Canada.

This topic is locked!