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Umesh:
Yet the most remarkable feature of the
Bibl is its unity. The different books of the Bible were written over a period
of at least 1200 years from ancient oral collections by a large number of
diverse authors in several languages, Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek etc. Yet all bear
witness fundamentally to the same understanding of the nature of God: a
God who acts, God who redeems and God who gives hope.
Compared to that, Hindu scriptures, all
mostly written in the same language, are known for their diversity of gods
and subjects and philosophies often times which are 180 degree apart from
each other. Thus the central theme of God itself is rather very much weakened in
Hinduism and one has to search with arguments the real God. If Christianity
can be said to be a river, Hinduism may be said to be an ocean which absorbs
all. If Christianity may be compared to a single mango tree, Hinduism may be
compared to a huge banyan tree where one cannot differentiate which is themain
root and which are the branches touching the ground and shooting new
roots.
The above perspective may help you in your
endeavor.
Rajen-da
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2006 8:53
PM
Subject: Re: [Assam] Guru
Granth.....casteism vs Bible, literacy & IndustrialRevolution; development
- Beyond discussions
Bible is also a collection of hundreds of scriptures.
>Why I had gone to the museum was to see why Bible is considered
real and Hindu scriptures are considered myths. After the trip they both
seem to have evolved the >same way ---collections of (real) stories from
many story-tellers.
Umesh:
First, you are trying to compare the
historicity of the Bible, the Book, against the historicity of the
Hindu scriptures. But before you do that, I think you need to narrow your
focus on a particular Hindu scripture as there are literally hundreds of
Hindu scriptures and all of them are not supposed to be historical, some are
purely philosophical. In my opinion what makes Bible the unique is
that there are some records of writing which one can put a date
scientifically. Question is does any Hindu scripture have any such records
of writing that one can put a date? Historicity is determined by how
many people actually recorded the event after it happened. Say in case
of Rama, do we have any other record of writing other than that of Valmiki?
Or do we find the same story in any other recording other than the Ramayana?
You must be very objective in your research. Overall I think it will be a
good excercise. Please keep us in the loop.
>PS: There is more to religion than book reading --anyone can become
a scholar---was Jesus a scholar -or was Krishan one or was Guru Nanak one or
same for Prophet >Muhammad.
According to Bertrand Russell,
religion has not served any purpose in the world. According to me, it has at
least served one purpose; it has contributed to the invention of writing and
to the spread of language. So be careful, if you try to take away the
reading books from reliogion, you will be left with nothing as Russel
says.
Rajen-da.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, October 23, 2006 3:49
PM
Subject: Re: [Assam] Guru
Granth.....casteism vs Bible, literacy & IndustrialRevolution;
development - Beyond discussions
Rajen-da,
I was trying to bring out some good things about Christian faith
--not denounce some negatives about Hindu faith. However, since you raise
the issue I may point out that NO religion allows women priests --even
now. No Pope or Shankaracharya or Imam or Chief Rabbi is a woman .
No non-white guy has ever become a Pope just as no non-Brahmin has
ever beome a Shankaracharya.
Why I had gone to the museum was to see why Bible is considered real
and Hindu scriptures are considered myths. After the trip they both seem
to have evolved the same way ---collections of (real) stories from many
story-tellers.
Umesh
PS: There is more to religion than book reading --anyone can become a
scholar---was Jesus a scholar -or was Krishan one or was Guru Nanak one or
same for Prophet Muhammad.
Barua25
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>HINDUS: Indians --Hindus esp were content in letting reading of
scrptures be the game of a small coterie -- the so-called brahmin
priests.... hence there was no thrust in >promoting faith by
educating followers to become literate so that they can read
scriptures.
This is correct, In fact the
Hindus were trying to keep the religion of the Vedas very much secret
from the public. Thus there was no incentive to evolve a writing method
to record the Vedas which was handed over orally for many centuries.
Even when writing was evolved, at the inspiration of the Buddhist, this
written knowledge of the Vedas was kept as much secret as possible.
First the Sudras and women were barred from raeding of the Vedas.
Against this Hindu
conservativenessm the Christians as well as the Buddhists attitude was
to propogate the Dharma to as many people as possible. Buddha's decree,
like that of Jesus, was:"Go and tell the people about the Dharma". Along
with Buddhism, and the Indian epic story Ramayana, the local languages
were developed in many countries besides India. The Vedas on the
other hand are still being recited in Sanskrit.
Rajen Barua
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, October 22, 2006
9:16 PM
Subject: [Assam] Guru
Granth.....casteism vs Bible, literacy & IndustrialRevolution;
development - Beyond discussions
Hi,
Today went to see the exhibit - first of its kind --very long
queue to enter--how the Bible (Christian religious book) evolved over
the first 1000 years of the religion's origin.
How from the time of Dead Sea Scrolls (rolled paper) the book
evolved into a modern style book form (evolving book technology)
....and how in the process of its propagation the missionaries
even created alphabets (like for Armenian and Georgian) and helped
define what books are today. Ofcourse, over time many new additions
were there and some like one refering to Jesus as a teacher
(Edgerton's book ?) were declared heresies.
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION:
Their preoccupation with the written word in book form as the
most potent means of religious expansion (from onwards 5th
century into Britain ..etc) perhaps helped build the western
preoccupation with books and learning ---since all were expected to
familiarize themselves with the text. Ofcourse it was mostly the
priests who did the reading and preaching but since they could be from
any class or tribe --ALL th society was energized towards book
reading, literacy and education-----resulting in knowledge gathering
and knowledge production later on----Industrial revolution since
1600s.
HINDUS: Indians --Hindus esp were content in letting reading of
scrptures be the game of a small coterie -- the so-called brahmin
priests.... hence there was no thrust in promoting faith by educating
followers to become literate so that they can read scriptures.
Muslims had in later days become content with reading Arabic only
--instead of translating the Quoran in other languages --so limited
literacy.
LITERACY:
Literacy provides religious communication and cohesion as well
-and perhaps thats whay Hindus are largely disconnected. They cannot
communicate with each other --most are functionally illiterate. (So
are most muslims in South Asia atleast.)
GURU & the teacher:
Yesterday I was invited by a student to go to th Sikh Gurudwara
to celebrate Diwali. My Malayalee landlord went along -his first . He
asked whom do Sikhs worship? Do they worship Krishna, Ram etc? I said
they worship the book --the Guru Granth (book) --which is their Guru .
The God they worship is the formless God (of the Yogis, Gnostics,
Buddhists etc). Surprisingly, I later realized it was the first
time I was in presence of the Guru - while my student was in the room.
A teacher in front of the Guru!!
Sikhs have a different reason for Diwali celebration -- you know
why?
Umesh
Umesh Sharma
5121 Lackawanna ST
College
Park,
(Washington D.C. Metro Region)
MD 20740
1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]
Ed.M. - International
Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard
University,
Class of 2005
weblog:
http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
website: www.gse.harvard.edu/iep
Send instant messages to your online friends
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Umesh
Sharma
5121 Lackawanna ST
College Park,
(Washington D.C. Metro
Region)
MD 20740
1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]
Ed.M. -
International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of
Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
weblog:
http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
website: www.gse.harvard.edu/iep
Send instant messages to your online friends
http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
Umesh Sharma
5121 Lackawanna
ST
College Park,
(Washington D.C. Metro Region)
MD 20740
1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]
Ed.M. - International Education
Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard
University,
Class of 2005
weblog:
http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
website: www.gse.harvard.edu/iep
Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
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