------------------------------------------------------------------------ * G * O * A * N * E * T **** C * L * A * S * S * I * F * I * E * D * S * ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Enjoy your holiday in Goa. Stay at THE GARCA BRANCA from November to May There is no better, value for money, guest house. Confirm your bookings early or miss-out
Visit http://www.garcabranca.com for details/booking/confirmation. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --- Gilbert Lawrence <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Aitaracheo Sermaum > > Hi Santosh, > > Thanks for you clarification of Hinduism. I hesitate > to debate you on the religion of your birth. > However, for the benefit of the Catholics on the > goanet, it is my understanding that modern Hindus > believe in one God, who is called "Brahman". > Sorry Gilbert, Brahman is not God. It stands for ultimate reality. The Upanishads describe it as such. In other contexts they discuss the unity of self with Brahman as the ultimate nature of reality. Sometimes Brahman may be personified, perhaps, to make this fuzzy concept palatable to people who are familiar with the much-bandied model of theism. However, the day to day practice of Hinduism that my family, my relatives and their priests engage in is worship of many gods. Goa has literally hundreds of temples of such gods. There is not a single temple of Brahman or Upanishadic ultimate reality. There are a small number of temples of the god Brahma in some parts of India who is one member of the Hindu pantheon, and along with Vishnu and Shiva may occupy a slightly higher rank than the other gods. But Brahma is not the same as the abstract cosmological concept of Brahman. > > As usual you parse your words. Jains also BELIEVE in > God. They call their God - Bhagavan or Jina. And > their venerated pictures depict many of his > messengers. In Jain philosophy and theology, God > did not to create the universe. That does not mean, > they do not believe that there is a God. > I have already provided you with articles on Jainism by a recognized Jain scholar and a responsible News organization which clearly state that Jains do not believe in any kind of god. Those articles and other Jain writings also say that Jinas are not gods. There are countless Jinas, and their number keeps increasing everyday because any human being can become a Jina. A Jina is a person who has conquered normal humanly passions such as greed and hatred. As far as bhagavan is concerned, it is a generic Hindi word for a god. Did you read those articles? Cheers, Santosh _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list Goanet@lists.goanet.org http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org