Hinduism Today - online Magazine

Hindu-Christian Point-Counterpoint

Hinduism:

1. Hindus believe in a one, all-pervasive Supreme Be ing who is both immanent and transcendent, both Creator and Unmanifest Reality.
2. Hindus believe in the divinity of the four Vedas, the world's most ancient scrip ture, and venerate the Agamas as equally revealed. These primordial hymns are God's word and the bedrock of Sanatana Dharma, the eternal religion.
3. Hindus believe that the universe undergoes endless cycles of creation, preservation and dissolution.
4. Hindus believe in karma, the law of cause and effect by which each individual creates his own destiny by his thoughts, words and deeds.
5. Hindus believe that the soul reincarnates, evolving through many births until all karmas have been resolved, and moksha, liberation from the cycle of rebirth, is attained. Not a single soul will be deprived of this destiny.
6. Hindus believe that divine beings exist in unseen worlds and that temple worship, rituals, sacraments and personal devotionals create a communion with these devas and Gods.
7. Hindus believe that an enlightened master, or satguru, is essential to know the Transcendent Absolute, as are personal discipline, good conduct, purification, pilgrimage, self-inquiry, meditation and surrender in God.
8. Hindus believe that all life is sacred, to be loved and revered, and therefore practice ahimsa, noninjury, in thought, word and deed.
9. Hindus believe that no religion teaches the only way to salvation above all others, but that all genuine paths are facets of God's Light, deserving tolerance and understanding.

Christianity:

1. Christians believe that the bible is the uniquely inspired and fully trustworthy word of God. It is the final authority for Christians in matters of belief and practice, and though it was written long ago, it continues to speak to believers today.
2. Christians believe in one God in three persons. He is distinct from his creation, yet intimately involved with it as its sustainer and redeemer.
3. Christians believe that the world was created once by the divine will, was corrupted by sin, yet under God's providence moves toward final perfection.
4. Christians believe that, through God's grace and favor, lost sinners are rescued from the guilt, power and eternal consequences of their evil thoughts, words and deeds.
5. Christians believe that it is appointed for human beings to die once and after that face judgment. In Adam's sin, the human race was spiritually alienated from God, and that those who are called by God and respond to his grace will have eternal life. Those who persist in rebellion will be lost eternally.
6. Christians believe that spirit beings inhabit the universe, some good and some evil, but worship is due to God alone.
7. Christians believe that God has given us a clear revelation of Himself in Jesus and the sacred Scriptures. He has empowered by his Spirit prophets, apostles, evangelists, and pastors who are teachers charged to guide us into faith and holiness in accordance with his Word.
8. Christians believe that life is to be highly esteemed but that it must be subordinated in the service of Biblical love and justice.
9. Christians believe that Jesus is God incarnate and, therefore, the only sure path to salvation. Many religions may offer ethical and spiritual insights, but only Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Fate & Success in life: Teachings of Swami Sivananda

Swami Sivananda: "COURAGE is Thy birth-right and not fear. PEACE is thy divine heritage, not restlessness. IMMORTALITY but not mortality. STRENGTH but not weakness. HEALTH but not disease. BLISS but not sorrow. KNOWLEDGE but not ignorance.

"You are the architect of your own fate and fortune. You are the master of your own destiny. You can do and undo things. You can attain Brahmanhood by right thinking, right feeling,, and right acting. You can break old morbid habits by the power of WILL. You can destroy wrong Samskaras, unholy desires, wrong imaginations. You can build new habits. You can change your nature. You can build up beautiful character. You can move the whole world by your spiritual force. You can elevate others also to the status of divinity. You can control the force of nature. You can command the elements.

"Rely on your own Self. Do not be credulous. Believe not in any dogmas. Hear the inner voice of the Soul or promptings of the pure conscience. Be not a slave. Do not sell your liberty. Thou art the Immortal Soul. Destroy the inferiority complex. Draw power, courage, strength from within. Be free. Have no blind faith. Reason out carefully and then accept anything.

"Do not be carried away by blind surging emotions. Subdue them. Do not be intolerant. Expand. There is a vast magazine of power and knowledge within you. It needs ignition. Then the whole mysteries of the Self will be revealed unto thee. The darkness of ignorance will be dispelled by the light of knowledge of the Self. Constant meditation on the Atma is the master-key to open the realms of knowledge. I have given here the gist of Vedanta in a few lines. Taste the Vedantic nectar and attain IMMORTALITY, ETERNAL BLISS, and PERENNIAL JOY. This is the goal of life. This is the end and aim of existence. Karma Yoga and Upasana (worship) will prepare you to realise this highest goal.

"Try to lead a life of non-attachment, discipline your mind gradually. No one is free from pains, diseases, troubles and difficulties. You will have to rest in your own Swaroop, the blissful ATMAN-the source and support for this life. You will have to remember your own divine nature. Then only you will gain inner strength to face the difficulties of life. Then only you will have balanced mind. You will not be affected by external morbid influences and unpleasant discordant vibrations, Regular meditation in the morning will give you new strength and inner life-perennial joy and unalloyed bliss. Practise this. Feel this, despite your adverse, stormy conditions. Gradually you will grow spiritually. You will attain Self- realisation eventually.

"Your present ailment is a Karmic purgation. It has come to make you remember Him more and more, to instill mercy in your heart, to strengthen you and to enable you to develop power of endurance. Kunti prayed to God to give her always adversity so that she could remember Him always. Bhaktas (Devotees) rejoice in suffering more. Disease, pain, scorpion, snake, calamities, etc., are messengers from God. A Bhakta welcomes them with a cheerful countenance. He never grumbles. He says once more: I am Thine, My Lord, Thou dost everything for my own good.

"Where then is the room for lamentation and despair, my dear Niranjan? Thou art dear to the Lord. That is the reason why He gives troubles. If He wants to take anyone to His side, He takes away all money. He removes his dear kith and kin. He destroys all his pleasure-centres, so that his mind may fully rest at His Lotus-Feet. Face everything with a smiling, cheerful countenance. Understand His mysterious ways. See God in everything, in every face-out of sight, but not out of mind. We are closer when we live physically at a distance. Let us dwell in our hearts. Krishna suddenly hides Himself, so that Radha and the Gopis might thirst for Him more eagerly. Sing like Radha. Thirst like Gopis for his vision. Krishna's grace is bound to descend. He is thy Immortal Friend. Forget not the Flute-Bearer of Brindavan, thy Solace and the joy of Devaki."

What is karma?

Karma is the universal principle of cause and effect. Our actions, both good and bad, come back to us in the future, helping us to learn from life's lessons and become better people.

 Karma is one of the natural laws of the mind, just as gravity is a law of matter. Just as God created ‎gravity to bring order to the physical world, He created karma as a divine system of justice that is self-‎governing and infi nitely fair. It automatically creates the appropriate future experience in response ‎to the current action.‎

 Karma simply means "action" or "cause and effect." When something happens to us that is ‎apparently unfortunate or unjust, it is not God punishing us. It is the result of our own past actions. The Vedas,  ‎hinduism's revealed scripture, tell us if we sow goodness, we will reap goodness; if we sow evil, we ‎will reap evil. Thus we create our own destiny through thought and action. And the divine law is: ‎whatever karma we are experiencing in our life is just what we need at the moment, and nothing can ‎happen but that we have the strength to meet it. Even harsh karma, when faced in wisdom, can be ‎the greatest catalyst for spiritual growth. Understanding the way karma works, we seek to live a good ‎and virtuous life through right thought, right speech and right action. This is called dharma.‎
One of the best examples of karma is that you can't give anything away but that generosity will return to you, with interest. Here, in the upper scene, a lady happily gives clothing to a youth. Below, she receives an unexpected gift from a neighbor as the karma of her good deed brings its natural reward. By wisely heeding karma's ways, we tread the path of dharma.

Elaboration: Karma is basically energy. I throw energy out through thoughts, words and deeds, and ‎it comes back to me, in time, through other people. Karma is our best teacher, for we must always ‎face the consequences of our actions and thus improve and refine our behavior, or suffer if we do ‎not. We Hindus look at time as a circle, as things cycle around again. Professor Einstein came to the ‎same conclusion. He saw time as a curve, and space as well. This would eventually make a circle. ‎Karma is a very just law which, like gravity, treats everyone the same. Because we Hindus understand karma, we do not hate or resent people who do us harm. We understand they are giving back the effects of the causes we set in motion at an earlier time. The law of karma puts man at the center of responsibility for everything he does and everything that is done to him.‎

Karma is a word we hear quite often on television. "This is my karma," or "It must have been something I did in a past life to bring such good karma to me." We hear karma simply defined as "What goes around, comes around." In some schools of Hinduism, karma is looked upon as something bad—perhaps because we are most aware of this law when we are facing difficult karma, and not so aware of it when life is going smoothly. Even some Hindus equate karma with sin, and this is what evangelical Christians preach that it means.‎
Many people believe that karma means "fate," a preordained destiny over which one has no control,‎ which is also untrue. The process of action and reaction on all levels—physical, mental and ‎spiritual—is karma. Here is an example. I say kind words to you, and you feel peaceful and happy. I ‎say harsh words to you, and you become ruffled and upset. The kindness and the harshness will ‎return to me, through others, at a later time. This is karma. An architect thinks creative, productive ‎thoughts while drawing plans for a new building. But were he to think destructive, unproductive ‎thoughts, he would soon not be able to accomplish any kind of positive task even if he desired to do so. This is karma, a ‎natural law of the mind. We must also be very careful about our thoughts, because thought creates, ‎and thoughts make karmas—good, bad and mixed.‎