Are Hindu Deities real or just concepts??

[Valjean]

Hello. I can relate to this.

However, does one know the Seer that sees the sleep, dream, and waking states and so called beings in those states (including the waking and dream state ME-s)?

And before being that Seer, how can one who considers the 'seen' body as 'Me', say there is no deity? Has ego self created the world?

Of course. To paraphrase: (Gita IV:24)
Brahman is the offerer. Brahman is thing offered. Brahman is the act of offering. Brahman is the fire in which the offering's burnt.

We have to live in the world we perceive; we have to treat our current level of consciousness as reality even if we understand intellectually that it's maya.

I believe the world is real. I believe the world is illusion. Reality is different in different levels of consciousness. The correct answer to a question changes when answered from different metaphysical levels.

My "ego self," as you say, has created my world. Someday my ego self will transcend that world, though; merge with it, absorb it, expand beyond it.

My current ego self has not, thus far, chosen to make a God. I'm aware that some people do make Gods, and for them those Gods can be (subjectively) real. Someday, though, these people will become their Gods, then transcend them, absorb them and continue to expand beyond them.

In third state their Gods are real. In fifth or sixth state they are not. The reality of Gods -- or teapots -- depends on which level we are asking or answering from.

 

[Willamena]

Are the hindu Deities real, or just concepts/ideas?


And by real I mean actual Deities......not just 'real concepts'..

But if deities are concepts, then yes, they are real.

 

[Desert Snake]

But if deities are concepts, then yes, they are real.

Hmm not sure about that...did you read through the thread?

 

[Vinayaka]

Why would anybody who is not a Hindu want to know if Hindu Gods are real or not? That's puzzling.

 

[Desert Snake]

Why would anybody who is not a Hindu want to know if Hindu Gods are real or not? That's puzzling.

Why is that puzzling?

 

[Willamena]

Hmm not sure about that...did you read through the thread?

Can you point a particular post that sheds light on what you mean?

 

[LuisDantas]

Why would anybody who is not a Hindu want to know if Hindu Gods are real or not? That's puzzling.

Why, people always attempt to have opinions about things that they do not take for granted.

Besides, "being a Hindu" is a such an arbitrary distinction.

 

[Desert Snake]

Can you point a particular post that sheds light on what you mean?

No that was my misreading of your statement I think, nevermind.

 

[Vinayaka]

Why is that puzzling?

Isn't it irrelevant to you? How does whether or not a foreign God is real affect you? It's not like non-Hindus go to Ganesha temples that much.
........

Well, I guess maybe it isn't to you, you did ask the question. Maybe I'm just viewing it from my POV. I could care less what other faiths think, until there is overlap with mine.

 

[Vinayaka]

Why, people always attempt to have opinions about things

Which people? I (and a few more, I presume) don't really care about the historical stuff in other religions. In the same way I don't study Brazilian politics, cause I don't get a vote. I do study Canadian politics though.

 

[Willamena]

The world we perceive--Maya--does not differ from Brahman.

If it did, there wouldn't be Brahman, there would be Maya.

 

[LuisDantas]

Isn't it irrelevant to you? How does whether or not a foreign God is real affect you? It's not like non-Hindus go to Ganesha temples that much.
........

Well, I guess maybe it isn't to you, you did ask the question. Maybe I'm just viewing it from my POV. I could care less what other faiths think, until there is overlap with mine.

I am only very rarely indifferent to other people's beliefs. The most exotic they seem to be to me, the most difficult it is to me to attempt to be indifferent to them.

Belief shapes people, directs their values and their morals. Understanding people's beliefs (and often enough, their own dissonances between discourse and actual belief) empowers me to actually understanding the people themselves and reach the best possible communion at any given time - to say nothing of learning whether such communion is even possible in the first place.

Whether such beliefs when they involve the existence of deities are true is of course a matter of much lesser importance, among other reasons because I'm extremely skeptic anyway.

But which reasons people might have to believe? How sure they can be, and by what means? How much it even matters to them whether they are right?

Oh, those are enormously significant questions, don't you doubt it. They have no end of practical applications, too.

 

[LuisDantas]

Which people? I (and a few more, I presume) don't really care about the historical stuff in other religions. In the same way I don't study Brazilian politics, cause I don't get a vote. I do study Canadian politics though.

I guess I'm often surprised when I am reminded of that. I feel so very foreign even here in Brazil that thinking of "other people" is not something I do all that easily.

 

[Vinayaka]

I think maybe it boils down to innate curiousity, whether you have that or not.

 

[Desert Snake]

Isn't it irrelevant to you? How does whether or not a foreign God is real affect you? It's not like non-Hindus go to Ganesha temples that much.
........

Well, I guess maybe it isn't to you, you did ask the question. Maybe I'm just viewing it from my POV. I could care less what other faiths think, until there is overlap with mine.

I'm not really sure what any of this means tbh/

 

[Vinayaka]

I'm not really sure what any of this means tbh/

Why did you ask the question you did in the OP? Curiousity? or some other reason?

 

[Desert Snake]

Why did you ask the question you did in the OP? Curiousity? or some other reason?

Hmm don't people ask questions all the time on the forums?

 

[Willamena]

Which people? I (and a few more, I presume) don't really care about the historical stuff in other religions. In the same way I don't study Brazilian politics, cause I don't get a vote. I do study Canadian politics though.

Go Habs!

 

[LuisDantas]

I think maybe it boils down to innate curiousity, whether you have that or not.

No. I am curious about things such as how a TV series finished when cancelled, or why people choose a certain name to their children. That is curiosity.


I feel a powerful drive to attempt to read and understand people, their values and their motivations.

That is not just idle curiosity, but rather a necessary concession to the logical consequences of my worldview. People are significant, therefore so are their beliefs, and so are the odds of their accuracy, and also the means by which they reached those beliefs.

How else could I possibly deal with them?

 

[Desert Snake]

The world we perceive--Maya--does not differ from Brahman.

If it did, there wouldn't be Brahman, there would be Maya.

O.k. but then you could say there aren't individual emanations or something, who knows, there are different opinions on the thread for example.