• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Does Hinduism acknowledge Jesus as an Avatar?

C

Contemplative Cat

energy formation
Vinayaka said:
Then they don't because western religions have never heard of Brahman. (Not counting the few extremely mystical and rare subschools.)

Siva has 3 perfections in my school.
Click to expand...

Brahman is the only thing,
it by nature would absolutely have to be universal.

Brahman is sat(all reality) chit(consciousness) ananda(fulfillment)
No one could be without Brahman.

Do you have a different view of Brahman
than in the upanishads like the Isa , the katha Upanishads, or the kena Upanishads.

The Sufis pray to Brahman as Allah. Pretty much all mystics of all faiths worship

Read up on sage vasisthas teaching, I'm sure you'll trust him.
He wrote the seventh book of the rigveda.

there is just no point in worshiping concepts if there is no actual experience behind it.
Brahman is a word, used to indicate sat chit ananda.
you don't really need the words just the experience they offer.
 
Kalidas

Kalidas

Well-Known Member
Vinayaka said:
Really? I did not know this. It would be such a boring study. When did you do an in-depth study of the nature of God in all of these philosophical systems?

I once had a discussion on the nature of God with a certain person of a certain Abrahamic faith, and he nearly punched me out for being blasphemous. :) So clearly he disagreed with me, unless he had some anger issues that I didn't know about.
Click to expand...

I don't agree with their concept of God but that doesn't mena it isn't God. A lot of people know me some get me well and explain my character perfectly others not so much and paint me in a light that is not true to my real nature, its still me they speak of.
 
Fireside_Hindu

Fireside_Hindu

Jai Lakshmi Maa
Kalidas said:
I'm just saying I believe there is one divine power and everyone does in fact worship it.
Click to expand...

While we may believe that, there are countless conflicts all over the world that says many people don't consider them all the same. Else why the fighting? Ultimate one-ness is great for those who believe it, but foolishness for those who don't.

:camp:
 
Kalidas

Kalidas

Well-Known Member
Fireside_Hindu said:
I think there's a difference between discussing whether Jesus the person is acknowledged in Hinduism and whether his general philosophy is acknowledged.

Love thy neighbor - no Hindu would argue with that, however that same Hindu isn't going to put Jesus in the family shrine. Why? Because that same theory already exists in Hinduism. Therefore, Jesus is redundant.

If there are so many commonalities between world faiths (And there are) why bother with names anyway? Because beyond the fundamental level, there are deep differences - differences that may seem cosmetic, but which inform an individual on the best way for the to go about 'being". It will be different for everyone.

Why does Jesus have to be acknowledged in Hinduism to validate his teachings? Shouldn't a Christian practitioner have enough faith in their path to let him stand on his own?

:camp:
Click to expand...

My sentiments exactly! Thank you.
 
Kalidas

Kalidas

Well-Known Member
Fireside_Hindu said:
While we may believe that, there are countless conflicts all over the world that says many people don't consider them all the same. Else why the fighting? Ultimate one-ness is great for those who believe it, but foolishness for those who don't.

:camp:
Click to expand...

Whether they are so blinded by maya to see the truth of the matter has little sway over the nature of God. They believe it is different because they don't know better and. this leads to fighting. But this doesn't make God any less then what she(shakta sorry lol) is.
 
Fireside_Hindu

Fireside_Hindu

Jai Lakshmi Maa
Kalidas said:
Whether they are so blinded by maya to see the truth of the matter has little sway over the nature of God. They believe it is different because they don't know better and. this leads to fighting. But this doesn't make God any less then what she(shakta sorry lol) is.
Click to expand...

I guess my point is that lots of people try to consolidate or find resolutions to faith based conflicts by saying, "Hey Look! We're really all the same!" But I think that's misleading and it doesn't help (unless you actually believe it - which a lot of the world doesn't). Why do we have to be the same before we can respect each other? Can't we achnowledge the ways in which we are different without killing each other?

:camp:
 
Kalidas

Kalidas

Well-Known Member
Fireside_Hindu said:
I guess my point is that lots of people try to consolidate or find resolutions to faith based conflicts by saying, "Hey Look! We're really all the same!" But I think that's misleading and it doesn't help (unless you actually believe it - which a lot of the world doesn't). Why do we have to be the same before we can respect each other? Can't we achnowledge the ways in which we are different without killing each other?

:camp:
Click to expand...

Maybe I should clarify. People are different, faiths are different, ideas of God are different, God is the only constant. Just because others have wrong views of God doesn't mean it is any less God its just their ego gets in the way and they view things in a way that is not true. So I do believe there is only one divine power that is both formless and having infinite forms. I believe many people view this power in different way abnd some of them I do not believe to be true to the way I have come to know this power.
 
C

Contemplative Cat

energy formation
In Hinduism you can choose advaita or dvaita
In Christianity its only dvaita

western People tend to like
the esoteric spirituality more
Than exoteric rituals and customs

You don't have to accept Jesus, but accept that many people were raised with Jesus, but blatantly disagree with orthadox Christian philosophy and have turned to your superior religion to answer our questions.
You should be flattered.
 
Vinayaka

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
Contemplative Cat said:
Do you have a different view of Brahman
than in the upanishads like the Isa , the katha Upanishads, or the kena Upanishads.
Click to expand...

Nope. Same view as this, but at a mystical level, not an intellectual level. In the meantime, we're out here. Form came out of formlessness. Siva emanated form out of Himself. So the Upanishads describe the formless part. Maya, for the Siddhantin is fun, not a barrier. :)
 
Fireside_Hindu

Fireside_Hindu

Jai Lakshmi Maa
Contemplative Cat said:
You don't have to accept Jesus, but accept that many people were raised with Jesus, but blatantly disagree with orthadox Christian philosophy and have turned to your superior religion to answer our questions.
Click to expand...

And that's great. Who am I to stop them or even vainly wish to stop them? But the OP wanted to know if Hinduism (and I can only assume he meant in general) accept Christ as an Avatar, and at least in my experience the answer is no. People can believe what they want personally, but it's not Hinduism or Christianity - it's a little of both - which as Vinyaka said, has it's place. I don't know what you would call it but that's up to those practitioners to decide.

:camp:
 
C

Contemplative Cat

energy formation
Fireside_Hindu said:
And that's great. Who am I to stop them or even vainly wish to stop them? But the OP wanted to know if Hinduism (and I can only assume he meant in general) accept Christ as an Avatar, and at least in my experience the answer is no. People can believe what they want personally, but it's not Hinduism or Christianity - it's a little of both - which as Vinyaka said, has it's place. I don't know what you would call it but that's up to those practitioners to decide.

:camp:
Click to expand...

I suppose your right :)
 
NobodyYouKnow

NobodyYouKnow

Misanthropist
punkdbass said:
I notice there is some slight tension in me being here in the Hindu DIR because lately I have been studying a lot of Yogananda's teachings and his organization does view Jesus as a legitimate Avatar of God. I have not made up my mind yet on how I view Jesus, but right now I do see a lot of teachings of Yoga within his teachings.. it's hard for me to overlook this.

I am not really interested in lay Hindu's opinions of whether or not Jesus is an Avatar, rather I'm hoping that you guys can point me to scholarship of Hindu scholars (books, talks or essays?) who've actually deeply studied the NT and Christianity and have either arrived at the conclusions that Jesus is or is not an Avatar. I would love to hear their arguments, and I'd love to hear your guys thoughts here as well.. but to simply say "Jesus is not an Avatar or associated with Hinduism, period" - as some people have done here... is not satisfying enough to me. I want to learn why Hinduism does or does not view Jesus as a living embodiment of dharma or God... rather than just accept blindly that he is not.
Click to expand...
Take it from somebody who has 'been there and tried this'.

Hindus (we) believe that Hinduism is all that's needed to be believed in, both in and of itself. We don't need Jesus...we don't need to compare any part of Hinduism with Jesus...we have enough of what it takes to realise the truth without Jesus.

Also, we are tolerant and all, but we don't see other religions showing the same tolerance to us. Like stated before, we don't see Xtians, or Muslims, or Buddhists placing a statue of Krishna or Ganesha on their altars, do we?

Why should we continue to do this? it's not helping us, it's not showing non- Hindus how 'tolerant' we can be...it does nothing at all, so why do it? why worship Jesus? why compare?

Syncretising Hinduism only dilutes it - dilutes the true essence of the teachings.

It's all well and good for the SRF to incorporate Christian teachings, it is commendable...but if one wants to do that, they may as well become a Bahai or UU or something like that...which is totally different from Hinduism.

Om Namah Shivaya
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top