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Hinduism
- Thread starter Jimmy
- Start date
Well, it gets kind of complicated.
Hinduism is really a family of religions, not one religion.
There are some sects that have a guru, and the people in those sects do sometimes follow a living individual they believe is a manifestation of God.
There are a lot of them.
Jimmy
King Phenomenon
Divine qualities?
A lot of people thought to be a manifestation with a Divine quality.
Though a person that follows a guru only acknowledges their own as having those Divine qualities. They don't necessarily negate other people's gurus, but they just don't follow them.
Jimmy
King Phenomenon
Yes, but you still haven’t answered my original question. What are these divine qualities?
Oh, sorry, I misunderstood your question.
Generally speaking, purity, love, compassion, discipline, wisdom, devotion, etc, etc
Jimmy
King Phenomenon
Oh so they’re just a regular man with a message. Gotcha.
You might have better luck asking someone who follows one.
@stvdv lived around his for awhile, if I remember right. He might be able to better explain.
What do you consider to be "divine qualities?"
I would eliminate the word "from" from that statement.
Would you say that 'from' word is the difference between dvaita and advaita?I would eliminate the word "from" from that statement.
Absolutely!
In my view, it's complicated. In Hinduism, everything is a manifestation of God, particularly in the monistic schools, of which there are many. Some dualistic schools may be closer to this idea, but it would be limited to Vaishnava avatars like Rama and Krishna, neither of which are alive today.
Hinduism has many sects and sampradayas (teaching lineages, where each teacher has a successor to whom he/she would pass their divine power to) Some sampradayas have extremely long histories, up to 2000 years or more. Others end, and still others get started. Many Hindus don't belong to or follow any sampradaya. Some do, but don't know it or acknowledge it. I never underestimate Hinduism's diversity. That's one of its beauties.
Most certainly there are living teachers who demonstrate divine qualities. A few have become quite famous, while others prefer to stay relatively unknown. Almost all are celibate practicing monks, known as gurus, swamis, yogis, etc.
Divine qualities would include an aura of divinity, (called darshan, a palpable vibration to those who can feel such things) wisdom, humility, learnedness, and more. There also things called siddhis, or in English called powers, that many teachers have. These are such things as ability to read auras, clairaudience, clairvoyance, being in two places at once, going without food for long periods, and more. These things are rarely displayed though, as it's against tradition (and the vow of humility) to demonstrate them. Besides, a mere demonstration would serve no useful purpose.
Siddhis are developed from many many lifetimes of yogic discipline. Such beings have extreme self-control, would never anger, or show much emotion, other than that you see through casual chit-chat. They have reached the state of nirvikalpa samadhi, (deep mystical union with God, in meditation, beyond time, space, and form, the 'that' that nobody can describe) ) the precursor to moksha, or the soul's ultimate goal in Hinduism.
Of course, it's difficult for anyone to asses the worthiness or the legitimacy of such people, as there are also many great pretenders within the vast array of humanity.
Not sure if that helped, but I tried.
Jimmy
King Phenomenon
Thanks, so basically they have no special powers like raising the dead.
That is one of the things I most like in Hinduism.
It accepts upfront that people will have their own conceptions and that they do not conform to other people's expectations of what would be sacred all that often... and that "divine" is pretty much a freeform concept.
It accepts upfront that people will have their own conceptions and that they do not conform to other people's expectations of what would be sacred all that often... and that "divine" is pretty much a freeform concept.
Oh, there are rumors and legends and tales of that sort of stuff, but the lay Hindu is far more concerned with personal transformation than whether or not miracles like that ever happened. Focusing on that is something for other paradigms. As an example, the Tamil sage Tirumular supposedly possessed a cowherd's dead body, bringing it back to life, so he could bring Vedic knowledge to the south of India, in the Tamil language. But nobody focuses on it.
IndigoChild5559
Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
For example, Krishna, a historical person, is believed by many Hindus to be an avatar of the god Vishnu, as well as a deity in his own right.
IndigoChild5559
Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
Sure, as long as these variations occur within the boundaries of Hinduism. But when it comes to other religions, such as Islam, it is amazing how incredibly intolerant Hindus can be.
GoodAttention
Well-Known Member
Yes I also find this interesting, Hindus tolerate Christians and Jews far more than they do Muslims.
Being also “not people of the book”, and obvious polytheists, I think it’s clear who threw the first stone at whom…