namaskaram prabhu ji :namaste
In terms of the Vaishnavism having some similarities to Abrahamic religions, I've had both experiences. The belief structure has some Abrahamic tendencies which the followers don't have. In other instances, the followers have some Abrahamic tendencies, but I'm not sure if that's in the belief structure or not.
I think that all we are seeing here is the simmilaritys that all religions posess in that they try to engender goodness , ..... allthough personaly I am not sure that threatening ourselves with hell or hellish rebirths is allways a positive thing to do ?
One thing I've noticed is that there is slightly more emphasis on hell is placed than in Shaiva schools. The beliefs about hell are derived from the Puranas which say stuff about how those who steal gold go to one hell, while those who are alcoholics are made to drink molten iron. And there's other stuff about how those who don't properly follow the menstruation rules or eat meat will be reincarnated as dogs/ants or will suffer 1,000,000 years in hell or whatever. Adulterers will spend their lives hugging hot metal poles. I forgot the exact details.
almost every religion has some simmilar idea of retrebution for wrongdoing it is a way of trying to warn its adherents of the negative outcome of wrong actions , these kind of stories also abound in buddhism , particularly tibetan buddhism , where it is constantly warned that our bad actions will result in rebirth in the hellish realms where allsorts of nasty things happen , but then on the other hand this idea of a hellish realm is also taken as a metaphor for taling rebirth with hellish concequences like being born in to the body of a tortured soul , .... what rebirth will a butcher take ? .. do we take this literaly and say yes ,... he will take as many rebirths as a cow as there are hairs on the body of the cow he has killed , (and himself suffer the slaughter he has inflicted) ?
or do we take it a little more metaphoricaly ?
either way when a hindu or buddhist talks about the reactions of karma and its effects on ones future rebirths it is very different from the abrahamic veiw of hell , christianity talks about eternal damnation , dharmic religions veiw rebirth as a chain of sucession from one life to another in which the devotee has the oppertunity to attone for his sins and to work towards an enlightened mind and the attainment of moksha . personaly I see this as one of the big differences betwen abrahamic religions and dharmic religions .
And whoever commits these sins must do Prayaschitta or atonement. Having said that, I don't know many Swaminarayan Hindus who take it seriously aside from the sadhus. I know these beliefs exist among some Gaudiya Vaishnavas, but this also exists to some extent among Sri Vaishnavas. The Swaminarayan philosophy is actually derived from Sri Vaishnavism. Having said that, there is a story about how Ramanuja was given a mantra and was told by his guru to not tell anyone else otherwise he would go to hell, but Ramanuja did so anyway, yet Ramanuja is considered the founder of the Vishistadvaita philosophy. So I might not be that correct about this. Plus, there's also a story saying how Vaishnavas are immune from going to hell, but I'm not sure if this is referring to devout practitioners or people who practice on occasion or what. Too many things that seem to contradict each other.
ramanuja ki jai , ...this is the perfect example of thinking very carefully before listening to these warnings , we must all think very carefully about our actions and there will be times when we need to break the rules , but we must be aware that there might be consequences . early on in my devotional life I was told that a woman must not even cast her shadow over tulasi devi when she is menustrating , but one day I had noticed that the young tulasi plants another devotee was rearing were willting from the heat and that no one had watered them the person responcible to take care of them had forgotten and gone home , my choice was to go bathe and ask krsnas forgivness and go to look after the plants . in this case one is not thinking of ones own karma , one thinks to do the right thing by another and to take the concequence upon one self . this is what ramanuja did thinking of the benifit to others he decided to accept the concequences upon himself , but one must have good reason to break an injunction and concidder it very carfully .
Speaking of sins, there's also stuff like how reciting some certain mantra this number of times or just saying it even once will burn all the sins you have committed. It's pretty much similar to how bathing in the Ganga river purify you of your sins.
I have allways had my concerns about this kind of promice , personaly I am wary of it , one must recite mantra from the heart not simply for a desired effect , I am not happy with the idea that one can just say a mantra and be absolved I am not sure that this is so wise as it might allow some to think that one might continue with negative actions and repeatedly clense onself of the implications simply by repeating a mantra , this I belive needs to be concidered more carefully . yet there is method behind this thinking , as it encorages one to enter in to more pious activities .
Another thing is how since Hindus believe in reincarnation, making mistakes is fine since we have multiple lives. However, in Vaishnavism, there is an emphasis to get it right in this life. A human birth is considered as rare, and a human birth in a devout family is considered to be blessed, so it is emphasized to not waste this life and to spend it being devoted to God. Even though we believe in reincarnation, many Swaminarayan Hindus still have the supposedly Abrahamic mentality of getting it right in this life. Even if we get a good job, nice family, etc, our main goal is to attain moksha, so that we may quickly be reunited with God.
Again my personal thoughts on this are that devout hindus and buddhists belive that having achived this fortunate human birth , and being born in to a fammily or position that one might practice dharma or live as a devotee , that this oppertunity should not be wasted , for a devotee to wish for moksha in this lifetime is not such a strange thing
... if you love god , you want to be with god , we do not want another human birth unless it is chosen in order to help others , this is very different from the abrahamic veiw an enlightened person can choose what he wants to do , he can return as a guru to be of benifit to others .
These things I'm not sure about, but apparently concepts like the grace of God, or God's will are also considered Abrahamic? Among many Indian moms, there's a tendency for them to say "What sins have I committed in my past life (or what karma am I still paying for) that I had to see this day???!!!", mostly when they're complaining about their kids not meeting expectations
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, the sin of being human , this is not so much a sin as a natural occurance , ...parents must do their duty and give every oppertynity to their children but not with expectation of the outcome , they must simply do their duty . to expect an outcome is setting onself up for dissapointment , instead of asking what karma is this ? they should be asking what am I doing now in this lifetime :yes:
Anyway, I might be wrong, but I think for these reasons, I can't help but see Vaishnavism similar to Abrahamic religions to some extent. Although a lot of things I typed contradict each other, so I'm probably just rambling on and on about stuff
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no , it is well worth exploring these beleifs so that we come to our own understanding of what we practice and why .
