So are you going then to throw out the Vedas as well. How about the Upanishads? They are filled with "magical" thinking. It sounds like you're not happy because Sanatana Dharma doesn't match exactly what you want out of tradition. If you don't like magic then be a secular humanist.
No, I do not throw the Vedas or the Upanishads out, but I put them into historical context. The very earliest concept of there being a universal religion, universal nature, universal religion and universal community(sanatana dharma) is formulated by the Vedic people. This is why Santana dharma is a part of the Vedic tradition. This does not mean everything we see in the Vedic tradition we should accept, for if you accept that then please go and sacrifice and eat a cow, for that was once a part of Vedic tradition. The early Vedic tradition was a tradition founded by primitive people living an agricultural lifestyle, so they were simple and like all agricultural cultures found in the earth, worshiped nature. In their later more urban phase of the Indus valley culture, they developed more sophisticated philosophical concepts by rationally approaching religion, the first evidence of this is seen in Vedanta i.e., the Upanishads. The Upanishads are similar to presocatic philosophy, they are the beginning of philosophical thinking and philosophical methods, but there is still no formal philosophical method. After the Upanishads, the formal
darsanas begin to emerge, which do away with the mystical language of the Upanishads and define very technical terms and attempt to derive from the Upanishads a systematic philosophy using epistemology, perception and inference. This forms the Jnana aspect of the Vedic tradition.
Concurrent with the Jnana period was the ritual or Karma aspect of the Vedic tradition, yes the same aspect that once sacrificed cows, horses, goats and maybe even the occasional humans to appease gods(human sacrifice in other Indo-European cultures did take place) The same aspect that Vedanta wanted to set aside and do away with, substituting Purva Mimasa with Uttra Mimassa. However, the Purva Mimassa far from becoming obsolete, synthesized with the Jnana and evolved into Puranic Hinduism, subverting all Jnana ideas, the main idea being the idea of one supreme reality or ekam sat, which they turned into 'God' as Vishnu, Shiva etc and the Vedic tradition fragmented into innumerable cults.
Thus all Puranic Hindus practice an old, obsolete, defunct form of Hinduism that was in vogue in stone age times, without realizing that Vedic thought had evolved beyond this by the time of the Upanishads. Puranic Hinduism is nothing more than a forgery of the Jnana. It co-opts the core philosophical concepts developed in the Jnana tradition, and mythologizes and politicizes them turning them into instruments to control masses.
Why pay heed to any Dharmic scripture then? If religion doesn't serve the needs of communities then the religion dies.
Religion's real purpose to show us the truth of reality and show us how to realize this truth. The highest religion is truth they say. Religions that serve communities as a convenient systems of beliefs is not true religion, it is mythology and often fanaticism.
My PhD is actually in Medical Anthropology. Also, I have not publicly encouraged anyone to bathe in Ganga. I have only given my experience as well as what we know about the diseases that come out of the river. Is there a risk for someone who has not grown up around the river, of course. Is it a death trap, no not in the slightest.
I am more than aware of the findings of the WHO also the comments the CDC has made about the water. In fact I can give you a complete biological break down of the bacteria, viruses, and parasites found along the lower Gangetic Plain if you like. However that does not change my own experience and that is all I was sharing.
You cannot experience the disease and bacteria, viruses and parasites in the Ganga waters, because they are imperceptible and can only be detected through special equipment. The fact that you have not experienced any disease from the Ganga waters does not mean that you have not been infected by the bacteria, viruses and parasites, you would only know if you were examined with special equipment, but the fact that there are many disease-causing bacteria, viruses and parasites in the water, is reason enough for any rational human being not to bath in the waters.
In fact one does not even need a microscope to know bathing in such waters is unhealthy, it is common sense that waters in which thousands of tons of sewage is dumped everyday, where corpses of both human bodies and animals float and rot, where many people defecate and urinate, and people wash their dirty clothes in, is not water fit for bathing. In fact is the entire opposite attitude in Santana dharma culture of always keeping ones body and mind pure and clean, ritual bathing was practiced everyday in the past and from the ritual bathing tradition the Ayurvedic dinacharya tradition developed. Hindus come from a culture that practiced sterilization of medical equipment in their medicine - what the heck are they doing today bathing in filth and muck?
How can I lead to the death of India when I'm not even from South Asia?
Your lack of understanding and insensitivity are quite contrary to Sanatana Dharma.
I said the practices and beliefs of Hindu people today. It has already lead to the death of India, India has gone from being from 1AD to 10AD the most richest and prosperous country in the world, with a vast scientific and philosophical tradition, to one of the most poorest, illiterate and deprived countries in the world. Today, most of the world actually laughs at India. Sorry to say, but it is true.
LOL I'm not a Sir, firstly. Secondly, what's with the tone here. I'm not saying you have to bathe in the Ganga to be a dharmi. I'm simply asking that you show a bit of respect for the people who hold these traditions as valuable.
Err would you show respect to somebody who baths in filth and excrement infested waters? Would you even let such a person into your living room?
I suppose as a university graduate and as an instructor I'm not allowed to hold any beliefs in anything "magical"...
Aum Hari Aum!
No, as university educated graduate with a doctorate I would expect you to be more rational, than actually encourage or approve of superstition, like bathing in toxic waters. It is actually pretty depressing that somebody with such a background would publicly support such a practice, rater than using their knowledge to reform such backwards and filthy practices in Hinduism.
It is because of Hindus like you that so many Hindus are the subject of ridicule by non-Hindus. It is why so many of my Hindu friends had enough of Hinduism and when asked "Are you Hindu" they kept silent.
PS: I apologize madam for calling you sir.
