You are what you believe in. You become that which you believe you can become. (Bhagavad Gita)
Thinking about the musings from DAY 21: Rest…Relax…Reflect…
I would submit to you that rest is as important as work…
And play…
And family life…
And more.
However, once that day of rest is complete, and the sun rises on a new work week, whether it is a Monday, Sunday, or any day in-between, eventually, it is time to get back to…
Work.
I would submit to you that for billions of people over thousands of years, Hinduism has been an important and impactful belief system for them. I will also say that once you dig a little deeper into Hinduism, there are some basic, logical conclusions that don’t seem…
Logical.
What Hinduism does prove logically is the fact that…
Someone Upstairs Runs The Show.
So, is Hinduism a logical belief system?
I would submit to you that Hinduism, without question, mimics in a lot of ways the polytheistic/animism belief system.
For example, a Hindu may bring up the idea that they have a single god, who is a supreme being, that is formless and impersonal, which could qualify Hinduism as a monotheistic belief system.
However, not all Hindus believe that.
Depending on which Hindu you talk to, the range of the additional gods and goddesses that are ranked under the supreme being, can range from 1…to 3…to 33…to hundreds…to 330 million.
In addition, as explained by a Hindu saint, it is possible for a Hindu to worship a theoretically unlimited amount of gods and goddesses, who may be, (or may not be), worshiped based on the, “moods, feelings, emotions and social backgrounds of the devotees.”
So, if we were to apply syllogism, based on our findings from Day 11: There Has To Be A Way To Make It All Make Sense…Right?, the logic would flow like this:
PART A – Due to moods, feelings, emotions and social background of individual 1, that Hindu has decided to worship a single god;
PART B – Due to moods, feelings, emotions and social background of individual 2, that Hindu has decided to worship 330 million gods and goddesses;
PART C – If these two Hindus met, then they would most likely tell each other about their own god(s) and would most likely both accept the fact that they can both Coexist because of their, “moods, feelings, emotions and social backgrounds of the devotees.”
If you follow the logic based on syllogism, a potential question to follow would be this:
How could both believers of Hinduism, one who believes in a single, formless god, and the other 330 million gods and goddesses, ultimately guarantee each other that their soul will make it to Moksha? (Covered in: Day 20: The Basics Of Hinduism.)
Consider the following…
If the single, formless god Hindu believer doesn’t make it to Moksha, but the 330 million god Hindu believer does, does that mean then that the worship of the 330 million gods would have been the correct outcome for the atman, (soul), to achieve Moksha, (heaven)?
Or how about this additional question:
If some Hindus believe that all 330 million gods all have the same, exact blueprint on how to achieve Moksha, then why are all 330 million gods necessary in the first place?
A second item to ponder is a unique fact about Hinduism that separates them from all of the other major religions:
It does not have a single founder.
So, applying syllogism again, the logic would flow like this:
PART A – Hinduism does not have a single founder;
PART B – Hinduism has at least two or more founders;
PART C – Since Hindus acknowledge that there is no single founder, multiple founders may not agree on all things regarding Hinduism.
Applying syllogism to this second fact regarding no single founder is especially frustrating to me. I do very well in life when I am able to position personal situations with a binary outcome. A simple “if…then” scenario is the perfect scenario. I also have a very awful memory and I am not very good at math. How then, under a non-binary situation, am I supposed to remember the right god or goddess, out of 330 million, (or more), when I really need them to pull through for me when I need them most?
Here is another item to consider when your memory and your skills regarding math are thrown into the mix.
Since there are 31557600 seconds in a year, it would take almost 10 and a half years to spend 1 second meditating, thinking, or praying, about each of the 330 million gods or goddess.
For me personally, considering the fact that I needed a calculator to do this math, combined with my memory issues especially since I turned 50 a few years ago, keeping track of which gods and goddesses I already prayed to in a year, and need to pray to for the rest of the year, for almost 10 and a half years, would become a logistical nightmare.
I mean, when would I have time to eat…or sleep…or take out the trash, if I am spending every second, literally, of 10 and a half years, literally, meditating, thinking, or praying, about each of these 330 million gods or goddess?
(Full disclosure: I would rather meditate, think, or pray, rather than take out the garbage.)
A final concept that must be addressed is this…
What about the concept of reincarnation?
This is really a concept that I cannot wrap my head around. Again, back to syllogism to try to come to a logical conclusion regarding reincarnation:
PART A – Hindus believe that their atman is never truly at rest until it is one with Moksha, (Heaven);
PART B – Hindus believe that reincarnation is necessary for the atman to be free from all ignorance and desire, including desiring Moksha itself;
PART C – Once the atman has realized these goals, then it achieves Moksha and the atman can settle peacefully in Moksha for all of eternity.
I know myself personally and how I deal with sin that comes my way. I encounter sloth, gluttony, greed, pride, jealously, anger, and lust…multiple times a day, every day…without fail. Most of the time, I am able to shut these desires out of my consciousness and go about my day to day activities.
However, sometimes one, (or several), do rear their ugly head(s) and stop me in my tracks.
What happens if, as a practicing Hindu, I use a bad word when I am frustrated?
What happens if I decide to wait until tomorrow to accomplish a goal that needs to be done today?
What happens when I pass my neighbor’s house with the brand-new car in the driveway and I go home and start researching new cars knowing I cannot afford to do so at this stage of my life?
How do I get through the rest of the day if all 3 of those situations happen within the first hour after waking up?
Is my atman already doomed to another lifetime here on Earth because my desires overtook me and my atman couldn’t resist?
All within the first hour after waking up?
Here is another example. I have a Facebook account. I scroll through it from time to time. Every single friend, acquaintance, or complete stranger that I have seen post on Facebook has at least once, posted something either something ignorant or that has induced desire.
Every. Single. One.
As for those practicing Hinduism, for every single one of these individuals, after pressing the enter button and posting online, have they just doomed their atman to another round of reincarnation?
For a single post?
At the end of the day, to me, Hinduism is just too vague of a belief system. Let alone keeping track of potentially 330 million gods and goddesses.
There is way too much left to chance, too many variables, to navigate ones atman though life with in order to achieve Moksha.
For me personally, the idea of following Hinduism as the best avenue for getting my soul to where I want it to be for eternity, is a shaky proposition indeed.
Do not feel discouraged if you may or may not have figured out the Hindu belief system. Do not feel discouraged if you are still trying to process the Hindu belief system. Instead, embrace the idea that you are gaining background knowledge to come to your own, logical conclusions.
3 You shall have no other gods before Me.4 You shall not make for yourself any graven idol, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water below the earth. (Exodus 20:3-4 KJV)
Was today’s blog a little confusing at times? Was the content perhaps a little overwhelming? Did you feel lost not understanding some or most of the subject matter?
Those feelings are totally understandable and it is ok to have one or more of those feelings. Remember that you are reading Day 22: The Validity Of Hinduism.
If you haven’t been in class since the first day of school…or when the project began…or when the contract was first signed, etc., these feelings make perfect and logistical sense.
Please feel free to go back to where all of this began: