Hinduism My Hari Your Hari

[nrkalee]

There appear to be deep misunderstanding with regards to the tenets of Sanathan Dharma (Hinduism), amongst the Sikhs, and I wish to clear it.

First and foremost, I would like to address the issue of polytheism or worship of many gods.

It may come as a surprise to most, but in Sanathan Dharma or Hinduism, there is only one Supreme God. This is right. Only one person is recognized as the Supreme Lord. His name is Hari. He is known by other names as well such as Krishna, Govinda, etc. This Supreme Lord can be realized either as a person or as impersonal Brahman.

The rest of the gods you hear about are actually demigods!! Shiva, Brahma, Durga, Ganesh, etc., are demigods or superintendents of the various departments of the universe. Peons, actually. In fact, they too worship the Supreme Lord Hari. Surely, this must come as an even bigger surprise!

So you may ask: “Why do Hindus worship the demigod and not always the Supreme Lord Hari?”

The answer is: most Hindus prefer to worship the demigods as they can obtain quicker material benefits. In fact, they are generally wary of worship the Supreme Lord as he is only interested in spiritual welfare and very reluctant to award material goodies! They are a little shy to pray to him for obtaining money, or a car, scooter, fridge, microwave, etc. The worship of demigods is allowed by the shastras but not actually recommended. The main reason is, no spiritual benefit is accrued by worshiping them. In other words, life after death is entirely unsecured. Actually, even the material goodies that is gotten by worshipping the demigods is actually provided by the Supreme Lord.

Not all are as foolish though. Some do worship the Supreme Lord Hari and they are called Vaishnavas. The Vaishnavas are indeed a class apart. To the Vaishnavas, the Supreme Lord is very dear, and to the Supreme Lord the Vaishnavas are very dear.

So, regardless of what you might have heard, this is the reality and the unambiguous conclusion of the Vedic Scriptures. According to the Hindus, ‘God is one, has always been one, and will continue to be one.’ Naturally to an outsider, since the religion is a little more elaborate, it all appear very bewildering.

It may be noted here that the Hari worshiped by the Hindu Vaishnavas is the same Hari referred to in the Gurbani.

 

[Arvind]

Thanks for your presence and for sharing your thoughts.

Regards.

 

[nrkalee]

My article has being shifted to the interfaith dialogue where it does not belong. My views are purely from the Sikhs point of view. I cannot help it if the gurus heavily borrowed from other religious texts. Your forum is dying, and if you keep shifting articles like this, I will not be able to participate. Kindly shift it back to where I originally posted it.

 

[simpy]

and to the Supreme Lord the Vaishnavas are very dear.

is this Gurmat? can you explain please??????

endless thanks to you.

humbly asking for everybody's forgiveness

 

[nrkalee]

This is authentic but from the Vedic perspective. Since much of Sikhism is borrowed from Vaishnava literature, it ought to be there as well.

However, to qualify as a devotee, you have to be a worshipper of the Supreme Lord Hari. Also, you have to connect to him through a bona fide sampradaya. Although these teachings are there in Sikhism, the current trend of denying the Supreme Lord Hari make them offenders and unqualified to approach the Supreme Lord.

 

[simpy]

Thanks for making it even more clear that this article should stay in the interfaith dialogue section.

endless thanks to you dear nrkalee ji

humbly asking for everybody's forgiveness

 

[nrkalee]

I don't mind. However, I feel that your home page requires serious re-design. It's very difficult to spot new articles, and articles in interfaith,etc. And, if that continues, I will move on. You will loose a vital contributor willing to provide definitive articles from an interfaith perspective. Up to you.

 

[simpy]

Dear and Respected nrkalee ji,

thanks for the suggestion.


in the default settings-
there is a link for new posts on the home page as well as every page.
there is a link for today's post in quick link menu on every page.
lateset important posts are always showing in a column on the left side on every page.
you can also customise the view through userCP .... AS YOU LIKE.


thanks again.

humbly asking for your forgiveness