Hinduism is one of the oldest surviving religion of the planet along with Judaism and Zoroastrianism. It was started in somewhat 1500 BC. Basically it believes in "Karma" which means one's deeds affects his outcome. If a person do something good, good things happen with him, if he does something bad, bad things will happen to him. It believes in "Reincarnation"; It believes the body is mortal but the soul is immortal. The soul changes bodies just like a human being changes his clothes everyday. As per a person's Karma he gets his next incarnation. Apart from this basic belief, Hinduism is considered to be a polytheistic religion. There are over 20 millions gods and goddesses in this religion. But Hinduism is very misinterpreted religion. There are three aspects of Hinduism: Mythologies, Philosophies and Science.
The answer is; Well they don't have literally more than two hands, their hands are just different gestures. It is called 'Mudra'. For instance Lord Vishnu is holding a conch, sudarshan chakra, mace and lotus in his hands.
Conch symbolizes his power to create and maintain universe.
Sudarshan Chakra symbolizes purified spiritual mind.
Mace symbolizes his divine power.
Lotus symbolizes spiritual liberation.
As we had a subject in my PG Diploma called Classical Dance, which was just a theoretical subject to study.
In that subject we were told that the many positions and many hands a hindu god has is actually a dance step. They didn't had animation or video recording in those days so they made sculptures with many hands. This was to show how will their hands move from position one to position two & position two to position three.
Things are symbolic and not literal. Just because it has been depicted in the temples that way, the television people show those gods exactly the same in the mythological tv series. The actors seem funny and idiotic when they are constantly holding objects in their 4 hands 24/7.
Apart from the main gods the other demigods are the 5 elements of nature like Fire(Agni), Earth(Prithvi), Wind(Vayu), Water(Varun), Space and the planets like Saturn(Shani), Moon(Soma), Mars(Mangal), Venus(Budha), Jupiter(Brihaspati), the Sun(Surya) and human events and emotions like Death(Yama), Illusion(Maya), Love(Kama) and so on. They are depicted like a human being with supernatural powers which is wrong. They are actually personification or a mascot of the real things. "Agni" which means Fire, he is the deity of Fire presented like a Superhuman being with powers of flame. But its not like that in the real sense. Just like "Fido" is mascot of 7up soft drink, similarly he is mascot of 'Fire'.
The "Shesha Nag" on which Lord Vishnu sleeps is depicted as a huge serpant with thousands of heads. He is called Ananta Shesha, which means "Eternal Remainder". He is actually personification of 'infinite' space and time.
p.s. I believe Mahabharata wasn't completely a myth. I believe it was just exaggerated history.
Just because a person is born in a Hindu family doesn't make him a Hindu. Hinduism is not about celebrating the festivals, bringing home Ganpati and dancing on the streets creating traffic jam. Most of the Hindus today will say they are proud to be a Hindu but has no idea about the religious philosophies. Many of them don't even know Ramayana and Mahabharata completely. If a foreign tourist who wants to know about Hinduism asks such people they will surely give him or her wrong information.
Actually Hinduism also believes in One God, that is "Brahman" (ą¤¬्ą¤°ą¤¹्ą¤®ą¤Ø्) or the Trimurti. When that God creates the World he is called Brahma, when he preserves and maintains he is called Vishnu and when he destroys it for recreation he is called Shiva. Different forms of the same God is personified differently. The philosophy believes in following "Dharma". Dharma doesn't mean Religion as it is interpreted today. There are two meanings; [1] It means what is Righteous. [2] It means duty.
Hinduism talks about performing different duties of an individual. Like duty of a king, a politician, a merchant, a teacher, a parent, a student, a son or a daughter, a warrior and so on. As long as a person is doing his duties all is well.
Hinduism doesn't talk against non-vegetarianism. Vegetarianism started later because of the influence of Buddhism and Jainism.
In the Vedic period, there were no temples. People use to pray the fire (yajnya), the sun and the water(ganga river). Idol worship wasn't common. As many believes, if you think God is formless, you cannot imagine him. But if you give him a shape, you can concentrate your prayers on a symbol. That is why idol worship was started. But in the ancient times only evidences Shiva lingas have been found from the excavations. The earliest temples were in Aihole and Madhya Pradesh which were constructed during the Gupta period.
Hinduism is a philosophy just like Buddhism and Jainism. That is the reason converting from one religion to other wasn't considered a bad thing. For example Emperor Chandragupta Maurya converted to Jainism, his son remained Hindu while his grandson Emperor Ashoka converted to Buddhism. There were Hindu kings who were patrons of Buddhism and Hinduism flourished under Buddhist kings. Ajanta and Ellora caves has Hindu and Buddhist place of worship side by side. In those days there use to be debates among different religious groups. If a two monks of different philosophies(present day religions) have a debate and one among them wins, the other must get converted to the faith of the victorious.
Similar conversion took place in Thailand and Cambodia where people were Hindus prior converting to Buddhism. Later due to invasions from the west Indians became very conservative about their faiths and hence conversion became a sin.
These videos are too long so most of you wont see it till end but its really interesting. It talks about ancient apemen and humans living together in harmony in ancient times, which is very similar to the Vanaras from the Ramayana.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_603uf3Ixg&list=FLwYxBh66iBI7ZsmLN80RYlw&index=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlhSS51ZGz4
Hindu Mythology:
Mythologies are stories about the gods and goddess, how they came into existence and what happened in the ancient world and why we should praise them. Many of them are stories with morals while some are simply stories. Many people, especially Non-Hindus ask this question, "Why do Hindu gods have more than two hands?"The answer is; Well they don't have literally more than two hands, their hands are just different gestures. It is called 'Mudra'. For instance Lord Vishnu is holding a conch, sudarshan chakra, mace and lotus in his hands.
 |
| Lord Vishnu with four hands |
Conch symbolizes his power to create and maintain universe.
Sudarshan Chakra symbolizes purified spiritual mind.
Mace symbolizes his divine power.
Lotus symbolizes spiritual liberation.
As we had a subject in my PG Diploma called Classical Dance, which was just a theoretical subject to study.
In that subject we were told that the many positions and many hands a hindu god has is actually a dance step. They didn't had animation or video recording in those days so they made sculptures with many hands. This was to show how will their hands move from position one to position two & position two to position three.
Things are symbolic and not literal. Just because it has been depicted in the temples that way, the television people show those gods exactly the same in the mythological tv series. The actors seem funny and idiotic when they are constantly holding objects in their 4 hands 24/7.
 |
| Fido - Mascot of 7up |
Apart from the main gods the other demigods are the 5 elements of nature like Fire(Agni), Earth(Prithvi), Wind(Vayu), Water(Varun), Space and the planets like Saturn(Shani), Moon(Soma), Mars(Mangal), Venus(Budha), Jupiter(Brihaspati), the Sun(Surya) and human events and emotions like Death(Yama), Illusion(Maya), Love(Kama) and so on. They are depicted like a human being with supernatural powers which is wrong. They are actually personification or a mascot of the real things. "Agni" which means Fire, he is the deity of Fire presented like a Superhuman being with powers of flame. But its not like that in the real sense. Just like "Fido" is mascot of 7up soft drink, similarly he is mascot of 'Fire'.
The "Shesha Nag" on which Lord Vishnu sleeps is depicted as a huge serpant with thousands of heads. He is called Ananta Shesha, which means "Eternal Remainder". He is actually personification of 'infinite' space and time.
p.s. I believe Mahabharata wasn't completely a myth. I believe it was just exaggerated history.
Hindu Philosophies
Just because a person is born in a Hindu family doesn't make him a Hindu. Hinduism is not about celebrating the festivals, bringing home Ganpati and dancing on the streets creating traffic jam. Most of the Hindus today will say they are proud to be a Hindu but has no idea about the religious philosophies. Many of them don't even know Ramayana and Mahabharata completely. If a foreign tourist who wants to know about Hinduism asks such people they will surely give him or her wrong information.
 |
| Trimurti - Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva |
Hinduism talks about performing different duties of an individual. Like duty of a king, a politician, a merchant, a teacher, a parent, a student, a son or a daughter, a warrior and so on. As long as a person is doing his duties all is well.
Hinduism doesn't talk against non-vegetarianism. Vegetarianism started later because of the influence of Buddhism and Jainism.
In the Vedic period, there were no temples. People use to pray the fire (yajnya), the sun and the water(ganga river). Idol worship wasn't common. As many believes, if you think God is formless, you cannot imagine him. But if you give him a shape, you can concentrate your prayers on a symbol. That is why idol worship was started. But in the ancient times only evidences Shiva lingas have been found from the excavations. The earliest temples were in Aihole and Madhya Pradesh which were constructed during the Gupta period.
Hinduism is a philosophy just like Buddhism and Jainism. That is the reason converting from one religion to other wasn't considered a bad thing. For example Emperor Chandragupta Maurya converted to Jainism, his son remained Hindu while his grandson Emperor Ashoka converted to Buddhism. There were Hindu kings who were patrons of Buddhism and Hinduism flourished under Buddhist kings. Ajanta and Ellora caves has Hindu and Buddhist place of worship side by side. In those days there use to be debates among different religious groups. If a two monks of different philosophies(present day religions) have a debate and one among them wins, the other must get converted to the faith of the victorious.
Similar conversion took place in Thailand and Cambodia where people were Hindus prior converting to Buddhism. Later due to invasions from the west Indians became very conservative about their faiths and hence conversion became a sin.
Science in Hinduism:
All the ancient civilizations were technologically advanced. That is why they could built the architectural marvels. It was the Hindu Vedas which gave birth to Ayurveda, Yoga and other sciences like astronomy, chemistry, trigonometry and geometry. As the Hindu epics states that ancient Indians had nuclear weapons(brahmaastra) and aeroplanes(vimaana). The Nazi Germans knew that those so called mythological machines were actually ancient techs and they tried to recreate those.These videos are too long so most of you wont see it till end but its really interesting. It talks about ancient apemen and humans living together in harmony in ancient times, which is very similar to the Vanaras from the Ramayana.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_603uf3Ixg&list=FLwYxBh66iBI7ZsmLN80RYlw&index=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlhSS51ZGz4
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