Little girl in India born with 8 limbs..named Lakshmi

No that doesn't answer my question at all.

So i'll ask a different one. How many (generally speaking) Hindu's are not vaisnavas and do they have different (Hindu) idea's of 'God'?

 

O.k. so all Hindu's are monotheistic, do they disagree on who that one 'God' is or aspects of that one 'God'?

 

Heh, this jedi does not want to be a preacher. If you are interested in hinduism, I suggest you read about
dvaita, advaita and the vishishtadvaita philosophies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvaita
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advaita_Vedanta
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishishtadvaita

 

i would say that since vaisnavism is so loosely constructed and evolvoing between the different schools that to divide up hindus between vaisnavas and vaisnavas is incoherent

 

hindus are monotheistic as its one life force that animates all life

one god with billions of faces

 

that was nicely said chief cowpie. "one god, with a million faces."

and XAC, i am surprised that i didnt answer ur question. :~ u asked me how many hindus shared "my" definition of god and if all hindus were vaisnavas.

so lets try again shall we? i said, the vast majority of hindus are some sort of vaisnava (pretty clear i would think) and so therefore, logically, they share the same definition of god (this according to the oxford centre for hindu studies). as i mentionned there are 4 vaisnava schools and all agree that god is personal with an eternal form, and thus, can be defined.

i thought i would include this to substanciate:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaishnavism

however if u are lookng for numbers / demographics. ill see what i can find.


now to answer ur last question. how many hindus are not vaisnava? that would be the minority and they choose to view god as energy / light or impersonally (brahman). again if its numbers ill have to find some link with a chart for u.

 

well i don't come on these threads nomore but i saw this on the side thread earler and i got woken up by one of my good friends to a phone call about this. He was all parinoid it was a sign to the whole Nostradomas thing cause of the 8 point wheel deal on the history chanel special. Anyway its all crazy shit to my ear

 

Where belief is concerned, it doesn't matter how many people believe in a thing, it doesn't mean it's correct. Virtually eveyone once believed in the flat earth, and we know that they were all 100% wrong.

I'm not sure it's acurate to say most Hindus are Vaishnavas - there are numerous other sects and schools of Hinduism.

I'm also concerned that today what we have is an attempt to construct a kind of 'fundamentalist' Hinduism, which has no historical precedent. Probably that may be due to the influence of monotheism from other cultures.

Such an approach flies in the face of the whole direction of the teachings of many modern Indian masters such as Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo and Parhamhansa Yogananda, who all saw a pluralistic approach to spirituality as the best path for the modern world.
The 'my god is the true god and yours is false' game has run far too long on this planet.

 

krishna is a personal manifestation of brahman

 

i agree BBB. thats why i dont play the "my god is better than ur god" game. i think there are many ways to approach the divine and enjoy the beauty in diversity. i think fanaticism in any belief system is ugly.

but with all due respect, the majority of practicing hindus are some form of vaisnava, so it is accurate to say that. when i use the term vaisnava, i am referring to the plethora of schools within vaisnavism, sri, madhva, gaudiya, vallabha, nimbarka etc.

there are, of course, other paths in sanatana dharma, shaiva, shakta (and the many subsects therein) however, these are a minority in comparison to the vaisnava majority. not bad, not good, just how it is.

 

thats one belief. mine is that the brahman effulgance comes from the personal form of krsna. u say potatooo i say potaaaato.

 

neti neti.

 

U2 chief.

 

Hmm...I wonder if there is some wisdom to be derived from those 'Mr Potato Head' things for kids. You get eyes, mouths, noses, moustaches etc to stick onto a potato and create a silly face.
Of course, it's for the child's own imagination to determine exactly what form the face will take. I guess in the USA you might get one with a cowboy hat or something included. If they were making the things for the Indian market, perhaps they'd susbstitute a turban instead.

And then, once you've made your potato man (or woman of course) you can think up a name...maybe even make up some stories about stuff he/she does.

Or then again, you could remove the plastic features and cook up the potato, which might after all be the best thing.

 

or what came first, the chicken or the egg?

 

Bono?

 

lmao at BlackBillBlake, u rock

 

Ha - well, I was never much of a fan of the music, but I do think Bono is a very good and well intentioned person. Pity there aren't more high profile celebs like him.

What I meant in my reply to CCP is that everything is Brahman.

 

cheers - I roll too....:H

 

I wonder if everything in the world is like that.