07-09-2006, 10:06 PM
This is a very complicated question.
The actual import of this question is who is God?
Does he/she/it actually exist?
Where is God?
How come I can't see God?
This is the most important question every man should be asking himself and trying to find an answer.
The atheist answer to this question is that the ancient cave men must have been afraid of the forces of nature and must have come up with the notion of higher more powerful beings called "Gods" who controlled the destiny of man.
This must have eventually evolved into all the modern religions.
You statement, "whoever introduced concept of God in the beginning of Hinduism must have realized God before anybody else.", actually stems from the atheist viewpoint, because this assumes there existed a time when man did not know about God.
In other words men were living like an animals before a more advanced thinker introduced the concept of God to the rest of the population after he had some "super-natural" experiences, unexplained by logic.
The traditional view of Hinduism says that originally there was no such thing as "my religion" or "your religion". There was no name for "religion". There was only one religion followed by all and that religion had no name.
This view is supported by all traditional Swamis like the Shankaracharyas.
There are 3 immortal entities - Ishvara(God), jivas (individual souls) and Samsara (the Universe).
According to Avaita all 3 are simply 3 names for one supreme entity called Brahman and appear as 3 because of the inherent power in Brahman called Maya.
According to Dvaita all 3 are no doubt one with Brahman, but there is still some differentiation. Only Ishvara has the power to create, preserve and destroy the universe.
The Jiva even after achieving salvation gets all the powers to do anything except the above 3. So the Jiva remains one step lower than Ishvara always.
Advaita says the Jiva merges completely into Brahman after salvation so the very question of powers etc... does not arise.
Both Advaita and Dvaita agree that the Jiva has been existing for all time.
We cannot say that some advanced soul "discovered" God.
We are talking about entities that are beyond time and space.
Both time and space are expressions of Maya the inherent power of God.
So religion has always existed. There was never a time when it did not.
The original religion is not the personal property of the Hindus.
It is simply a fact of nature that applies to all living entities.
The term Hinduism is a more recent one coined to distinguish the original religion of man from the new cults that arose later.
The actual import of this question is who is God?
Does he/she/it actually exist?
Where is God?
How come I can't see God?
This is the most important question every man should be asking himself and trying to find an answer.
The atheist answer to this question is that the ancient cave men must have been afraid of the forces of nature and must have come up with the notion of higher more powerful beings called "Gods" who controlled the destiny of man.
This must have eventually evolved into all the modern religions.
You statement, "whoever introduced concept of God in the beginning of Hinduism must have realized God before anybody else.", actually stems from the atheist viewpoint, because this assumes there existed a time when man did not know about God.
In other words men were living like an animals before a more advanced thinker introduced the concept of God to the rest of the population after he had some "super-natural" experiences, unexplained by logic.
The traditional view of Hinduism says that originally there was no such thing as "my religion" or "your religion". There was no name for "religion". There was only one religion followed by all and that religion had no name.
This view is supported by all traditional Swamis like the Shankaracharyas.
There are 3 immortal entities - Ishvara(God), jivas (individual souls) and Samsara (the Universe).
According to Avaita all 3 are simply 3 names for one supreme entity called Brahman and appear as 3 because of the inherent power in Brahman called Maya.
According to Dvaita all 3 are no doubt one with Brahman, but there is still some differentiation. Only Ishvara has the power to create, preserve and destroy the universe.
The Jiva even after achieving salvation gets all the powers to do anything except the above 3. So the Jiva remains one step lower than Ishvara always.
Advaita says the Jiva merges completely into Brahman after salvation so the very question of powers etc... does not arise.
Both Advaita and Dvaita agree that the Jiva has been existing for all time.
We cannot say that some advanced soul "discovered" God.
We are talking about entities that are beyond time and space.
Both time and space are expressions of Maya the inherent power of God.
So religion has always existed. There was never a time when it did not.
The original religion is not the personal property of the Hindus.
It is simply a fact of nature that applies to all living entities.
The term Hinduism is a more recent one coined to distinguish the original religion of man from the new cults that arose later.