Visitor: "Swamiji, do you know who is the founder of Christianity?"
Swami Chinmayananda: "Jesus"
Visitor: "Who is the founder of Islam?"
Swami Chinmayananda: "Mohammed".
Visitor: "Who is the founder of Hinduism?"
Swami Chinmayananda: "................."
Visitor: "Swamiji, your religion doesn't have a founder?"
Swami Chinmayananda: "There is no one particular founder for Hinduism as its not an outcome of one personality's knowledge.
Let me put the same question to you. Who is the founder of Chemistry? Physics?
You cannot answer, because these are sciences which had contributions from plenty of scientists.
In Hinduism, our Rishis were the scientists".
Visitor: "...(silence)"
Swami Chinmayananda: "If you ask a Christian to give the book on Christianity, he gives you the Bible.
If you ask a Muslim to give a book on Islam, he gives you the Quran.
But if you ask me to give a book on Hinduism, I will say, "Welcome to my Library!"
More precisely, it is not Hinduism - it is सनातन धर्म Sanatan Dharma - with no precise comparable term in English and that is why most of the world is unable to understand the concept. They need to learn some Sanskrit and some of the ancient history of Bharat to understand this.
The closest rough translation in English would be Eternal Character / Properties. It is neither Hindu nor religion. It is an ever-evolving science of the character and properties of the Universe including lessons for mankind on how to live a complete life aligned to the principles of the Universe.
Hence, most of our ग्रंथ (Granthas, NOT scriptures, closest translation "volumes") like Vedas, Upanishads, Aranyakas, Brahmanas, have no author, for, the Rishis saw these, not as their creation, but revelations of nature through them, ever-evolving.
They also do not have a date for they have evolved over millennia and keep evolving. The date is applied to static things or things with a short duration. How does one apply dates to eternal and ever-evolving?
(Courtesy of Dr. V. Bajaj - Chicago)
Swami Chinmayananda: "Jesus"
Visitor: "Who is the founder of Islam?"
Swami Chinmayananda: "Mohammed".
Visitor: "Who is the founder of Hinduism?"
Swami Chinmayananda: "................."
Visitor: "Swamiji, your religion doesn't have a founder?"
Swami Chinmayananda: "There is no one particular founder for Hinduism as its not an outcome of one personality's knowledge.
Let me put the same question to you. Who is the founder of Chemistry? Physics?
You cannot answer, because these are sciences which had contributions from plenty of scientists.
In Hinduism, our Rishis were the scientists".
Visitor: "...(silence)"
Swami Chinmayananda: "If you ask a Christian to give the book on Christianity, he gives you the Bible.
If you ask a Muslim to give a book on Islam, he gives you the Quran.
But if you ask me to give a book on Hinduism, I will say, "Welcome to my Library!"
More precisely, it is not Hinduism - it is सनातन धर्म Sanatan Dharma - with no precise comparable term in English and that is why most of the world is unable to understand the concept. They need to learn some Sanskrit and some of the ancient history of Bharat to understand this.
The closest rough translation in English would be Eternal Character / Properties. It is neither Hindu nor religion. It is an ever-evolving science of the character and properties of the Universe including lessons for mankind on how to live a complete life aligned to the principles of the Universe.
Hence, most of our ग्रंथ (Granthas, NOT scriptures, closest translation "volumes") like Vedas, Upanishads, Aranyakas, Brahmanas, have no author, for, the Rishis saw these, not as their creation, but revelations of nature through them, ever-evolving.
They also do not have a date for they have evolved over millennia and keep evolving. The date is applied to static things or things with a short duration. How does one apply dates to eternal and ever-evolving?
(Courtesy of Dr. V. Bajaj - Chicago)
"most of our ग्रंथ (Granthas, NOT scriptures, closest translation "volumes") like Vedas, Upanishads, Aranyakas, Brahmanas, have no author, for, the Rishis saw these, not as their creation, but revelations of nature through them, ever-evolving."
ReplyDeleteIf it is "ever-evolving", then when was the latest (most recent entry) made in the Vedas, Upanishads, Aranyakas or Brahmanas? Who gets to decide today if a new entry can be accepted into print?
Absolutely brilliant!
ReplyDelete