Wednesday, November 21, 2007

I am not a Hindu

and neither are you, if this is what defines a Hindu.

those who pray daily, do voluntary work at temples, follow a vegetarian diet and abstain from intoxication


I scored just 1 out of 4, so am ruled out.

If it was a crackpot school, no one would be bothered, but this is funded by the State, in UK. I think the Brits are taking appeasing all religions to a new level.

A few questions. Is Bhagavad Gita not different from Vedic scriptures? Do most of the Hindus in UK, abstain from meat and alcohol, as claimed in that article?

Update. I checked the school's website. It is even more hilarious. In their About the Name page you find this brilliant definition Krishna is the name of God, meaning 'All Attractive'. Whilst Hindus believe in only one God, we also believe that God can take different forms and incarnations. So what happened to Saivites?

12 comments:

Unknown said...

The whole of Vaishnavism which is actually ruling as Hinduism these days is really pompous.

Premalatha said...

Is it State funded?

Chenthil said...

Kris, the entire religion is pompous.

Premalatha - This is what their site say - Currently, there are voluntary-aided schools in the UK for each of the six major world religions except Hinduism. CNN IBN report says state funded, so I assumed it to be true. Now I am confused. What does voluntary - aided mean?

Kuzhambi said...

Historically, there is no clear definition on what makes a Hindu or Who is a Hindu.

A supreme court judge in a 1995 statement mentioned this

When we think of the Hindu religion, we find it difficult, if not impossible, to define Hindu religion or even adequately describe it. Unlike other religions in the world, the Hindu religion does not claim any one prophet; it does not worship any one God; it does not subscribe to any one dogma; it does not believe in any one philosophic concept; it does not follow any one set of religious rites or performances; in fact, it does not appear to satisfy the narrow traditional features of any religion or creed. It may broadly be described as a way of life and nothing more.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu#Who_is_a_Hindu.3F

The so called self-proclaimed philosphers are really murdering this and thus created a religion and are now branding it.

I agree with you that I also get 1 out of 4 so I am a failed Hindu :)

Premalatha said...

Chenthil,

In order to be accurate, I may need to do little research. But, from what I know, Faith schools are not State schools at all. Faith schools are run by respective faith organisations and they decide what to teach and what to claim as their faith.
From the site:
//The School is working in affiliation with ISKCON (the International Society for Krishna Consciousness) as the official faith advisor.

The School is being promoted by I-Foundation. //

From I foundation site:
//I Foundation is a charity that aims to establish sustainable projects that promote and advance Vedic culture and philosophy in the modern world.

The culture and philosophy of the Vedas, which originate in ancient India, bring with them a depth and richness to life, as well as a wholesome approach to living in harmony with nature.//

So, seems major fund and theories are coming from ISKCON. So, there is no surprise to their statement about who is Hindu.

Yes most of the hindus in UK, particularly ISKCON followers, are non meat eaters. I couldn't find their statement about Gita and Vedic scriptures (I spent hardly couple of minutes to find),.. but again, I won't be surprised.

State does give some fund to help some community developments (such as building temples, society events, faith schools), but it does not regulate what is being taught there, as faith school means some faith organisation will be the adviser and what they tell as the faith of that community is straight forward accepted. As ISKCON is the biggest hindu organisation in UK, I guess they were the obvious choice/influence.

It hardly affects Hindu community here, as most of the Indians are not going to send their children to Hindu faith schools, particularly not saivites to ISKCON school. I agree it is not correct, but Indians may not bother to correct them. The majority Indians are Gujjus and most of them are ISKCON followers. So, even if there is a public consultation, they will win. This is the first school for hindus, so, you can expect Sikh school soon, if it is not there already. Soon there may be a Srilankan hindu Tamil school as they look down on Indian Tamils and not properly followed Indian Tamil hinduism. Then there will be several different schools representing each branch of Indian hinduism..

Or NOT.. as Indians are more into making doctors, lawyers and accountants, proud of their children speaking in British accent... Hindu faith schools won't be as popular (in more than one sense) as Muslim (Islam?) faith schools, is my prediction.

There are catholic Schools. I am not sure they come under faith schools. I must find out. But in general catholic schools are known for better education than the general state schools in that area.

Hawkeye said...

chenthil,

to answer your questions and your questions only :-)

although some consider mahabharatha to be a 4th veda, Bhagavad gita is not part of vedic scriptures.

bhavadh geetha, upanishads/veda and brahma sutra are considered as the prasthana traya (big 3) - this is the ultimate authority for sanathana dharma (hinduism). [upanishads, an appendix of the vedas, are the stories that explains/puts into context the abstractness of the vedic slokas)


/* Hindus believe in only one God, we also believe that God can take different forms and incarnations */

hinduism is a monothesitic religion. All schools/cults under hinduism accept this. The prasthana traya propounds a single god called 'brahman' (pronounced bruh-men. the caste name brahman is different from this term - as 'brahman' also means knower of god). That is the term for the ultimate god in the big3 scriptures. Where vaishnavites and saivites disagree is whether brahman = rudra or brahman = vishnu. the big3 says brahman this and brahman that without clearly telling if its vishnu/siva. Vaishnavism is slightly more popular because 1 out of big 3 (the Gita) puts a big goal for vishnu. brahma sutra is very cryptic, which only 3 people have claimed to have understood and vedas/upanishads talk about Indira more than vishnu/siva.

i hope at least your questions were answered.

Chenthil said...

Linkbridge - thanks for that supreme court link.

Premalatha - I have now removed the state funding portion for want of clarity. And hope that the other faith based schools don't pop up like you predict.

Premalatha said...

Chenthil, it is alright. Since you said
//If it was a crackpot school, no one would be bothered, //

//but this is funded by the State, in UK.//,
I wanted to clarify that faith schools are not regulated by UK Govt. that is all.

IMHO, faith schools can be considered crackpot schools or equivalent. If they (faith schools) want to compete with other good schools, then they have to consider their (FS) curriculum at par with their (good schools / state syllabus) syllabus first. Then if they add Hinduism as additional subject, there is a possibility of these schools (FS) becoming more than crackpot schools.

Hawkeye said...

chenthil,

i feel orey ignored. when i typed out the comment my coffee got cold and all.

oru maruvadhaiye illama pochu.

Chenthil said...

Hawkeye, check mail. And don't let coffee get cold, coffee is more important than hinduism.

Anonymous said...

kovichukadha hawk.
Bostonn paakum varen na?

Mukundan said...

I get 0 out of 4...so what am I ? A mortal ?