Why did Hinduism revive in India and replace Buddhism? How did it differ from the pre Buddhist Hindism?
What was it about Hinduism that allowed it to survive the arrival of Monotheistic religions? (Islam, Christianity, Sikhism)
>>393999
It was more martially orientated than Jainism and Buddhism
I was just wondering, are there are any Hindu (or any other religion, really) deities who have four arms and are able to transform at will? I had an incredibly vivid dream where I met someone like this and they claimed they were a god and that I could come to them if I was ever in danger. I would love to know if there are any actual deities who fit this description.
>>394588
You are referring to Vishnu. This reminds me of a quote by Dr. Oppenheimer when the first Nuke was dropped.
https://youtu.be/lb13ynu3Iac
Vishnu takes him Multi-armed form and says, "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds"
i dont know about everywhere else but here in indonesia, they went full isolationism during the arrival of islam, many retreated deep to the jungle and up the mountains and still preserving their culture even now.
>>394682
Thank you so much.
There are many theories finding causes within and without India: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_of_Buddhism_in_India
There really is no pre- and post- Buddhist period I could identify, the decline of Buddhism was gradual and Hinduism evolved throughout it. There has always been much freedom of dogma in Hinduism, there is no heresy... it's not a monolithic entity in any time or space.
What history calls "revival of Hinduism" is dated 1850 and this is centuries after Buddhism declined. The Golden Age is in 320-650.
>What was it about Hinduism that allowed it to survive the arrival of Monotheistic religions? (Islam, Christianity, Sikhism)
None of the monotheistic religions successfully causing a significant portion of people to destroy all stautes and depictions of gods they can get their hands on, India being basically too big to be truly "fully" converted to a single State religion, Hinduism having monotheistic currents of its own, and Buddhism being on the receiving end of much of the persecution, religious warfare and forced conversions.
India never underwent a process comparable to the Christening of the Romans or the Islamic conquest - even when under Muslim rule.
India will forever be the land of the infinite gods and faiths.
>>394972
Well there was shankaracharya and his propagation of hinduism in the vaishnavite advaita tradition. Plus there are the marathas, rajputanas, gangas, cholas, rais and all of them who held onto their faith in dharma and never wavered under the pressure of the islamic intruders
>>394682
Actually, I was just wondering: so Vishnu can appear in different forms, right? At first I saw him as a regular adult man but when he noticed I was distressed he transformed into a young girl, I guess as that's the least threatening figure one could think of. When Vishnu revealed to me that he was a god he transformed into an ambiguous adult figure with long hair and four arms, embracing me and telling me what I said in my post earlier. Would doing something like this still fit Vishnu's description?
>>395139
the thing with vishnu is that he is born on earth in mortal form when a kalpa is about to end.
He brings about the end and resets everything, and by that I mean the balance of good and evil.
Different gods do disguise themselves as animals and people of different genders to comfort you.
>that description
it is probably shiva in your dream.
He is quick to anger, and quick to forgive. Any man can worship him and he accepts the humblest of absolutions made with a pure heart.
>>395139
vishnu is know to take many forms or avatars which could be what your dream was refering too. The idea that it could change forms at will is more or less becausr god himself has no form. But when he first appeared to you, he caused you distress and didn't see who he really was, and when he changed appearence, you were comforted and didn't see who he really was, but when he changed to his "godly" form you understood. In this dream we can understand that god is not just god when he is in his parabrahman form, but god is in everyone. Both the man and the young girl. God is reflected in all beings even if you do not easily see it. Take refuge in the lord, and see yourself how you really are.
>>395186
the guy had long hair, its shiva.
>>395189
regardless, god is god. (I don't buy into the dichotomy of the shiva visnu or shakti etc. they are all expressions of the divine. )
>>395218
you sure he had long hair?
>>395219
I'm fairly sure it went down to at least his shoulders.
>>394588
they've got about a million of them
>>393999
CHIM ayy lmao
>>394972
perhaps the Hindus were more organized?
>>393999
>What was it about Hinduism that allowed it to survive the arrival of Monotheistic religions? (Islam, Christianity, Sikhism)
>Sikhism
Well there's the fact that the Sikhs were fighting martyring themselves to stop the local Muslim empire from oppressing Hindus and preventing them from practicing their religion.
They did the same thing on the other side when the Hindus were oppressing Muslims.
Sikhism is ridiculously big on freedom of religion.
>>395168
>He brings about the end and resets everything
I thought that was Shiva?
>>395295
>you mean in the punjab and parts of kashmir.
>bengal for instance had completely different dynamics.
Go on
>>395199
Hey Hindubro,
Mind explaining to an ignorant Westerner why Hindu theology is structured like it is? Why do they worship these intermediary deities, which I understand are facets of the same supreme divinity anyway, instead of directly worshipping God like adherents of Abrahamic faiths do?
>>395295
>he resets the balance of good and evil
I think this would fit with what happened in my dream right before meeting him, maybe. Here, I'll type the dream up.
The sun was setting, and I was walking home alone. I noticed two men a little bit ahead of me and there was something about them that really scared me. I wanted to try and avoid them and just get home as soon as I could. But as I passed them, one of the men tried grabbing my bag, and of course I held on tight to it to make sure he didn't take it. He was yelling at me and I felt like giving up but then I remembered my passport was in there. The man eventually lost grip on it and I managed to run away. He was running after me though, and he quickly caught up to me and stuck me in the head which caused me to black out.
I must have been out for a while since by the time I came back around it was nighttime. The man from earlier had his face incredibly close to mine for some reason though. There was just something about him that was terrifying. I was sure he was going to kill me so I yelled and cried for help. A police car drove by and it scared him so he ran away. While I was picking my things up, the man I was telling you guys about earlier walked up to me and asked if I was alright. I was distressed though and thought it might have been the other man who was with the thief earlier so I was just too scared to answer. He could see that I was terrified and that's when he transformed into a little girl. For some reason I felt like I could trust her. She asked if I wanted to go to her house for dinner, since her mom was probably finishing up and I agreed. Her mom warmly welcomed me and asked us to wait for everything to finish cooking.
I'm about to hit the character limit so I'll continue this in the next post.
>>395408
A short amount of time passed, and I said I felt bad after saying I would stay for dinner but it was getting late and I should hurry on home. She gave me a hug and I told her I really appreciated everything, and it was at that point she transformed again into that ambiguous adult figure with four arms and long hair, and it was then that they said they were a god and that I could always come to them if I was ever in danger. I could feel two of the arms hold my face and they kissed my forehead. I woke up shortly after that.
>>395422
Oops, two of the hands, sorry.
>>393999
Hinduism is absolutely rad 2beeh.
>>395422
>>395408
Well shiva is considered the destroyer of ignorance thus his title Shiva the Destroyer and he is known to have a third eye which opens to destroy people which can be intepreted anthropomorphism of ignorance. He is also known as Karunabathee, the eternal forgiver, he will forgive all sins and understand your position since he himself is devoid of sin.
Plus the dream and the third eye with the pineal and what not. So yea
Was the person in your dream's throat blue at all?
>>395516
>The Destroyer is also the one who forgives all sins
Shiva is pretty cool.
>>395516
>Was the person in your dream's throat blue at all?
I wish I could remember but I can't, sorry.
>>395320
bengal was finicky because the brahmins there were maintained by people of the lower castes, as in they maintained their temples, promoted learning and built temples in their names instead of rajas in other parts of india
>>395361
because the different factions of the godhead are represent different parts of the deity
>>395435
I like how TESV lore is hinduism lite
>>395561
Reading about CHIM got me into Hinduism. I doubt I'll ever convert but it's my favorite religion so far.
>>395361
le Abrahamic 'le only God' is le true god bait post cuz I don't understand why Gods were made up in the first place.
Anon it's easier to usurp power saying you are the representative of 'the only True God' than letting every other facet of spiritual divinity exist.
Multi-God system societies have always been more tolerant and understanding of different types of people.
Not even a fedora. Actually a normie devout practicing Christian.
Stupid American from a Christian upbringing here. I've been trying to learn more about Hinduism and have read a bit of the Rig Veda and about half of the Chandogya Upanishad. I'm struggling to understand what some of the ideas expressed are, i.e. I'm struggling to understand what exactly the udgitha, Saman, etc. mean. Are there any good resources out there for wrapping my head around these doctrines?
>>395524
Shiva is like the manliest of gods yet is part of a transgender duo of ultimate godhood known as adi shakti, that is basically what OP's pic is, the adjoining of shiva with his wife as one being the female creator and the male destroyer.
When the universe was first formed the only things that existed was Brahma, Vishnu and the massive lingam of light, brahma and vishnu were confused as to what it was, it was called Jyothirlingam and before the current state of the universe most of reality was just dickspace for Shivas massive dong...lingam.
Shiva was also the origin of weed, as the word ganja comes from one of the names for weed titles, Aganja, born of the body of who shiva in sanskrit. And also known as Bholaynath, Lord of Bhola, Bhola is weed. Weed was apparently born of his body after he absorbed the poison of vasuki when the Amrita (nectar) was being churned out of the Ocean of Milk (Milky Way Galaxy)
His depictions are always with his eyes half closed in 'bliss', he is baked.
>>395618
>the adjoining of shiva with his wife as one being the female creator and the male destroyer.
I thought Shiva's wife was crazy violent and destructive.
Or is that just one of her forms?
>>395646
Yeah you're thinking of Kali who is Shiva's consort or second wife or something. Idk, maybe hindubro can clear things up.
>>395646
one of them.
She is also the goddess of victory
their kids are the gods of war, knowledge, wisdom, wealth
>>395561
Go Morrowind or go home
>>395711
I think he just meant TES lore.
TES 5 doesn't have anything in particular to do with Hinduism, so I assume he just forgot what the acronym stood for and included the V by accident.
>>395653
see
>>395658
A lot of these godforms take on multiple aspects.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamunda
>>395139
Vishnu don't real
>>395653
Kali was the destructive force of the goddess Durga who is the Wife of Shiva, she was battling a Demon named Raktabija, Bloodseed in english, he was beating up the Celestial Gods and their armies, as every time they cut him his blood would hit the ground and clone another demon. So he would always simply propagating his own force, so they prayed to durga the goddess of war and bravery, she approached Raktbija on her lion and battled him for ages, but he kept coming back after every attempted destruction, so she got real mad and became Kali and beheaded the prime Demon that was the OG raktibjia and began to drink his blood to stop his regeneration of his army. But she was so mad that even after the defeat she was causing earthquakes and pralaya(end of creation) so shiva lay on the ground beneath her and convinced her to dance on him to calm down.
>>395767
I know man, even though there's nothing I can do with this information I was just curious to see if the god I met in my dream was an actual god in any religion. And then those anons helped clear things up for me and here we are.
>>395576
Start with Srimad Bhagavad Gita, then move onto contextual usage of words in sanskrit, Udgitha can mean the Aum syllable, mantra chanted during puja or yajna, Saman can be material, or anything very dependent on the context.
Also reading Vedas are just a waste of time unless you know sanskrit and can read it in sanskrit, translated it become muddled and confusing in parts due to the contextual usage of words and their relevance in a passage.
>>395906
Thanks for the advice. To what degree do you think the Vedas are a waste of time, though? They're what I see called the most important texts in Hinduism, so I'd hate to ignore them altogether.
>>395361
Why worship the christian trinity as individual persons when you could worship the godhead as a corporation instead? There is no difference between worshipping an aspect of god and the whole of god. There is one goe yes, he is absolute and infinite, and yet within that infitity shines a spectacle of divine expressions. When you say your an ass man does that mean that you disregard other parts of the person as being meaningless because the ass is the one and only supreme entity worthy of your worship? Why then if I am a shiva man would I not also venerate visnu or ganesha for they are also expressions of the divine. There is one god, and many facets of it. Call it polytheism if you will that word doesn't bother me like it does the christianst because that's simply semantics. God is god regardless of how you categorize him.
>>395951
>To what degree do you think the Vedas are a waste of time, though?
>Also reading Vedas are just a waste of time unless you know Sanskrit and can read it in sanskrit
>>396135
this was a dope analogy
>>393999
>Why did Hinduism revive in India and replace Buddhism?
Hinduism was riding the momentum of its parent, Brahmanism (which it eventually cannibalized), which was always the dominant force. So it really wasn't a matter of Hinduism "reviving".
Anyway, some think it was the rise of the more explicit iterations of the "non-self" doctrines of Nagarjunian Mahayana. Pre-nagarjunian Buddhism used rhetoric that was much softer in this regard, while after Nagarjuna it was much easier to confuse the "non-self" doctrine with a mistaken position Nagarjuna referred to as "non-non-self".
In short, the average person, who wasn't very knowledgable about the nuances of the contemplative philosophy, mistakenly thought Buddhism was suddenly rejecting discrete persons in every sense, which they rightfully thought was absurd. The mistaken rejection of this position is still commonly echoed today by regular folks.
>>393999
>How did it differ from the pre Buddhist Hindism?
In my opinion it is improper to think in such terms. Brahmanism isn't "early Hinduism", just like Vedism isn't "early Brahmanism". To reduce all of these distinct religions as mere stages of Hinduism, is nearly as absurd as retrofitting Judaism and Christianity as mere stages of Islam, as merely "early Islam".
Hinduism arose in the post-vedic era, alongside with or even shortly after its siblings Buddhism and Jainism (with Jainism likely being the first born of the three). The distinguishing features of so called "pre-Buddhist Hinduism" with "post-Buddhist Hinduism" are arguably very same features distinguishing Hindusim with Brahmanism.
A major distinction between Brahmanism and Vedism was a change in emphasis towards the importance of Brahman and theories surrounding it, and Hinduism picked up that torch and emphasized this even more.
Hinduism placed much less of an emphasis on the Brahmin class, which was very likely due to Buddhism's influence on the matter. As a result, rituals of this class that were once center stage fell out of favor and were heavily criticized. Such criticism having roots in Vedism.
Most importantly imo was running wild with the emphasis shifts that began at the very end of the vedic-period, placing considerably more emphasis on the ideas surrounding the cycle of reincarnation, karma, and as a result the contemplative soteriology of enlightenment. This trend led to eventually importing Buddhism's arguably most critical innovation over its parent Brahmanism, the idea that the fundamental transformation and actualization of the soteriological goal can be attained prior to death, in this life.
>>393999
>What was it about Hinduism that allowed it to survive the arrival of Monotheistic religions?
Hinduism is as monotheistic imo as Christianity with its trinity, satan, angels and splintered worship of prophet/deities like Mary or Paul.
Cultural pride and an extremely robust system of Hindu apologetics often made arriving monotheistic religions seem relatively unsophisticated and banal. This coupled with Hinduism's syncretist/eclectic resulted in a lot of people being inoculated from total conversion.
>>396624
> "pre-Buddhist Hinduism" with "post-Buddhist Hinduism"
> very same features distinguishing Hindusim with Brahmanism
I hope there is no confusion here, but if there is, I was being sloppy and should have placed Hinduism after Brahmanism so the relationship to the first sentence is clearer.
Implying you're not a Sri Vaishnava
>>396624
>(with Jainism likely being the first born of the three).
do you think that the buddha was the first to meditate, or at least to expose in details the jhanas in a system ?
>>398906
No. He wasn't the first. In fact, he learned it from other sramana ascetics through out his journey.
There are two distinct religion in India. The vedic (adhering to vedas) religion and the sramana (ascetics). Sramana is just as old as the vedic religion if not older. The meditation, karma, reincarnation, and ahimsa(non-violence to all) most likely stemmed from one of the earlier sramana traditions or even Indus Valley civilization. Buddhism/Jainism belong to this school. Hinduism as a current form is a combination of many different vedic traditions. Therefore in CURRENT YEAR, we find hindu atheists/philosophers and super religious lumped up together.
With the rise of Buddhism and its popularity, it changed many of the vedic traditions. The vedic traditions adopted the reincarnation model, the karma, the ahimsa, and some others.
On another point, the Indus valley civilization might have also given rise to the tantric tradition that are found in both Hinduism and Buddhism (tibet). The dissemination of tantra seems to happen roughly around similar time for both the traditions.
While Buddhism was dying, the Jains did what they could to survive. They assimilated into the vedic culture. Up until very recent, they were considered Hindus by the Indians.
