By Al G Manning
They probably prefer to call it Vedanta after their scriptures because Hindus is just the name of the river, but it’s an interesting and most ancient religion. As I remember they recognize a good 35 avatars (including Jesus and Mohammad) most all born of a virgin in a cave surrounded by animals and died on a cross. That’s the traditional astrological allegory.
The Hindu Holy Trinity
Quite like Christianity they deny woman a place in the holy trinity – Brahma, Atman & the GodHead are all depicted as male, as are the principle gods, Vishnu (the preserver) & Shiva (the destroyer but the destruction always makes way for something better – a new baby is from Shiva). Long time ago I asked Lord Shiva to manifest to me as a woman so I could make love to her and get used to change. He did and it was wonderful (later he brought me Bast and she’s a lovely replacement). While I was romancing Shiva I wrote an article referring to him as a goddess – got all kinds of flak from Hindu professors for calling Lord Shiva a goddess – but what did they really know?
The Bhagavad Gita
My all time favorite of the Vedantic Scripture is the Bhagavad Gita. It’s a story of conversations between the avatar. Krishna, and a mortal prince, Arjuna. You might call it a religious justification for war – much better than the Christian justification for the Crusades in my opinion. Like unto the Christian Bible the Vedantic scriptures can be used to prove or disprove any point one is trying to make. It’s especially nice how casually they treat Spirit contact and ESP in general. Sorta reminds me of a time on a radio interview when the host asked me if I believe in reincarnation. I replied: “No .I don’t’ believe in breathing either, I just have to do it.” It’s a wonderful world and the Hindus might be called true eclectics.