Indian Culture  Discussion Forum

Name: Tishna

I am Agnostic. I find certain aspects in all religions nice and others repugnant. You have any problem with that? Simply because the majority of Indians seem to be religious, it does not become the ' right' thing. I would definitely criticise other religions as well if people like you did not make it seem like I was committing a crime. As for the dust on my sociology textbooks, I respect them. And that is not my only source for information. I have been deepely interested in religious studies since a long time. I have tried hard to be a devout Hindu but in the end realised that it is important to be yourself. Haven' t encountered such a teaching in any religion so far. Thanks for the informaton on Hinduism though, that wss enlightening. I apologise if my first comment seemed to denigrate puja as a custom. Reasons why I do not agree with it -
generally only Brahmins perform it (I am one myself, legally speaking) and they ar enot always the truly pious people. why should you need an intermediary?
pujas consume lot of time and money. poor people cannot afford them. that does not make them any less devout.
pujas are noisy.
they are generally used for some or the other gain. if these are spiritual, i am fine with it. but nada with material goals.
rarely have pujas been performed in my house,e xcept perhaps during ganesh chaturthis. thats because my dad is religious. my mom like me is not. we believe in freedom of opinion. none of my Hindu friends perform pujas customarily. hence i called it redundant.
i believe that prayer should be private. i do not feel that one can go deep into oneself in a practice like puja.
any opinions that i state are obviously with regard to myself and my impressions. i will generalise because this is the way i see the world. all that i say is subject to an ' according to me' . Is that enough for you or should I provide any more justification? I wonder why I' m even saying all this considering that my idol Ayn Rand would never approve.
One last thing to add - why do you assume that if someone criticises Indian culture they must be ignorant about it? Is it so beyond your imagination that with full possession of the facts, people can come to new conclusions? There is no need to force onself to accept something as true just because it has been followed since centuries. And nothing is beyond quesitoning, not God, not religion. Amen.

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