Tag: Bible

  • Corruption In India Reason Hinduism?Hindu Baiting

    I was informed by a friend of mine that he is deluged with a forward quoting  an article in tennews that Corruption in India is because of Hindu culture, its religion and worship practices.

    The article  bases its conclusions on the practice of people offering to God in Temples for favors received, instances where those closest to Kings betrayed the King for Money and that a Politician, J.Jayalalithaa, the present Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu coming back to power despite corruption charges.

    No doubt Corruption is a serious virus and has to be eradicated in full.

    I thought initially that this article in question is a well meaning one.

    But I find that corruption is used as a tool to denigrate Hinduism and Hindu Culture.

    I am informed that the article is being forwarded with regularity to young Indians.

    The article seems to be by SHANTONU SEN and it is claimed that it was written 6 days ago.

    A comment to the post states that,

    thisarticle appeared on some blogs 5 years ago. Now it appears as a New Zealander’s view. Tennews please share the source.

    but since many Indians are taking this seriously… Observations on corruption are, sadly, correct.’

    Which is true?

    The name SHANTONU SEN is Bengali.

    Is he a Naturalized New Zealander or a pseudonym  for India/Hindubaiter/

    As this article seems to have been written, in the Catherine Mayo style, to denigrate Hindu culture rather than addressing the issue of corruption, let me answer point by point.

    Corruption in India is a cultural aspect. Indians seem to think nothing peculiar about corruption. It is everywhere.
    Indians tolerate corrupt individuals rather than correct them.
    No race can be congenitally corrupt.
    But can a race be corrupted by its culture?
    To know why Indians are corrupt, look at their patterns and practices.
    First:
    Brian from Godzone
    NEW ZEALAND
    Indians are Hobbesian
    (Culture of self interest)
    Religion is transactional in  India.
    Indians give God cash and anticipate an out-of-turn reward.
    Such a plea acknowledges that favours are needed for the undeserving.
    In the world outside the temple walls, such a transaction is named “bribe”.
    A wealthy Indian gives not cash to temples, but gold crowns and such baubles.
    His gifts can not feed the poor. His pay-off is for God. He thinks it will be wasted if it goes to a needy man.
    In June 2009, The Hindu published a report of Karnataka minister G. Janardhan Reddy gifting a crown of gold and diamonds worth Rs 45 crore to Tirupati.
    India’s temples collect so much that they don’t know what to do with it. Billions are gathering dust in temple vaults.’
    Using high sounding  words such as Hobbesian’ which has no relevance to what is being written is a very poor attempt in trying to impress the reader..
    This is what Hobbesian is about.
    The Hobbesian trap (or Schelling’s dilemma) is a theory that explains why preemptive strikes occur between two groups, out of bilateral fear of an imminent attack. Without outside influences this situation will lead to a fear spiral (catch-22, vicious circle, Nash equilibrium) in which fear will lead to an arms race which in turn will lead to increasing fear. The Hobbesian trap can be explained in terms of game theory. Although cooperation would be the better outcome for both sides, mutual distrust leads to the adoption of strategies that have negative outcomes for individual players and all players combined.The theory has been used to explain outbreaks of conflicts and violence, spanning from individuals to states’
    This relates to states and also individuals .
    Focus is on self interest.
    One should understand that self interest is the basis for survival .
    Self interest is not sinful.
    It is only when it clashes against the well being o other.
    Unlike Corporate Religions, Hinduism understands the limitations and frailty of Human nature and suggests ways to realize Self/Godhood.
    Sanatana Dharma, mistakenly called Hinduism, does not believe in Idol worship,
    There is no sanction for Idol worship in the scriptures of the  Hindus, the Vedas.
    The Reality , Brahman, not to be confused with Brahman is beyond Attributes.
    But Human Mind can not operate in a Vacuum.
    The cessation of thought processes leads to Self Realization and this is Yoga, a part of Indian Philosophy.
    Then why many Gods?
    Human beings revere and love things that are dear to them.
    So, later Hindu texts , especially the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, realized this and brought in the concept of Personal God,Iswara.
    One can worship the form one likes and establish and commune with it in a relationship one is comfortable with.
    So, we have God as Mother, Father,Lover, Friend and even as a servant.
    Once the mind concentrates on the form, thoughts cease and mind becomes one with he Reality.
    At that point of time, one realizes that  the Idol worship is not necessary and redundant..
    Till one reaches that exalted State Idol worship is necessary just as LKG is necessary even for a Ph.D. After you get a Ph.D, LKG seems non sense, but with out it Doctorate is not possible.
    When one establishes a relationship with a God/Idol, as a Mother, Father, Child, he/she does things to it as one would do for a Living thing.
    Mother loves to dress up a child and she gets pleasure out of it.
    A child has a right to demand things from its Father.
    A child offers a kiss as a gift in return.
    This is not a Bribe, but an expression of one’s sentiment.
    Similarly People offer things to God as a token of affection and some times demands things of Him.
    God has other important business to attend to.
    He never interferes in the results one obtains for the actions he performs.
    The results are totally dependent on one’s efforts(though His Grace is needed even for this)
    But the individual thinks that it is because of the prayer or the offering he has made or  the vows he has taken his problem was solved.
    If the results are not to his liking, despite his prayers, a Hindu chides his God, then consoles himself that his his time was not good, common parlance in India for Karma Theory.
    What this practice offers is mental solace and strength in times of crisis.
    It may be of interest to note that God is called as the Place where Grief resides!
    ‘Dukka Bukh Dukkah Sadananaha’ Vishnu Sahasranama.
    What does God do then?
    He provides us the tools to overcome grief and obstacles by strengthening Mind.
    As Hinduism is not an organised Religion, where one does not need some ones permission and Baptism to be initiated into it.
    God does not play favorites in Hinduism..
    2. Hinduism is Transactional.
    .
    Yes in the sense that it transacts with the Reality unlike other religions where you need a mediator, like Christ to reach God or the Prophet of Islam.

    ‘There’s a brand of Christianity I’ve often come across in churches and around the interwebs. I’m going to call it Transactional Christianity.

    When you enter into a transaction, you pay an agreed amount and receive a predetermined item or service in return. It’s a fixed equation, backed by terms and conditions: if you pay A, you get B. And if what you get isn’t to your satisfaction, you can usually get your money back.

    Many people apply this kind of formula-based thinking to God.

    • If I pray the sinner’s prayer, I’m home free for all eternity.
    • If I read the Bible dutifully and have regular “quiet times”, I can expect God to look after me.
    • If I attend church regularly, I’ll feel like I’m right with God.
    • If I give my ten percent, I’ll reap a harvest of material blessing.
    • If I regularly pray for protection over my family, I can expect perfect health.

    Now this is all well and good when everything’s going according to plan and all the transactions are proceeding smoothly. But this kind of thinking has a flip side: when things don’t work out the way they’re supposed to – when something goes wrong with the transaction – we’re forced to look for an explanation. When we pray fervently for a friend to be healed but they still succumb to cancer, we’re left with questions like “Did I pray hard enough?” or “Did I have enough faith?”   Or when, in spite of our efforts to spend regular time in prayer and Bible study, we still find ourselves dry and thirsty and unable to hear God, we begin to wonder what we’ve done wrong, what sin or issue in our life is blocking our direct line to heaven.

    And so it is that this very common breed of Christianity often leads to guilt and an unspoken feeling that we must be missing the mark and somehow need to do better. We know that God can be relied upon to keep his part of the bargain – that’s what it says in the terms and conditions, right? – so the problem must lie with us.

    The basic problem with a transactional approach to Christianity is this: God does not conform to our notions of how He should behave, who He should bless and how, and what He should do to reward us for honouring our end of the deal.’

    The above quote is from the following Link.

    http://www.faithmeetsworld.com/transactional-christianity/ )

    The link is from a Believer in Christ.

    When Europeans came to India  they built schools. When Indians go to Europe & USA, they build temples.
    Indians believe that if God accepts money for his favours, then nothing is wrong in doing the same thing. This is why Indians are so easily corruptible.
    Indian culture accommodates such transactions morally. There is no real stigma. An utterly corrupt JayaLalita can make a comeback, just unthinkable in the West.
    Second –
    Indian moral ambiguity towards corruption is visible in its history. Indian history tells of the capture of cities and kingdoms after guards were paid off to open the gates, and commanders paid off to surrender.
    This is unique to India.
    Indians’ corrupt nature has meant limited warfare on the subcontinent.
    It is striking how little Indians have actually fought compared to ancient  Greece and modern Europe.
    The Turks’ battles with Nadir Shah were vicious and fought to the finish.
    In India fighting wasn’t needed, bribing was enough to see off armies.
    Any invader willing to spend cash could brush aside India’s kings, no matter how many tens of thousands soldiers were in their infantry.
    Little resistance was given by the Indians at the “ Battle ” of Plassey.
    Clive paid off Mir Jaffar and all of Bengal folded to an army of 3,000.
    There was always a financial exchange to taking Indian forts. Golconda was captured in 1687 after the secret back door was left open.
    Mughals vanquished Marathas and Rajputs with nothing but bribes.
    The Raja of Srinagar gave up Dara Shikoh’s son Sulaiman to Aurangzeb after receiving a bribe.
    There are many cases where Indians participated on a large scale in treason due to bribery.
    3.Europeans Built schools.
    Yes.
    Why?
    Out of love for Indian and Indians?
    No, to spread Christianity in India and alter India History.
    4.On Betrayals.
    Betrayals is a Man’s nature.
    The article seems to say that there is no corruption and betrayals in the west.
    Please read History.
    One curious fact is that all these betrayals were in evidence after Invasion by outsiders into India.
    As for as Jayalalitha is concerned she has been acquitted by Court and appeal is pending in the Supreme court.
    To those who do not know Tamil Nadu she was defeated immediately after the corruption cases came in.
    Do not forget Nixon, Betrolucci,Aldrich Ames,the famed five fingering west to Russia.
    Do not forget Profumo, Christine Keeler, Brandt’s PA,Sukarno, Rajapakshe,China’s ex strong man Lin Piao…..
    5.Let not people whose religion was organised to protect an Empire, whose Savior’s existence is not proven beyond doubt, whose Papacy was created to control people politically,a religion that broke away because a man could not marry a woman out side his marriage.
    Hinduism has a detailed code of Ethics.
     Sample from Manu Smriti.

    251. A king who thus duly fulfils his duties in accordance with justice, may seek to gain countries which he has not yet gained, and shall duly protect them when he has gained them.

    252. Having duly settled his country, and having built forts in accordance with the Institutes, he shall use his utmost exertions to remove (those men who are nocuous like) thorns.

    253. By protecting those who live as (becomes) Aryans and by removing the thorns, kings, solely in-tent on guarding their subjects, reach heaven.

    254. The realm of that king who takes his share in kind, though he does not punish thieves, (will be) disturbed and he (will) lose heaven.

    255. But if his kingdom be secure, protected by the strength of his arm, it will constantly flourish like a (well) watered tree.

    256. Let the king who sees (everything) through his spies, discover the two sorts of thieves who deprive others of their property, both those who (show themselves) openly and those who (lie) concealed.

    257. Among them, the open rogues (are those) who subsist by (cheating in the sale of) various marketable commodities, but the concealed rogues are burglars, robbers in forests, and so forth.

    258. Those who take bribes, cheats and rogues, gamblers, those who live by teaching (the performance of) auspicious ceremonies, sanctimonious hypocrites, and fortune-tellers,

    259. Officials of high rank and physicians who act improperly, men living by showing their proficiency in arts, and clever harlots,

    260. These and the like who show themselves openly, as well as others who walk in disguise (such as) non-Aryans who wear the marks of Aryans, he should know to be thorns (in the side of his people).

    http://www.hindubooks.org/scriptures/manusmriti/ch9/ch9_251_260.htm

     

    Manu Smriti is one among the numerous texts on Ethics in Sanskrit and we have innumerable Regional  texts .

     

    The following are from the Bible.

    Exodus 23:8

    “You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of the just.

    2 Chronicles 19:7

    “Now then let the fear of the LORD be upon you; be very careful what you do, for the LORD our God will have no part in unrighteousness or partiality or the taking of a bribe.”

    Deuteronomy 10:17

    “For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe.

    Proverbs 21:14

    A gift in secret subdues anger, And a bribe in the bosom, strong wrath.

    Job 15:34

    “For the company of the godless is barren, And fire consumes the tents of the corrupt.

    Deuteronomy 27:25

    ‘Cursed is he who accepts a bribe to strike down an innocent person.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

    Compare these and decide which is more elaborate .

  • ‘Indian Yogi Met Socrates’ Disciple Of Aristotle

    I have posted articles on the close affinity between Hinduism and Greek Religion.

    Krishna and Balarama have been worshiped and there is evidence to state that Hercules was Balarama, elder brother of Krishna.

     

    There is a report by Aristoxenus, a disciple of Aristotle.

    English: Bust of Socrates in the Vatican Museum
    English: Bust of Socrates in the Vatican Museum (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

     

    this Indian met Socrates in Athens and asked him what he studying. Socrates replied that he was studying human life. The Indian at this point laughed and asked him how could he study human life without studying the divine.  The quote is as follows

    ‘Now Aristoxenus the Musician says that this argument comes from the Indians: for a certain man of that nation fell in with Socrates at Athens, and presently asked him, what he was doing in philosophy: and when he said, that he was studying human life, the Indian laughed at him, and said that no one could comprehend things human, if he were ignorant of things divine [Eusebius of Caesarea: Praeparatio Evangelica (Preparation for the Gospel). Tr. E.H. Gifford (1903) — Book 11]

    It is not sure if Socrates changed his mind, but his student Plato was influenced. Plato who previously argued that human and divine affairs were the same, started distinguishing between the two. According to Plato there was one kind of study concerning nature, another concerning humans and a third concerning dialectic.

    ‘But he maintained that we could not take a clear view of human affairs, unless the divine were previously discerned: for just as physicians, when treating any parts of the body, attend first to the state of the whole, so the man who is to take a clear view of things here on earth must first know the nature of the universe; and man, he said, was a part of the world; and good was of two kinds, our own good and that of the whole, and the good of the whole was the more important, because the other was for its sake.[Eusebius of Caesarea: Praeparatio Evangelica (Preparation for the Gospel). Tr. E.H. Gifford (1903) — Book 11]

    Citation.

    1. Mcevilley, Thomas C. The Shape of Ancient Thought: Comparative Studies in Greek and Indian Philosophies. 1st ed. Allworth Press, 2001.
    2. Caesarea, Eusebius of. Eusebius of Caesarea: Praeparatio Evangelica, 2010.
  • ‘Haran’ In Turkey Shiva Connection To Mesopotamia

    I have been studying archology related information, Astronomy to seek information about the spread of Sanatana Dharma throughout the world.

    And I also check the Linguistic affiliations along with Cultural similarities.

    Moon God Sin Insignia.jpg
    Insignia of the Moon God ‘Sin’ of Haran. Notice the crossed-legged posture akin to yogic semi-Padmasana of Shiva, the crescent moon and the winged-bulls which were the vehicles of the moon-god ‘Sin’.
    Mesopotamian Civilisation Map.jpg
    Mesopotamian Civilisation Map.

    The Sanatana Dharma civilisation, as distinct from the Sarasvati Valley civilisation has been dated as the oldest in the world.

    This coupled with the existence of Super Continents and reference to this by Tamil ,another ancient Language of India, the date of which is as old as Sanatana Dharama, had spurred me to dig deep into the subject.

    Based on this, it transpires that a Group from South India, the Dravida desa, left the South because of a Tsunami (referred to by the Puranas and Tamil literature repeatedly) , led by Shiva and His son Ganesha moved through the Middle East , Europe,Africa, to Arctic before traveling back to Saraswati Valley through Russia, and Iran, while another led by Satyavrata Manu, the ancestor of Lord Rama moved to Ayodhya to found the Ikshvaky Dynasty(Ikshvaku was the son of Satyavrata Manu).

    I have been following this trail in conjunction with the immigration and settlements in Europe and elsewhere.

    I have been able to find references, evidence, cultural links and archeological finds.

    I have posted articles on all  these, under Hinduism.

    Now to Mesopotamian Connection.

    Located near the Turkish- Syrian border in the middle of an arid plain, Haran is one of the oldest Mesopotamian settlements.

    The settlement of Haran is mentioned in a treaty which was enacted in the Temple of Sin (Sin was the Mesopotamian Moon God) at Haran in thereign of Hammurabi (1728-1686 BC). Several Assyrian kings describe rebuilding this temple. The last king of Babylon, Nabonidus (556-539 BC) also rebuilt the Temple of Sin. Excavations have revealed a large mud-brick building which dates to the end of the 3rd millennium BC. It is thought this might be the predecessor to the temple of the Sumerian and Mesopotamian Moon-God Sin.

    The insignia of the Moon God Sin bears a remarkable likeness to that of the Vedic God Shiva. In fact, Shiva is also known as Som-nath (सोमनाथ) which means ‘Lord of the Moon’. Shiva’s insignia includes the crescent moon and the bull called ‘Vrishabha’ or ‘Nandi’ who was the vehicle of Lord Shiva.

    The earliest known form of the name ‘Sin’ is ‘Suen’ which may well be a distortion of the Sanskrit ‘Shivam’ – the name of the Vedic Moon God. What is even more interesting is that ‘Haran’ (हरन), is another name for Lord Shiva.

    ..Sin /ˈsn/ (Akkadian: Su’en, Sîn) or Nanna (Sumerian: DŠEŠ.KI, DNANNA) was the god of the moon in the Mesopotamian mythologyof Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia. Nanna is a Sumerian deity, the son of Enlil and Ninlil, and became identified with Semitic Sin. The two chief seats of Nanna’s/Sin’s worship were Ur in the south of Mesopotamia and Harran in the north.’..

    Mesopotamian Deities.jpg
    Mesopotamian Deities.

    “The Mesopotamian literary corpus is one of the oldest literatures in the world. It is infused with the divine, because religion played a crucial part in the way Mesopotamians expressed their thoughts about human life. Mesopotamian religion was polytheistic, with a pantheon consisting of hundreds if not thousands of gods of varying importance. This website offers information about the fifty most important gods and goddesses and provides starting points for further research.’..

     

    The IVC has been tentatively identified with the toponym Meluhha known from Sumerian records; the Sumerians called them Meluhhaites. It has been compared in particular with the civilizations of Elam (also in the context of the Elamo-Dravidian hypothesis) and with Minoan Crete (because of isolated cultural parallels such as the ubiquitous goddess worship and depictions of bull-leaping).[108] The mature (Harappan) phase of the IVC is contemporary to the Early to Middle Bronze Age in the Ancient Near East, in particular theOld Elamite period, Early Dynastic to Ur III Mesopotamia, Prepalatial Minoan Crete and Old Kingdom to First Intermediate Period Egypt.

    After the discovery of the IVC in the 1920s, it was immediately associated with the indigenous Dasyu inimical to the Rigvedic tribes in numerous hymns of the Rigveda. Mortimer Wheeler interpreted the presence of many unburied corpses found in the top levels of Mohenjo-Daro as the victims of a warlike conquest, and famously stated that “Indra stands accused” of the destruction of the IVC. The association of the IVC with the city-dwelling Dasyus remains alluring because the assumed timeframe of the first Indo-Aryan migrationinto India corresponds neatly with the period of decline of the IVC seen in the archaeological record. The discovery of the advanced, urban IVC however changed the 19th-century view of early Indo-Aryan migration as an “invasion” of an advanced culture at the expense of a “primitive” aboriginal population to a gradual acculturation of nomadic “barbarians” on an advanced urban civilization, comparable to the Germanic migrations after the Fall of Rome, or the Kassite invasion of Babylonia. This move away from simplistic “invasionist” scenarios parallels similar developments in thinking about language transfer and population movement in general, such as in the case of the migration of the proto-Greek speakers into Greece, or the Indo-Europeanization of Western Europe.

    It was often suggested that the bearers of the IVC corresponded to proto-Dravidians linguistically, the breakup of proto-Dravidian corresponding to the breakup of the Late Harappan culture. Today, the Dravidian language family is concentrated mostly in southern India and northern and eastern Sri Lanka, but pockets of it still remain throughout the rest of India and Pakistan (the Brahui language), which lends credence to the theory. Finnish Indologist Asko Parpola concludes that the uniformity of the Indus inscriptions precludes any possibility of widely different languages being used, and that an early form of Dravidian language must have been the language of the Indus people. However, in an interview with the Deccan Herald on 12 August 2012, Asko Parpola clarified his position by admitting that “Sanskrit has also preserved a very important part of the Indus heritage” and that even Sangam Tamil had possible influences of the Brahmins .

    Proto-Munda (or Para-Munda) and a “lost phylum” (perhaps related or ancestral to the Nihali language) have been proposed as other candidates for the language of the IVC.Michael Witzel suggests an underlying, prefixing language that is similar to Austroasiatic, notably Khasi; he argues that the Rigveda (composed by the Indo-Aryans after the decline of the Harappans) shows signs of this hypothetical Harappan influence in the earliest historic level, and Dravidian only in later levels, suggesting that speakers of Austroasiatic were the original inhabitants of Punjab and that the Indo-Aryans encountered speakers of Dravidian only in later times.

    Citation.

    Based on data prepared by the HEA-funded AMGG project.

    http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/amgg/index.html  and

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_Valley_Civilization

    http://vediccafe.blogspot.in/2014/12/the-ancient-city-of-haran-in-turkey.html

  • Evidence Jesus Christ Did Not Exist

    I posted articles on how the Bible was complied by Constantine through a Conclave of Cardinals to hold on to his empire.

    I had also written, albeit, in the passing that Jesus Christ did not exist.

    That we still do not know his real name even to-day.

    Here let us see how the story of Jesus was built.

    Compare this with Lord Rama and Krishna, the Hindu Gods, whose dates and existence has been proved beyond doubt.

    This article is dedicated to the Secular Historians, who call Indian history as revealed in the Puranas and Ithihasas to be fantasies and not supported by facts.

    Jesus Image.jpg.
    Jesus Christ.

    “Most antiquities scholars think that the New Testament gospels are “mythologized history.” In other words, they think that around the start of the first century a controversial Jewish rabbi named Yeshua ben Yosef gathered a following and his life and teachings provided the seed that grew into Christianity.

    At the same time, these scholars acknowledge that many Bible stories like the virgin birth, miracles, resurrection, and women at the tomb borrow and rework mythic themes that were common in the Ancient Near East, much the way that screenwriters base new movies on old familiar tropes or plot elements. In this view, a “historical Jesus” became mythologized.

    For over 200 years, a wide-ranging array of theologians and historians—most of them Christian—analyzed ancient texts, both those that made it into the Bible and those that didn’t, in attempts to excavate the man behind the myth. Several current or recent bestsellers take this approach, distilling the scholarship for a popular audience. Familiar titles include Zealot by Reza Aslan and How Jesus Became God by Bart Ehrman
    No first century secular evidence whatsoever exists to support the actuality of Yeshua ben Yosef. 
    The earliest New Testament writers seem ignorant of the details of Jesus’ life, which become more crystalized in later texts. Paul seems unaware of any virgin birth, for example. No wise men, no star in the east, no miracles. Historians have long puzzled over the “Silence of Paul” on the most basic biographical facts and teachings of Jesus. Paul fails to cite Jesus’ authority precisely when it would make his case. What’s more, he never calls the twelve apostles Jesus’ disciples; in fact, he never says Jesus HAD disciples –or a ministry, or did miracles, or gave teachings.
    3.Even the New Testament stories don’t claim to be first-hand accounts. We now know that the four gospels were assigned the names of the apostles Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, not written by them.
    4.The gospels, our only accounts of a historical Jesus, contradict each other.
    5.Modern scholars who claim to have uncovered the real historical Jesus depict wildly different persons. They include a cynic philosopher, charismatic Hasid, liberal Pharisee, conservative rabbi, Zealot revolutionary, non-violent pacifist to borrow from a much longer list assembled by Price. In his words (pp. 15-16), “The historical Jesus (if there was one) might well have been a messianic king, or a progressive Pharisee, or a Galilean shaman, or a magus, or a Hellenistic sage. But he cannot very well have been all of them at the same time.” John Dominic Crossan of the Jesus Seminar grumbles that “the stunning diversity is an academic embarrassment….”

    How the sorty of Jesus Christ was fabricated follows.

    Citation.

    https://bharatabharati.wordpress.com/2014/12/25/five-reasons-to-suspect-that-jesus-never-existed-valerie-tarico/

     

  • Where Is The Reference To The Bible

    India and Hinsuim is pilloried for its tardiness in maintaing its History.

     

    There  are no historical references, no continuity in Indian History nor any official crdible History.

     

    This is the view among most of the Indians, that most of Indian History is a fable.

     

    The west is not far from holding this view.

     

    Is this a Fact?

     

    Let us look at some facts.

     

    1.References of Hindu Epics and The Veda are found in the literature that existed in the corresponding period where/when they came  into existence.

     

    I have not used the term written as the Vedas, it is believed were not written and they were transmitted orally over Five Thousand Years.

     

     

    The Mahabharata refers to the Ramayana.

     

     

    The Puranas refer to both Ramayana and the Bible, not to speak of the Vedas.

     

    All the literary works in India refer to the Vedas, Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

     

    These are works belonging to the years before Christ.

     

    2.Post Christ Era.

     

    All the works in India refer to all of these at least in the two languages I know, Sanskrit and Tamil, of these Tamil is at least 500 year old.

     

    Tamil works of the Sangam period which are t least 500 years older than the Bible quotes the Hindu Epics and the Vedas.

     

    Old Testament.jpg
    Old Testament.

     

    One of the major tools in determing the existence of a Literay work or event is the cross refernce in the  Text, refernce to it by works of the same period

    and its refernce to it at least in the earliest succeeding work.

     

    Hinduism fulfills these tests.

     

    What about the Bible?

     

    Bible is taken so seriously that people have fixed even time scale on Christ!

     

    Has the Bible been referred to in the works of the same period or in the period immediately succeeding it?

     

    I do not seem to find it anywhere.

     

    Excepting Bible refrences in the non Cannonical texts of the Bible.

     

    All the cannonical texts are taken as  a part of the Bible.

     

    This is like Ramayana proving Ramyana in itself!-by taliking about it in The Ramayana.

     

    And the Hebrew Bible called Hebrew Bible, also known as the Tanakh by Jews, is the earliest refernce to The Bible.

     

    And the Tanakh is dated at  2 Century BC, that is 200 Years before Christ!

     

    4.

    “Perhaps the most obvious way that the Bible has inspired writers can be seen in the ways that works of literature actually retell stories found in the Bible. John Milton’s Paradise Lost, for example, retells the biblical fall of man in a long, epic poem, including Satan’s rebellion against God and Adam and Eve’s expulsion from Eden.

    Similarly, John Steinbeck‘s East of Eden is roughly structured around the biblical story of Cain and Abel. Another example can be seen in C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Following the biblical story of God as the all-powerful savior, Lewis uses the Bible to create parts of his plot,   by especially with the return of King Aslan, which parallels Jesus’s return.

    Other writers take images in the Bible and expand on them or use them as a setting, such as Dante, who used the Bible’s description of the afterlife to create an epic 3-volume poem that explores Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, titled the Divine Comedy.”

     

     

    And Dante’s period is  1265–1321 !, full 1200 Years after Christ.

     

    Why there is no reference to The Bible at all in the earlier works between the Bible and the Divine Comedy?

     

     

    Perhaps there was no literature!

     

    3.The Bible should have been referred to corresponding literature of the same period.

     

    I do not find any reference at all.

     

    Now which History is credible?

     

    Hinduism where Rama’s and Krishna’s dates have been proved,places mentioned have been identified, refernces to them are found every where in Indian Literature,in Japan,Cambodia, Laos,Lanka, Russia, Italy,Americas,and Africa or

     

    The Bible and the western History?

     

     

    http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/the-bible-as-literary-influence-references-and-allusion.html#lesson