ex-l wrote:I favour entirely secular moral and ethical codes which are defined as being based on "human faculties such as logic, reason or moral intuition, and not derived from purported supernatural revelation or guidance"
I think
you miss the logical part or moral intuitive part of a religion, not just of Hinduism but of all religions. Keeping aside the supernatural revelation part of a religion, the rest part of it can be definitely understood by moral intuition, if not by science.
Religions are themselves science but there are misconception regarding it as most propagators do it objectively & in abstract manner rather than focusing on the basic laws. I had same opinion like you but when I went through it with help of spiritual science, religions came out to be the first simplest application of science which can be understood by anyone and it took me years to get that.
Indeed, I think the best religious experiment humanity could perform would be to give up all religious practise for, say, 25 years just to see if it would make any difference.
That is not too much. Rather wait for approx.
18,000 years (as described in scriptures)
when all religions will end. You need not to refrain from it now, it will happen itself. Omniscient beings have disclosed every detail required to guide one who wants to get rid of his sufferings.
This BKism is just one initiative towards end of all religion, still it is a weak movement as they support religion externally to get profits & followers on that basis. Atheism can be regarded as one stronger movement to meet same.
The gods can take care of themselves without our total devotion.
Yes, but have this clarity.
No God asks follower-ship & the one who asks cannot be considered God. A being turned omniscient can just guide & tell about advantages that one would get by remaining in his company but that's it. Most importantly. people worship God for their own benefit, either for emotional or psychological support or financial & security interests. Their motives are countless.
There a saying in India that the Buddha was an incarnation of Vishnu who came down to fool the atheists into worshiping him ... I think it is a joke.
This is a saying but I have not heard that italicized part. It's true Buddha was incarnation of Lord Vishnu but one has to understand first what is or who can be called Lord Vishnu. One who becomes a medium of elevation of billions or trillion beings from their sufferings is called Vishnu. He is Adhisthata dev, the one used for symbolic representation of a Kalyankari being. If you turn out to be one in future, you may be even called an incarnation of Vishnu.
Understand the term "incarnation" or avtaar. Whether it's 10 avtaars of Lord Vishnu or Lord Shiva, what it actually means? Does that mean a soul divides or produces another soul or is there some super soul who has this authority of reincarnating whenever he wishes, in whatever form? These are all myths to keep people moving towards right path. It is a method which supports evolution.
According to spiritual science,
a soul is living element which is permanent. Its living & permanent nature imparts all those described powers that it has.
A soul cannot be divided nor two soul can ever fuse to form a new soul. [Even during intercourse, the souls remain separate & the joining is of body & mind.]
There is no difference between any two soul. There is no super soul or that would eliminate possibility of full omniscience & freedom or liberation. All beings like Buddha, Krishna, Rishabhdev, etc have disclosed & rejuvenated the path that leads to end of all sufferings. That is why they are called incarnation(it is not the rebirth of a common being) of Lord Vishnu. As such there is no special soul who is endowed with powers to reincarnate in any form.
Strictly, Hinduism view differs from the above description. But I still support Hinduism or other religions because they all lay foundation of spirituality.
But in view of the above facts, you can understand why
there is no entity called Shiv Baba who has this liberty to pop up whenever he wants, do whatever he want & fool others. So, straightway it is a play directed by senior BKs & produced by lower BKs.
Although, as usual, the hard facts and serious discussion of it are are thin on the ground as the BKs reinvent Lekhraj Kirpalani as a kind of Swayambuddha, as you describe (spontaneously enlightened).
Though they pretend him to be one yet they have never ever used this term for him. But now they may use it just as they have used
Sangameshwar for immoral Lekhraj & this is what I am saying. At most, Shiv Baba can be called Mayik Brahma who declares himself Brahma while remaining involved in Maya. Such Mayik Brahma are big threat to those who want spiritual upliftment. They misguide & fool people with promise to give self realization. Beware everyone.
Do you know, Save Innocents, the BK have spiritualist seances where they claim one of the spiritualist mediums is possessed by Krishna and dances around the stage acting as the child Krishna?
These kind of duffer acts can work only for dumbs. All such scenes or trans were/are dummy acts.
I know it's not unique in India and I am sure you'll dismiss it as impossible.
No, I don't dismiss it but would rather inform you that it all has started in West too. Simply, frauds are everywhere in every country, in Australia or India or any other country. But the countries or their overall culture should not be sidelined or misjudged on that basis. Everybody knows it & its this reason why a legal judicial system is set up in each nation.
Krishna is often pictured dancing with 108 women at one time, his allure was so powerful that each of them believed he was dancing with her alone
That is a science or rather call it
Vidya which can not be understood by you or anyone through these talks.
Lord Krishna possess all possible Vidyas & is said to be Lord of Maya (not the ignorant Maya but the one that can be created intentionally). People who possess
multiple vidyas but not all, were called
Vidyadhars. These Vidyadhars could create whole new city with number of living beings all in illusionary & temporary forms. It is completely Indian science & so you can understand the level of such Indians who existed but now due to their absence Western influence on Indian is dominant.
These 84 lakh Vidyas were destroyed by Lord Mahavir to prevent its misuse in Kalyug. He saw that in his Omnscience & this is also one reason why he introduced Brahmacharya or celibacy as a Vow. He saw that something that will be misused in all possible ways, in Kalyug, is this abrahmacharya which is also natural in absence of moral & spiritual values.
How does the Krishna fooling around with the gopis and spying on them fit into your bigger picture?
I can help you to get this right but you must decide to leave this wrong perception, its not even objectively justified.
I would like to think the idea of enlightened masters might true but I have not seen any evidence of it.
There is an ocean of evidence but it would open up when you just try once. Both objective & subjective evidences are present.
Some say there were two Krishna, one the earlier War God who fought evil in the Mahabharata and the other Gopala Krishna the love god, cow herd who became enlightened.
It's myth. There is only one. And it is not what BKs tell their followers.
Early Western travellers to India were struck by the sensuality of it. ...
And your opinion is the one based on your experience or is it the universal one? You suddenly appear to be an orthodox who believes what he feels as right rather than bothering to know about others view. We all Indians know much about the Western culture where people change their partners much before they buy a new Tees. The family structure there is too weak. This culture is copied here also by few so called modernized sector or open minded people but when it's adverse effect comes, they run blaming others.
And your theory on impact of climate on extrovert or introvert is completely weird. Do you call it logical or part of moral intuition? Simply I do not get it.